One-week vacation

OMG! No new entries for two weeks! I must have been really busy... well yeah, I was, but while studying it's hard to realize how tired you're getting; all you think about is "I have to pass this subject!"... -_-

I'm glad that the most exhausting semester of all the semesters I've studied is over. Maybe it was not the most difficult one (although Japanese got satanically difficult, and my marks are quite low compared with those I used to get in 1st and 2nd year), but it was really tiring. The beginning of this term was horrible, because I had to make hard choices about my job and thesis and there was a time when I thought I wasn't going to be able to decide clearly, and the rest of it was not a "white dove" either. We had a pathetic new teacher of Japanese translation, who wasn't even a teacher; he was an engineer or something who had lived in Japan for some years and that was the only reason why they hired him, but he knew nothing about translation. Even his writing was awful! It's because of people like him that our profession is underestimated: this asshole thought that knowing the language was enough to translate, but he had no knowledge of writing, spelling, translation techniques or strategies... Fortunately, after talking with the director of the career and other teachers, they re-hired our last translation teacher, who does know what he's talking about. I don't like translating Japanese; this language and Spanish are so different that 90% of the times I can't find any similar equivalence, or even the sense of the sentence. But what I like about this teacher is that he acknowledges the difficulty of the task and doesn't pretend he knows everything. I hope he teaches us next term, because it's the last translation subject we have before graduating and starting translating to make a living... if a living can be made just by translating xD

If I ever translate to earn money it will definitely be free-lance. I couldn't stand being in an office, working with 2 or 3 or 4 more people (because translating in a group is a very difficult and annoying task) and not having the chance to improve my language level and practise it in real life. I like translating, I enjoy it, but we're talking about a whole life!! I have a lot of ideas and plans I want to carry out, that if I spend 30 or 40 years only translating, when I'm about to be buried six feet under I'll be thinking "Why the hell didn't I do what I wanted to?" and I certainly DO NOT want to think that before dying! xD

Btw, I'm very happy because I got a very good score on the TOEIC I took for my new job!! I knew I had done well but I never thought it was that good! When you're told that your score is one of the best 3 among all the applicants, you feel really proud :) Especially when you think that there are many applicants that have lived abroad, most of them are older than 30, with plenty of experience and studies and different jobs, and I haven't even graduated from university! I'm completely certain that languages are my field of expertise, and I definitely want to keep on improving my English, re-study my German, learn French... and forget about Japanese!! xD

I hope I have time to write some entries during the training period for this job. It lasts 6 weeks, Monday to Friday from 8.30 to 17.00... far worse than university! *argh* But I'm sure it's worth it, and I'll do my best to acquire all the knowledge needed. Great to know that your deeply desired vacations will last only one week, hahaha!!!