Working in the Translation Services Industry

Posted by gmirage1 on Feb 24, 2012 in home stories, Work-at-home | 19 comments

I guess I need to be like the little boy above. He would take the dictionary, browse it as if he can read. I need to read, take note of the words used, how they are used and get that into writing. I seriously need to make use of the two hours blogging and write about anything under the sun. This is my new resolve, let’s see what happens

Hope they find this post and update it lol!

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Ten years. That’s how long I’ve been in Vienna and how long I’ve been trying to master German. Unfortunately, German has far different structuring than English and Tagalog (Filipino). Even noun genders are identified differently from how I was used to knowing them in English and Spanish. I’ve mentioned a lot of times how I wanted to work as a translator and so far I’ve finished some jobs that I wasn’t too proud of because for the first one, I needed help doing it. First experience on the job, they say, and it’s somehow bound to have imperfection. That’s that or just me justifying it. The second job was way better but it didn’t go as expected and my self-esteem is still too hurt I don’t want to talk about it. *sniff* The following jobs were smaller but I did better I think…

Anyway, looking back to 4 years ago (above post was published in November 2008) I’m proud that my hope to become a translator has finally begun. After finishing my courses, that’s in German, Spanish and translation studies I plan to further my Japanese knowledge. Also, I need to work on more translation jobs albeit small and build up my resume. Perhaps and hopefully it won’t take me another 3 or 4 years to update this post.

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Certified Doglovers

Posted by gmirage1 on Oct 3, 2011 in home stories, Pets | 4 comments

(My youngest son with a friend’s dog.)

I grew up having a dog at home…mostly gifts from Dad’s or Mom’s friends which I would take care of as much as I could. (I was a normal student and kid back in those days hehe). I’d feed them, give them a bath and play around with them when I can. I still remember most of the dogs I had and my favorite would always be a bulldog I named Caster.

I’m not surprised that my kids have taken the same liking to dogs as I did. They know  a dog breed just by looking  which amazed most of the owners of those they identify. Like the one below…while on our way home my daughter bursted out “Mom, it’s an Akita Inu!” The owner smiled and asked us if we were Japanese. I explained to him that my kids like learning about dogs and that they knew them from pictures and films. Since then he would let us stroke and play a bit with C (his dog) everytime we chance upon them by the playground. He even let me took a photo of C one  snowy day.

(An akita inu around our neighborhood that we often say hello to.)

Given the chance I’d get us a dog to take care of…it would be nice to have one that would grow old with us as the kids do. Their loyalty has long been tested, remember Hachiko?  I know  too that the kids would learn a lot about discipline having a dog around. Plus, walking dogs is a nice exercise for hubby and I. Living in an apartment is not an appropriate setup for a dog and 3 kids so might as well wait until we get a bigger place…for the meantime, we would just play with friends’ dogs and our kois at home.

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Water attraction

Posted by gmirage1 on Apr 23, 2011 in home stories | 1 comment

Water attracts kids and they are the happiest being near or being in it. The lake, garden fountains, wall fountains, water installations, table top  water fountains and even aquariums make them stare and they giggle when thry get wet with splashed water. Well, it’s how things are with my kids.

I can attest that other kids are like that too. For example, when I accompanied my son’s class to the Schönbrunn Zoo we passed by a fountain (left photo) at the garden…one of the kids asked for her photo to be taken where the fountain would be at the background. (Can’t post photo of her as I don’t want the parents to question me.)

We visited the sea lions and during the feeding time too. Aside from feeding them, the trainers would throw fishes for the sea lions to follow, water would splash but the kids wouldn’t mind getting wet, they were deliberately making themselves wet.

I bet they had great fun but I’m not sure if the parents didn’t get angry when they got colds and a runny nose.

Sometime last year I went with my daughter’s  class to the ZOOM Kindermuseum which presents the element water. The museum aims to let children know the importance of water in our lives…there were a lot of installation showcased for the kids to understand how water works.
Above, you can see how attentive the kids were during a water experiment. There were aquariums in the museum too and the kids were fascinated with those, especially to aquariums that doesn’t contain fish but other interesting materials. There were also water pumps much to the kids’ delights.

(Little boy was too busy looking at the water flowing basin that he doesn’t want to turn around for a photo.)

Kids are happy around water and I’m glad the city government installed a water playground across our place. My kids would surely have fun come summer.

He sang

Posted by gmirage1 on Dec 2, 2010 in home stories | 4 comments

Aside from books, the little boy loves microphones. He would often burst out into a song while playing or doing his krizzy-krazzy sketches. It doesn’t matter which language, he often does mondegreens especially for japanese songs…

When we read a book, he would hold it and sit on my lap. He would repeat the words exactly how I pronounce and stress them. One time while searching for a page he wanted to read, he hit me with his elbow.

He quickly said “ay sorry!” and I just smiled…then I can’t help but laugh when he started out to a song:

“Ay sorry sorry, hingkaman sampalong…”

Even hubby guffawed hearing him sing. The lyrics should have been “Ay sari sari, singkamas at talong,” which is a Filipino song about vegetables that goes like this when translated: “differently…turnips and eggplants.”

With a kid like this, I won’t need an anti wrinkle serum when I’m older. I only use my muscle for smiling and laughing so no need to worry about wrinkles. Right?

Daniel doodles

Posted by gmirage1 on Nov 20, 2010 in home stories, Sleepyhead | 1 comment

10 years and counting

Posted by gmirage1 on Nov 20, 2010 in home stories | Comments Off

(photo from Cupcakes by MommyVanj)

I was chatting with a friend one lovely afternoon when she suddenly blurted out, “Ang tagal nyo na…” (You’ve been together for so long.) I absent-mindedly ask “Who? H?” We both ended up laughing. “Why, is there somebody else?” was the reply and we had more laughs.

It has been more than 10 years that I’ve known hubby…we’d be celebrating our tenth year as husband and wife 6 months from now. In between almost 10 years we had our quarrels, some petty and some grave enough that I won’t talk to him for 3 days.

I would share more about our life together on this blog but I have to go sleep now. I was actually looking for wedding anniversary presents for couples when I thought of writing this piece. I think the cupcakes above are wonderful ideas to give as personalized items. (If you’re the one baking them.) Any ideas? I’ll really appreciate your input. Thanks!