Performance Appraisals

[Jerry Avins]

Or the person is dyslexic with a foriegn native tounge, language
impaired, but with experience and genuis in design that can easily be
offset by using good clerical assistant to help the designer with
writing, editing, and other written language issues.

hehe, I walked into the local language school, here in spain, having
problems translating my CV. The average tranlator cannot comprehend
technical terms like "Video Post Production facility engineer"[/QUOTE]

You need to pre-translate first. What in English is "The Paris
Conservatory Concert Society Orchestra" is in French, the literal
translation of "The Orchestra of the Society of Concert of the
Conservatory of Paris". Spanish is similar. They probably could have
translated "Engineer for facilitating video after production".

Jerry

 

[Joerg]

Hello Martin,

hehe, I walked into the local language school, here in spain, having
problems translating my CV. The average tranlator cannot comprehend
technical terms like "Video Post Production facility engineer"

That's a common misconception even among professional translators. They
think that you don't need to be an engineer to translate technical
stuff. The result is often close to the manuals that come with some
Asian consumer products, between funny and largely incomprehensible.

Ask one of your engineer friends to do it. Afterwards you could still
have it polished to top-notch Castellano but chances are they put some
mistakes back in. Happened to me when I did my own translation into
Dutch (many moons ago when I could properly speak it). The boss
corrected some of the not so well worded parts. Then the company gave it
to an in-house pro who is Dutch. Whoops, nearly all my not so well
worded parts were back in

 

[Rick Lyons]

Luhan wrote:



Good point, Luhan. In the big company, there is a salary schedule: how
much is getting paid to a person in this position. There is actually no
way for them to give any raise.

Also this is how the loafers from HR are making themselves look very useful.

VLV

Hi Vladimir,

No just wait a dog-gone second here!!!
Are you implying that HR people are not
hard-working, conscientious, skilled,
caring employees?

Ha ha ha ha ha.

I worked for 15 years in the aerospace
industry. My experience is that 80%
of HR people should fired as soon as
possible. (Those folks were actually
detrimental to the welfare of a company.)

In my experience, HR people were like
Govt employees (I worked for the Fed
Govt for 15 years). One person out of five
does the useful work, and 4 people out of 5
screw around for 6 hours a day playing on the
computer and gossiping on the phone to their
sister.

What I've learned in recent years is that HR
people are often in charge of "Company Training".
Because they have no concept whatsoever of
what training is needed by their company's
employees (particularly engineers) they focus
their training expenditures on things like
"How To Handle A Difficult Employee", "How To
Conduct An Effective Meeting", or "How To
Empower Your Employees (that's one of my favorites)
---generally useless training in the competitive
world of engineering companies.

[-Rick-]

 

[[email protected]]

Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get.

While Jerry's sig line was ment to imply products/designs, it also
includes the organizations we live/work in. Bitching about HR, and
doing something about it is the difference between acting like those in
HR that sit on the phone and chat with their sisters, and being
engineers making or society a better place.

 

[Mark McDougall]

In my experience, HR people were like
Govt employees (I worked for the Fed
Govt for 15 years). One person out of five
does the useful work, and 4 people out of 5
screw around for 6 hours a day playing on the
computer and gossiping on the phone to their
sister.

HR *definitely* belong on the B Arc!

Regards,

 

[Steve Underwood]

Hello Martin,


That's a common misconception even among professional translators. They
think that you don't need to be an engineer to translate technical
stuff. The result is often close to the manuals that come with some
Asian consumer products, between funny and largely incomprehensible.

Ask one of your engineer friends to do it. Afterwards you could still
have it polished to top-notch Castellano but chances are they put some
mistakes back in. Happened to me when I did my own translation into
Dutch (many moons ago when I could properly speak it). The boss
corrected some of the not so well worded parts. Then the company gave it
to an in-house pro who is Dutch. Whoops, nearly all my not so well
worded parts were back in

Of course, this works both ways. Much of the technical literature for
components which is available in Chinese has been translated from
English by someone in China with an English degree. Some of the Chinese
is just as funny as the Asian consumer product manuals you refer to.

Steve

 

[John Woodgate]

That's a common misconception even among professional translators. They
think that you don't need to be an engineer to translate technical
stuff.

REALLY professional translators ask for help on the translators'
newsgroup. Most of its traffic is about queries on technical terms.

 

[[email protected]]

Wouldn't you then expect that genius to be smart enough to have a friend
critique and correct their resume? Or at least click Tools -> Spell
Check? That ain't rocket science...

We had one very bright but dyslexic engieer at Cambridge Instruments,
who never really got the idea that it mattered how you spelled a word
as long as what you wrote sounded right, so he used "their", "there"
and "they're" as if they were interchangeable, and - while he
appreciated the theory behind our complaints about his spelling, he
never took us really seriously, because he couldn't imagine that we
didn't hear the words printed on the page.

I offered to spell check his written output on a number of occasions,
but he never took me up on it.

 

[Frank Bemelman]

Hello Martin,


That's a common misconception even among professional translators. They
think that you don't need to be an engineer to translate technical stuff.
The result is often close to the manuals that come with some Asian
consumer products, between funny and largely incomprehensible.

I doubt if many of the Asian manuals are the work of professional
translators at all. Not only are they funny/incomprehensible, but
also full of spelling mistakes.

Asian websites have the same problems. Always a flash intro to tell
you have finally found the pot of gold, a large jpg as background
that gives the impression there are all sorts of clickable menus
which there aren't, a bible text about their company mission that
makes them look better than Mother Theresa, and a shopping cart
button that only pops up an email form.

All that they do is cut & paste and change some pictures.

 

[Frithiof Andreas Jensen]

In my experience, HR people were like
Govt employees (I worked for the Fed
Govt for 15 years). One person out of five
does the useful work, and 4 people out of 5
screw around for 6 hours a day playing on the
computer and gossiping on the phone to their
sister.

IF ONLY they would bluddy well stick to that then all would be well
(only the shareholders have a problem, but we did not get any options
.... so - who cares).

The above goes for government too BTW: The more they "work" the more
the taxpayers will suffer!

 

[Joerg]

Hello Bill,

We had one very bright but dyslexic engieer at Cambridge Instruments,
who never really got the idea that it mattered how you spelled a word
as long as what you wrote sounded right, so he used "their", "there"
and "they're" as if they were interchangeable, and - while he
appreciated the theory behind our complaints about his spelling, he
never took us really seriously, because he couldn't imagine that we
didn't hear the words printed on the page.

That's ok.

I offered to spell check his written output on a number of occasions,
but he never took me up on it.

That's not ok. Not seeking help in an area where you have a lack is a
mistake. Sometimes a serious one, like when it affects safety (Oh, we
don't need that EMC consultant...).

Sure I could do the biz taxes myself. Do I do that? Nope. To avoid
costly mistakes I am using an attorney/CPA who is expert in that matter.
In the same way that my clients use me.

 

[Joerg]

Hello John,

REALLY professional translators ask for help on the translators'
newsgroup. Most of its traffic is about queries on technical terms.

Interesting. Which NG is that? Might have to point some folks there ;-)

 

[[email protected]]

We had one very bright but dyslexic engieer at Cambridge Instruments,
who never really got the idea that it mattered how you spelled a word
as long as what you wrote sounded right, so he used "their", "there"
and "they're" as if they were interchangeable, and - while he
appreciated the theory behind our complaints about his spelling, he
never took us really seriously, because he couldn't imagine that we
didn't hear the words printed on the page.

I offered to spell check his written output on a number of occasions,
but he never took me up on it.

One of the things that you learn being dyslexic, is miss spellings are
frequently valid words in the dictionary, and that spell checkers are
marginally useful at best.

"their", "there" and "they're" are all valid spellings, and spell
check is useless.

I know when I write, I internally know what I want in correct english.
What the brain writes thru my fingers and seen by my eyes is quite
frequently different. Especially when tired, stressed, etc. One example
is that I frequently will replace a word with the word that follows it,
such that it's there twice. Or that a completely different word will
pop out ... such as replacing "the" with "and", or "this" with "there",
or "that" with "this".

I proof right over these mistakes when writing most of the time. If I
wait about 3 days, and reproof, I spot it immediately. Frequently, what
comes out my fingers will be the wrong suffix for a word construction,
such as "confident" will be replaced with "confidence". Transpositions
are also a problem, but for some reason they are a little easier for me
to spot while writing, but not always. This is one area where spell
check makes a difference, some times.

I worked for a boss for several years that was worse than me. We used
to proof each others writings. Only about 50% of the time could we spot
the others mistakes, the rest of the time our brain would automatically
correct their mistake too, and continue to do so every time we reread
that section. Then, for whatever reason, several days later it would be
obviously wrong if proofed again.

I realize that your coworkers actions may have seemed, indifferent.
That in your mind, these kind of mistakes are just careless. But again,
your brain isn't wired that way.

 

[[email protected]]

I realize that your coworkers actions may have seemed, indifferent.
That in your mind, these kind of mistakes are just careless. But again,
your brain isn't wired that way.

A while back this was passed around on various mailing lists:

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg.
The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at
Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a
wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be
in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed
it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed
ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and
I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

It was interesting that most of my friends could struggle thru it with
little trouble. Those of us that are also dyslexic, found it was MUCH
easier.

Besides language, this less rigid form of viewing the world is
frequently useful, and productive, at following others work, spotting
errors in others designs, and following non-traditional design
approaches that are outside what others would consider, even when they
are boxed in and see no other solution. So the abnormality of our
brains, which includes dyslexia and a number of other "different"
wirings in our brains, also turns out to also be a gift.

It's also genetic ... my mom and son both are too.

 

[John Woodgate]

We used to proof each others writings. Only about 50% of the time
could we spot the others mistakes, the rest of the time our brain would
automatically correct their mistake too, and continue to do so every
time we reread that section.

Yes, because you both had the same trait, 'brain wired that way'). You
needed a third party.

Then, for whatever reason, several days later it would be obviously
wrong if proofed again.

Even skilled proof-readers find that. But even at first reading, it's
almost as if the errors are printed in a different colour, they are so
obvious. And this can extend to poor sentence construction, like 'only'
being in the wrong place.

 

[John Woodgate]

So the abnormality of our brains, which includes dyslexia and a number
of other "different" wirings in our brains, also turns out to also be a
gift.

It's also genetic ... my mom and son both are too.

It's more rare in females. But there are 57 varieties of 'dyslexia'. Are
you left-handed?

 

[John Woodgate]

Interesting. Which NG is that? Might have to point some folks there ;-)

sci.lang.translation

For time to time, it can get as surreal as this NG, but there is much
less traffic. And no abuse now.

About five years ago, we had a real nutter; Spanish and good at
translation (and, incidentally, an expert at retrieving stuff from the
Internet), but he went as far as making threatening phone calls, and
someone with contacts in the Spanish police arranged for him to be shown
the error of his ways.

 

[Joerg]

A while back this was passed around on various mailing lists:

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg.
The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at
Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a
wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be
in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed
it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed
ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and
I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

It was interesting that most of my friends could struggle thru it with
little trouble. Those of us that are also dyslexic, found it was MUCH
easier.

Amazing. I could actually read it about as fast as if it were regular text.

Then again most of us are used to piece together incomplete data on the
fly. Like when you can barely hear a PA announcement over the din of an
airport crowd. PA system: "... teen fifty .... ver ... celled". Brain:
"Oh drat, now I'm not going to make the meeting in Denver on time".

Besides language, this less rigid form of viewing the world is
frequently useful, and productive, at following others work, spotting
errors in others designs, and following non-traditional design
approaches that are outside what others would consider, even when they
are boxed in and see no other solution. So the abnormality of our
brains, which includes dyslexia and a number of other "different"
wirings in our brains, also turns out to also be a gift.

That would mean that analog folks often fall into that group. We have a
knack for stepping back, squinting and then coming up with some
outlandish and really unorthodox solution. "You mean, this can be done
without a micro?"

It's also genetic ... my mom and son both are too.

But you did the right thing: Realized it and either proof read a few
days later or let others proof. Way to go.

 

[John Woodgate]

Brain: "Oh drat, now I'm not going to make the meeting in Denver on
time".

Don't, whatever you do, take a trip on 'old 97'!

 

[Joerg]

Hello John,

Even skilled proof-readers find that. But even at first reading, it's
almost as if the errors are printed in a different colour, they are so
obvious. And this can extend to poor sentence construction, like 'only'
being in the wrong place.

That can also happen if you regularly have to switch between languages
several times a day.