ROW80 – 2022 – Round 1 – Check-in 3 (January, 23rd 2022)

Hi everyone! 

Note: To keep posts short, I’ve made a Trello board with my goals for the year. Feel free to check it out if you want to know more about the bigger plan.

My word for the week is SHIFT.

Last week, I was reflecting on organization, mostly regarding the volunterring jobs I’ve taken up. My conclusion was that the board seemed to think the same and was taking steps to organize things better.

So I offered to check existing translations in French because I realized a couple of weeks back they were far from acceptable. Some just need a little work, for example from Canadian French to the European Standard (which I’ll call textbook French bacause French French of French from France is redundant, and also because quite frankly, we write it but don’t always speak it ^^). But some don’t even follow basic guidelines or are more adaptations than translations.

Of course, the volunteers did their best and it’s not entirely their fault as the guidelines were not clearly given in one place. Add no background check and I guess some people with zero experience of translating ended up with pretty tough texts to adapt.

I presided a nonprofit a while back and I know how hard it can be. After all, volunteers are nice people offering time and good will, so you don’t really want to go and check their backgrounds or give them too many instructions. But then, you do want the result to be good.

And there’s the current situation, too. Volunteering effort can be fickle and I think the crisis makes things even more difficult.

Anyway, things are shifting all the time and I’m currently shifting my views on collaborative work too. I think I might be too much of an over-achiever and that’s why I find team work hard. I need to come to terms with the fact not everyone will be/feel/work the same way to let go of the frustration it generates. So far, I’ve been able to identify the frustration and move on, and I truly wish it will gently melt away as time goes by.

After all, my goals are going well and, as my professor put it this week about students who hadn’t shown up to the class when she made up the group for collaborative work: “Don’t worry, just do your part and if they don’t do theirs, it’s their responsibility so it won’t impact your results.”

I find thinking this way also takes a lot of pressure off. If I can accept others not aiming so high, then it’s OK to lower my aim too when I need to or if it becomes too much for some reason.