Duality

31 December, 13

I have mentioned before that most people see me in one of two ways:

1. Very serious-minded.
2. Very jolly.

The truth is I am both, which makes for some interesting conversations in my head. Serious and funny often comes out as biting sarcasm. Seriously funny emerges as self-deprecating humor. I love to deprecate all over myself, particularly when masticating.

Moving to an entirely new culture has unleashed parts of me that were more or less safely held in check back in the States.

In America, I was the upstanding citizen: community volunteer, church elder. I was also mischievous and a little deviant, but that was usually under cover of darkness, with a select group of friends. The trick was to keep circles of relationships separate and distinct, to prevent one group from talking to the other. Every once in a while, those groups would intersect, which created some great Lucy Ricardo moments.

In Spain, I have no identity. I could import one of the old Dan’s or choose to forge a new one. In some ways I have reverted to my college days. I think this is due, in large part, to the fact that I have no major responsibilities. Basically, I just have to show up for “class”, which means trips to the market to buy groceries.

After a few months, I think I am ready to be Upstanding Citizen Dan or Entrepreneur Dan.  Opportunities abound for both, but the Entrepreneur costume seems to fit a little better right now.

So far, I have identified several needs in Spain. The BIG ONE is English translation for businesses. You can fall over and hit a poorly written web page. They look like Google Translate, with a mix of jibberish thrown in for good measure. My idea is to charge a flat fee per page. This is a job that I can do from anywhere. The next iteration would be to translate English pages to Spanish, but I will need to hone my Spanish quite a bit, before I can pull that one off.

Teaching English as a second language is another avenue. Right now, Susan and I volunteer teach a class of about 12 people. We are also about to enroll in formal Spanish classes, so we should be getting a good idea of how to do it. I think Business English would be fun, focusing on how to market goods and services to English speakers.

If I can get a Worker’s Visa, we will qualify for the Spanish health care system, which is excellent and free. 

So many directions lie before me. I am like a mosquito in a nudist colony. I know what to do; I just don't know where to begin.

The Art of Translation

15 December, 13

My neighbor, Juan, is a native Alberceñan. He knows everything about this area, almost as well as Julio, but not quite. He has been telling me about several wineries in Murcia, in an area called Jumilla. Spain has a great reputation for wines, especially in Rioja and Ribera del Duero, so I was eager to check it out. We were supposed to go last Friday, but he asked if I could come over to his house to help him with something else first. So of course I was happy to oblige.

It turns out his aunt is a very well-respected art restorer. She is currently working on a Diego Velázquez portrait of King Felipe IV, of Spain, dating from 1623. A museum in Australia is looking to buy it for $1,500,000. She sent a proposal to them for completing the restoration, including an English translation. They sent the proposal back, saying the translation stunk. That's where I came into the picture.

Juan showed me what had been previously sent, and I was shocked. It was awful. Evidently, nobody is available in all of Spain to translate documents.

Juan and I sat at his computer and reworked the entire proposal. I started with Google Translate as an easy way to establish a foundation. Then I refined it, so that it would make sense. The biggest problem was in describing some very technical aspects of art, about which, I know nothing.

For example, the proposal included a description of x-rays and chemical analysis already performed on the painting, as a way of verifying its authenticity. The English translation said the first coat on the canvas was dirt and carbon. Maybe that is true, but I don't think so. We added some real technical sounding words, like organic soil compound.

If the picture ends up selling, I am looking for a 10% cut. We'll see.

I have also edited a friend's webpage. He has a very successful multi-national sign business, but his English version web page stunk. It took me about 20 minutes.

It is amazing to me how prevalent this problem is. I am starting to see opportunity...