Professional feedbacks as a technical interpreter

For 3 years I had once the opportunity to work at Microsoft technical support, the first half time as Translator / Interpreter and second one as a first-level Microsoft support engineer, at the multinational contractor Atento. Owning to such opportunities my English skills for dealing with simultaneous interpretation has reached an appreciable level of quality and since one of the goals of this blog herein is to unfold my professional abilities, you have then the written feedbacks provided to me by Microsoft engineers abroad at the advent of my cooperation with my interpretation services.

It all dates back to 2006 or thereabouts. I hope it brings influence to bear... Getting down to the nitty-gritty now:

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From me to Valerie:

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Hi Valerie, that’s my e-mail as you have requested.

I don’t know exactly why you’d like to have my e-mail address, but let me tell you that there’s no problem at all, you can use it at will.

I’d like to sum up that there’s been a pleasure to provide that translation assistance today, working overtime. There was no need for me to do that, but it was a pleasure, I did it for the sake of it.

I’d like to ask you, only, if you have the time and if you think I deserve it, to send me an e-mail with your evaluation of my performance today, because it seems that I can benefit somehow from a good feedback from an engineer.

I wish you joy for today and good luck with the call. May you have good times, take care!

Marcos

Brazilian Technical Router at Customer Service Enterprise

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From Valerie to me in response:

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Hi Marcos,

I wanted your Email so that I could let you know what a pleasure it was working with you today.

Your assistance was above expectations and I wanted to thank you for your assistance.

I appreciate all your help.

Thank you again.

Valerie E. Goulds, MCSE, MCSA 
Host Integration Server Support

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From AJ Pitre to my boss:

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Hello Ricardo,

My name is AJ Pitre and I had the great opportunity to work with Marcos Silvestrini yesterday on the above referenced case. I just wanted to let you know that the assistance provided by Marcos was unsurpassed. He has a great ability to go between the support engineer and the customer with very little lag time and the communication was seamless. His great work helped expedite acquiring the necessary items to move the case toward a resolution. I really appreciate the job he performed and believe that you should be made aware of his extreme professionalism and great personality. He is a wonderful asset to your team. Have a good day. AJ

AJ Pitre

Microsoft Developer Support - SQL Engine

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From Karen to me:

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Hi Marcos,

I wanted to thank you for the outstanding job you did on this issue. The case went smoothly, and I was able to focus on the technical issue rather than trying to communicate with the customer. I really appreciate your skill, as I was able to identify the issue quickly and move on to a solution. Thanks again!

Thank you for working with Microsoft Enterprise Services for Business Applications,

Karen Sullivan, MCSD, MCDBA

Project Server Team

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From Magued to me:

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Hello again Dear Marcos,

I enjoyed your translation service today also the sense of customer service in the same time.

You also master the technical expressions in your language.

You did an excellent job getting my questions and recapping it every time I ask the cx before it is translated…and I am aware that you master the language since you gave me very detailed technical answers.

You did the same with the cx.

Also you were patient answering my questions more then once.

You managed in a smart way to keep the cx busy while I was checking my information and getting my action plan set.

You are extremely polite and that is very important and you have excellent sense of humor.

Definitely I would like and prefer to work again with you.

Today’s call it rated allover 11 out of 10.

You have my permission to pass this e-mail on at your convenience and I mean every word in it.

Many Thanks,

MAGUED BOUTROS

Microsoft SQL Server Team

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From Abhuday to me:

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Hi Marcos,

Thank you for staying beyond the end of your shift to assist with this customer case. I really appreciated it.

I wanted to let you know that you were an excellent help during this issue. You took the time to clarify the question/answer from each party before relaying it to the other party which made the whole experience very pleasant. You are extremely good at what you do. Thank you!

-Abhuday

Microsoft Developer Support - Internet

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From me to Hemant:

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Hello Hemant, this is the translation you have requested:

By the customer, the problem sparked when there was the migration to the SQL Server 2005 64bits with SP1 installed. He'd like to clarify that the scenario he has got is made up of that SQL Server 2005 64bits with SP1 running on a Windows 2003 R2 64bits.

Initially, the issue came up in only one of the companies he works for. Nevertheless, now the problem seems to be spreading and has already reached 4 companies, causing worries whether it will continue like this. In two of them, the situation is more critical, because in one, the server has to be restarted every other day. In another, the server has to be restarted simply everyday.

As you would like to know, the very reason why the customer has to restart the system is because there is a loss of performance when attempting to use their internal application, which are based on IRP, working similarly to a SAP application. At times, there is a total loss of performance and so the customer does need to restart the system to have the problem solved temporarily. After a length of time, the issue comes up again.

The very first time the problem became a burden was when it affect negatively the SQL mirroring, right after he made the migration to SQL Server 2005. Then, at each 10 minutes the server used to stop and so it was rather impossible to keep the business running. As a result, he disabled the mirroring service, but the problem remains unchanged.

The server has got a total of 8GB of memory in which 6GB are reserved for the SQL Server. This 6GB is divided up into 2.5 for buffer cache and 3.5 for procedure cache. The customer emphasizes that the part reserved for procedure cache is always bigger in size than the one reserved for buffer cache. He mentions also that this division of size is done by the SQL Server itself.

Even though there is such an amount of memory for procedure cache, the customer has noticed that only 1% of that amount is used, what seems to be usual and odd.

The customer informs that several queries are being run inside the procedure cache for an unknown reason, spite of only being used 1% of the total amount. Based upon that, the customer asks two questions, once it's been defying explanation:

1) Why are the queries being placed inside the procedure cache?

2) Why is there such an amount of memory for it if only 1% of that total is put into use?

In order to monitor the system behavior, he has installed a tool called Spotlight, what has revealed to him what he describes here.

We were told that there are not neither system logs nor SQL Server logs.

Owing to the monitoration he does, it's possible to verify on the Windows Task Manager that there is a high consumption of CPU and that is triggered by the SQL Server.

Aware of a command to be run with the objective of bringing the consumption of memory to zero (dbcc freeprockcache), the customer has tested it and noticed that after 5-10 minutes the consumption of memory becomes high again.

Some Hotfixes were recommended by the former case owner to try to solve the problem, but they did not cause neither good nor bad effects to his system, thus they were of no use.

The former case owner has sent two tools to the customer that generated a total of 5GB of logs. Concerning these files, the customer has found one of them, which is a very big (already compacted) to be sent to you by e-mail. He would need a workspace to do that if you wish to have it. Otherwise, the customer can try to generate all the files once again to send to you, with all the pertinent information he judges so.

The customer would like you, if possible, to contact the former case owner (Alexandre) so that he can provide some useful information regarding this case.

He is preparing everything he has got to send to you and he'll be waiting for your feedback as soon as you have it prepared. In case you have not yet sent him the link for the workspace, he requests you to do it.

That's it!

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From Hemant to me, in response:

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To Whom It May Concern:

This morning I called in for Portuguese interpreter and got Marcos on line. I really appreciate the way he handled the customer .Marcos is a very valuable and professional employee in your team. He even interpreted everything and compiled in an e-mail and sent to me. I wish I get Marcos every time I call in the Interpreter line.

Great Work Marcos! You Rock!

Thanks

Hemant Singh

Turning the context even worse

For some time already I've known the expression to make matters worse. By reading the news at CNN web site, I have just come across an expression that quite resembled the same meaning:

"Broadband Internet speeds in the United States are only about one-fourth as fast as those in South Korea, the world leader, according to the Internet monitoring firm Akamai.

And, as if to add insult to injury, U.S. Internet connections are more expensive than those in South Korea, too."

Were you able to identify it? I hope so, and after checking out in the dictionary, I saw that the phrase means just the same thing: to add insult to injury.

Language improvement, now I've got to options to choose from.

Source of the passage at this link.

Regards!

Grammar Moods And The Subjunctive Mood

According to the Oxford Dictionary, in grammar, mood is:

A category of verb use, typically expressing

• fact (indicative mood)
• command (imperative mood)
• question (interrogative mood)
• wish (optative mood)
• conditionality (subjunctive mood)

Elaborating on the aforementioned, I have found an old but relevant explanation about moods and that leads us to comprehend why modal verbs are called as such. Additionally, it is accompanied by an explanation about the subjunctive mood. Here comes a passage of Paul Robert's book entitled Modern Grammar, dated from 1968:

(...)

Another vestige of what was once a large system is what is called the subjunctive mood. At one time our verbs, and also be, had quite different forms according to the speaker's attitude toward the content of the sentence - for example, whether it was true or not, whether it was likely, whether it was desirable. The word mood is a variant of mode, which has the adjective form modal, and in fact, most of these feelings are now expressed in the modals of the auxiliary. But a few vestiges of the old system remain.

Compare the subordinate clauses in these two sentences:

I hope that he comes.

I asked that he come.

In both sentences, come is present tense. But whereas in the first it has the s form after he, according to the usual rule, in the second it has the simple form. A morphological rule says that a verb must have the simple form, no matter what the subject, in certain conditions - particularly, when it occurs in a subordinate clause functioning as an object of verbs like ask, urge, insist. Be has the form be:

I asked that he be here.

The same morphological rule operates when the clause serves as complement of certain adjectives:

It is important that he come.

It is important that he be here.

These forms of the verb and be are what remain of the subjunctive mood in English, so far as the present tense goes.

Now, getting back to the Oxford dictionary, such was the scrutiny on the matter that I've made up my mind to share it here, check it out:

Subjunctive: relating to or denoting a mood of verbs expressing what is imagined or wished or possible

USAGE These sentences all contain a verb in the subjunctive mood;: … if I were you;: the report recommends that he face the tribunal;: it is important that they be aware of the provisions of the act. The subjunctive is used to express situations that are hypothetical or not yet realized and is typically used for what is imagined, hoped for, demanded, or expected. In English, the subjunctive mood is fairly uncommon (esp. in comparison with other languages such as French and Spanish), mainly because most of the functions of the subjunctive are covered by modal verbs such as might, could, and should. In fact, in English the subjunctive is often indistinguishable from the ordinary indicative mood since its form in most contexts is identical. It is distinctive only in the third person singular, where the normal indicative -s ending is absent ( : he face rather than : he faces in the example above), and in the verb ‘to be’ ( : I were rather than : I was , and : they be rather than : they are in the examples above). In modern English, the subjunctive mood still exists but is regarded in many contexts as optional. Use of the subjunctive tends to convey a more formal tone, but there are few people who would regard its absence as actually wrong. Today, it survives mostly in fixed expressions, as in : be that as it may;: far be it from me;: as it were ;: lest we forget ;: God help you;: perish the thought; and : come what may.

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Now, to wrap up the research, I'll present what Michael Vince describes about subjunctives, in his book Advanced Language Practice, 2003:

Formal subjunctives:

• Insisting, demanding, etc.

After verbs such as demand, insist, suggest, require which involve an implied obligation, the subjunctive may be used in formal style. This has only one form, that of the infinitive, and there is no third person -s, or past form. The verb be has be for all forms.

They demanded that they leave at once.

The school Principal suggested that he be awarded a scholarship.

• Less formal usage

Less formally, should can be used, and colloquially no verb form change is made, or an infinitive construction is used.

They demanded that he should leave.

They demanded that he left. (informal)

Formulaic Subjunctives:

These are fixed expressions all using subjunctive. Typical expressions are:

God save the Queen!

Be that as it may...

Come what may...

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After all the research above, I'll point out what I've found of interest:

Firstly, for the first time ever, the meaning of modal has come to light to me. Never have I seen any grammar book detailing it.

The word mood is a variant of mode which has the adjective form modal. Back in time, when the subjunctive was largely used, according to the speaker's intention, the message they wanted to convey, whether true or false, whether likely or not, or whether desirable, etc. English verbs were able to express mood. Nowadays, such a capability is mostly expressed by modal verbs, that is, can, could, may, might, should, would, will, shall, etc.

In other words, subjunctive is much less used than before due to modal verbs utilization instead. It is still used to connote formal messages, in a formal tone, whether in writing or in speech, implying what is imaged, hoped for, demanded, expected, required, urged, etc. Also, as said above, it is still encountered in fixed expressions, aka Formulaic Subjunctives.

Among the verbs usually seen in use with subjunctive mood, we have: ask, urge, insist, recommend, demand, suggest, require, etc.

Summing up the post, I say that this research has come to life for I encountered the following sentence when reading an issue of the Newsweek magazine:

"The Premier League has demanded that he pass the standard test before completing..."

That promptly raised a question and I went to the WordReference English forum to open a new thread. Given the straightforward message that depicted 'subjective', that was enough to make me open the books and write everything concluded herein.

Thanks for reading!

Provas de certificação de Cambridge (Março / 2010)

Trago aqui informações das provas geralmente mais procuradas pelo que vejo. Estou interessado no CAE e fiz a minha inscrição para a prova hoje. Começa a corrida contra o tempo, terei mais ou menos 2 meses para estudar tudo o que eu puder, e de preferência, com foco na prova, utilizando material especializado:

FCE (First Certificate in English)

É um certificado de nível intermediário avançado de inglês.

Com o FCE, além de comprovar os seus conhecimentos no idioma, você estará apto a acompanhar palestras ou apresentações em inglês, participar de intercâmbios internacionais ou de reuniões de trabalho.

Partes do exame

Compreensão escrita (Reading) – 60'
Produção escrita (Writing) – 1h 20´
Uso da Estrutura da Língua (Use of English) – 45´
Compreensão oral (Listening) - 40´
Expressão oral (Speaking) – 14´

O FCE é recomendado para os alunos de cursos preparatórios ou que já tenham dedicado aproximadamente 500 horas ao aprendizado do idioma.

Os exames são aplicados na Cultura Inglesa nos meses de março, junho e dezembro.

Data: 15/06/2010 (exames orais: data a definir)

Preço: R$ 495,00

Forma de pagamento para inscrições feitas em:
março..............2 parcelas de R$ 247,50

Inscrições abertas até dia 31 de março de 2010 nas unidades da Cultura Inglesa.

Verifique os exames oferecidos pelas unidades da Cultura Inglesa.

Para efetuar sua inscrição, basta dirigir-se à unidade, preencher a Ficha de Inscrição e efetuar o pagamento. Caso seja menor de idade, o responsável deve efetuar sua inscrição.

Saiba mais sobre esse exame no site oficial da Universidade de Cambridge ESOL Examinations.

CAE (Certificate in Advanced English)

É um certificado de nível avançado de inglês.

Com o CAE, você poderá comprovar que já pode se comunicar com fluência na língua inglesa, expressando suas opiniões, participando de debates e ainda poderá coordenar apresentações ou palestras.

Partes do exame:

Compreensão escrita (Reading) – 1h 10´
Produção escrita (Writing) – 1h 30'
Uso da Estrutura da Língua (Use of English) – 60´
Compreensão oral (Listening) - 40´
Expressão oral (Speaking) – 15´

O CAE é recomendado para alunos do curso MAC 3 ou que já tenham dedicado aproximadamente 650 horas ao aprendizado do idioma.

Os exames são aplicados na Cultura Inglesa nos meses de março, junho e dezembro.

Data: 16/06/2010 (exames orais: data a definir)

Preço: R$ 516,00

Forma de pagamento para inscrições feitas em:
março..............2 parcelas de R$ 258,00

Inscrições abertas até dia 31 de março de 2010 nas unidades da Cultura Inglesa.

Verifique os exames oferecidos pelas unidades da Cultura Inglesa.

Para efetuar sua inscrição, basta dirigir-se à unidade, preencher a Ficha de Inscrição e efetuar o pagamento. Caso seja menor de idade, o responsável deve efetuar sua inscrição.

Saiba mais sobre esse exame no site oficial da Universidade de Cambridge ESOL Examinations.

CPE (Certificate of Proficiency in English)

É o certificado mais avançado oferecido pela Universidade de Cambridge.

Com o CPE, você poderá comprovar sua elevada competência e fluência na língua inglesa, bem como a total compreensão e acesso à mídia e a áreas culturais.

Partes do exame

Compreensão escrita (Reading) – 1h 30'
Produção escrita (Writing) – 2h
Uso da Estrutura da Língua (Use of English) – 1h 30'
Compreensão oral (Listening) - 40'
Expressão oral (Speaking) – 19'

O CPE é recomendado para alunos do curso CPE 3 ou que já tenham dedicado aproximadamente 800 horas ao aprendizado do idioma.

Os exames são aplicados na Cultura Inglesa nos meses de junho e dezembro.

Data: 17/06/2010 (exames orais: data a definir)

Preço: R$ 552,00

Forma de pagamento para inscrições feitas em:
março..............2 parcelas de R$ 276,00

Inscrições abertas até dia 31 de março de 2010 nas unidades da Cultura Inglesa.

Verifique os exames oferecidos pelas unidades da Cultura Inglesa.

Para efetuar sua inscrição, basta dirigir-se à unidade, preencher a Ficha de Inscrição e efetuar o pagamento. Caso seja menor de idade, o responsável deve efetuar sua inscrição.

Saiba mais sobre esse exame no site oficial da Universidade de Cambridge ESOL Examinations.

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Eu acho que os preços são bem altos, é realmente preciso estudar para obter sucesso.

Maiores informações no site da Cultura Inglesa: http://www.culturainglesasp.com.br/homepage.mmp (no menu 'certificados').

Abraços!

Redações da Cultura Inglesa

Então, trouxe boas recordações do passado, minhas redações do ano de 2006, feitas como atividades na escola de Inglês Cultura Inglesa.

As 4 postagens anteriores mostram minhas diversões com Inglês já há quase 4 anos. Bons tempos...

A terceira é a que mais gosto, fala do maior herói do Brasil, Jaspion!!!

Abraços!

Cultura Inglesa - Marcos: 4th composition (Dec 2006)

This time I needed to write a letter of complain about an advertisement I have recently seen on TV and brough me on to have objection to it. It has ended up like this, and it's about to be fowarded to my teacher. He's a native speaker, born in England, with an unique accent over here, Christopher.

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To whom it may concern:

The very reason that has prompted me to write this letter is owing to the commercial I saw on television the day before yesterday. Such was my indignation when I set my eyes upon the commercial that no sooner had a woman appeared than I switched off my television, also because I knew what was about to come up if I did not take any action. I had already overheard people commenting on such a commercial at work, but I misbelieved then.

What was shown is a woman semi-naked dancing and drinking an alcoholic drink. The object of my concern is that the woman expresses herself as being proud of her actions, thus demonstrating herself as a pattern to be followed. But there is more to it than that; not only was the commercial on during a period of time at which lots of children were in front of television, but also that woman takes her brassiere out in the end, what is utterly unacceptable by me. Should it be otherwise, late at night when most children are probably in bed, there would not have any problem at all. Nonetheless, repeating it as when it was broadcasted, that would be solely disgusting.

Moreover, other point that disturbs me considerably is the lack of responsibility of such advertisements. You all do not realise how many people may be watching your programmes and taking into consideration what you display; rather, you probably know about it, but you disregard the matter since what must be paramount to your television station is the revenues from your programmes and commercials.

So I still respectfully request you to do not televise the commercial at issue during the day, when the youth is very certain to be awake and in front of television. We ought all to remember that children are going to be the future citizens of our nation and they have to acquire their experiences of life accordingly while they are rising.

I am deeply thankful beforehand to your personnel all.

Yours sincerely,

Marcos P Silvestri

Cultura Inglesa - Marcos: 3rd composition (Nov 2006)

Galaxy Wolf Juspion's review

When the subject to be discussed is the use of technology for special effects in films, we must definitely remember the super Japanese TV series that have been presented for decades already. A case in point is Kyojuu Tokusou Juspion, its Japanese name, aka Megabeast Special Investigator Juspion or Galaxy Wolf Juspion.

Even though Juspion was not a big hit in Japan when it was first aired in 1985, it caused a huge impact in other countries such as France and Brazil for it turned out to be stunning and appealing, different from previous series of the same genre.

Juspion is fantastic because it involves a battle between the human race and lots of aliens, androids, assassins, and megabeasts from outer space, all under the command of great-god-demon of the Galaxy, Satan Goss, a giant devil with powers to enrage creatures and transform them into vicious monsters. His plot was to create the Monster Empire in the Galaxy.

In order to combat all threats and enemies, Juspion had a metallic combat suit, also making use of his laser sword and a gun. Furthermore, to illustrate that Juspion was wide-ranging in special effects, it must be recalled that his mothership Daileon was able to become a giant warrior to fight against the megabeasts and Satan Goss directly on land, in the sky, or under water. High points and surreal sequences were always present in clashes between the hero and his foes, especially against Mad Gallant, the only Satan Goss's child. The giant warrior Daileon could fly, it had outstanding punches and kicks, and marvelous sequences thereby it could make a monster fall down easily. Additionally, it used to launch laser beams and it had an extremely powerful punch utilized to defeat monsters, exploding them in the end. Moreover, the hero still had his flying motorcycle, mini-spaceship, and drill-equipped tank to help him out.

As there was always a sense of war on a cosmic scale and it was very innovative, Juspion was considerably broadcasted over here, it was impressive and thus remarkable for its generation. Never will Juspion be forgotten.