5000 Words

[diegovski]

Excellent! I feel the same! :D

hahaha

[spanishinterpreter]

I had to set the representation agreement I'm working on aside and listen to this one more time. 1:17 a.m. 4,639 words to go... and I have a few buggers who owe me to!

[dabatube]

A perfect summation of my working life -- nice to know I'm not alone!

[DuLCeGaThUsKa]

OhMyGod! I am a Translation student... and this is HI LA RI O US!!!!!:)

[stoja87]

I just love your song!

[TheKimberlyPye]

Hilarious! Well done! Just googled "5000 words" to get an idea of how many more pages I have to write for NaNoWriMo. I fun break I just got. :)

[clowny220]

Luv it

[HairyMidgetable]

this isnt my kind of music and i dont like the song but well done with the lyrics must of took ages

[umbe81umbe]

you are amazing!!! happy translating to everyone!

[RitaJune]

This is great. {:o) loved it!

[Fude4Thought]

really good

[Vezias]

Déjà vu, déjà subi, déjà souffert!

You're great, sharonnsinger!

[Lizzelotta]

Thanks, Sharon! I'm another translator, and I listen to your song again and again... So true! And beautifully done.

[Feggendorf]

Thanks Sharon, I feel better now. A translator

[eeemotion]

Many thanks Sharon, from a colleague! Keep it up in the hope you'll be able to give up your day job soon!

Wanna write one about weeks with no work and then six requests in a day, or the time you said yes over the mobile and they'd forgot to tell it was pdf or htxml.fx... or just in 300 tables...

[ratanegrahjk]

muy buena, though i am not a translator.

[Imsocoolman5]

Great song! :)

[GoshikkuRorita]

I'm studying for being a translator and this song just scared me :P Though is very veery funny and really well done :D

[mmaloof71]

Absolutely brilliant Sharon! The theme song of my life ... :-)

[Tzoutzouni]

This should be the national anthem of translators.

[caramil2007]

I just loved it! Thanks! Most people (who don't translate) have no idea how this feels...

[mofolarry]

lmao

GREAT stuff. Just reminded me of that one time I had to translate 5,000 words in 3 and a half hours.

Congrats on the lyric composition, great stuff!

[todalasal]

And it's been 4 months since friday

and the bastards owe me still

!!!

[MrGamebraker]

THAT is so lol

[slapperloz]

this isnt very good

[madeirade1]

Thank you so much for this song!

[iskretta]

Sharon, this song is so true I don't know if I should laugh or cry...

We've all been through this in our translator lives, thank you so much for making it so brilliant and funny!

[Mousyable]

cool!!! thanks from all the translators in the world.

[SenorMatthew]

its pretty good

[ginkgogarden]

It's marvellous! I'm sure it was refreshing to you, Sharon to focus on something that's funny and you don't HAVE TO do. I love the lyrics and the tunes too!

[hawkeye4ever]

So very, very true! Especially the two last lines, unfortunately.

Great song, and I think every translator can relate to it! I particularly liked "...never touched my Solitaire". I'll definitely add that to my favourites!

[pinipoa]

Wow that was wonderful!

It reminded me of a couple of episodes I have been trough...

Lovely composition!

Thank you so much for sharing!

Good luck for you and for all your projects;)

[pankraca]

I was going through the comments, and something didn't quite feel right.

Then it struck me - there isn't a single grammatical error in any of the comments :)

Trust translators to achieve the unachievable on YT :)

[vanrosss]

Sounds like my story - especially the part about the payment - it seems like if the job is a rush one the payment will take forever.

[tetrafa]

It's great... now I;m into teaching, but I still remeber when I was asked to translate an 180 pages book in 5... (by this point I had already left the office, so I don't know what this 5 was, although I think it started by d... decade maybe?!) Great tune... by the way, what do you have to do tommorow? I have a few thousand words if you're interested...

[SupportingGreen]

OMG!!

I have never liked anything on youtube so much!!

Appreciate your efforts Sharon! Lovely composition, apt for our profession and terribly realistic!

Hats off to your creation!

You have a lovely voice girl!

Cheers!

[VoxAppeal]

Lol. Surprised you had time to write that, Sharon.

Now to have it translated, subtitled and voiced over in 14 languages... ;-)

[SakuraAlbi]

Oh my God, I just loved it Sharon it's so true. I'm a translation student myself and (even though we haven't made really big translations yet) we have to turn in lots of pages sometimes from one day to another, plus our other homeworks.

You're awesome!

[cathstclair]

Love the song, and it gives me that queasy feeling just thinking about it... but what kind of wonderwoman are you? 6000 words, simply a "longish day"?? I might have managed that once upon a time, before RSI and eye strain took their toll...

[Kenrae008]

I know this all to well. My wife is a translator, many times we haven't been able to go out on a weekend because she must finish some work. And of course I'm the one who cooks and does homework at those moments :P. It's the only thing I can do to help her (well, that and programming small pieces of software to help her with some revisions. The advantages of living with a software engineer, I suppose).

[ladytish134]

lmaoo omg what kind of song is dis lmaoo

[Vilcis]

Absolutely awesome. Congratulations for the song and sorry for the debt.

[Alexandra19170]

Absolutely brilliant.

Depressingly true, but at least we can laugh about it...

[areneiss]

love it! :) great job

[marteta1976]

Loved it!!!! It's sooooooo true!!!

[Serenity12ZX]

Sharon, thank you thank you thank you, for the laugh!

Because of you, I now sit here refreshed, at 11:58 pm, ready to roll up my sleeves and dive back in to the long night ahead, strings upon strings of words begging for my careful attention ... a feeling we (in the biz) all know too well!

[teamtoolsaustralia]

For the "unitiated": Most translators in Australia do not take on more than 3000 words a day (but I admit that they are really spoiled - so, they have enough time on the side to enjoy their lives and their families and their weekend barbeques ...)

[teamtoolsaustralia]

I love your song, Sharon!

and I am spreading it with joy ...

[nagyonkicsibagolyka]

Dear Sharon,

you are fantastic! I recommned your song for our international professional anthem ;-)

[LanguageServices]

Depressingly true ;.)

[Barnstablasta]

Ah,the truth, and nothing but the selfsame... Loving it, Sharon!

[millawoodlin]

fantastic!!

[montrealais]

Absolutely marvellous - brings back many painful, back-aching, carpal tunnel, sleep-deprived memories!

[lesdeuxhiboux]

:-) very very very nice!!

[ifg142]

wow Sharon! you're quite talented!

if you're as good at translating from Hebrew, French, German, and Italian to English as you are at composing and singing, then i understand why they call you so often! you're incredible! this song made my day! thanks so much for sharing it with all the translators around the world. keep up the good work! :-]

[fckaraba]

Hilarious and so painfully true! I'm thinking of a career shift... soon!

[andreitaamaral]

lol, good job! :P

[anitapaulita77]

EXCELLENT SHARON!!! This is exactly what it is like!!!!!!! ;-)

[danasackett]

Hilarious - and so true!

[kamszi]

How brilliant. just translating at a café. Made my day. Way to go!!!

[dacole06]

I love it!!!

[murgtaler]

I love this "it's only...". If they had to translate them themselves, they wouldn't say that :-) Great!!!

[atthis3]

That's cool :). Can someone post lyrics?

[sharonnsinger]

They're much longer than 500 characters. So I can't post them here. But if you're a ProZ member, my email is there. Email me and I'll send them to you. -- Sharon

[hawkeye4ever]

You could put the lyrics in the description field of the video. They allow more than 500 characters there, and I have seen lyrics in the description box. Thanks for this great song!

[sharonnsinger]

Thanks for the great tip, hawkeye4ever -- just did that. Enjoy!

[JamesHigginsMusic]

Great job Sharon! Excellent

[smesnifilmi]

Awesome! I work in translation company and I know how is it when I have to deliver good translation to the client. Of course, lot's of words and no time at all. Thanks for the song, you made my day.

[SilverbladeGR]

Someone had to sing the lament of the freelancer... I've done very little freelancing so far, but many of my close friends from the university do it and it sucks... awesome song!

[Brikster]

Haha brilliant :-)

[ardamato]

REALLY NICE!!

:-D

Whenever you get tired of translating, you'll definitely have a brilliant future as composer and singer!!

[sharonnsinger]

The problem is that I get tired of translating a few times a week... but I always go back to it :-/

-- Sharon

[kiki2babe]

The defense rests, your honor!

[cremonagirl]

Brilliant Sharon... such a familiar tale...!  hehehehe...

(we should really learn how to say 'noooo'! :) )

[pappabagge]

SO when did you get the time to a) learn to play the guitar, and b) to write the song ?? Great work, anyway. It reminds me a bit of Monty Python's "I'm a lumberjack"!

[jimbobjuggler]

I've recently joined the profession myself, and look forward to being this busy (but with a different outcome!) ;-)

This is a wonderful song!

[sylpher88]

Sharon, that´s brilliant!!!!!!

[nedhead1]

Brilliant! Just setting out on the rocky road to becoming a translator!

[teamtoolsaustralia]

I love it! This song is becoming a true super hit, Sharon. You'd better copyright it and ask for royalties! I have been advised of this link so many times now, from very different sides in the translation industry and from colleagues in various countries and continents, that I guess I better spread the word, too ...

[virtukev]

Thanks for the song. It's a start! Would have been much more effective if it built up to the 5000 word count. I think we overstate our actual capacity much too often and are just perpetuating unrealistic expectations.

[Desdemona52]

Sharon, I love you.

[veverica24]

yaaay!

[alfie1888]

This song is amazing! I loved the ending! Where are you from? I think this song is about my future after university lol! Thank you for sharing this with us! x

[Sohpiia]

So true indeed! Thank you dear! You expressed all the pain we all feel. I think every freelance translator is alive in this song. I will make sure to send the song to all my clients.

[srawcliffe]

So horribly true to life. I find a stiff supplement for urgent work (50%, for instance) sometimes helps a client to realize that the text could, actually, wait another day. And if it doesn't, the extra cash covers the additional expenditure on coffee ;-)

[suboalaazotea]

Only four months since friday? You're lucky then! Very nice video, thank you for posting!

[ToastedSheep]

Well done - that was great! :oD

[norocketscientist]

LOL! I can empathise.

[idwerk]

Great!

[THFbella]

Know how that feels!

[qudsia00]

Nice song...and nicely sung! I agree with one of the other comments here: Learn to say "NO." :)

[KempfOlivier]

Hi Sharon!

Great job! We can really feel the pain you and I go through when this happens! Hint: learn to say "no" :-)

[kukusanders]

Great!! XD

[mgg80]

Oh darn I saw that coming...how do you collect from a freakin' judge?

[Villies21]

Lovely, thank you from a fellow translator!

Punch line is great!

[drjasonmd]

Great!

[BetaCummins]

Yes, we've all been there... But listening to it in a song is quite funny and refreshing.

We keep on going!

Congrats from a fellow translator ; )

[danutzeus]

Great song, nasty faith is that of the translators' kin...

Last month I was swamped and now I'm staring at the Moon for smth to work :-(

Funny, funny song. Keep our cheers up!

[scaliti]

Let me tell you, you are a genius! I am still laughing, and will any time I simply THINK of this song.

[scaliti]

Ah, by the way, with so much work... what about raising your rates?

Just kidding, of course!

When is your first album coming out?

[sandraalboum]

Hilarious. But hey ... What language(s) do you do?! :-)

[Bichejo67]

Congrats from another fellow translator!!! :-D

[Kiradenea]

Great! From a fellow translator... Congrats! :P

[Devorah217]

blessed are the competent, for they shall be overworked

[sharonnsinger]

Indeed! Agreed! -- Sharon

[logic1st]

This is great. It's not unique to translators, it applies to all professionals who work for clients. Wonderful

[Rakelnahe]

RIGHT on the money! Soooo familiar hehe

[TheWhiteQueen69]

LOL! The ending was especially priceless :-D

[setti21]

FANTASTIC!!!!

[LunaCerberus]

wow!!! that was truly amazing, you should release the single!!!

[doogooroo]

Sharon! When's your concert? That was fab! You're the patron saint of all suffering linguists. Bravo!

[sk4ek]

Thank you for the wonderful song, Sharon. I work in the Japanese/English language pair and can't imagine what it would be like to juggle five or six languages... my brain would likely shut down!

I have one client who regularly asks the impossible--fortunately he always pays in less than a week from invoice, but that only makes it more difficult to say "no" when I know I should....

[bigbossoida]

haha lustig .....so was sieht man nicht im Zoo!!

[Konfacela]

Brilliant writing! I loved the song. Flanders and Swann couldn't do it any better!

[jameskbuck]

lovely! btw what language/s? just curious. nice talent.

[sharonnsinger]

I translate from Hebrew, French, German and Italian to English... but the issue described in "5000 Words" is germane to all translators everywhere, irrespective of languages.

[AmyJolly]

Absolutely brilliant!

I know exactly how you feel, but luckily I've learned to ignore the phone. :)

[xmfwoods]

Sharon, I think you need to stop answering the phone.

[seanusf]

Hello. I am the president of a translation company and I feel sorry for this lady. I really appreciate the kind of work that this lady does and it's such a shame that people don't pay her on time. If she worked so hard to satisfy clients, they should have worked equally as hard to pay her on time. With Day Translations, she would have been paid immediately.

[natpunch]

Bravo, Sharon, you're my hero just for being able to verbalize how we translators feel soooo often, and in such a sweet-sour way...

[OpsMgr66]

This is so true that it is almost frightening. We love you...and I have a job for you, it's only 5000 words. I agree with another poster...please post lyrics and tabs. And I will sing along with you. ROCK ON LADY

[jsimoes]

Way to go, Sharon!

That's really the way it is, I know the feeling.

Today, for instance, I have 8.500 words my client wants by EOB! Ha! Lots of luv, my friend! All the best to you!

[bluejulie08]

Brilliant!

It's Friday and I pretty much feel like the end of this song. Seems like life is quite the same for all translators. ;)

[merepiare]

I have to share this with every translator I know! I do my best to lead a normal life and leave the house at least once a week... This song has just made my day and helped me cope with my 10K review for tomorrow at 9:00... You're the best!

[babyln]

Wow! I Loved it!!

I´m also a translator, I do english, spanish and portuguese!

Loved it really! hehe

Could you send me the lyrics and tabs?

I also play the guitar and would like to play too!

Thanx!

[photodharma]

This is awesome! Incidentally, I just delivered this morning 39,317 words of translations of French interview transcriptions (to English) that I completed in only 4 days (yes, I use a CAT tool, put in 18 hrs a day, and type very fast...you know, we have to take the work when it's available in these difficult time, sleep or no...)

Now I have 16k words of Algerian legislation to translate for Monday.

Gotta go put more coffee on...

:)

[MILE089]

Actually as a freelancer I'd be glad if I had only half that many assignments (and cheques!) coming in...! ;)))

[NeidKaos]

You, dear madam, are amazing!

As a fellow translator, I lived through similar ordeals. I just have to share this with all my colleagues!

[TifffanyTwisted]

Brilliant, Sharon - been there, done that, know the feeling! (Not too busy at the moment though...lol)

[nexuslang]

Sharon, that was fantastic! I'm a translator too... and yes, like everyone that's posted here, I've been through the same!

[scribod]

yes 5,000 is not to be accepted, unless a lot of repetitions occur.. can't deliver a quality job that way.

I admire your spirit, makes me feel like grabbing my guitar again, thanks for the inspiration!

[pilieeuu]

Hahahahahaha!!! Wonderful!

[szczoter]

Sooooo true! Yes, I am a translator and I know this feeling:0

[souleraser1979]

I love it, I just had a few laughs while at work. :D

[soytrujaman]

Well done!

Very witty song!

[beshotep]

Excellent!

[buzundunga]

This is priceless! Every translator should hear it...

[interpreta]

Just great!

The average for a seasoned translator is an average of 2500 words a day, final quality and ready to go. Yes, there are exceptions but 5000 is not an average (this is for those who do not know about translation). Awesome song :-)

[interpreta]

We should take to all the translators associations and client's project brefings.

JL Villanueva Senchuk

[Joetofu]

Ha, ha, I I love it! You've put my own frustrating experiences into song. You're the best!

[xieta]

It's 11pm and I'm translating. It was 8,000 words for tomorrow! I really needed this video :D

[babarbara]

I loved it! Great song Sharon! :)

[caliaa]

Another translator here. Thank you for writing this song--it is so true! How many times have I said 'no problem' when what I really wanted to say was 'HELL NO!!''

[jem1472]

Fun, and admirable! After 9 years the most I have and could ever properly translate in a day is 4,000 words!

[aimbullrich]

You're an IDOL!!! I get tears of laughter down my face every time I hear it! My only complaint would be that it's been over a week since I first heard it and I can't get the tune out of my head!

Congrats on a job superbly done :)

[snilje]

Thank you for this, Sharon. So funny - or at least it would be, if clients didn't do this to us poor translators ;)

[fiegenfiegen]

BRAVO!!!!!! I am a professional translator and understand quite well! Smashing. I am sharing it with every translator I know. A must see!! Our anthem from now on! Thank you for the great laughs!

[lorenia65]

Been there! and yet... how can we educate the clients???? we want to work and that is why we many times say: No problem! It will be ready and I will email it on time and... I´ll just add it to my bill... so often I don´t know how I finished on time. Maybe WE need to learn to say ´There are some things that can´t be done?

Sharon, you made me smile and I know it is so frustrating grrrrrrrrrrr...... Thank you for sharing this with all of us who DO understand.

[juicysundaycat]

Cool, Sharon, the problem is only a translator can understand other translators... All the others think we are nuts!

[skylump]

Sorry, I wanted to write a long meaningful comment, but don't have time - my translation awaits!

[simononona]

I will show this to all my friends who keep complaining about my no social life:) Great!!!!

[gubernardlion]

My record for non-payment is 1 year.... that's Italian universities for you.

[juicysundaycat]

better not to work for Italian clients, anyway I got paid by my University after 1 month

[gdorazuk]

Wonderful!! Thank you so much!

[DANogueira1942]

And, yet, translate we must.

[DANogueira1942]

And, yet, we go on translating.

[famedsaid]

Thanks! I loved it! Maybe you should give up that life as an overworked translator and earn a living as a singer (or a comedian). You're very talented. :-)

[brakise]

Thanks a lot for this (and for the text)! It's the translator's life in a nutshell!

[hkurtz1]

Oh, that was great the problem is, although most people might consider it satire, it's actually true...

[brakise]

I would very much like the text to read (it's difficult to hear every single word). Would that be possible?

[Kateoe]

sure - she'll just add it to her bill!!!

Kate

[skylump]

LOL

[sjrtranslations]

hahaha. this is great. and soooo typical of our profession and its little "trifles"!

[Rahel]

Sharon, this is great! Thanks for putting it up. I couldn't stop laughing.

This also makes excellent blackmail. "Pay me on time or I'll write a song about you and put it up on the Net! Bwahahaha!"

[avkar123]

Excellent! My wife is a translator and she was giggling all the way through!

Thanks for a really fun video.