I don’t have a specific theme I stick to because that’s simply impossible for me. Basically anything that sparks my interest enough is worth blogging about. But to bring some light into the dark, I could say that there are some reoccurring broad topics which I discuss like for instance travel, culture, arts, literature, lifestyle and food.
A very short definition of myself: a dreamy, chaotic, creative, sarcastic megalomaniac who is incredibly in love with art, pandas and mango.
Ever since I was a little child, I’ve always wanted to be…a pretentious painter and live from the welfare state. Jokes aside, but I really did want to become an artist when I was small. Honestly, my five-year old me thought that my scrawled pictures of ten-legged ladybugs with shoes and curly hair were masterpieces. With time, I stopped using crayons and settled for pencils instead. I wouldn’t dare to say that I’m a professional nor that I have a huge talent for it, but rather that I dabble at painting. As I grew older, the paint brushes I bought were used less and less, the canvases remained white and the sketch blocks were carelessly stowed away. Actually, it makes me a little sad that I’ve neglected something I used to spend most of my free time on.
The definition of the ultimate dream job for me has changed various times since childhood. In puberty I wanted to become a fashion designer, later a journalist, then a scene or costume designer and now I am studying translation and interpreting, but am still keeping my hopes up that maybe one marvelous day, I will become a writer and publish my own book.
Obviously, writers are like a dime a dozen and at first glance, the profession does not seem very profitable. Apart from the difficult economical aspect, it is also a very self-chastising job on an emotional level. Chances are that no stranger will ever read your book, because it won’t get printed by anyone. Publishers will throw your manuscript back at you, often without having read through it and critics may tear your beloved novel apart after you managed to publish it with pain and misery. When the opposite happens (which seems unlikely anyway), the critics aren’t doing you a favor either. If someone praises your work to the skies, people will expect the next novel to be twice as good. I have to admit, it’s hard for me to take criticism not personally, especially when it involves something that I created. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a cookie or a ten thousand pages saga – as long as I pour my heart and soul in it, I will always be offended when someone comments harshly on their quality.
I guess the core of the problem lies in the way I address things. Let me explain: when you really like doing something, you will obviously do it frequently and after a lot of practice, you will most likely have become really good at it. You’re the only one who knows how much time you’ve spent on doing this and you are pretty sure about receiving a good result whenever you do it. So when people tell you that you do far better, point at the flaws in the way you do it or tell you how you could improve the end product, you’re probably rather disappointed. That’s why the idea of strangers scrutinizing my work is really daunting.
Still, there is something extremely alluring about the image that adept writers convey to me. You can escape the monotonous routine of daily life by creating your own world. Drafting paragraphs and refining sentences are actually things that I’m overzealous about as long as no one is holding a gun to my head. Naturally, I am second-guessing myself sometimes and having qualms about making the wrong decision. Maybe I’ll sound phony now, but I have a knack for impetuously spilling words onto paper whenever something is on my mind.
If you really want to attain a goal, you have to grit your teeth together and be tenacious as hell. All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.—Walt Disney
Today I saw a documentary about a girl who is only a few months older than me and was diagnosed with a very rare disease called polyostotic fibrous dysplasia which is a genetic condition in which the bone structure is replaced by connective tissue.
Marlie Casseus, a girl from Port-au-Prince, Haiti seemed to be no different from other children until approximately the age of four. That’s when her disease started to grow and deform her facial features. By the age of thirteen the disease had grown to the point where she had to carry her face in her hands, could not eat nor breathe properly and was in danger of losing her eyesight. Her face had changed beyond recognition. In her hometown, Marlie was avoided by the other people as they thought that she’d been cursed. She became the target of ridicule and mockery which ultimately caused her to isolate herself from others and endure her pain silently.
No doctor who had examined her knew what was happening to her until she received help from an American doctor named Jesús Gomez, working in the Holtz’ Children Hospital in Miami. Her parents had heard of the high-caliber hospital and it’s International Kids Fund, which in the end financed their daughter’s surgery, through a previous case.
Dr. Gomez managed to remove the massive 7-kg tissue in two operations and by doing so, saved Marlie’s life. Afterwards, Marlie underwent several other operations, but only for cosmetic surgery. Sadly, she is still in danger as her condition is likely to grow as long as her body hasn’t fully grown yet.
I thought it was mind-boggling what the surgeon had achieved by using his skills. Personally, this is one of the hardest jobs that I could imagine. Not only do you need to have nerves of steel and a strong stomach, but a very creative mind to find alternatives for extremely rare cases like Marlie. He had to reconstruct her entire face and replace the tissue with synthetic bones and metal plates. Just the first operation already took exhausting seventeen hours to complete. With time, he also became a friend to his patient. Mustn’t it be hard to remain objective when you establish a relationship to the person you’re treating?
I know this post isn’t very closely job-related, but when I heard of Marlie Casseus’ case, it did make me think about the assets and drawback of being a surgeon. Just going to med school already sounds really challenging, at least that’s the impression I got from what I heard from good friends of mine. Doctors carry a heavy burden on their shoulders as only one mistake could cost someone’s life. I think it’s admiring how they cope with this huge responsibility and the pressure that comes with it.
The past 1) Consider your experiences of work so far. How might these be different from those of your grandparents when they were your age?
I don’t know whether my grandparents were already working at my age, but unlike me, they had to do far more house chores, work in the fields as they lived in the countryside and walk to their school for hours. My grandparents never had the luxury to choose their studies freely like me. They had to worry about how they would finance their studies, the work prospects of their job choice and many other factors. In the end, my paternal grandmother became a university professor of pharmacology and my paternal grandfather was a naval officer, whereas my maternal grandparents worked as government officials. To start a family, you needed to have a good regular income, as the state did not support working women with a maternal leave or governmental aid (at least in China). My paternal grandmother gave birth to three children in five years and simultaneously raised them and worked without any problems.
2) What were the main challenges of work 50 years ago? In which ways have these changed?
50 years ago, the gender payment gap and inequality were probably a lot worse than they are now. Traditionally, women were taking care of the children, while the husband provided for the family. Physical work was definitely more exhausting and challenging as a lot of helpful devices didn’t exist at that time. Another field of work that has radically changed in recent years is science. New medicine was developed, computers were improved and the internet revolutionized global communication. Using this page (http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/business/aims/aimsandactivitiesrev3.shtml) as a guide: 3) What types of work were common in Austria 50 years ago?
50 years ago, the primary sector and secondary sector were far more dominant than they are now. This means that working in agriculture and the industrial field used to be much more common than today. According to statistics, the tertiary or service sector used to form 50% of the total ratio, whereas it has increased to a total of 70% now and the other two sectors slowly decreased.
4) In which way is it now different?
Today, jobs in the field of agriculture have almost disappeared, whereas an abundance of new possibilities has opened up in the tertiary sector. There is an infinite variety of jobs involving tourism and the media. Thanks to the growing number of inventions in technology, science and medicine, a lot of difficulties which people had to face, have dissolved. Globalisation and the future Think about the flow of workers. Think about the flow of work. Think about English as a lingua franca. 5) How has globalization affected the world of work?
Nowadays, it is highly important to be flexible and have basic IT skills. You can work for an Austrian company, but barely ever touch Austrian ground because you’re sent to the other end of the world to negotiate cooperation treaties. Therefore, it is also advisable to learn more languages than only your mother tongue to facilitate communication. On the other hand, it is also possible to stay in your pajamas all day long and work for foreign companies through the help of your computer. Free social platforms like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter enable people to build business partnerships easily or attract a lot of followers and possible clients through videos, songs, pictures and messages which demonstrate their skills to a huge public audience. Popular YouTubers with an ample number of viewers, for example, often sell merchandise and promote products from sponsors. You only need the know-how and courage to present your work to complete strangers.
6) Taking this into account, how will the job of a translator/interpreter change over the next 50 years?
Personally, I don’t think that there will be any dramatic changes for translators/interpreters in the next 50 years, except for the working fields of specialist translating and remote interpreting because there is lots of room for improvement. Working as a freelance interpreter or translator will be facilitated through new technological innovations. Nowadays, interpreting services via video camera have been established for remote places and terminology banks speed up the work of translators enormously. Still, I don’t think that machines or robots can replace a real person in all fields of work, but the expectations for translators/interpreters will definitely be raised. It is already a very competitive line of work, but in the future, you will have to perfect your language skills in order to be more efficient and faster than a computer. Technology and the future Watch this video:
7) Briefly discuss at least two things mentioned in the video which you think may come to affect the work of a translator/interpreter in the future.
Terminology banks are constantly improving and might replace us sooner than we’d hope, but I seriously doubt that a translating machine could ever replace a human being. Just have a look at Google Translate and you’ll know what I’m talking about. One day, some genius might manage to program a system in such a way that it will be able to translate a text in a grammatical correct way, but with an odd word choice that might be wrong in register or unusual for the country in which the language is spoken because the translating machine lacks the cultural knowledge and context. It would really impressive me if it were possible to distinguish between the different nuances of synonyms and the regional dialects of each language.
When another year comes to an end and a new one is just about to start, people like to think back and sum up the last year. In the process of summing up, there is a high chance that most people won’t be satisfied with the year’s outcome. You start thinking about stupid mistakes you’ve made (while being drunk, stoned or hormone-driven), how you reacted in the wrong way during certain situations by saying yes instead of no and consequently how it’s really your own fault that you got stuck in dodgy situations in the first place.
After spending a good amount of time on chastising yourself for being the way you are, you jump to the conclusion that you need to change yourself. Radically and preferably within 24 hours. So you eagerly make a mental note of all your bad habits and weak points and want to apply them right away. Sounds like a totally realistic plan, doesn’t it?
At the beginning you’re thrilled about the drastic life-changing decisions you’ve just made. Quit smoking, do sports every two days, resist sweets, stop starting things at the last moment – wow, congratulations, you’ve become a new person!
You feel like hugging the whole world, dancing with joy and gleaming with pleasure. You’re in a state of total bliss for…about two weeks. Then you realize that the life-changing decisions are exhausting, though they probably are good for you. Very good indeed. But what about the seductively looking chocolate bar in the supermarket? Watching another episode of your favorite series instead of finishing a grammar exercise? Don’t these things bring you joy as well? Instant joy?
So you think to yourself that giving in now and then isn’t such a bad thing after all. Again, you follow your cravings, start procrastinating, dump the jogging shoes in the corner and lie down on the sofa with a pack of chips instead. Now and then you swear betterment, but let’s face it: you have failed miserably.
As already mentioned, I just came back from a 5-day trip to London. It wasn’t my first time in the capital of the United Kingdom, but like the previous times it did not fail to impress me.
For me, London is this huge melting pot filled with people who have very distinct cultural backgrounds. Apart from extremely hot British English, you will easily hear five different languages each day, see a ton of restaurants with different cuisines on every street corner and people with all kinds of skin color rushing to the tubes.
Another trait I admire about the city is its exciting mélange of a modern metropolis with a rich, historical background. There is an abundance of impressive monuments, ornamented churches and towers dating back centuries, whereas next to them there might be skyscrapers, bubble-shaped galleries or a statue of contemporary art. The best part about all these tourist attractions is the fact that the majority of them are free. Having the opportunity to visit all kinds of museums and galleries without spending a penny is something that I truly appreciate. I think it’s great that people can educate themselves without paying for every exhibition.
Something else that amazes me is how confident people seem to be and how little they seem to give about the opinion of others. When you walk through the city, you will see gay couples, grannies in punk clothing and half-naked, rather plump girls. They stay true to their style, even though they might look like complete weirdos to others. Really admirable!
The last point I wanted to mention is that London seems to be home to the nicest strangers I’ve ever met. Maybe I have a biased opinion because I really like this city, but ever since I first set foot onto British ground, I’ve possibly met the friendliest pals on earth there. To proof my point to you, I’ll give you a few examples: When I was on my way to the train station, I had to carry my luggage upstairs. I had a devil of a time doing so until a guy offered me a hand and in the end carried my bulky suitcase upstairs. You cannot imagine how grateful I was, when I think back I imagine him with a halo.
Another time, I had difficulties to count the small change when I wanted to pay and you know what the cashier did? She simply told me to throw all of my pennies and pounds onto the counter and picked out the money for me! I was in awe of that woman!
The last incident I’d like to share with you happened on New Year’s Eve. While Benny and I were waiting for the fireworks to start, we watched the guy standing next to us unpacking his backpack which he’d filled up with Tupperware containers stuffed with homemade food, champagne and handfuls of chocolate and other sweets. He offered us sweets after realizing that he could probably feed a whole army.
Maybe he did so in the spirit of the celebration (and because he got a little emotional after a few glasses of alcohol), but my point is that I’ve met so many strangers in London who weren’t nice because they had to be, but because they wanted to be. People went out of their way to help others and did good deeds without requesting anything back.
Of course, the massive 20-minute firework shooting out of the London Eye, accompanied by music and the mayor's voice made a lasting impression on me as well. It felt great to celebrate New Year’s Eve in a city with such cheerful people who gave the devoted policemen a drink, took pictures for others and might’ve not only hugged their friends, but a stranger when the clock struck midnight.
Another belated monthly favorites blog post. Enjoy!
Achievements
I finally found a flat for my semester abroad. To tell the truth, I’ve already been keeping a watching brief over this apartment for a couple of weeks, but due to my indecisive personality, never made up my mind about it. So after carefully reflecting on all pros and cons, I finally took it because I really couldn’t be bothered to look at more ads. I am going to share a flat with a Spanish and a Scottish girl who are both a few years older and consequently probably a lot tidier/responsible/mature than me. The flat is located directly in the city center, in ten-minute walking distance from the translation and interpreting faculty. YAY!
Food
On an awfully rainy day in London, I rediscovered my love for ramen, a Japanese noodle soup. It’s more like comfort food for a day at home or when you’re freezing and want something warm to fill your tummy up. Give it a try!
Drinks
Nothing beats a hot chocolate during the winter time. Spray some whipped cream over it, throw some marshmallows into it or sprinkle cinnamon over it – whatever pleases your heart.
Series
Apart from the previous favorites like “Modern Family”, “New Girl” or “How I Met Your Mother”, I started watching “Suits” and “Dexter”. “Suits” is a TV series about a law firm and the power struggles between the employees. My boyfriend recommended it to me and I gave it a try as we were dealing with the subject of law anyway. Not only is the main storyline gripping, but the shown cases also illustrate perfectly which qualities a lawyer should have and how difficult the negotiations can be – though they did add a little bit of Hollywood drama.
Talking of drama, the second series which I started watching and caused me quite a few sleepless nights was “Dexter”. It’s about a guy named Dexter whose mother was murdered in front of his eyes when he was a child. Dexter was adopted by the police officer who found him, but never managed to suppress the urge to kill people. Luckily, his father found out and trained him to leave no marks behind and only take the lives of criminals who were set free. When I think about it, I’m not sure whether I really like the series, it has developed into a sort of hate-love, because I cannot help watching more episodes, but at the same time the suspense is killing me and I often look away during extremely thrilling scenes as I can’t take the excitement. Yes, I’m a pussy, I know.
Travel
I just came back with sore feet from a 5-day sightseeing trip in London. That’s also my excuse for not having blogged recently. More on that another time though, I've got to get some sleep. Stay patient with me.
