Bangles, jangles… and keyboards?

Creamy coloured bangles

I love my job. BUT – I also love bangles. And therein lies a problem – I can’t type while wearing bangles, they interfere with the position of my wrist and hand.

So I get ready in the morning, carefully select the bangles (always plural!) I’m going to wear, sit down to work… And after just a few minutes off come the bangles and they’re deposited on my desk. Which is fine when I’m working at home or in the office. They even come in handy as temporary paperweights.

But when I’m out and about working on my laptop, the bangles get stuffed into my capacious handbag. And then I forget about them. By the end of the week, I’m wondering why my bag seems even heavier than usual. And why I can’t find that coral-coloured bangle that would set off my outfit so nicely. Only then do I check the handbag and find a multi-coloured hoard of metal, wood, plastic and resin lurking at the bottom.

In the house, too, I leave a bangle trail. Off they come, for example, when I need to don rubber gloves to do a handwash. And there they stay, on the worktop by the sink, until someone retrieves them for me.

I could never commit the perfect murder, as I’d need to remove a bangle the better to administer the poison, pull the trigger, or plunge the dagger. And of course I’d leave it behind at the crime scene. Or else make such a jingling and jangling as I fled the scene that I’d be a breeze for the police to catch.

Photo courtesy of Olivia Dougan Naio.

By Marian Dougan

Africa… or the Great British Summer?

I’m becoming addicted to Perpetuum Jazzile.

Here’s a seasonal offering from them. Don’t adjust your volume, by the way – it starts quietly.

By Marian Dougan

Planning a new website? Communicate! (with your translator too)

One of my clients told me recently that their company is re-doing its website. They’re working with web-designers and -developers, copy-writers, graphic designers and search-engine optimisation (SEO) specialists based in Spain, the US and various Italian cities.

The client, a company based in north-east Italy, already works with designers and suppliers based in Spain, Denmark, the UK, Japan and Switzerland, so they’re not new to working internationally. And I’m the first to applaud the sort of management team that says: “Where’s the best talent? Those are the people we want to work with – regardless of where they’re based”. (Well, I would say that, wouldn’t I, given that I’m their Italian>English translator and am based in Scotland).

However, a website needs to be an organic, seamless whole. One way to achieve that is to bring all the suppliers involved together for a website-planning meeting at the outset. If they’re scattered around the globe this could be expensive. But the result would be a better website and, ultimately, more business. Making the expenditure an investment, not a cost.

It’s probably unrealistic to expect companies to go to such lengths, though, not to mention the headache of scheduling the meeting.

So here are a few tips to help you obtain the best possible website for your needs. Make sure all your suppliers are informed and involved from the outset, and talking to each other throughout the design and development process. If it isn’t possible to hold a planning meeting, send each supplier a copy of your brief (you did write a detailed brief, didn’t you?) and of the website design (or a link to the draft site once it’s ready).

Make sure the people working on the website have each others’ e-mail adresses and/or phone numbers. Send them regular up-dates. Don’t present your translators with a fait accompli and ask them to translate after the fact – language considerations could have a bearing on the design, as well as the copy. Make sure you, and your copy writers, designers, developers, SEO specialists and translators talk (and listen) to each other. As early on in the process as possible.

By Marian Dougan

Fuzzy words? – not always

A quick PS to yesterday’s post on the use of the Italian adeguamento (correction, adjustment) to signify aumento (increase).

Italy’s Regulatory Authority for Electricity and Gas uses the term aggiornamento (literally “up-dating” ) when referring to its quarterly gas and electricity price adjustments. Energy tariffs are linked to oil and natural gas prices on the global markets, so can go up or down.

Making aggiornamento not fuzzy at all – in this case.

By Marian Dougan

Fuzzy words

Wouldn’t it be refreshing if local and central governments were truly transparent in their use of language?

Italy’s Emilia Romagna Region has just announced an “adeguamento” (correction, adjustment) of passenger rail fares. The headline on their website says:

Treni, dal primo agosto adeguamento dei prezzi. L’aumento [increase] interessa il trasporto ferroviario passeggeri della regione.

So, is it a price adjustment or a price increase?

By Marian Dougan

Blowing the nation’s trumpet: languages and diplomacy (2)

Blowing the nation’s trumpet is all very well, but sometimes the message sent out to foreign audiences is a bit too rosy.

When the Labour Government came to power in 1997, I was working in the Social Affairs section of the British Embassy in Rome. One of our jobs was to send out press releases announcing the new government’s Welfare-to-Work policies. The Embassy’s English>Italian translator mis-read, and mis-translated, “Welfare-to-Work” as “Benessere al lavoro”.

Thus crediting the government with new policies promoting Well-Being in Work. An admirable aspiration, but not quite what they had in mind.

By Marian Dougan

What’s missing…

… in this and in so many other film posters?Film poster for Ondine

By Marian Dougan

Blowing the nation’s trumpet: languages and public diplomacy (1)

I recently spent 2 days interpreting in Birmingham for an Italian delegation from Italia Lavoro and Regione Marche. They were here to find out more about the work being done by Sue Veszpremi’s Employer Engagement team at Jobcentre Plus to help the long-term unemployed back into employment. Wonderful work, in my opinion – Mr. Osborne, please don’t cut their budget!

I came away from the meetings with a couple of thoughts very clear in my mind.

It simply isn’t true that “everyone else speaks English – so learning languages doesn’t matter”.

Only one of the Jobcentre Plus team could speak (a little bit of) Italian. Another could say “Valentino Rossi” (and probably Fabio Capello too, but we’ll draw a veil over that).

Of the 7 members of the Italian delegation, only 1 would have been able to participate fully in the meetings without an interpreter. (By “participate fully” I mean listen, understand and speak). A couple had only a smattering of English. The others would have been able to take part in much of the dialogue, but not make their own presentations in English.

The programme included a meeting with 3 previously long-term unemployed women who’d found jobs with the help of Jobcentre Plus. One spoke standard English with a Birmingham accent, one spoke pure Brummie and the third had an Asian-Brummie twang and spoke at top speed. I could barely understand her… and she me. The Italian delegation would have been flummoxed.

There’s a shortage of English/Italian interpreters in the UK. Certainly in Birmingham and, I suspect, countrywide.

The Italian delegation initially wanted a Birmingham-based interpreter. Neither they nor the Jobcentre Plus team could find one. We gradually widened the search criteria from “English/Italian specialising in employment/social affairs” to just “English/Italian”. And from Birmingham to West Midlands to England to the UK to an appeal on Twitter. Drawing a blank with each. So I ended up doing the job myself, although I’m a translator rather than an interpreter.

Does any of this matter?

I think it does. That visit to Birmingham was a great opportunity to tell a British success story. The Italian delegates were impressed not just by the case-studies presented but also – I think even more so – by the dedication, commitment and enthusiasm of the Jobcentre Plus team.

That, surely, is what public diplomacy is all about. But how can we broadcast our “good news” stories internationally if we don’t have the language skills to do so?

By Marian Dougan

TGIF, courtesy of Perpetuum Jazzile

At 5.45 yesterday evening I was at DHL sending a package to Italy containing my bid for a translation contract. The timing was tight and stress levels were sky-high. But according to the DHL tracking service the package arrived at its destination on time – phew!

The whole bidding process was difficult and demanding, and at this stage I almost don’t mind whether or not I get the contract – I’m just so relieved that I got that bid in in time.

I’m off to a family wedding this weekend and am looking forward to some much-needed fun and celebration. But today it’s Friday and the working week is over. Here’s a lovely way to get the weekend off to a good start, courtesy of the wonderful Perpetuum Jazzile. Enjoy!

By Marian Dougan

Translation clients, we need your briefs

A translation agency recently sent me a one-page (270 words) document, asking me to quote for “a re-write, not a straight translation”. I did my sums and sent off the quote, without thinking too much about it. The agency got back to me a couple of days later and gave me the go-ahead.

Fine. But when I sat down to start the project, I realised they hadn’t told me what the re-write was for. The text was a fairly standard promotional piece for a film production company. Name of company, date it was founded, directors they’ve worked with, client list, type of services and so on. But was it for their website home page? A brochure? Email marketing campaign? It could even have been part of the documentation needed to take part in a joint venture.

A quick phone call to the agency answered the question: the piece was for a new brochure, intended mainly for the US market. I did the re-write and sent off the text, telling the agency that I’d be happy to tweak or change the emphasis of the text, depending on the message their client most wanted to focus on. Or to cut or expand on the copy if necessary, for reasons of space or formatting.

Translators and copy-writers can work wonders with marketing and promotional material. But we can’t read minds. So please, clients, give us some basic guidance:

  • what is your text for? Is it a brochure, web copy (and if so, which part of the site is it for?), an “advertorial”, or what?
  • who is it for? General or specialist audience, national market, etc
  • are there formatting or design constraints that need to be considered?
  • which elements of the copy do you most want to emphasise (by the way, the year your company was founded is not the feature that’s going to win you clients and contracts).

Thank you. That’ll help us to make your copy sparkle, shine and sing your praises.

By Marian Dougan