Welcome to the GST easter egg hunt! There’s no chocolate, but what’s hidden is just as great: Behind every corner, a translation treasure awaits. Chocolate eggs for your brain!
Are you ready to go on a little adventure? Let’s go!
You are standing in a small room that looks a lot like an office. The first thing you notice is a desk. Carefully, you walk over to the desk and sit down on the chair in front of it: Mmm, that’s ergonomic!
With a well-supported back, you turn on the computer on the desk. The next pleasant surprise is the two big monitors. With a smile on your lips, you open an e-mail that’s just come in.
And there it is, the first find! It’s a new translation order! Yay!, you cry aloud and happily accept the job.
You read the order and take a look at the source text. It’s about the Easter Bunny. You’ve always been interested in that topic, but the text contains some details that you don’t fully know.
The protagonist of the story – the Easter Bunny – embarks on a journey through a magical land in order to find the best eggs for his clients. The problem is that you don’t know much about magical lands. You must continue your hunt.
Reluctantly, you stand up from your comfy chair und take a look around the office. One wall has a big window covered by heavy curtains. There is a slight rustle coming from the curtains, but you don’t let that throw you off.
In the room, you see a full bookshelf. You work to the shelf and examine the titles of the many books. There are fairytale collections, athlete biographies, and history books.
And then you see it: There, next to an instruction manual for a refrigerator, there is a book entitles “Magical Lands and the Easter Bunny”. What a discovery! Greedily, you pull the book from the shelf and take it back to the desk. Fascinated, you read the chapter “How the Easter Bunny gets his eggs”.
Your head is now filled with all the knowledge you need to confidently complete the translation. But do you really want to translate the text in a simple text document?
You decide you do not and thus, you once again embark on your treasure hunt. This time, you hunt on your computer. You bravely traverse the various programs and files. But seek and ye shall find: Nestled between an Excel file and a PDF, you see your preferred translation software.
Once again, you celebrate loudly and open the program. Now, you can translate one sentence at a time and need not fear missing something or letting a wrong number go unnoticed.
You type and type. Sometimes, you refer back to your book. Now the translation is finished. You go back and read the text and you’re happy with it. But is it really flawless?
You know what you have to do and once again get up from your chair. Help must be hidden somewhere here. You listen to your gut und go to the curtain on the right side of the window. You take a look behind it and find the next treasure: an editor!
You take the editor by the hand and lead them back to the desk. There, they read your translation and reassure you that everything is fine. You are very happy and know that only one treasure remains.
But where should you look? Where might this final treasure be hidden? You take a moment to think; as you silently contemplate, you hear the rustling from the curtains again. But you’ve already found the editor, you think, confused. Oh, but you have yet to check the left curtain!
You run over and take a look. There it is! The final treasure! From behind the curtains, happy clients smile back at you. One of them stretches their hand out to you. They have brought your chocolate eggs!
(O.M., 2021)
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