| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Jack Slep is 80 Thread poster: Jack Doughty
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| Best wishes and Happy Birthday to Jack! | Jan 6, 2011 |
☆¸.•°*"˜˜"*°•.¸☆ ★ ☆¸.•°*"˜˜"*°•.¸☆
╔╗╔╦══╦═╦═╦╗╔╗ ★ ★ ★
║╚╝║══║═║═║╚╝║ ☆¸.•°*"˜˜"*°•.¸☆
║╔╗║╔╗║╔╣╔╩╗╔╝ ★ BIRTHDAY ☆
╚╝╚╩╝╚╩╝╚╝═╚╝ ♥￥☆★☆★☆￥♥ ★☆ ☆★
and God Bless you.
GREETINGS FROM TURKİYE
| | | | | Happy birthday dear Jack! | Jan 6, 2011 |
Happy Birthday from Italy! I wish you all the best you can desire, my father is quite 80 too, so I feel you like another Daddy! Hugs and kisses
| | | | Trudy Peters 
United States
Local time: 02:11
German to English
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| Wishing you the happiest of birthdays, Jack! | Jan 6, 2011 |
I love that poem, Zoya! It perfectly reflects my own sentiments.
| | | | Tokyo_Moscow
Japan
Local time: 15:11
Japanese to Russian
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| Happy Birtday, Jack! | Jan 6, 2011 |
Happy birthday, Jack, wishing you health and many more years of happy translating!
Cheers from sunny Tokyo,
Natalia
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| Carry on Jack... | Jan 6, 2011 |
I bathe in the reflections from Jack's 80th birthday.
I was 82 on Christmas Eve, together with my twin sister, seven minutes younger than I.
She does no translating but is my greatest supporter, believing that I am something of a wonder having learnt a foreign language.
My military background is in the RAF and I was in service in a minor capacity during the Berlin Airlift.
We learn more and more as we grow older... but at some point it starts to fade away if I rem... See more I bathe in the reflections from Jack's 80th birthday.
I was 82 on Christmas Eve, together with my twin sister, seven minutes younger than I.
She does no translating but is my greatest supporter, believing that I am something of a wonder having learnt a foreign language.
My military background is in the RAF and I was in service in a minor capacity during the Berlin Airlift.
We learn more and more as we grow older... but at some point it starts to fade away if I remember rightly.
The following link may be of interest to (ageing) translators:
http://www.expatica.com/fr/education/languages/Bilingualism_delays_onset_of_Alzheimers_16664.html ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Happy Birthday! | Jan 6, 2011 |
I have Jack to thank for my 25-year (so far) career as a translator. Without him I would never have imagined becoming a translator, and I never could have done it without his extraordinarily generous help.
The gist of the story is that he got me my first translation job, gave me some old dictionaries, and spent every Friday evening for several years answering questions that I could not figure out on my own.
Thanks, Jack!
The long version is from the Sprin... See more I have Jack to thank for my 25-year (so far) career as a translator. Without him I would never have imagined becoming a translator, and I never could have done it without his extraordinarily generous help.
The gist of the story is that he got me my first translation job, gave me some old dictionaries, and spent every Friday evening for several years answering questions that I could not figure out on my own.
Thanks, Jack!
The long version is from the Spring 1997 issue of SlavFile:
In the summer of 1968, I visited Russia on a student program from Indiana University, and in 1970 I worked at the USIA “Народное образование” exhibit in Baku and Tashkent. But back then the times they were a-changing, and I was hip. Someone said, “Turn on, tune in, and drop out,” and I did. For the next 15 years, I never heard or spoke a word of Russian and read very little.
My wife and I were fruit tramps for nine years, picking apples and pears in Hood River valley each fall. For one or two of those years, that was the only job we had all year. We bought some land in the mountains of north Georgia and built a log cabin. Living was easy off the fat of the land.
But gradually my непутевая жизнь began to catch up with me. Two children imposed certain financial needs, and the opportunities for decent-paying work in Southern Appalachia were limited to say the least, particularly for someone like me with no obvious skills. I worked off and on by the hour on state parks building trails, rock walls, steps, and such. It was great fun, but after starting at a rate that was 10 cents an hour below the minimum wage (which did not apply to state employees) I progressed to an hourly rate that was barely sufficient if I worked 40 hours every week. But that was not possible, especially in the winter, so as the song says, “another day older and deeper in debt.” In desperation, I even began to consider returning to the big city (Atlanta), where the money is.
Here comes the miracle part. My wife and I are Catholic, and at that time the Catholic mission in town consisted of six families. Just before Christmas 1984, a new couple showed up at church. The man, Jack, did not look old enough to be retired, so I asked what he did. “I translate scientific journals from Russian to English,” he replied.
“That’s interesting,” I said. “I used to know Russian.”
That winter was particularly harsh. At the park where I was working, the temperature got down to minus 30°C (in north Georgia, believe it or not!), and snow lay on the ground for weeks. In January and February, I worked only two days. At home, I got out my old Russian grammar book (Pulkina) and read it from cover to cover. I went to see Jack; he gave me a few old dictionaries and the address of a publisher. The test translation arrived in April; I passed it with Jack’s help and became a translator, however unqualified.
Miracle, good luck, or random chance? Here’s how I figure it. The odds of any one American taken at random being a Russian scientific translator are at least a million to one. The odds of a person moving to a specific small town in north Georgia, 100,000 to one. The odds of my meeting this translator who has arrived in town, five hundred to one. So I figure the overall odds of this particular event are at least half a trillion to one. Call it what you will; for me it was an answer to prayer.
Why would Jack think that some stranger he met at church could translate? Why would I think that I could? I certainly had serious doubts, but was driven by desperation. At first, I worked in a tiny camping trailer away from the house, writing out the translation by hand for my wife to type. Soon I learned to type, bought a computer, and built an office. Every Friday evening for a couple of years, I would go to see Jack with a list of questions. Eventually (after several years) I became proficient enough to translate on my own.
My life would have been very different without Jack, and I don't mean better!
Thanks, Jack! ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Happy Birthday, Jack! | Jan 6, 2011 |
Hope you have many good years ahead too!
And the other Jack - thanks for letting us all know.
And thanks, James, for the tribute.
| | | | Jack slep
Local time: 02:11
Russian to English
| Birthday surprise | Jan 7, 2011 |
At 80 years old, I'm more familiar with hand-cranked phones than with all the gadgets on the market and the Internet where information is available instantaneously at your finger tips. So I don't even know if this is the place where I can express my sincere thanks for your heart-warming best wishes on the occasion of my birthday. I hope this reaches you all so I can wish you decades of rewarding translating, an ever challenging and stimulating profession.
With heartfelt thanks to you all a... See more At 80 years old, I'm more familiar with hand-cranked phones than with all the gadgets on the market and the Internet where information is available instantaneously at your finger tips. So I don't even know if this is the place where I can express my sincere thanks for your heart-warming best wishes on the occasion of my birthday. I hope this reaches you all so I can wish you decades of rewarding translating, an ever challenging and stimulating profession.
With heartfelt thanks to you all and especially Jack Doughty for initiating this chain of events,
Jack Slep ▲ Collapse
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| Happy Birthday Jack! | Jan 7, 2011 |
Congratulations
I really hope to be able to translate until my 80th Birthday;) like you!
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