AF Daily - Wednesday May 9
Yes, Kaslo, clients can be a royal pain in the butt sometimes. I think, fingers crossed, that the new hospital group is going to be OK. I'm translating 200 of their Nursing Policies from Afrikaans to English and when I was there last I spotted they had at least 10 other policy files, so fingers crossed that we hit it off well.
The translation is going slowly as I've had some issues with concentration. My new antidepressant has truly put a spring in my step and made me a bit hyperactive. Its great that I'm now bubbly but not so great that my attention span seems to be all over the place.
But I really do like medical work. I dabble in writing, editing and translation and have done a fair bit of medical work. I started by writing up reports for a Mental Health Nursing Home in London and then I did copywriting for Mediclinic here for two years. They recently expanded to also have branches in Switzerland and Dubai.
Well, as I think its just us here now (and its almost 2am so actually way past my bed time I'll expand a bit) For Mediclinic I did a lot of editing but I never changed the style or meaning. Well, when you work in the corporate world you have to always obey the tone of voice so then you have to work with some very annoying cutsey nurses who want flowery poems and my little ponies on their brochures.
At other times you have to man up and explain to really important brain surgeons that their corporate literature and website is hurting their image. For example, I had to write a brochure for a Ortho Spine Brain clinic and the (very expensive) website was littered in spelling and grammar mistakes. I had to tell the big cahoona that I would not trust someone to cut open my skull if I can't trust him to even spell.
Luckily he listened and I fixed it up.
OK, I'm rambling. Afrikaans. Yes, there is still a lot happening with the language. Unfortunately it is still tainted by the hangover of apartheid but I'm luckily too young to have been a part of that. I'm Afrikaans but I guess I'm a bit of a snob as I don't like what most Afrikaans mainstream people like. They have awful taste in music etc. They just like pop and country Afrikaans, no originality in that. Also, I'm fully billingual but Afrikaans is my home language, it is beautiful, it has the best swear words in the world, I love it and I really hope it stays alive forever.
We have a yearly cultural festival where we celebrate all things Afrikaans with plays, music etc. Afrikaans people still have the most spending power in the country and therefore big business still cater for us and a lot of magazines, radio, tv is still in English and Afrikaans. And of course we have another NINE official languages. Yikes.
They do hip hop and rap and all things cool with Afrikaans. The latest trend is to make Trailer Park cool. You can google 'Die Antwoord' they are really big in America at the moment. Jack Parow is also very big locally. Charlize Theron is an Afrikaans girl but of course she managed to change her accent very quickly If you are interested in seeing a South African comedian who is also now making it big in the US, google Trevor Noah. He's not Afrikaans but mixed race, very clued up and excellent at immitating local accents and peculiarities.
Good luck with that moose kill risk assessment...I think the beach study sounds more fun.
Goodnight
Sleepy time for dizzybutt
Over and out
Oh, and do see that Johnny Depp movie, I think you'll like it
Yes, Kaslo, clients can be a royal pain in the butt sometimes. I think, fingers crossed, that the new hospital group is going to be OK. I'm translating 200 of their Nursing Policies from Afrikaans to English and when I was there last I spotted they had at least 10 other policy files, so fingers crossed that we hit it off well.
The translation is going slowly as I've had some issues with concentration. My new antidepressant has truly put a spring in my step and made me a bit hyperactive. Its great that I'm now bubbly but not so great that my attention span seems to be all over the place.
But I really do like medical work. I dabble in writing, editing and translation and have done a fair bit of medical work. I started by writing up reports for a Mental Health Nursing Home in London and then I did copywriting for Mediclinic here for two years. They recently expanded to also have branches in Switzerland and Dubai.
Well, as I think its just us here now (and its almost 2am so actually way past my bed time I'll expand a bit) For Mediclinic I did a lot of editing but I never changed the style or meaning. Well, when you work in the corporate world you have to always obey the tone of voice so then you have to work with some very annoying cutsey nurses who want flowery poems and my little ponies on their brochures.
At other times you have to man up and explain to really important brain surgeons that their corporate literature and website is hurting their image. For example, I had to write a brochure for a Ortho Spine Brain clinic and the (very expensive) website was littered in spelling and grammar mistakes. I had to tell the big cahoona that I would not trust someone to cut open my skull if I can't trust him to even spell.
Luckily he listened and I fixed it up.OK, I'm rambling. Afrikaans. Yes, there is still a lot happening with the language. Unfortunately it is still tainted by the hangover of apartheid but I'm luckily too young to have been a part of that. I'm Afrikaans but I guess I'm a bit of a snob as I don't like what most Afrikaans mainstream people like. They have awful taste in music etc. They just like pop and country Afrikaans, no originality in that. Also, I'm fully billingual but Afrikaans is my home language, it is beautiful, it has the best swear words in the world, I love it and I really hope it stays alive forever.
We have a yearly cultural festival where we celebrate all things Afrikaans with plays, music etc. Afrikaans people still have the most spending power in the country and therefore big business still cater for us and a lot of magazines, radio, tv is still in English and Afrikaans. And of course we have another NINE official languages. Yikes.
They do hip hop and rap and all things cool with Afrikaans. The latest trend is to make Trailer Park cool. You can google 'Die Antwoord' they are really big in America at the moment. Jack Parow is also very big locally. Charlize Theron is an Afrikaans girl but of course she managed to change her accent very quickly
If you are interested in seeing a South African comedian who is also now making it big in the US, google Trevor Noah. He's not Afrikaans but mixed race, very clued up and excellent at immitating local accents and peculiarities.Good luck with that moose kill risk assessment...I think the beach study sounds more fun.
Goodnight
Sleepy time for dizzybutt
Over and out
Oh, and do see that Johnny Depp movie, I think you'll like it
Comment