A blog about translation, writing and language in all its glorious aspects
I was looking through Vogue magazine last night, the British version, and a couple of articles caught my eye: one on “over-programmed” children whose days are packed with so many activities that they’re “over-stimulated, over-pressured, stressed right out”; one on personalised fitness for busy people showing a drawing of a man using a cycling machine while working …
Continue reading “In Vogue: shades of grey, parenting and fitness for busy people”
Back in July, the Chartered Institute of Linguists (CIOL), the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI) and the European Commission’s Directorate General for Translation (DGT) organised a joint event entitled “Future-proofing the profession: Equipping the next generation of translators“. The event posed the following questions: Are translators being trained to meet the future expectations of …
Continue reading “Future-proofing the translation profession: watch the videos, take the survey”
I’ve been very busy recently, with not much time to post here. But today I came across a radio programme that I can share (quickly!) with you. It’s from BBC Radio 4 and is called “Something Understood“. In the programme, Mark Tully negotiates the challenges, pitfalls and delights of translating ideas, emotions and even music, into …
Continue reading “Something Understood: a radio programme about translation”
If you take part in outreach activities, or if people ever ask you the difference between translators and interpreters, and what they actually do, then you might find this “More Than Words” TEDx talk useful. Produced by the Monterey Institute of International Studies, it features Laura Burian, Miguel Garcia and Barry Olsen. The talk also provides a good answer to anyone …
Continue reading “Interpreters: what they do and how they do it”
This advert for Leica cameras made me think of the translator’s craft. And the skill and work and care and honing and polishing that it takes to produce a really good translation that truly serves your client’s needs. The Most Boring Ad Ever Made? from Leica Camera on Vimeo. What do you think, readers: is …
Continue reading “Craftsmanship: is it boring? Not for translators (the good ones, that is).”
Twitter can be a great source of inspiration for blog posts. I spent some time this afternoon looking at Italian websites for a project I was working on and found only one that included the translators’ names among the credits. Indeed, with most Italian sites if you click the “Credits” link in the footer you’re …
Continue reading “Getting credit for our website translations: A good thing, surely. Or maybe not?”
If you’re enjoying the lovely summer weather we’re having here in (most of) the UK, then maybe a translation conference is the last thing on your mind. But, come September, a few days of workshops and presentations in a beautiful setting with great company (translators do love a get-together!) will be just the ticket to …
No, Dorothy, we’re in Kirkudbrightshire. And they use £ here (for now, anyway), not $ I spent a lot of time the other day (way too much time) on preparing quotes for translation jobs. Some were based on fee(£)/word, and a couple on fee(€)/standard page (which in my case equates to 1500 characters including spaces, …
Continue reading “Fee wizardry: a free online conversion tool”
Quality in translation is something that good translators have an instinctive feel for. But how do you measure translation quality? How do you define it? The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Translation evaluates the translations provided by its contractors using the criteria set out below. First, some simple Yes/No quality criteria: Compliance with technical requirements? (Y/N) Right …
A really useful message has just popped into my inbox from the Terminology Coordination Unit (TermCoord) at the European Parliament. Very timely, as I’ve just been up-dating my own resources page. Here’s what TermCoord’s message contained: Glossary Links. A glossary search tool with a database of almost 1,400 glossaries available online. All the links in the …
Continue reading “EU resources for translators, interpreters, writers, researchers…”