We quite understandably never stop hearing about the modern-day cost of living crisis in
the news (and social media, I guess) – it can only be good to arrive at a definition of how
you psychologically respond to it, and not just in terms of fear and the emotional side of it
all. And I’m not talking about (some might say) unnatural honesty about what sort of
behaviours this has driven you to against your will (or your better judgement). That said,
I’m prouder than you might think when I say that I have identified that one thing that keeps
me going in times like these is the logic that the more you do something which is very
much “duty before pleasure”, the easier it gets, and the less of a chore it shall remain as
even if you should be tired or hungry or whatever at the time – maybe even “more
enjoyable”. …As long as I remain on guard against being blinkered from the less overt
challenges inherent with not only “doing professional translation” (enough that it can be
seen to be functional, at least to a certain extent), but nothing less than veritably doing it
well i.e. in a way characterised by an unfaltering commitment to retaining trust among
those who place their trust in me – enough to be prepared to pay me for it. I proceed to
discuss this by bringing up two projects I did earlier this year.
Having made that point, some time ago I posted tweets about a French to English
translation job of a big business document I did earlier this year, in which I would
eventually come to acknowledge that a fitting translation of the word “résultat”, which
normally means simply “result”, can be “bottom line of profit and loss statement” or just
“income statement”. I was provided with no proper terminology list by the project manager
for this job – but let’s not rush to judgement about them for that – but I ask you: what are
the chances of this single word, “résultat”, ultimately being supposed to imply something
more like “output volume/quota”, or just “output product” (allowing for a full description
of the particulars) when it’s in a business context like I mentioned?
Another professional project I did not too long ago was a multilingual proofreading job
(German to English, and I had the original to hand) – the material in question was
personality questionnaires (just the lists of questions and answers plus the remarks for
grading one’s results, and not actually including anyone’s answers to them). Dead easy
stuff, right? Certainly for a university-educated professional translator who has been in the
job for nearly fourteen years now, wouldn’t you think? Well, let’s just say that I’ve become
humble enough to accept that learning can have the most unexpected origins.
As I persisted in proofreading the English versions of these questionnaires, eventually some
instinct inside me strongly suggested that these questionnaires were aimed at women in
particular. So how did I reason that? I will explain. Well, for a start, the topics included
“Are you a financial genius?” and “How easily offended are you?” but also “Are you a
genius flirt?” And I kept reading “eine Freundin”, always already translated as “girlfriend”
– you may argue that girlfriends are normally associated with men (and women with
lesbian tendencies), but isn’t it common for women to have female friends who they call
“girlfriends” even if they identify as straight (they are typically their very closest and most
trusted friends)? Much as I have always known that German always distinguishes between
male and female versions of things, I really did get the impression that whenever I saw
translations of “friend” in this particular work, it was always strictly supposed to hint at
“friend” of one gender in particular and never “Freund” for “friends” of either gender just
like the word “friend” in English. What I’m trying to say here is that I really did feel like I
was being invited on a journey of the female mind even though this wasn’t specified as
such. And sometimes in this thing I did see the male form of “friend” in German always
translated as “he”/“him” and never “they”/“them” like it was all part of some underlying
theme.

Here I have provided examples of things suggested in this work that a woman might do
with her “girlfriend” – the German version plus the English version after I had finished
with my amendments of it.
Eine gute Freundin besucht Sie zum wiederholten Male unangemeldet zum Frühstück.
A good girlfriend pops round unannounced for breakfast for the umpteenth time.
Sie haben extra früh Feierabend gemacht, um mit einer Freundin etwas Nettes zu
unternehmen.
You stopped work considerably earlier than usual to do something nice with a girlfriend.
Eine Freundin will ihre Wände neu gestalten, weiß aber nicht wie.
A girlfriend wants a new style for her walls, but does not know which.
Sie schenken die Reise der besten Freundin.
You gift the trip to your best girlfriend.
Sie erfahren von einer Freundin etwas Negatives über eine Nachbarin.
You find out something negative about a neighbour from a girlfriend.
Eine Freundin verschenkt eine hübsche Vase. Sowohl Sie als auch eine andere Freundin
hätten Sie gerne.
A girlfriend is giving away a pretty vase. Both you and another girlfriend would like to
have it.
Die Hochzeitsfeier einer Freundin steht an. Sie möchten schick aussehen. Was machen Sie?
[…] Sie leihen sich von einer Freundin etwas Tolles.
The wedding ceremony for a girlfriend [originally just “friend”] is coming soon. You want
to look chic. What do you do? You borrow something great from a girlfriend. [That one
actually was “girlfriend originally; unchanged]
At the end of each of these questionnaires there were three segments of results commentary
on what it supposedly reveals about those who take it based on whatever answers they give,
but it includes advice on how they are likely to regarded in society as a result of it, and
information of the kind of real-life risks they would run in this regard.
I was thinking: was it all truly non-judgemental advice for women on how to be “better in
society”? Or maybe it could actually have been an unmentioned effort at some kind of
social engineering? Just a thought… but any professional should know that thoughts are
powerful things.