| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Poll: Do you consider that your profession as a translator has made you a better person? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Do you consider that your profession as a translator has made you a better person?".
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Probably, it has, because I’ve been doing what I love and loving what I do and that’s important in life, though I have no way of comparing. What if I had pursued a different career? One thing is sure I’m no longer the social animal I once was. I love being and working alone. I wonder if this is an age thing or a translator thing?
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How on earth could working as a translator make anyone a better (or worse) person?
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Teresa Borges wrote:
One thing is sure I’m no longer the social animal I once was. I love being and working alone. I wonder if this is an age thing or a translator thing?
I sometimes feel as a lonely wolf.
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I don't see why it should have made me a better person, honestly. A profession doesn't make a person better or worse (that is, unless you save lives working as a doctor, but then again you can be an outstanding doctor and a horrible person at the same time).
On the other hand, there is truth in what Teresa says.
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Not really. It probably makes me a more knowledgable person in some ways, but then again when I have time away from translation I get interested in other things so become knowledgable in other ways.
What it does make me is more introverted - I notice this when I take time away from it and suddenly become more outgoing.
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I doubt very much whether it has made me a better person.
However, it has made me a much happier person after years of not being able to do what I wanted - or thought I wanted - with my life.
I finally found my niche, and feel better able to make a contribution as well as just earning a living. I am not sociable, and not good with my hands, so I felt clumsy and out of place in other jobs, no matter how hard I tried. It was always the others who were noticed and praised.
... See more I doubt very much whether it has made me a better person.
However, it has made me a much happier person after years of not being able to do what I wanted - or thought I wanted - with my life.
I finally found my niche, and feel better able to make a contribution as well as just earning a living. I am not sociable, and not good with my hands, so I felt clumsy and out of place in other jobs, no matter how hard I tried. It was always the others who were noticed and praised.
I came to translation late in life, and was amazed to find suddenly that clients actually liked what I did, and criticism was often positive: 'you're doing a good job, but could you make just a little change?'
People have helped me and put up with me along the way. I can never pay them back, but sometimes I am able to help others instead. ▲ Collapse
| | | | P.L.F. Persio 
Netherlands
Local time: 20:21
Member (2010)
English to Italian
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| Hungry like the wolf | May 20, 2021 |
Angie Garbarino wrote:
I sometimes feel as a lonely wolf.
Here's a she-wolf, photographed on the Belgium-Netherlands border a couple of years ago (not my pic, I hasten to add; I found it on The Guardian).
Aren't they beautiful creatures? She looks like she's smiling, and her eyes are twinkling with a naughty sparkle.
Translation might have taught me something, but becoming a better person has nothing to do with it, it's an ongoing process, a work in progress, neither necessarily, nor always successful, at least in my case.
Well, as long as I don't become a worse one.
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Kevin Fulton
United States
Local time: 14:21
German to English
If it had any effect, I'd be a better person.
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I was already a better person... 
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No, but it got the better of me 🙂
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Tina Vonhof (X)
Canada
Local time: 12:21
Dutch to English
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| What it has done | May 20, 2021 |
Turning to translation and editing after my retirement made me aware that, after wearing many other hats in the course of my life, this was really my niche, what I like to do best. It gave me a reason to get up in the morning and structure to my days. It made me feel happy and confident. Communicating with people of many different feathers has made me more thoughtful, patient, and understanding of others and more aware of what goes on in other parts of the world. Does that make me a better perso... See more Turning to translation and editing after my retirement made me aware that, after wearing many other hats in the course of my life, this was really my niche, what I like to do best. It gave me a reason to get up in the morning and structure to my days. It made me feel happy and confident. Communicating with people of many different feathers has made me more thoughtful, patient, and understanding of others and more aware of what goes on in other parts of the world. Does that make me a better person, I don't know, but at the very least it has added something to the person I was before. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Yes, DEFINITELY... | May 20, 2021 |
... in that it has made me a much more knowledgeable person in terms of the kinds of subject matter I've been interested in, either for a long time, or for just the past 20 years or so, and which I cover as a translator. I always enjoy expanding on what I already know, and new facts and theories are forever surfacing as time marches on, and translators help with their dissemination.
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 19:21
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Everything I translate broadens my mind and extends my knowledge. It's enormously rewarding. And sometimes very geeky. I know more about the functioning of hot dip galvanising machinery than is healthy for a normal human being.
Being a translator is an extremely interesting and life-enhancing occupation, although it isn't great as a chat-up line at a party.
Man at party: "I'm a translator. Italian to English"
Woman: "I have to go now."
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