In 2014 we have a charming and talented new addition to our team: our new language and translation intern, Hloni. You can find Hloni hard at work in the office lending her extensive South African languages expertise to a variety of language, translation and editing briefs. This is Hloni\’s second blog about her journey with Bangula. Click here for her first post.
“Variety is the very spice of life.” (William Cowper)
My second month as a language practice intern at IL Consultancy sees me continuing to tackle various tasks coming my way. No one day is the same for me; my tasks vary from basic admin work such as filling in supplier forms to more complex tasks like translating a financial document.
I am learning from each and every task I do. For someone who has worked as a student assistant before, doing admin work is not a daunting task, though I am more in love with working with words than filling in forms… but, needless to say, even that task is important to me and the agency; the clients need to have our information and if I do not help to fill it in, then we do not have any work to do. So, in a way I have to do what I have to do in order to do what I want to do. Apart from filling in forms, my admin work includes emailing, texting and even making calls to our freelance translators concerning various things. I also put together quotes for some of our clients.
Once the admin is out of the way the interesting work begins… (yes, translation work). I do quality checking of the African language documents our freelance translators work on (yes, I am multilingual). Quality checking requires one to have an eye for detail, among other things. For someone who has a slightly distractible personality, I am learning, each day to be focused. Quality checking involves, among other things, checking for accuracy as well as errors in a document so that the final end product delivered to the client is of an acceptable standard. Quality checking is not the final step in working on the document; proofreading is also involved, and I do that as well to make sure that what the target readers of the document consumes really is readable and correct and that the producer’s message is communicated to the consumer.
My ability to multitask often comes in handy, because sometimes I am quality checking a document on health-related issues and a more urgent one comes through and needs my attention. I have learnt to be able to shift my attention from one document to another, and from one task to another. Taking part in Bangula’s client presentations every week provides an interesting diversion.
I love writing and I smile and will continue smiling for the duration of my internship whenever I am about to submit my monthly blog article, which is another exciting job I do. Variety really is the very spice of my work at Bangula and… of life, as William Cowper says.