The Secret to Effective Translation
These days, talk (not only) in the language industry seems to be all about AI and the end of human translators. Yes, I may be exaggerating just a bit, but…
Mother tongue, native speakers and the direction of translation
I'm currently reading the utterly fascinating and fantastic book "Is That a Fish in Your Ear?" by David Bellos. It may be somewhat dated regarding the newest developments in language…
Some cool figures
... from this past academic year here in Weiden: 1 building2 schools15 rooms5 languagesover 50 different subjects25 different final written exams21 different oral final exams= 46 examinations in total, resulting…
The magic of “untranslatable” words
During my research for a translation, I recently came across an article in "Scientific American" on untranslatable words. This in turn led me to the utterly fascinating website "The positive…
knight
Of swords and phrases
Idiomatic phrases are popular stylistic devices, and used properly, they can enhance a text significantly. Of course, the trick is to use them correctly and not mix them up, so…
101 things a translator needs to know – #60
The sound of music Translation is a constant tug between the twin imperatives of meaning and music. So what is it that makes a translation sing? It's finding the right…
Secure future
An incident involving a fight, someone who wanted to help, a gun, police, and machine translation (MT) recently made the rounds on several social media platforms. And it only came…
Ask and you shall receive
Probably the one thing most translators will agree on regardless of language combination, country or age is that clients always seem to want the translations done as quickly as possible,…
10 Things You Should Never Say to a Translator
I came across this compilation over on translatorfun.com by Romina Bona. (She also creates brilliant comics about translators and their joys and struggles, btw, which are also for sale here.)…
Hope springs eternal…
... as I'm translating this huge project right now: (c) by zingword