| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3] > | Poll: On what continent do you reside? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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Özden Arıkan 
Germany
Local time: 13:27
Member
English to Turkish
+ ...
| Also located in the li'l old Europe | Nov 28, 2006 |
But I think 'Americas' is a US designation. And it's not got much to do with geography, judging by the fact that Mexico is considered Central or even South America by many US citizens. Imagine the same cultural, political criteria applied to Asia with its huge diversity: Russia and India, or Turkey and Thailand, or Iran and Nepal are all worlds apart from each other. I think we could have made about half a dozen continents from Asia.
| | | | Steven Capsuto
United States
Local time: 07:27
Member (2004)
Spanish to English
+ ...
| The Americas (EN) = América (ES) | Nov 28, 2006 |
Hellen Varela-Fdez. wrote:
According to the options I don't reside in any continent... I live in Central America (not in South America, not in North America)... but there is no option to choose... so... N/A
Since the poll is in English, the options naturally follow Anglo terminology. In this scheme, Central America is the southern portion of the North American continent. If you look at a globe, you can see that it's clearly all the same land mass, and that the division is a political one.
I suspect that the tendency to consider the Americas a single continent dates back to a time before this half of the world was well mapped, and the term just stuck.
| | | | Edward Potter
Spain
Local time: 13:27
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
| My two cents | Nov 28, 2006 |
Here are some of my comments:
1) Nobody lives in Antarctica. And if you do, you are not a translator.
2) What happens if you are living on an island that is not part of a continent? Or are all islands technically part of a continent?
3) Didn't Britain and Argentina go to war over point 2?
| | | | Steven Capsuto
United States
Local time: 07:27
Member (2004)
Spanish to English
+ ...
| Mexico and its neighbor Iraq | Nov 28, 2006 |
Özden Arıkan wrote:
But I think 'Americas' is a US designation. And it's not got much to do with geography, judging by the fact that Mexico is considered Central or even South America by many US citizens.
And Iraq is considered part of Central America by some U.S. citizens, so don't use that as a yardstick. Geography is not one of our strong points. Most of us probably aren't quite sure where Minnesota is either, so we're equal-opportunity ignorers of geography.
In all schemes that divide the Americas into North and South, Mexico is part of North America.
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Edward Potter
Spain
Local time: 13:27
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
The whole shebang down to the southern border of Panama has got to be North America. I mean, just look how thin it is there. We even chopped it off with the Panama canal just to make sure.
| | | | neilmac
Spain
Local time: 13:27
Spanish to English
+ ...
| Not such a bad thing really | Nov 28, 2006 |
[quote] Angela Dickson wrote: Why is it such a bad thing to have a majority of N. American English/Spanish speakers?
As a native of the UK, and believing that the fact that there are many more speakers of US English in the world means that a virtual hegemony in terms of spelling, vocab, style etc is becoming the norm, with the result that the language I was taught is increasingly seen as some quaintly antiquated variant form (see the gentle chiding from an Oxford-educated colleague in yesterday's forum regarding my personal preference for non-"z" forms eg: tranquiliser).
The fact that "tranquiliser" only gets 30,000 Google hits while "tranquilizer" has over 1,000,000, inevitably gives rise to the notion that might eqauls right, and, unlike the followers of Webster, I simply prefer to write "travelled" with double "l" (consonants are doubled for reasons related with pronunciation and semantics), and keep a torch in the boot of my car.
I am currently working with a colleague from the US and we swing both ways, peer reviewing each other's work depending on the target client, and both of us find the experience enriching while learning something new every day.
By the way, isn't this a rather pointless forum subject?
| | | | Hipyan Nopri
Indonesia
Local time: 18:27
English to Indonesian
+ ...
| I live in Asia continent | Nov 28, 2006 |
In fact, it is always stated in the textbooks that Indonesia is a country located between two continents and two oceans. This implies that we do not live in either continent. However, I chose Asia because it is one the participants in Asia-Africa conference.
[Edited at 2006-11-28 23:44]
| | | | Marina Soldati
Argentina
Local time: 08:27
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
+ ...
| Translators in Antarctica | Nov 29, 2006 |
Edward Potter wrote: Here are some of my comments: 1) Nobody lives in Antarctica. And if you do, you are not a translator. 2) What happens if you are living on an island that is not part of a continent? Or are all islands technically part of a continent? 3) Didn't Britain and Argentina go to war over point 2?
Hi Edward,
I´m not going to argue, for obvious reasons, whether all islands are part of continents, but as regards point 1, I may say that there could be translators in Antarctica.
Base Esperanza (Argentina) have families living there, and, as they have broadband internet conection, the wives or husbands of the Army officers stationed there could be translators working from the Antarctica.
Marina
PS: Please forgive my English.
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| Interesting poll, but ..... How about Time Zone? | Nov 29, 2006 |
Majority of translators are in Europe did not surprise me as the European Continent is, due to its historical developement, grown into multiglot entities over centuries.
However, what surprised me is this pole is nothing to do with Time Zones.
Since ProZ users, we translators who are residing in various parts of the globe and when internet brings us instantaneous communication over huge distance, what is more important than Continent in which we live is Time Zone in terms of job hunt... See more Majority of translators are in Europe did not surprise me as the European Continent is, due to its historical developement, grown into multiglot entities over centuries.
However, what surprised me is this pole is nothing to do with Time Zones.
Since ProZ users, we translators who are residing in various parts of the globe and when internet brings us instantaneous communication over huge distance, what is more important than Continent in which we live is Time Zone in terms of job hunting.
Living in the same or proximity of Time Zone is a great advantage when we translator needs to communicae with outsourcers, or more importantly get job to generate income.
What outsourcer would wait prospect transltor for rush job wakes up and responds eight hours later?
[Edited at 2006-11-29 02:41] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | No Central America is not a Continent, but .... | Nov 29, 2006 |
Hellen Varela-Fdez. wrote:
According to the options I don't reside in any continent... I live in Central America (not in South America, not in North America)... but there is no option to choose... so... N/A
Hellen
Are you living in Central American countries other than Mexico?
Geopolitically speaking, Mexico is a part of North America.
N. America consists of Canada, United States, and Mexico.
Though I wonder if Central America (or Latin America) MINUS Mexico is not classified as South America. I believe so, but maybe you can educate me on this.
| | | | Pundora
India
Local time: 16:57
English to Hindi
+ ...
| And, for some jobs different time zone is advantageous. | Nov 29, 2006 |
Susan Koyama-Steele wrote:
Living in the same or proximity of Time Zone is a great advantage when we translator needs to communicae with outsourcers, or more importantly get job to generate income.
What outsourcer would wait prospect transltor for rush job wakes up and responds eight hours later?
[Edited at 2006-11-29 02:41]
Hi Susan, in some situations it is the other way round. Imagine another situation where it is a not-so-rush job. You are outsourcer and I am the translator. You get the job in the evening(morning for me) that needs to be done within 12 hours and requires working for some 8 hours. You give it to me and go to bed. Next morning you find it ready in your mailbox. So, in that case it would be a great advantage for both, you and me!!
In such type of situation, if most of the jobs are originating in your time zone areas, may be others are taking advantage. Of course, it would depend on many more factors also where the job goes.
Regards,
Pundora
| | | | | As pointless as coffee breaks !! | Nov 29, 2006 |
[quote]neilmac wrote:
By the way, isn't this a rather pointless forum subject?
Well, you could say so, but the discussion is thought-provoking too. For some reason I often discover things I could improve in my translations immediately after a 'pointless' wander round this site or some other corner of the Internet.
I'm just waiting for an answer to a question on Christmas traditions for a little translation about symbols... and things Danes take totally for granted are not by any means a matter of course in the rest of the world.
Many years ago a young Australian asked me: "Why do you have snow at Christmas?"
Why indeed? And during my Indian childhood my brother and I thought it faintly silly when the grown ups decorated the window sills with cotton wool to look like snow - on the inside of a two-metre wide veranda...
I think what I'm trying to say is that people's view of the world depends a lot on which side of it they live on, as well as whether they live in the middle of a continent, by the sea, or on a small island. So much links up to seasons or lack of them, time zones and local conditions.
There is a lot more than words to translating.
I'm probably getting off topic!
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Özden Arıkan
Germany
Local time: 13:27
Member
English to Turkish
+ ...
| Thank you for this nice off-topic, Christine :-) | Nov 29, 2006 |
Every translator, as well as every poll poster, should always remember this anecdote:
Christine wrote:
Many years ago a young Australian asked me: "Why do you have snow at Christmas?"
Cheers!
| | | | Kimmy
Local time: 21:27
Italian to English
+ ...
| I WAS in Europe and now I am in Australia | Nov 29, 2006 |
so from the majority to the minority!
I feel a little humbled!
But, apart from the obvious population issues (20 million in a continent the size of Europe), there is obviously some great potential here!
Yet.......all my clients are from Europe!!!!!
The Time zone is my friend here DownUnder! I get to work yet I can spend time with my children! A perfect mix! Well almost, working late into the night can be tiresome!
Kim
| | | | Ruxi
German to Romanian
+ ...
| Geography and politics | Nov 29, 2006 |
I many cases it is more a matter of politics than one of geography.
Some countries may be in a certain continent ( and all countries, including the isles, belong to one or another of the 5-6-7 continents, none of them is sepparate), but politically they may belong to another:
e.g
former URSS - was European, now a part of it is European, part of it Asian.
Turkey - is geographically (at least most part of it) Asian, but it politically belongs to Europe
Israel - an A... See more I many cases it is more a matter of politics than one of geography.
Some countries may be in a certain continent ( and all countries, including the isles, belong to one or another of the 5-6-7 continents, none of them is sepparate), but politically they may belong to another:
e.g
former URSS - was European, now a part of it is European, part of it Asian.
Turkey - is geographically (at least most part of it) Asian, but it politically belongs to Europe
Israel - an Asian country, but which also takes part to all European competitions
Andf if we also talk about former colonies, things go again different (e.g Australia being European as belonging to the Queen aso).
Central America is a strange point for me, but I will look again on the map. I was sure it belongs to South America.Mexico belongs to North America.
Finally, regarding the poll, I was amazed, seing the results, as I was sure there are more people from other continents (especially American) than European, on Proz.
So Proz must be very proud being an American company leading mostly European people.
Antarctica -no translator? Why not, if anybody wants to live there and also help the eskimos to connect to the world? ▲ Collapse
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