Current Music: Volumia – “Jij”

Me again. First thing: AAAAAHHHH!!!! So I had my first translating class today and, just as I thought, I am the only native English speaker. In fact, I’m the only non-Dutch person. And because as a translator you generally translate into your native language, that means that throughout the entire block – with two assignments per week – TWO are from Dutch to English. Two. The rest are all from English to Dutch which is, needless to say, MUCH harder for me, especially considering the whole point of translating is to make yourself ‘invisible’ and ‘keep the mood’ of the original text… basically, the point is that no one know they’re not reading the original. So, let’s think for a second. Everyone else in the class is native Dutch and they’ve studied English since they were around 11, so about ten years now. And then there’s Jess, who is a native English speaker, but who has studied Dutch for, oh, let’s count… less than a year and a half. Anybody see a discrepancy here?!

Here’s a small stukje of our first assignment:

"...With all this in mind one can construct what would be, from a 'News of
the World' reader's point of view, the 'perfect' murder. The murderer should
be a little man of the professional class - a dentist or a solicitor, say -
living an intensely respectable life somewhere in the suburbs, and
preferably in a semi-detached house, which will allow the neighbors to hear
suspicious sounds through the wall. He should be either chairman of the
local Conservative Party branch, or a leading Nonconformist and strong
Temperance advocate. He should go astray through cherishing a guilty passion
for his secretary or the wife of a rival professional man, and should only
bring himself to the point of murder after long and terrible wrestles with
his conscience. ..."

Anybody REALLY seeing a problem now??? LOL! I can do it, yes… and I’m NOT dropping the class, it looks fun and there are a couple of nice people… but the point here is that we’re supposed to be worried about picking the exact right phrase to carry the connotations and all, while I still have to check my GRAMMAR in Dutch sometimes. A bit overwhelming dus.

Oh well, at least I’ll do really well on the English pieces… maybe I can make myself some friends that week, being the only native when we do those assignments… LOL.

Oh, and “friends link friends” – webmaster rule :) – so here is L’s website. (No, not L who lives in Leeuwarden… L from my Dutch Present-Day Society class. I’m not sure why I never give anyone’s full name on here…) It’s in Dutch, but check it out anyway… she has cute little graphics too. (Love the swinging Tarzan, L!) :)

Uhh… oh yeah, while I’m giving recognition: petje af to P (no, not the Utrecht OR Buitenpost ones… this is a new P) for chatting to me for HOURS yesterday and today and keeping me amused LOL…

I have way too many people on my MSN list. I just deleted a couple of them, but I still have 36. Let’s see who I can delete. I’ve got Mom and Dad and Catie, of course, not deleting those… let’s see who else.

On My List:

Friends from high school: 2
Friends from UF: 3
Friends from camp: 6 (all international… how come USAers don’t use MSN?)
Friends from NL: 17
People I only know from online: 9
People with no category: 4

Okay, nu moet ik aan de slag gaan… 1500-word essay and also that translating… so bye for now!