Need aspirin
Apr. 30th, 2009 11:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bktheirregularI end up doing quite a bit of translation at work - only natural, since the firm has a lot of international clients, and I'm probably the associate with the best understanding of the de facto international trade language (that would be English). As I go, my understanding of Greek continues to improve.
There's a bit of a problem, however, when the piece of Greek legalese I'm asked to translate turns out to be a salad - the common Greek term for what someone Stateside would probably call grammatical hash. It's slightly brain-twisting to try to read a paragraph, sort out the grammar, and get completely lost between the subject and the object.
So on occasion I have to ask for help from some of the other people at the office. And more than once, the reaction from the people reviewing my work range from "no wonder you had problems, the grammar here is a mess" to "this isn't Greek!" (It's a slam at whoever wrote the original; I've always been very clear that if I'm asked to write something in Greek, what comes out will be only at a fourth- or fifth-grade level.)
Doesn't help, though, when I read a passage for the fourth time and wonder whether my lack of understanding is due to some sort of brain rot.
There's a bit of a problem, however, when the piece of Greek legalese I'm asked to translate turns out to be a salad - the common Greek term for what someone Stateside would probably call grammatical hash. It's slightly brain-twisting to try to read a paragraph, sort out the grammar, and get completely lost between the subject and the object.
So on occasion I have to ask for help from some of the other people at the office. And more than once, the reaction from the people reviewing my work range from "no wonder you had problems, the grammar here is a mess" to "this isn't Greek!" (It's a slam at whoever wrote the original; I've always been very clear that if I'm asked to write something in Greek, what comes out will be only at a fourth- or fifth-grade level.)
Doesn't help, though, when I read a passage for the fourth time and wonder whether my lack of understanding is due to some sort of brain rot.
