When proofreaders go missing: a blog of errors, designed to demonstrate why sub-editors and copy editors remain important, at a time when they are increasingly regarded as optional extras (all contributions welcome; to follow on Twitter - zmkc)
Thursday, 2 December 2010
As I Mentioned
If something can be misread, it will be misread (at least by me).
As it turned out, $45 million were poured down it - I think the British also thrust quite a few pound notes in a similar direction, with an equally unsatisfactory result.
The use of the word 'scoop' in that context was particularly inspired, by the way - I do think you're wasted in IT. Incidentally, is your work all conducted in English? And during tea breaks, do you then switch languages, or is everything conducted in Romanian or in English? I've never got to a stage with any language where I've felt confident about playing round, making jokes with words - have you reached that stage with Romanian?
Ouch, the British can't really afford to thrust pound notes at anything much right now.
That's very kind of you to say that. My life in IT only ever took up my daytimes - in my evenings I've been a keen amateur dancer for more than a couple of decades now. I'm very happy now that I've now managed to combine IT (which is something I can get paid for) with text editing (which I find much more enjoyable, even though the texts in question only ever concern property tax in the American real estate sector). We conduct all our meetings in Romanian and I've now leaned just about enough thanks to my language teacher. I have kinda reached that stage with it, partly because my father-in-law is a compulsive wit and word juggler who speaks with a thick local accent and can also lapse into Hungarian and Russian, and one likes to keep up with him! Which languages have you learned - did you get anywhere with Hungarian?
"even though the texts in question only ever concern property tax in the American real estate sector" - this made me laugh. Your ability to conduct your work life in Romanian impresses me HUGELY - my husband also contributes the comment, 'Wow'. Your father-in-law sounds terrific. Does he - or anyone else there - ever tell you about the Ceaucescu days? What did they feel about him and his lovely wife et cetera? At university - despite the arts faculty sub-dean's written note to me in the first week of first year, saying, 'Please come and discuss with me the wisdom - or unwisdom - of studying so many languages', which I ignored, figuring, correctly as it turned out, (luckily), that he wasn't actually interested enough to come and find me - I did French, Italian and Russian, in an extremely undistinguished way (in Australia, you do three majors and a single subject extra in first year, or some combination of those - I did English literature as well, but decided it had no practical value, whereas learning a language allowed you to study literature, while also picking up a straightforward skill.) Then, when we lived in Austria, I studied German, which I liked a lot. I swotted away, but have forgotten most of it, blub, blub. I am still battling with Hungarian - I try to do a bit each day, but usually find that sorting the shed is very important and shouldn't be put off for another moment. In some ways, it is really not so complex - it has fewer tense forms really than many other languages, and I find its grammar beguilingly logical. However, applying grammar is always hard in conversation and also the vocabulary gives you no kind of space to get your grappling hooks into - no faint areas of similarity to any other language you've encountered. Still, Russian vocabulary also seemed as completely foreign to begin with (I've forgotten it all now, so I'm not sure why I say "to begin with".) Sorry, that answer is what my father would call, with great disdain 'prolix'.
Nice to know some more about you! So, you really are a Sheila? For some reason I'd imagined that you'd "ended up" in Oz. Are you still "battling with Hungarian" because your husband is Hungarian, or simply bcause you like it? As I'm sure I've said before, I'm determined to learn it after I feel I've learned enough Romanian, if only to show my more partizan Romanian colleagues that they should finally accept hearing this rather lovely language being spoken in what they regard as exclusively "their" country (oh, no time to start that argument now...). My father-in-law is an amzing bloke, determined to stay cheerful at all times and doesn't have an enemy in the world. He has surprisingly positive thoughts about Ceaucescu, as when they moved to Cluj from the countryside and were living 9 in a room he actually wrote the "Genius of The Carpathians" and a result (so he says) his family received a flat of their own to live in. But it's generally been his wife who has ensured that the family was fed and clothed, so perhaps he can afford to look carefree :-) This was a bit prolix too. Have a good day.
My mother's Australian and my father was English, but, to my annoyance, I sound entirelyals English (oddly my mother does too, even though her family arrived here back in what passes for ancient history). I could pretend, but that would be weird - I mean I can easily sound Australian but I'd be doing it self-consciously. My husband's not a bit Hungarian. He's completely dinky di, although he doesn't sound it much either (what is this obsession now with telling you how we all sound?) I just really like Hungarian and would like to be able to read one or two books I've got in it. I also really, really like learning languages - I like their certainties (rules of grammar et cetera), I think. Do you mean your father-in-law wrote that book? Is it any good? I can't remember if I wrote a post about going to this marathon film made up of Ceaucescu propaganda when we were in Melbourne for a few weeks. When we went there, there really didn't seem to be hardly any food available at times in Romania, which I would have thought might undermine one's confidence in one's rulers. Oh dear, that terrible prolixity has struck again.
"Dinky di"? That means he's an ocker Auzzie? Or true blue Pom? Yes, that Ceaucescu film is supposed to be quite interesting. Sorry, my spelling mistake, I mean that my father-in-law wrote TO the Genius of The Carpathians (i.e comrade Ceaucescu - he also like to call himself The Titan Of Titans..... what an arse.)
Dinky di is true blue Aussie - I could put a link at this point to a song called True Blue, but I like you too much to inflict it on you. Your father-in-law must have been lucky to catch the Genius on a good day - my impression is his caprice might have led to a far worse fate. I realise I did write about that film - it was very long and strange, (like the Genius's reign).
:-) Later, expect an investigative 'scoop' by the one of the paper's tyro journalists entitled "We Lift the Lid on WC".
ReplyDeleteAs it turned out, $45 million were poured down it - I think the British also thrust quite a few pound notes in a similar direction, with an equally unsatisfactory result.
ReplyDeleteThe use of the word 'scoop' in that context was particularly inspired, by the way - I do think you're wasted in IT. Incidentally, is your work all conducted in English? And during tea breaks, do you then switch languages, or is everything conducted in Romanian or in English? I've never got to a stage with any language where I've felt confident about playing round, making jokes with words - have you reached that stage with Romanian?
ReplyDeleteOuch, the British can't really afford to thrust pound notes at anything much right now.
ReplyDeleteThat's very kind of you to say that. My life in IT only ever took up my daytimes - in my evenings I've been a keen amateur dancer for more than a couple of decades now. I'm very happy now that I've now managed to combine IT (which is something I can get paid for) with text editing (which I find much more enjoyable, even though the texts in question only ever concern property tax in the American real estate sector). We conduct all our meetings in Romanian and I've now leaned just about enough thanks to my language teacher. I have kinda reached that stage with it, partly because my father-in-law is a compulsive wit and word juggler who speaks with a thick local accent and can also lapse into Hungarian and Russian, and one likes to keep up with him! Which languages have you learned - did you get anywhere with Hungarian?
"even though the texts in question only ever concern property tax in the American real estate sector" - this made me laugh. Your ability to conduct your work life in Romanian impresses me HUGELY - my husband also contributes the comment, 'Wow'.
ReplyDeleteYour father-in-law sounds terrific. Does he - or anyone else there - ever tell you about the Ceaucescu days? What did they feel about him and his lovely wife et cetera?
At university - despite the arts faculty sub-dean's written note to me in the first week of first year, saying, 'Please come and discuss with me the wisdom - or unwisdom - of studying so many languages', which I ignored, figuring, correctly as it turned out, (luckily), that he wasn't actually interested enough to come and find me - I did French, Italian and Russian, in an extremely undistinguished way (in Australia, you do three majors and a single subject extra in first year, or some combination of those - I did English literature as well, but decided it had no practical value, whereas learning a language allowed you to study literature, while also picking up a straightforward skill.) Then, when we lived in Austria, I studied German, which I liked a lot. I swotted away, but have forgotten most of it, blub, blub.
I am still battling with Hungarian - I try to do a bit each day, but usually find that sorting the shed is very important and shouldn't be put off for another moment. In some ways, it is really not so complex - it has fewer tense forms really than many other languages, and I find its grammar beguilingly logical. However, applying grammar is always hard in conversation and also the vocabulary gives you no kind of space to get your grappling hooks into - no faint areas of similarity to any other language you've encountered. Still, Russian vocabulary also seemed as completely foreign to begin with (I've forgotten it all now, so I'm not sure why I say "to begin with".) Sorry, that answer is what my father would call, with great disdain 'prolix'.
Nice to know some more about you! So, you really are a Sheila? For some reason I'd imagined that you'd "ended up" in Oz. Are you still "battling with Hungarian" because your husband is Hungarian, or simply bcause you like it? As I'm sure I've said before, I'm determined to learn it after I feel I've learned enough Romanian, if only to show my more partizan Romanian colleagues that they should finally accept hearing this rather lovely language being spoken in what they regard as exclusively "their" country (oh, no time to start that argument now...). My father-in-law is an amzing bloke, determined to stay cheerful at all times and doesn't have an enemy in the world. He has surprisingly positive thoughts about Ceaucescu, as when they moved to Cluj from the countryside and were living 9 in a room he actually wrote the "Genius of The Carpathians" and a result (so he says) his family received a flat of their own to live in. But it's generally been his wife who has ensured that the family was fed and clothed, so perhaps he can afford to look carefree :-) This was a bit prolix too. Have a good day.
ReplyDeleteMy mother's Australian and my father was English, but, to my annoyance, I sound entirelyals English (oddly my mother does too, even though her family arrived here back in what passes for ancient history). I could pretend, but that would be weird - I mean I can easily sound Australian but I'd be doing it self-consciously. My husband's not a bit Hungarian. He's completely dinky di, although he doesn't sound it much either (what is this obsession now with telling you how we all sound?) I just really like Hungarian and would like to be able to read one or two books I've got in it. I also really, really like learning languages - I like their certainties (rules of grammar et cetera), I think. Do you mean your father-in-law wrote that book? Is it any good? I can't remember if I wrote a post about going to this marathon film made up of Ceaucescu propaganda when we were in Melbourne for a few weeks. When we went there, there really didn't seem to be hardly any food available at times in Romania, which I would have thought might undermine one's confidence in one's rulers. Oh dear, that terrible prolixity has struck again.
ReplyDeleteentirely was the word I was groping across the keyboard towards, by the way.
ReplyDelete"Dinky di"? That means he's an ocker Auzzie? Or true blue Pom? Yes, that Ceaucescu film is supposed to be quite interesting. Sorry, my spelling mistake, I mean that my father-in-law wrote TO the Genius of The Carpathians (i.e comrade Ceaucescu - he also like to call himself The Titan Of Titans..... what an arse.)
ReplyDeleteDinky di is true blue Aussie - I could put a link at this point to a song called True Blue, but I like you too much to inflict it on you. Your father-in-law must have been lucky to catch the Genius on a good day - my impression is his caprice might have led to a far worse fate. I realise I did write about that film - it was very long and strange, (like the Genius's reign).
ReplyDelete