Proofreader Blues

I write because I love writing and I do it even though I don’t make any money at it.  I teach because I love teaching and I’m really glad that I can get paid for it and almost make a living at it.  I hate doing translations and proofreading, and wouldn’t do it if I didn’t need the money.

I’ve just spent the last 5 hours on an absolutely miserable piece of work, a customer satisfaction survey for the mall where my wife works, which shall remain unnamed here just on the off chance that somebody she works with reads this blog.  First of all, I’m not a particular fan of the mall.  All of the shops are overpriced, the mall itself is spectacularly ugly on the outside and confusingly designed inside, and their food court sucks.

But that’s not the point.  The agency that did the survey said that it had already been proofread a  couple of times, and it was just coming to us for a final check, but it was filled with really ridiculous errors that no native speaker would make, such as noise spelled noice (more than once), red as the past tense of read, and (about 100 times) saying fast food when they meant fast food restaurant, as in “women most of  all is shopping for fashion and men are visit restaurants, service and fast foods.”

Add to that the fact that it’s 88 pages long and they want it by tomorrow morning and I am not a happy camper right now.  But, it’s a job, I shouldn’t bitch.  I do, and  I will, but I shouldn’t.