Monday, November 27, 2006

Homework Time

Ni tanto que queme al santo, ni tan poco que no lo alumbre.

Babel Fish translation:
Neither as much that it burns santo, nor so little that not it alum

Ok, now it's your turn...

Does anyone know of a proverb in English that would come close to this one? I've asked a few colleagues and no one can seem to come up with one.

For you English only speakers, literally translated it means "not so much that it burns the saint, and not so little that it doesn't illuminate him". I realize it sounds pretty crazy in English, but it's saying about not going to extremes. Does it ring a bell? Any ideas?

How about the term biofeedback? The only term I've found is biorretroalimentación, and I don't like it.

¡Suena muy feo! :(

I'll keep looking in the meantime. :)

Spanglish Word of the Week
Barbero. Le pregunté a un señor "Ya recibió su capacitación?"
"Sí, ya. Estudié para ser barbero."
Pues para eso no se necesita estudio, digo yo!

Monday, November 20, 2006

Feast or Famine

A veces nada el pato, y a veces ni agua toma

Babel Fish translation:
Something's wrong with Babel Fish. So no silly translation, sorry!

This happens to be a week of feast and famine for me.
You might be thinking "now how is that possible???" Allow me to explain.

It's famine because I only have only one assignment for this entire week. On average I have about 7, and right now I'm down to one. This seems to happen every year around the holidays: doctors and lawyers take time off and we're left with little or no work. One of the downsides of freelancing. So I guess this officially kicks off the holiday season for me. No work... no money... hooray!
I know I should be used to it by now and "save for a rainy day", but I guess my creative-right-dominant brain gets in the way. At least that's the excuse I like to use.

But hey, I shouldn't complain, I could really could use the time off. Actually, I haven't been feeling well lately, and I'm still kinda' out of it. For example this morning while preparing to go to my one and only job, I used air freshener instead of hairspray. So I spent the morning with a "piney-fresh" scent in my hair. Nice! I guess I've been hitting the meds a little too much!

Plus, I have a lot of catching up to do in my office. So many people to bill, so little time.

And then it's feast because this Thursday is Thanksgiving, of course! I'm actually looking forward to all the cooking and preparation for a change. I know it's crazy but I do enjoy it. A whole day of work for a meal that lasts roughly 20 minutes. What's not to love?

All kidding aside, it is my favorite holiday. I think it's great to have a day set aside specifically to thank God for our blessings and spend time with our families. Afterall, what could be more important than that?

Spanglish Word of the Week

Turqui. Those of you who have been taking my Spanglish course, should easily come up with this one!

As in the phrase "vamos a hacer un turqui y unos tamales."

Here's a hint:


Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Sunday, November 12, 2006

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Una imagen vale mil palabras

Babel Fish translation:
Error decoding translated text
(Sorry, Babel Fish couldn't seem to handle this.)


This week I carried my camera with me to capture some of the nonsense I see written around town.

I had a good laugh with this one.


I've been to this law firm a few times and have worked with these attorneys. I have to tell you... this sign is actually quite appropriate!


Sounds like the title of one of those low budget mexican movies...

"ABOGADOS CRIMINALES DEL NORTE"

Here's another winner:

No comment.

Spanglish Word of the Week

Parquear. An all time favorite of course. Also parqueo, parqueadero.

"Parquié mi carro en el parqueadero de atrás."

Notice how the Spanish translation on this sign is only 3 lines long while the English version is 9. My guess is that these people didn't have a clue on how to translate this text. Why didn't they just write... "Trust us. You don't want to park here!!"

I like how they spelled it with a "k". Definitely much classier than my version! ;)

Friday, November 10, 2006

It's over!

Well I guess my days of comfy procrastinating are over. I received this letter from the Judicial Council of California today.

November 9, 2006

Dear Interested Interpreter: (interested interpreter??)

Thank you for your interest in the Court Interpreters Program. This is in response to your request to be informed of the test dates and locations for the upcoming Court Interpreter examinations.

Test dates and registration deadlines for the Winter 2006-2007 and Spring 2007 test cycles have been posted on our Test Dates and Locations Web page at:

http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/programs/courtinterpreters/testing.htm

Thank you for your patience while the new test dates and locations were being established.

Sincerely,

Court Interpreters Program
Executive Office Programs Division
Judicial Council of California
Administrative Office of Courts (whew!)

Well I guess that's that. I also received a tongue lashing from my "Mother Interpreter". She says I need to stop making excuses and take the challenge. I know she's right, but the timing couldn't be worse. I definitely have some decisions to make... I'll keep you posted!

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Comfort Is Better Than Pride

Ande yo caliente y ríase la gente

Babel Fish translation:
La comodidad es mejor que orgullo

There’s a creepy applicant’s attorney that I run into at depos from time to time. I find him creepy because he hits on me all the time, even though I’ve made it abundantly clear that I’m not at all interested. He stares at me, makes inappropriate comments and makes me feel very uncomfortable. Not to mention that he knows that I’m married, and he knows I know he’s married. I’ve even worked with his wife a few times.

My problem is that I never know when I will be working on a depo that he’s on. I don’t find that out until I arrive for the assignment.

So on Thursday, I was unpleasantly surprised to find out he was the attorney on the case. He arrived fashionably late as usual, Starbucks in hand.

“Hey!!!… how are you? It’s so good to see you!” He said with an excessive amount of enthusiasm. Crap!!! Here we go again!

“Oh. Hi.” I replied as unenthusiastically as I possibly could.

“Wow! You look great!! Have you had a makeover??” I couldn’t believe my ears… a makeover?? Is he serious? Now how am I supposed to answer that kind of a stupid question??!!?? Obviously he’s been watching way too much reality TV. And... what on earth is he talking about?? I look the same as I always do! So I said nothing.

“No seriously… did you do something different with your hair? Is that a new suit?”

I stared right at him and with all the dryness and hostility I could muster I said “No.”

“So… I wanna’ know when it is we’re going to have lunch!!” He said.

I was starting to lose my patience at this point and I snapped back “We’re not. I already told you that’s not going to happen.”

He looked at me kinda’ funny and said “Yeah, but you never know…” Eeeewwwww…

The air conditioning wasn’t working very well in that office, and someone mentioned how uncomfortably hot it was. The creep looked at me and said “Yeah, it’s pretty hot in here… shouldn’t you take off your jacket?”

“No, I’m fine.” I said. There is no way I’m going to take off this jacket! I don’t care if I melt. Actually… does anyone happen to have a burka?


This next part is unbelievable… if it weren’t for the fact that I had witnesses, I probably wouldn’t believe it myself.

During the deposition, he actually tried to take my picture a couple of times with his camera phone. Only I caught it out of the corner of my eye, and quickly moved my chair so that his client was blocking his view of me.

The room we were in was indeed getting very warm. Some of the office staff brought in a fan to cool it down a bit. “I really think you’d be more comfortable if you took off your jacket.” He said again, this time in a mocking tone. I gave him another cold stare, said nothing and I thought… And I really think I’d be more comfortable if you'd just shut up and leave me alone! This is one reason why it’s always a good idea to wear a business suit to these things. Beads of sweat were beginning to form on my forehead, and yet I proceeded to button up my jacket.

When everything was over, I waited for the court reporter so that I wouldn’t have to walk out to my car alone, and she said to me “Did you notice that he was trying to take your picture?? How scary was that? I almost stopped the depo to tell him to stop it.”

“Yeah, I did see that." I replied "I wish you had stopped it. If that ever happens again, I’m going to ask him to stop, on the record, and embarrass him. I don’t care what the defense attorney thinks.”

“Oh, he noticed it too. He said he was so weirded out by the whole thing that he felt like going home and taking a shower!”

This is pretty scary. I’m thinking some lessons in martial arts may be in order.

Spanglish Word of the Week

Quequi. "Hacíamos quequis de todas clases" she said. The sad thing is that this time I knew exactly what was meant. So without missing a beat I interpreted "We made all kinds of cakes."

What ever will become of my Spanish?