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“Vision without action is a dream. Action without vision is simply passing the time. Action with vision is making a positive difference.”

Joel Barker

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Tina Wuelfing Cargile, PMP, Account Manager

Tina Wuelfing Cargile was born at NAS Patuxent River, MD, where she was immersed in the test pilot/astronaut community. Where humor and fearlessness were the norm she learned two basic rules:

1. “Don’t say ’I can’t,’ say ’I’ll try.”

2. “Don’t say ’I don’t know,’ say ’I’ll find out.”

(These continue to serve her well at McElroy!)

Tina graduated from Rutgers University in 1975 with a BA in English and a Theatre Arts minor. She moved to Washington, DC to work as a production assistant at The Chronicle of Higher Education, and eventually became the Director of Business Operations.

In 1983 her brother “Gator” (who was/is Willie Nelson’s bus driver) urged her to move to Austin, Texas. Tina found herself in a new world full of musicians in particular and free spirits in general. After learning to drive and to tolerate people smiling at her on the street for no apparent reason, she became an Austinite and worked as a typesetter, a recording studio manager, a bartender, and a court reporter. She even learned how to smile at people on the street for no apparent reason.

Tina brought her wide variety of skills to McElroy Translation in 1988. While her intelligence and dedication are respected by her peers, her humorous perspective is her most notable characteristic. She keeps us laughing and optimistic even in the face of grueling deadlines.

Along the way, Tina has earned her Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from the Project Management Institute (originally certified in 2003, recertified in December 2006 until 2009), and presented on project management at the American Translators Association Conference in New Orleans. She has also been published in ClientSide News, the ATA Chronicle, and contributed to Harold Kerzner’s latest project management text, Project Management Best Practices: Achieving Global Excellence.

In mid-2006, looking for new challenges and missing direct client contact, Tina transitioned from Senior Project Manager to Account Manager, handling an array of established accounts with a project management perspective in mind.

Tina lives with her husband in a small town miles from Austin, where they are quickly filling their 12 acres with dozens of chickens, dogs, cats, geese, turkeys and ducks. She loves gardening, canning, quilting, playing with her “babies,” and listening to the frogs in their pond at night. They enjoy visits from their children and “adopt” their children’s friends, because their idea of family is whoever shows up.

She also habitually and gleefully pokes fun at herself, and the description of her current hobbies and lifestyle brought to mind her introduction to country life. Having spent 35 years in the city and on concrete, she proved totally oblivious to the “real world” on her first date, nearly 20 years ago, with her husband-to-be, a country boy from Honey Grove, Texas. While aware that the excursion involved scouting for arrowheads over fairly rough terrain, Tina:

1. Wore stiletto heels and dressed in black from head to toe on a 100 degree day

2. Identified a patch of prickly pear behind a ranch fence as a “cactus farm”

3. Drank water from the river (who knew?)

He married her anyway and she can now identify any breed of poultry known to man, knows how to build a campfire, cooks a mean Turkey Piccata, and completely enjoys the brilliant spectrum of the natural world—which was there all the time—she just needed to learn where to look.

Doing Business In Turkey

Turkey is strategically positioned at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and the Middle East and the U.S. is Turkey’s fourth largest trading partner. Careful planning and patience are the keys to succeed in Turkey. Companies like Microsoft, Coca-Cola, GE, Procter & Gamble and Phillip Morris, as well as international investment institutions like the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation have already selected Turkey as a regional base.

Turkey is fast becoming a production centre for Europe in diverse industries, but in particular in automotives. English is the dominant language for international business. The currency is the Turkish lira.

With her high growth potential, qualified workforce and managers, and the entrepreneurial spirit, Turkey provides an important potential market for global businesses. Furthermore, regional political stability can only be established on a sustainable basis if the economic development spreads throughout the region. The engine for growth in the Balkans, Caucuses, Central Asia, and the Middle East is likely to be Turkey.

The People

Turks are extremely patriotic. They are proud of their ancestors and of the achievements of their modern society. The family is the most important social unit. Each person is dependent upon and loyal to the family. Rural life is still traditional, but in cities women frequently work outside the home.

Meeting and Greeting

• Shake hands with everyone present—men, women and children—at a business or social meeting. Shake hands with elders first. Shake hands again when leaving.
• It is common for Turkish men and women to cheek-kiss one another when meeting and parting.

Body Language

• "Yes” is a slight downward nod of the head. “No” is a slight upward nod of the head while making a quick, sucking sound through your two front teeth (like “tsk”).
• Turks generally have a small area of personal space and may stand closer than most foreigners are used to.
• Never point the sole of your foot toward a person.
• Turks, most of whom are devout Muslims, may avoid looking into your eyes in a display of humble behavior.
• Do not stand with your hands on your hips when talking to others, especially older people or superiors, or put your hands in your pockets.
• In Turkey, putting your thumb between your first two fingers is the equivalent to raising your middle finger in the United States.
• The “O.K.” sign in Turkey means that someone is homosexual.

Corporate Culture

• Turks take punctuality for business meetings very seriously and expect that you will do likewise; call with an explanation if you are delayed.
• Consideration, politeness, respect and courtesy are very important to the Turks. Shake hands with each person upon arriving at an office. When visiting a factory, shake hands with all the workers when you arrive and again when you leave.
• Turks engage in small talk before they begin business discussions.
• Decisions are made at the top.

On the Bosphorus, photo taken by Mark Ritter

Dining and Entertainment

• Be punctual for a dinner party. 7:00 p.m. means 7:00 p.m.
• Business can be discussed at anytime during the meal, but you must get a feel from your business counterpart.
• Some Turks who are Muslim drink alcohol, but those Turks who are strict Muslims never do.
• Hosts will probably expect you to eat a great deal and may be offended if you don’t.
• When finished eating, leave no food on your plate, and place your knife and fork side by side on your plate.
• “Dutch treat” does not exist in Turkey. If you invite someone to dine, you pay the bill.

Dress

• For business, men should wear conservative suits or a sports coat and tie. In very hot weather, men may go without a jacket, but they still wear a tie.
• Women should wear suits, dresses and heels. Avoid short skirts, low-cut blouses or shorts.

Gifts

• Always bring the hostess a gift when invited to someone’s home. Do not bring a gift that is too lavish. Give: flowers (roses or carnations), candy, chocolates, wine (if host drinks). Do not give alcohol if you are not sure whether your host drinks.
• Don’t expect your hostess to open a gift when presented.
• Gifts may be exchanged in business. Give gifts made in America that are not expensive, i.e. crystal, desk accessories, pens, gifts with company logo. Do not give overly personal gifts.

Helpful Hints

• Turks ask even casual acquaintances what Americans consider to be very personal questions (age, salary, etc.). However, do not ask such personal questions until a friendship has been established.

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To Translate Or Not To Translate

We all know that some words or phrases "do not translate" and therein lies an ongoing challenge for translators. InttraNews provides this rich literary example.

InttraNews reports

Tokyo, Japan (Daily Yomiuri): “To be, or not to be, that is the question.” The famous line is easy to translate into French or German. You can just replace words with equivalents from the other language. In French this becomes “être ou ne pas être”; in German “sein oder nichtsein.” Even Chinese is straightforward: “shengcun huo huimie.” But Hamlet’s famous lines have been a formidable challenge to Japanese translators. Japanese has no infinitive form, nor the word “be.” The only possibility is to “interpret the phrase,” creating something new. Of the various attempts made to render Hamlet’s soliloquy into Japanese, three in particular are famous.

Shoyo Tsubouchi, the first to translate Hamlet into Japanese, was a novelist, playwright, critic and translator in the Meiji era. His “To be or not to be” is “Nagarahuru ka nagarahenu ka.” This is written style and relatively close to the original meaning. It is a well-turned phrase, but is about twice as long as the original.

The second famous translator, Tsuneari Fukuda, also a playwright, critic and stage director, made things curt and straightforward: “Sei ka shi ka” (“Life or death”). In terms of length, this closely parallels the original. But does the original really mean this? Does not the translation limit the interpretation? That is, indeed, the question.

Contemporary translator and critic Yushi Odajima challenged prior works of translation with this controversial creation: “Konomama de ii no ka ikenai no ka” (“May I leave it as it is, or not?” or “May I remain as I am, or not?”). He made his own interpretation, making an awfully long translation for half a line from a soliloquy.

I hope you see that I’m not talking about which translation is “better” (a question of interpretation, in all senses of that word). I seek to illustrate the challenge or, more precisely, the impossibility, of translation.

For more information, please visit:
www.yomiuri.com