Translation Resource - Annual Report Terms

July 9, 2008 · Filed Under Work · 4 Comments

I had to do a short translation today about a forthcoming financial congress. One of the terms stumped me a little so I had a hunt around the web and came across this interesting .pdf document from the Abaxbank:

Abaxbank Annual Report 2001- Parallel Translation - English/Italian

I know its from 2001, but the interesting thing about it, is that it’s a parallel translation with the English and Italian sections, generally, sitting next to each other. This means that it is a very handy resource for translating. You simply search for the Italian or English term you need, and hey presto, there it should be, sitting right next to the equivalent version in the language you need.

UPDATE 10 July 2008 Read more

Tags: accounting, accounts, Business, Italian, resource, translating

Too Young Too Good 2

June 11, 2008 · Filed Under Culture · 1 Comment

A short while back in April, I wrote a post about a 23 year old Italian graduate, Too Young, Too Good, who was feeling too young to be so well qualified. Well, I received some feedback about the post the other day.

The comment was that the person I wrote about was too good for Italy. Odd, I thought, I did not remember writing this, at least not in so many words. However, I suppose that by ‘reading between the lines’ such a conclusion could have been reached.

To set the record straight, I don’t think that she is too able for Italy. What I do think, on the other hand, is that Italy is not always too good at recognising its ‘in-house’ talent. This is partly down to the prominence of the ‘it’s not what you know, but who you know’ system which exists here. And it is also down to the fear that certain interviewers here sometimes display when confronted by a candidate who they suspect may be so good as to do said interviewer out of his or her own job.

Of course, I’ve got no proof of this assertion, but for the fact that certain potentially good job candidates don’t seem to manage to get that job. It also appears that non-Italian organisations tend to be more objective when considering individuals for posts than perhaps some Italian enterprises are.

I should add, that the young lady mentioned in my previous post, did in fact manage to find an internship, despite not knowing anyone. She also, possibly, managed to avoid making her interviewer feel too threatened, luckily for her.

Over on my ex-master student Savio’s Orecchiette alla Milanese blog (in Italian), there is a post, Le multinazionali: “Questi italiani bamboccioni poco intraprendenti” about the frustration of multinational companies who find young Italians both lacking in initiative and not having much of a work ethic. A comment on this post has been left by a disillusioned young Italian who, it would appear, has done all the right things, and is just the opposite of the Italian youngsters to whom the post refers, but this individual still cannot find the right job. One Sandro thinks that his problem is quite simply that his family does not know the right people. In Italy, where relationships matter, this can indeed be a snag.

On the assumption that there are not other issues which affect his ability to find a job, such as poor interview technique or bouts of arrogance, my advice to Sandro would be to confine his job hunting efforts to non-Italian companies. Or even to companies outside of Italy.

Strange how a country which loves to boast about its ‘Made in Italy’ brand seems to be reluctant to foster the talents of young people who have been, so to speak, ‘Made in Italy’.

Oh, by the way, Savio is not doing too badly. Indeed, he managed to find a position with Yahoo Italy. Well done Savio! Yahoo obviously realises that there are some pretty darn good people in Italy, and, so far, it has managed to remain free of nepotism and cronyism.

Tags: Business, companies, employment, graduates, Italian, Italy, job, job market, jobs, multinational, Work, young, young people

Manic Monday

May 28, 2008 · Filed Under Work · Comment

Yes, I know Monday is now but a memory, and that it is now Wednesday. But Monday was a fun day!

Why a fun day? Well, aside from the usual stuff, I also made a vulgar suggestion to an artist I had never spoken to before - in Italian, then, after having retrieved the little one from his school, I met up with two American friends, Chris Bright and Sean Carlos for a couple of pints down at the good old 442 - in the company of the 5 year old bundle of energy. To cap it all, in the middle of Monday I received a request for a translation which had to be completed by Tuesday morning.

To cap things off, and just before I was due to collect the little one, it appeared that persons unknown had been trying to hack my Italy is in site, which turn turned added a dose of ‘frenetic’ to what had already been quite a hectic day. In order to block the potential hack and prepare myself for the worst, I whizzed around changing passwords, and making backups, just to be on the safe side.

Then came the news that the Italian mother in law had been admitted to hospital with breathing problems, which caused worries all round. The poor lady is something of a ticking time bomb, and years of chain smoking have left her health somewhat unstable. A great shame, she is a very sweet person.

Despite all the action, I managed to get the translation job finished on time, and the client was quite pleased to discover the nicely formatted, thanks to WordFast, final version lying in her email inbox on Tuesday morning.

As for the vulgar suggestion I made to the artist, who, as I have already mentioned, I had not spoken to before in my life, I am pleased to say that said artist was not the least bit put out by what some artists may have considered a potentially sacrilegious idea. Although I won’t mention exactly what I am up to, you can read more about the idea on my new Italy is in Italian contemporary art site, in this my ‘Art Meets Business‘ article over on Italy is in.

At least the drink down the pub was pleasent, and I was pleased to hear that Chris seems to be getting things sorted out on the looking for a job in Italy front. Sean was in fine form too, and we exchanged geek info about WordPress and he ended up asking me if I really was ‘just’ an English teacher, after I fired off some info about server file permissions (775 for most folders and 644 for most files, incidentally), after I mentioned the attack which appeared to have taken place. Yes, running your own web sites can be traumatic at times.

I finally got to bed at around 2am, think is was. Great, and Tuesday was to prove no less hectic.

Actually the activity of both days left me dog tired, and I ended up collapsing and falling asleep on the sofa with the dog last night.

At least today will be a little less fraught, I hope.

Tags: 4-4-2 Pub, 442 Milan, 442 pub, Art, Blogging, Business, Chris Bright, Italian, Italian contemporary art, Italian contemporary sculpture, Italy, Me, My son, People, pub, Wordpress