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Poll: Do you have a habit of biting your nails while translating?
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ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
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Apr 5, 2019

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Do you have a habit of biting your nails while translating?".

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Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Португалија
Local time: 03:47
Член (2007)
англиски на португалски
+ ...
No Apr 5, 2019

I’ve never been a nail biter (as a very young girl I used to pick at dry skin around my cuticles until the day I got a nasty infection). When I started translating some 40 years ago I was a heavy smoker and I used to say that it helped me think better and find the right word (poor me!), the fact is that I stopped smoking in 1985 and I’m still thinking and translating…

P.S. How is it possible to translate and bite your nails at the same time, don't you need both hands to type?<
... See more
I’ve never been a nail biter (as a very young girl I used to pick at dry skin around my cuticles until the day I got a nasty infection). When I started translating some 40 years ago I was a heavy smoker and I used to say that it helped me think better and find the right word (poor me!), the fact is that I stopped smoking in 1985 and I’m still thinking and translating…

P.S. How is it possible to translate and bite your nails at the same time, don't you need both hands to type?

[Edited at 2019-04-05 08:31 GMT]
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Ricki Farn
Muriel Vasconcellos (X)
 
Philippe Etienne
Philippe Etienne  Identity Verified
Шпанија
Local time: 04:47
Член
англиски на француски
+ ...
I used to Apr 5, 2019

However I was a "light" nail biter, not the type who ends up with nails half their original size.
But even this horrible-tasting nail varnish in my youth wouldn't make me stop.
Anyway, I decided to stop when I was 26 following a triggering event. I invested in proper nail cutters and scissors instead.

Twenty-five years later, I just find this habit disgusting, revulsing, immature and yuk. And quitting is in fact much easier than quitting smoking.

Philippe... See more
However I was a "light" nail biter, not the type who ends up with nails half their original size.
But even this horrible-tasting nail varnish in my youth wouldn't make me stop.
Anyway, I decided to stop when I was 26 following a triggering event. I invested in proper nail cutters and scissors instead.

Twenty-five years later, I just find this habit disgusting, revulsing, immature and yuk. And quitting is in fact much easier than quitting smoking.

Philippe

EDIT: I realise I didn't read the question. I started translating after I stopped biting my nails.

[Edited at 2019-04-05 11:08 GMT]
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No Apr 5, 2019

I only bite other people’s.

Muriel Vasconcellos (X)
 
Marta Cervera Areny
Marta Cervera Areny
Шпанија
Local time: 04:47
каталонски на шпански
+ ...
I need both hands for typing Apr 5, 2019

I do actually bite my nails, but not while I'm working because I need both hands to type. When I have a lot of work and need to work extra hours is when I actually have nicer nails, because I don't have time to bite them and they can grow a bit

Muriel Vasconcellos (X)
 
Marjolein Snippe
Marjolein Snippe  Identity Verified
Холандија
Local time: 04:47
англиски на холандски
+ ...
No but... Apr 5, 2019

I tend to pick at my lips when I am stressed or absent-minded. Not so much when translating as I need both hands for typing, but quite often when I am thinking. I try not to do so in company but can't seem to get myself to quit entirely.

Julio Madrid
Kaisa I
 
neilmac
neilmac
Шпанија
Local time: 04:47
шпански на англиски
+ ...
No Apr 5, 2019

I bit my nails compulsively until I was in my 30s, when I just stopped for no apparent reason. My daughter was heading down the same route, but her mother managed to get her to stop by paying her for each full fingernail she let grow.

In my teens I also developed a pathological fear of the dentist's drill and would do anything, even having my teeth pulled out, rather than have a filling. However, that also disappeared in my 30s and I now have no qualms whatsoever about visiting the
... See more
I bit my nails compulsively until I was in my 30s, when I just stopped for no apparent reason. My daughter was heading down the same route, but her mother managed to get her to stop by paying her for each full fingernail she let grow.

In my teens I also developed a pathological fear of the dentist's drill and would do anything, even having my teeth pulled out, rather than have a filling. However, that also disappeared in my 30s and I now have no qualms whatsoever about visiting the dentist.
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Thayenga
Thayenga  Identity Verified
Германија
Local time: 04:47
Член (2009)
англиски на германски
+ ...
No Apr 5, 2019

My fingers remain on the keyboard all the time.

I used to bite my nails until I was fifteen. Fortunately, I then started to hate the looks of them and quit immediately, never going back to that bad habit.


 
Luana B. S. Mandarà
Luana B. S. Mandarà  Identity Verified
Италија
Local time: 04:47
германски на италијански
+ ...
Hair! Apr 5, 2019

Let apart smoking, I use to twist and knot my hair when I pause thinking about a possible sentence.

 
Julio Madrid
Julio Madrid  Identity Verified
Мексико
Local time: 19:47
англиски на шпански
+ ...
No, but I have a habit of... Apr 5, 2019

... talking to myself while translating. Also biting my lips while typing or thinking and when not talking to myself... Maybe it's just my inner interpreter trying to take over my outter translator. I wonder what Freud would theorize about this... 🤔

[Edited at 2019-04-05 13:40 GMT]


 
Mario Freitas
Mario Freitas  Identity Verified
Бразил
Local time: 23:47
англиски на португалски
+ ...
Yes, and several others Apr 5, 2019

I have several distractions while working: smoking, coffee, biting nails, playing around with toothpicks, matches, etc. Some sort of hyperactivity, I guess.

 
Richard Jenkins
Richard Jenkins  Identity Verified
Бразил
Local time: 23:47
Член (2006)
португалски на англиски
+ ...
No Apr 5, 2019

I clip mine.

 
Gitte Hovedskov (X)
Gitte Hovedskov (X)
Данска
Local time: 04:47
англиски на дански
+ ...
Good translator's humour Apr 5, 2019

Chris S wrote:

I only bite other people’s.


Hahahaha... I've missed this!!


 
Barbara Cochran, MFA
Barbara Cochran, MFA  Identity Verified
Соединети Американски Држави
Local time: 22:47
шпански на англиски
+ ...
No Apr 5, 2019

I guess I can't be considered to be one of Sigmund Freud's "oral personalities"!

Muriel Vasconcellos (X)
 
Elizabeth Tamblin (X)
Elizabeth Tamblin (X)  Identity Verified
Обединето Кралство
Local time: 03:47
француски на англиски
I would, but... Apr 5, 2019

After having a crown on one of my teeth, I find I can't get the right bite anymore. Very frustrating.

 
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Poll: Do you have a habit of biting your nails while translating?






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