Ruriko: "Hey our friend invited Lillian to play tomorrow but we can't go. Is this correct English? 'Lillian cannot come to play.'" Me: "Yes that is grammatically correct but would be considered a bit rude. Let's rewrite." *we do* Ruriko: "Isn't this... super Japanese?" Me: "..."
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Me: "I literally don't know at this point whether the stylistic choices are more Japanese salaryman or Chicagoan but trust me it will work for a native English speaker in our social class." Ruriko: "Gotcha. You should do this for people. That's a job, isn't it?"
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Mental monologue: "Thank you for your LinkedIn message. While I wish you the best of luck in your search for a full-time playdate invitation ghostwriter, I am afraid that professional commitments make me unavailable at this time. If something changes, I'll be in touch."
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(This is *absolutely* a job, folks, although probably more a consultancy or embedded service of a full-time professional than fully-utilized for single client. Markets exist in everything and the arms race in social signaling is real.)
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(Relatedly, an extremely common career path for translators, who are ethically bound to not put anything into the document other than what their client said, is to stop saying "I can't help you with that" when the client asks "Well what should I say here?" and quintuple rates.)
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("Is that a real ethical stricture?" You'd better believe it. I got myself into *so* much trouble professionally once when I inserted a socially appropriate platitude to cover for "You've got a nice rack" from a government official to a visiting executive.)
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(My argument for the powers that be: "I work for this organization and know our goals. An accurate translation would have compromised the event for us." "Not your call, kid." "This is a really clear call." "Many aren't, which is why we have a professional code of ethics.")
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(And that, kids, is the day I decided "Yep I think I am done with translation as a career.")
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(Another reason is that translators and interpreters care a lot about the difference between translation and interpretation and I can basically never care enough to use those words correctly. Did both, obviously.)
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have you read Le Ton beau de Marot? I very much enjoyed it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Ton_beau_de_Marot …
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