The Very-Many-Questions-Not-Worth-Their-Own-Thread Thread ΛΕ

[Cutlass]

If just a new SIM won't work, can't you get a disposable cellphone?

This is why I'm asking.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

If I go to the States (which I will not do anymore because of the village idiot who is in power), I get a SIM card from Staples that I can preload and presto, my phone works in the States. I suspect that you can do the reverse. All phones in North America use the same protocol and frequencies, so there shouldn't be any problem there.

 

[Zkribbler]

If anyone here lost a jar containing hundreds of Roman coins last time you were in Como, it's been found.

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/09/09/europe/roman-gold-coins-italy-theater-trnd/index.html

 

[cardgame]

If I go to the States (which I will not do anymore because of the village idiot who is in power), I get a SIM card from Staples that I can preload and presto, my phone works in the States. I suspect that you can do the reverse. All phones in North America use the same protocol and frequencies, so there shouldn't be any problem there.

Ah, but that's where you're wrong. We're actually the only place that doesn't use the same protocol and frequencies, since we use the mutually incompatible CDMA and GSM.

 

[Birdjaguar]

The problem of being a professional translator is that, given that a lot of people already prefer free (yet very pathetic) online translation tools, if (or at this point, I should say when) those online translation tools then my job simpyl will not exist.

So I'm looking at my degree's primary target occupation becoming obsolete in, say, 15 years at the most. Which is far, far less than current life expectancy dictates I will have to work in order to earn retirement pay.
And as I also said…

[What languages do you translate to and from and is your work only written or can you do spoken translations for people trying to talk?

If I go to the States (which I will not do anymore because of the village idiot who is in power), I get a SIM card from Staples that I can preload and presto, my phone works in the States. I suspect that you can do the reverse. All phones in North America use the same protocol and frequencies, so there shouldn't be any problem there.

That what I did in china. I bought a China mobile sim and short plan and I was fully connected for a month. It was great and easy.[/thread]

 

[Lemon Merchant]

Ah, but that's where you're wrong. We're actually the only place that doesn't use the same protocol and frequencies, since we use the mutually incompatible CDMA and GSM.

Really? I thought they were the same. My phone works all over Canada the US and Mexico with a proper SIM card. I guess I assumed that everything was compatible. Sorry.

 

[Takhisis]

What languages do you translate to and from and is your work only written or can you do spoken translations for people trying to talk?

Officially™ the degree certifies that I can translate freely between English and Spanish across a broad variety of subjects. My training has been mostly on written materials and jobs but I also did a couple mandatory semesters on spoken jobs and I fared decently (I speak both languages at a native level, in case it's not obvious).
The problem is that Argentina is CertificateLand™. Until next year, when I am officially awarded the degree, I cannot sign up to legally practice (it's similar to lawyers and medical practitioners getting legal habilitation) so I cannot officially offer my services as a freelance professional or, say, join the ranks of the state (e.g. courthouses, diplomacy, etc. all constantly need a lot of paperwork but they require the appropriate degree and certification).
As a side-note, I also speak Greek and Finnish somewhat passably and have recently started German so, if (as all evidence indicates) I end up teaching English to teenaged high-school idiots then I'll be overqualified and apparently I am not yet good enough to become a published author™.

 

[cardgame]

Really? I thought they were the same. My phone works all over Canada the US and Mexico with a proper SIM card. I guess I assumed that everything was compatible. Sorry.

In fairness to you, it's more of a technicality, since a very large majority uses GSM (like the rest of the world).

 

[Yeekim]

If just a new SIM won't work, can't you get a disposable cellphone?

Dual SIM phones make life a lot easier.

 

[Synobun]

Officially™ the degree certifies that I can translate freely between English and Spanish across a broad variety of subjects. My trainign has been mostly on written materials and jobs but I also did a couple mandatory semesters on spoken jobs and I fared decently (I speak both languages at a native level, in case it's not obvious).
The problem is that Argentina is CertificateLand™. Until next year, when I am officially awarded the degree, I cannot sign up to legally practice (it's similar to lawyers and medical practitioners getting legal habilitation) so I cannot officially offer my services as a freelance professional or, say, join the ranks of the state (e.g. courthouses, diplomacy, etc. all constantly need a lot of paperwork but they require the appropriate degree and certification).
As a side-note, I also speak Greek and Finnish somewhat passably and have recently started German so, if (as all evidence indicates) I end up teaching English to teenaged high-school idiots then I'll be overqualified and apparently I am not yet good enough to become a published author™.

Here in Canada, this only applies for official documents. You can freely offer translation work for informal jobs. Does Argentina require certification for literally any paid translation work?

 

[Chukchi Husky]

Does Singapore mean "Lion City" or "Merlion City"?

 

[Gori the Grey]

My trainign has been mostly on written materials

You may need more training.

 

[Takhisis]

Here in Canada, this only applies for official documents. You can freely offer translation work for informal jobs. Does Argentina require certification for literally any paid translation work?

No, but for those you have to rely on word-of-mouth and can be undercut by any hack who throws things at Google Translate.

Also, there's that catch whereby you have to be a registered taxpayer in order to issue valid receipts (companies like to keep their accounts clear or else the tax authorities will be after them), and to pay your taxes you need a bank account and credit card since last year when they stopped allowing it to be paid in cash, and to have a bank account you need a justifiable income of sorts, and to justify your income you have to pay tax… And Argentina's bureaucracy moves on like that.

You may need more training.

I am still a padawan.

 

[Synobun]

How do jobs pay people if banks require employment before allowing you to open an account?

 

[Takhisis]

Well… out of Argentina's population, one-third doesn't work, and of the two-thirds that do only about half actually pay taxes while the other half lives on cash. You can pay for utilities in cash so it's not a problem, except, of course, for the fact that about half of the country's workforce has to pay for the taxes the other half doesn't and thus finance public health, education, etc. and the system is effectively broken.

Anyway, it's not necessarily ‘employment’ that's required to have an account as ‘justifiable lump sum/income’.
There's schemes for people who want to join the labour market to have special accounts and so on, which I should be joining once I've straightened things out.

 

[Synobun]

Sounds like a compelling case to handle all your pre-adulting finances digitally.

 

[Dachs]

if (as all evidence indicates) I end up teaching English to teenaged high-school idiots then I'll be overqualified

Don't knock it 'til you've tried it.

 

[Takhisis]

Sounds like a compelling case to handle all your pre-adulting finances digitally.

Oh yes. Credit card companies do charge you 50% extra for anything you purchase in instalments if they are spread out over a year or more, which, compared to 30%-ish annual inflation rates, is still a freaking steal.

Don't knock it 'til you've tried it.

I already have. Overqualified in terms of academic formation, certainly. As for actual pedagogy… this is a country that, for three-quarters of a century, has had a majority party that has been (palæo-)fascist/nazi, including book burnings, mandatory anti-Semitism (currently alive as of 2018), explicit corporatism, and by and large disparaging education and educators. As a result, it is not exactly nice to be a teacher. Especially when dealing with people under the age of 25 who are there because the law and/or their parents compel them.

 

[Synobun]

What's the visa climate like there? You don't sound very jazzed about the long-term prospects of living in Argentina.

 

[EgonSpengler]

I read recently that the Wakandan language in Black Panther is based on Xhosa. Is it intelligible, or gibberish? Also, why don't Wakandans have surnames?

I just thought of another thing: Wakanda is clearly placed in Central Africa, in the neighborhood of Uganda, Rwanda, and the DRC. Xhosa is a South(ern) African language. Is that like placing a fictional country in the British Isles and then having them speak a version of Turkish? Edinburgh to Istanbul is ~2300km. Kigali to Harare is ~2600km. So, technically, Wakanda is a bit further away from native Xhosa speakers than Scotland is from native Turkish speakers. Maybe the cultural distances, so to speak, are very different in Africa than in Europe. Maybe Xhosa and Swahili aren't as far apart from each other as Gaelic and Turkish.