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…
A frightened businessman shielding himself with his hands from the drawings of calendars and clocks on the grey wall. Business and time-management. Organizing and planning. Productivity and efficiency.
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.)…
How to be a really good translator
As a teacher, my task and goal is to confer not only the necessary skills required for translating to my students, but also to (hopefully) instill in them a sense…
Prepared and Unprepared / Blackboard concept(Click for more)
Preparing
I recently read an article about Preparing Translations for Emergency Situations. While the focus was on natural disasters like wildfires and hurricanes in the USA and making sure that the…
What is localization…
...as opposed to "regular" translation?This is a question my students often ask me, and although the concept is clear in my head, it's not that easy to explain. Basically, it's…
101 things a translator needs to know – #94
Take responsibility and get creditLots of clients won't be able to judge the translation you deliver - after all, it's in another language. The same applies to many typesetters and…
FBI to the defense
Whatever you may thing of the FBI and its activities otherwise, it can teach the world quite a bit about professional, high-quality translation and interpretation. As Marie Brotnov wrote in…
101 things a translator needs to know – #34
When to say noIt's tempting to accept every job out of customer loyalty, but it's better to say no than to agree to an unrealistic deadline, or if you are…