Weblogs zu Übersetzung, Dolmetschung, Lokalisierung 
Bitacoras sobre traducción, interpretación, localisación 
Weblogs on translation, interpreting, localization 
Saturday February 4, 2012
Specializing is good, and one of the more popular specialization for translators is the medical field. It is not one of my specialties, but recently I was recommended two posts on getting into the...
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add to furlToday I have another guest post for you, by Vicki Woolf, a trainee solicitor due to qualify at the end …
There is a direct correlation between (1) the number of hours I've had to spend in agonizingly dull faculty meetings in recent weeks, and (2) the number of shiny New German Words™ I make available to my Teutonic brethren and...
Three different patent law firms called me today to ask about my rates for translating something from Japanese, German, and Russian. The German thing was a patent, and my quote was accepted. I will have to do it over the weekend. The Japanese thing was an article from a technical magazine. I took the phone [...]
A grant will provide medical interpretation training for 6 women who speak indigenous Mexican languages.
The Natividad Medical Foundation has received a $25,000 grant from the Community Foundation for Monterey County’s Women’s Fund in order to train 6 medical interpreters who speak English, Spanish and an indigenous Mexican language.
Not everyone from Mexico masters Spanish, and a number of patients at the Natividad Medical Center, particularly in obstetrics and gynecology, speak Trique, Mixtec languages, or Zapotec.
These languages may seem minor, but they represent over a million native speakers. Many are from the Mexican state of Oaxaca, and the Salinas area has a significant immigrant population with of Oaxacan origin.
Besides providing useful health-care language interpreting services, the training program will serve another purpose: matching low-income women in need of a job with a career opportunity in a fast-growing sector.
“The grant will cover stipends, transportation, books, and assistance with childcare for the participating women,” explains Melissa Flores for HealthyCal.org. “The goal is that the women who complete training will be hired on a part-time or consultation basis to work with the hospital.”
This sounds like a language interpreting scenario where everybody will be a winner.
Betty Carlson
See Also
- Language Translation, Inc.
A leading language translation and interpretation service provider for more than 20 years.
Friday February 3, 2012
TweetSebastian Socha hat heute morgen einen neuen Beitrag (“Google reduziert Sichtbarkeit der Places Suchtreffer in den SERPs“) als Reaktion auf einen Beitrag von Mike Blumentahl (Is Google Reducing the Local Search Result Footprint?) geschrieben. Demnach hat sich – wie mir auch schon aufgefallen war – die Anzahl der Places-Einträge in Suchergebnissen verringert. Den Beobachtungen zufolge [...]
I found out today that Bono was rich. He’s the singer who called himself after a hearing aid shop in Abbey Street, Dublin. Unusual but he appears to have pulled it off! Anyway today the news is that he is rich. Apparently he got a friend to buy some Facebook shares and the journalists have now been working out that Bono is rich. The thing is I knew Bono was rich already. This is not real news. Unlike the information that memoQ 6 will be faster than memoQ 5.
There is a tendency with some software providers not to worry too much about their software becoming bloated as the users keep getting bigger, better, faster computers and don’t notice this. Thankfully no-one told the development team at Kilgray. In recent months they have been refactoring memoQ. This is a process of code review and optimisation. Balázs wrote an excellent article on this at the end of last year: http://kilgray.blogspot.com/2011/12/refactoring-response-to-pains-of-growth.html.
Refactoring memoQ is a big deal. Kilgray have an excellent team who have been working on this software since 2004. I have no idea how many lines of code or whatever go into memoQ but it is a lot. Since the release of memoQ 5 they have been going through this code and making sure that it all fits together well, does exactly what it is supposed to and is optimised. As well as ensuring that memoQ 6 will be faster and better than previous versions, this also means that we have improved our base for building other exiting features in the future.
The news today is that memoQ will be fast, if you want to know how fast you should plan to come to memoQfest in May http://www.memoqfest.org/. It looks like being another great conference and will be a good place to find out exactly how fast memoQ 6 is.
There is a tendency with some software providers not to worry too much about their software becoming bloated as the users keep getting bigger, better, faster computers and don’t notice this. Thankfully no-one told the development team at Kilgray. In recent months they have been refactoring memoQ. This is a process of code review and optimisation. Balázs wrote an excellent article on this at the end of last year: http://kilgray.blogspot.com/2011/12/refactoring-response-to-pains-of-growth.html.
Refactoring memoQ is a big deal. Kilgray have an excellent team who have been working on this software since 2004. I have no idea how many lines of code or whatever go into memoQ but it is a lot. Since the release of memoQ 5 they have been going through this code and making sure that it all fits together well, does exactly what it is supposed to and is optimised. As well as ensuring that memoQ 6 will be faster and better than previous versions, this also means that we have improved our base for building other exiting features in the future.
The news today is that memoQ will be fast, if you want to know how fast you should plan to come to memoQfest in May http://www.memoqfest.org/. It looks like being another great conference and will be a good place to find out exactly how fast memoQ 6 is.
The LA Times profiles an ordinary German middle-class couple who enjoy various benefits that most Americans making a similar salary could only dream of [h/t LMGP]: Every summer, Volkmar and Vera Kruger spend three weeks vacationing in the south of...
One should not believe it, but it seems that there is no official way to use your own version of Basic HTTP Authentication with the WCF Web API in an MVC Web Application yet. So, now that I’ve used all … [weiterlesen]
El genial Mox nos vuelve a hacer reĂr con una nueva viñeta, inspirada en un artĂculo mĂo que refleja la cruda realizad de nuestro sector. Su libro comprime la vida profesional de un traductor en 110 páginas de carcajadas.
« Bienvenue !» Sie sind auf den Arbeitstagebuchseiten einer Berliner Übersetzerin gelandet, die daneben auch als Französischdolmetscherin für Kino, Filmwirtschaft, Medien, Politik und Wirtschaft arbeitet. In einer knappen Woche beginnt die Berlinale, und in "meinem Haus" zähle ich schon die Tage.
My home is my castle ... das kennen die Franzosen auch. Jede noch so kleine Wohnung ist ma maison, wenn jemand über seine vier Wände spricht, und es ist auch dann "mein Haus", wenn es sich nur um ein winziges studio handelt, das berühmte Ein-Zimmer-Appartment mit cuisine américaine (Küchentresen bzw. in den Hauptraum integrierte Küche).
Wir kennen diese Art von "Haus" auch, zumindest in der Redewendung "zu Hause".
Während in Paris die Mieten von "Wohnungen" bis 12 Quadratmeter auf 40 Euro für jeden einzelnen dieser Quadratmeter gestiegen sind, erleben wir in Berlin noch glückliche Zeiten mit Raum für Bücher, Arbeitskollegen und Freunde. In den Berlinaletagen habe ich wieder Einquartierung, daher ist es Zeit, ma maison einen vorgezogenen Frühjahrsputz angedeihen zu lassen.
Was muss sonst noch vor der Berlinale passieren?
Sachen aus der Reinigung holen, bügeln, einkaufen, vorkochen. Es ist wie vor einer Abfahrt in den Urlaub. Wenn's dann soweit ist, lebe ich hier wie in einem Hotel, als wäre ich wirklich an einem anderen Ort. Der Countdown läuft.
______________________________
Illustration: Sprachlernmaterial aus
einem bestimmten Land, wer erkennt's?
My home is my castle ... das kennen die Franzosen auch. Jede noch so kleine Wohnung ist ma maison, wenn jemand über seine vier Wände spricht, und es ist auch dann "mein Haus", wenn es sich nur um ein winziges studio handelt, das berühmte Ein-Zimmer-Appartment mit cuisine américaine (Küchentresen bzw. in den Hauptraum integrierte Küche).
Während in Paris die Mieten von "Wohnungen" bis 12 Quadratmeter auf 40 Euro für jeden einzelnen dieser Quadratmeter gestiegen sind, erleben wir in Berlin noch glückliche Zeiten mit Raum für Bücher, Arbeitskollegen und Freunde. In den Berlinaletagen habe ich wieder Einquartierung, daher ist es Zeit, ma maison einen vorgezogenen Frühjahrsputz angedeihen zu lassen.
Was muss sonst noch vor der Berlinale passieren?
Sachen aus der Reinigung holen, bügeln, einkaufen, vorkochen. Es ist wie vor einer Abfahrt in den Urlaub. Wenn's dann soweit ist, lebe ich hier wie in einem Hotel, als wäre ich wirklich an einem anderen Ort. Der Countdown läuft.______________________________
Illustration: Sprachlernmaterial aus
einem bestimmten Land, wer erkennt's?
soweit nichts anderes vermerkt: (c) caroline elias, caroline@adazylla.de
Based on an idea by André Höchemer. You may read his original post either in Deutsch or español.
Als ich bei den Teilnehmer der Internet Briefings in Bern gefragt hatte wer von der ONE gehört hatten, waren es satte 90 %. Jetzt könnten wir stolz sein. Bei der Nachfrage, wer darüber mit jemand anderem gesprochen hat, waren es nur noch 5 %. Â Kein Wunder, es gibt für die Messe zwar eine Page, für [...]
As a translator, I have a love / hate relationship with Google Translate. On the one hand, I share some trepidation about "the computer replacing the human" translator (while realizing that really won't happen), and at the same time, I find machine translation to be sometimes a time-saving tool (particularly when directly integrated into a CAT tool like WordFast or OmegaT). It is a mixed bag, but on the whole, I think that our world is a bit richer, because of Google Translate.
We translators know about Google Translate, but what didn't you know ? I have put together a short list of "things you probably didn't know about Google Translate":
- The head of Google Translate is a German. His name is Franz Ochs, and he is an expert in computers and language. He now works in Mountain View, Google's home base in the Bay Area of California, but he is originally from Germany. He studied in Germany and California and was later asked by the U.S. government for help after 9/11, but he went to work at Google.
- One main goal of Google Translate is to empower non-native speakers of English. Let's face it, 70% of the Internet sites in the world are written in English, with American English being particularly dominant. If you are a teenager in China or Mali or Brazil, maybe you have not mastered English yet, but want to read certain websites. Google Translate is designed to help you figure out, in an instant, what a website is about.
- Google uses as its source text four main things: Biblical texts (the Bible has been translated into every language known to man), texts from the United Nations (UN), and texts from The European Union (EU). Another main source is - surprisingly - mystery novels. For this reason, Google Translate produces relatively decent legal and diplomatic texts. And if you want a chunk of a John Grisham novel translated, it can probably do that too.
- Google translate does not "think", it uses a statistical approach. From that point of view, it really - in my view - is not that different from a CAT (computer-assisted) tool. In fact, Google Translate, as I mentioned, is often used directly with a CAT tool, and it is a decent tool.
- Google Translate is amazingly bad at simple German syntax. It really is quite awful (I am speaking from personal observation here).
- Google uses English as a "pivot". A pivot is a node through which everything else flows. For instance, if you use Google Translate to translate from Greek to Norwegian, Google Translate will not match Greek source text with Norwegian target text. Instead, it matches Greek with English and then English with Norwegian. English is used as a kind of "lingua franca" or intermediate language for the tool.
- Franz Ochs, the head of Google Translate, has admitted on more than one occasion, that he does not use the tool much at all ! But he did use it on a trip to Japan, to translate menus.
- Google has human translators do its own translations. It does not use its own tool (thanks to David Bellos for that insight).
- Google Translate is helping preserve some endangered languages. Dialects of Maori that are no longer spoken, etc.
- There are confidentiality issues - for translators and translation companies - in using Google Translate ! Think about it: you are feeding your client's confidential source text into a machine that holds it "forever" and is available then to "the world", i.e. everyone. Few think about this, I am sure.
- Ochs thinks that improvements will continue in the tool, but admits he does not know where the tool's limits are.
- Google is fighting a battle - whether it knows it or not - against prescriptivism, the idea that there is a "right" way to speak, defined by pre-set rules (a view for instance that is very strong in France and in other countries). Rather than rules, it looks for how language is actually being used, "on the street", so to say (closer to the German way of lexicography).
- You can set your website so that it won't be translated by Google Translate.
- Good translators often Google Translate instead of a dictionary. One experienced patent translator said he does it "When I get lazy".
man kann auf dem iPod und dem iPhone spielen. Das Display ist aber furchtbar klein. Schöner ist es auf dem iPad, aber auch da kommt noch kein XBox oder Wii Feeling auf. Trotzdem machen die iOS Geräte im Gaming-Markt immer mehr Boden gut. Spannend wird es vor allen dann, wenn mit dem iTV ein noch [...]
Algorithmus Änderung auf Google Places sorgt für erhebliche Reduktion der lokalen Suchresultate auf den organischen Suchergebnisseiten Mike Blumenthal hat bereits vor einer Woche darüber berichtet und ich bin nun auch mal dazu gekommen mir diesen interessanten Sachverhalt ein Mal näher unter die Lupe zu nehmen und mir dazu ein paar Gedanken zu machen. Wie es [...]
Pastor Aghast At First Lady Sex Position.
Thursday February 2, 2012
I don't know why I started tweeting, but I can't seem to stop. There's something extremely healthy about a 140-character limit. The feed's at right.
Haciendo una traducciĂłn de una pelĂcula desde el francĂ©s, me encontrĂ© con una palabra, frousse, y tras buscar su significado... VoilĂ ! Algo sobre lo que escribir en el blog :D
Como el tĂtulo podrĂa dar a entender, hoy "hablarĂ©" sobre el miedo, como siempre con su pertinente equivalente en otros idiomas. Obviamente, no voy a nombrar lo evidente de miedo, peur, fain, paura... No.
Si navegamos en el mar de la sinonimia, encontraremos curiosas expresiones como canguelo y cague; exacto, el miedo en las expresiones coloquiales, principalmente términos de una palabra. Además de esta expresión presente en el habla de España, en América también hay otras propias. Según la RAE, en América Meridional está julepe. Pero no hay mucha variedad en este campo de expresión.
- La primera de las dos tiene su origen en el calĂł y, a su vez, en el hindi con gandh (perfume, olor).
- De la segunda no he encontrado un origen documentado, pero debe provenir la acepciĂłn del verbo cagarse que indica miedo. Pero ahĂ me aventuro en lo inseguro.
- La tercera tiene su origen en otra lengua, el árabe hispánico (ǧulláb), que a su vez viene del árabe y éste del persa, con un significado bastante diferente, agua de rosas; caprichos de la evolución de los significados.
Bien, en francés hay también expresiones coloquiales para el miedo, hasta tres he encontrado.
La diferencia, tras informarme sobre los términos, es que no se trata de términos de un nivel coloquial tan alto como los españoles, sino más bien familiares y que pueden utilizarse insertados en frases más allá de exclamaciones o coletillas.
Todos expresan un "miedo extremo o intenso" y entrando en los términos en cuestión, son los siguientes, definidos en el TLFi:
- Frousse: es una derivaciĂłn de la onomatopeya frou-frou*. Un ejemplo de uso lo encontramos en un libro titulado La grande frousse de Rosalie, que, literalmente, traducirĂa por "El gran miedo de Rosalie", perdiendo el matiz de coloquialidad.
- Trouille: seguramente sea el más coloquial de los tres, teniendo su origen etimolĂłgico en pĂ©tarade, trouille (que serĂa tener ventosidades), además de en signficados más "serios" de trouille como cĂłlico, y en el verbo troillier (moler o tambiĂ©n prensar la uva en la vendimia).
- Pétoche: además de esta acepción hay otras dos; lámpara de resina y una locución, être en pétoche (seguir de cerca).
Deriva del verbo pĂ©ter (reventar, cargarse algo). Un ejemplo es el siguiente, tomado de aquĂ; Tu as la pĂ©toche ? — J'ai la pĂ©toche, je l'avoue. — Tu prĂ©fères renoncer, alors ?
Os invito a todos a buscar en diccionarios monolingĂĽes franceses informaciĂłn sobre estas palabras, pues de ellas derivan expresiones compuestas :)
* Froufrou; frufrĂş, que si no me equivoco solemos utilizar para referirnos a "pulverizador". Sobre lo primero, frufĂş, en este enlace y este otro pueden verse algunas de las variantes de esta palabra segĂşn la zona/persona.
En inglés también hay formas de expresar el miedo, por supuesto. He encontrado hasta tres formas diferentes a partir de canguelo en diccionarios. Las expresiones, salvo una y a diferencia de español y francés, son compuestas, por lo que hay una gran variedad. Aunque mi intención era nombrar términos de una palabra, al haber sólo uno en inglés, he añadido algunos más.
- Funk: su origen, según apunta un diccionario etimológico, puede estar en el escocés y el inglés del norte como verbo de miedo, en la palabra del flamenco fonk (perturbación, agitación) o en el francés con funicle (loco, furioso). Ejemplo: She suffers this terrible funk whenever she has to give a talk.
- He/She got the wind up: Ejemplo: Say you'll take him to court if he doesn't pay up - that should put the wind up him.
- He/She freaked out: Ejemplo: The whole business freaked me out.
- He/She got the jitters, He got jittery: Ejemplo: I always get the jitters before an interview.
Hay más, pero serĂan expresiones más del dĂa a dĂa, del tipo "estar muerto de miedo", como to be scared silly, scared shitless, to scare the shit out of (someone) -> Man! You scared the shit out of me! o to scare the pants off (someone), que se parecen más a las compuestas en español.
Los ejemplos los he tomado de TheFreeDictionary.
Por supuesto, si véis algo incorrecto o sabéis de más términos, ¡no dudéis en mencionarlos para hacer aún más completa esta entrada! :)
¡Un saludo!
Como el tĂtulo podrĂa dar a entender, hoy "hablarĂ©" sobre el miedo, como siempre con su pertinente equivalente en otros idiomas. Obviamente, no voy a nombrar lo evidente de miedo, peur, fain, paura... No.
Si navegamos en el mar de la sinonimia, encontraremos curiosas expresiones como canguelo y cague; exacto, el miedo en las expresiones coloquiales, principalmente términos de una palabra. Además de esta expresión presente en el habla de España, en América también hay otras propias. Según la RAE, en América Meridional está julepe. Pero no hay mucha variedad en este campo de expresión.
- La primera de las dos tiene su origen en el calĂł y, a su vez, en el hindi con gandh (perfume, olor).
- De la segunda no he encontrado un origen documentado, pero debe provenir la acepciĂłn del verbo cagarse que indica miedo. Pero ahĂ me aventuro en lo inseguro.
- La tercera tiene su origen en otra lengua, el árabe hispánico (ǧulláb), que a su vez viene del árabe y éste del persa, con un significado bastante diferente, agua de rosas; caprichos de la evolución de los significados.
Bien, en francés hay también expresiones coloquiales para el miedo, hasta tres he encontrado.
La diferencia, tras informarme sobre los términos, es que no se trata de términos de un nivel coloquial tan alto como los españoles, sino más bien familiares y que pueden utilizarse insertados en frases más allá de exclamaciones o coletillas.
Todos expresan un "miedo extremo o intenso" y entrando en los términos en cuestión, son los siguientes, definidos en el TLFi:
- Frousse: es una derivaciĂłn de la onomatopeya frou-frou*. Un ejemplo de uso lo encontramos en un libro titulado La grande frousse de Rosalie, que, literalmente, traducirĂa por "El gran miedo de Rosalie", perdiendo el matiz de coloquialidad.
- Trouille: seguramente sea el más coloquial de los tres, teniendo su origen etimolĂłgico en pĂ©tarade, trouille (que serĂa tener ventosidades), además de en signficados más "serios" de trouille como cĂłlico, y en el verbo troillier (moler o tambiĂ©n prensar la uva en la vendimia).
- Pétoche: además de esta acepción hay otras dos; lámpara de resina y una locución, être en pétoche (seguir de cerca).
Deriva del verbo pĂ©ter (reventar, cargarse algo). Un ejemplo es el siguiente, tomado de aquĂ; Tu as la pĂ©toche ? — J'ai la pĂ©toche, je l'avoue. — Tu prĂ©fères renoncer, alors ?
Os invito a todos a buscar en diccionarios monolingĂĽes franceses informaciĂłn sobre estas palabras, pues de ellas derivan expresiones compuestas :)
* Froufrou; frufrĂş, que si no me equivoco solemos utilizar para referirnos a "pulverizador". Sobre lo primero, frufĂş, en este enlace y este otro pueden verse algunas de las variantes de esta palabra segĂşn la zona/persona.
En inglés también hay formas de expresar el miedo, por supuesto. He encontrado hasta tres formas diferentes a partir de canguelo en diccionarios. Las expresiones, salvo una y a diferencia de español y francés, son compuestas, por lo que hay una gran variedad. Aunque mi intención era nombrar términos de una palabra, al haber sólo uno en inglés, he añadido algunos más.
- Funk: su origen, según apunta un diccionario etimológico, puede estar en el escocés y el inglés del norte como verbo de miedo, en la palabra del flamenco fonk (perturbación, agitación) o en el francés con funicle (loco, furioso). Ejemplo: She suffers this terrible funk whenever she has to give a talk.
- He/She got the wind up: Ejemplo: Say you'll take him to court if he doesn't pay up - that should put the wind up him.
- He/She freaked out: Ejemplo: The whole business freaked me out.
- He/She got the jitters, He got jittery: Ejemplo: I always get the jitters before an interview.
Hay más, pero serĂan expresiones más del dĂa a dĂa, del tipo "estar muerto de miedo", como to be scared silly, scared shitless, to scare the shit out of (someone) -> Man! You scared the shit out of me! o to scare the pants off (someone), que se parecen más a las compuestas en español.
Los ejemplos los he tomado de TheFreeDictionary.
Por supuesto, si véis algo incorrecto o sabéis de más términos, ¡no dudéis en mencionarlos para hacer aún más completa esta entrada! :)
¡Un saludo!
Belarusian and Russian are two Slavic languages that, though they share the same root, are very different from each other. Belarusian is the official language of the nation that today is called Belarus or the Republic of Belarus, which until 1991 was part of the USSR. To the north it borders Lithuania and Latvia, while [...]
The amount of content is exploding like the Big Bang, we are told by the intellectual midgets who speak at localization conferences. Really? If the amount of content is expanding exponentially, why are so many people paying peanuts to other people to create more low quality content? Wake up, people. There is no Content Tsunami! There is a Data Deluge, but content is not data. Content is text, which is human-made and meaningful in itself. There is a deluge of economic, astronomical and demographic data, but all of that is meaningless outside of a context. A text, in contrast, is meaningful outside of any context as long as there is another human being left alive to read it. Data. Content. The two things are radically different. The localization guru’s willful ignorance of this distinction is just a dramatic illustration of his lack of intellectual honesty (and his hunger to make a quick buck and get his hands on that trophy third wife).
The need to create mountains of cheap content is real, but it has very little to do with any mythical Content Tsunami. It is more to do with some of the weird and quirky ways in which the Internet is organized. For whatever reason, the Lords of the Cloud (read: “the Googlevi Twins”) have decided that certain arbitrary aspects of a website are indicative of its importance and should therefore be used to determine its position in a Web search. Those features are basically two: amount of textual content and frequency of updating.
And presto, with that simple formula, you have the recipe for a lot of crap content. Moreover, you have an incentive (Milton Friedman, hello!) for creating a lot of crud that—like the aborted demon-spawn of Ragnarok and Sauron—should never have seen the light of day. The Low Quality Translation Movement is simply the localization industry's arm of the Content Tsunami. Its main get-rich-quick scheme is to sell cheap translation as the answer for cheap content and (crucially) trying to suck the entire translation industry into this model of second-quality garbage under the cloak of technological progress. But I preach in vain. I can see Kirti Vashee rolling his eyes and raising his hands in exasperation: "There are even people who deny the existence of a Data Deluge!" Translation: "See!? See!? You see the kind of crap I have to deal with!?"
That is why I am so relentless in going after the l10n hype-meisters who endlessly lecture us about the Content Tsunami. The latest example of this drive to create rivers of meaningless content comes from Spain. A journalist answered an advertisement for creating online content and received an offer you just can’t refuse. It was 0.75 euro cents for writing 800-word pieces. Yes, you read right. Not 0.75 euros per word. No. Less than one euro for 800 words. That is 0.0009375 euro cents per word. Well, in the year that indignados became a worldwide buzzword, the journalist decided to go online to complain about this. Needless to say, the hashtag #gratisnotrabajo (“I don’t work for free”) became a trending topic for a couple of days on Twitter.
Here is my translation of the job ad: “Journalist wanted. Compensation is €0.75 per article, which must contain a minimum of 800 words.”
But wait… there’s more (and this is my favorite part): “Texts will be subject to certain conditions of quality control—spelling, punctuation, semantics and expression.”
I just love that. We are paying less than a ride on the Madrid Metro for 800 words, but your texts will be subject to quality constraints. Seriously, if the objective is to write large amounts of crap content, why don’t we just get computers to do it? Lackuna, maybe there is a fortune in it for you.
Esta semana Mariana La Greca, Louise Levicky y Alejandro González entrevistan a tres invitados muy especiales, funcionarios del gobierno chino, que están esta semana en Salamanca con un curso de formación de interpretación del SCIC.
Un saludo,
El equipo de Don de Lenguas.
Un saludo,
El equipo de Don de Lenguas.
Bonjour auf den Seiten eines Logbuchs aus dem Inneren der Dolmetscherkabine. Manchmal texte ich meine Einträge aber auch am Schreibtisch, denn ich bin Übersetzerin und Dolmetscherin für die französische Sprache. In den letzten Jahren konnte ich mich auf Medien, Politik, Kino und Gesellschaft spezialisieren. Für die Tage der Berlinale habe ich noch Kapazitäten frei!
Hier einige Zeilen aus meinem "Portfolio" samt Link.... Ich biete an:— Dolmetschen mit Schwerpunkt Politik und Soziales, Medien und Kino, Kulturwirtschaft, französische und deutsche Landeskunde, Architektur, Literatur, Berlin- und DDR-Geschichte
— auch Begleitdolmetschen für Privatleute und Set-Dolmetschen von VIPs
— Übersetzungen ins Deutsche, vor allem von Drehbüchern, Filmförderanträgen, Exposés
— Recherchen für Sender und Autoren
— Texten/Rewriting
— Untertitelung und Übertitelung
— Sprechen (ausgebildete, warme Altstimme; Deutsch und Französisch akzent- und dialektfrei)
— Lehre: Französisches Kino, Französisch für Filmschaffende, Lerntechniken
— Zweisprachige Moderation (im Erstberuf bin ich ausgebildete Journalistin)
Mehr Arbeitsbeispiele und Referenzen hier: klick.
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Foto: privat
soweit nichts anderes vermerkt: (c) caroline elias, caroline@adazylla.de
Grant Hamilton shared this gem with the ATA Business Practices listserv this morning. It made me smile, so I wanted to share it. I read this yesterday on the Chicago Manual of Style website and thought you might enjoy it, too: Q. How do you recover from a real proofreading blooper—the kind that has everyone [...]
TweetIch möchte ein paar Zahlen teilen, die eines unserer internen Link-Tools fĂĽr uns gesammelt hat. FĂĽr die Auswertung haben wir uns insgesamt 21.652 Verlinkungen von Websites angeschaut, die fĂĽr ein heiĂź umkämpftes touristisches Keyword in der Google Top 10 zu finden sind. Dabei haben wir die Links immer unterteil in “Exact” (der Anchortext entspricht exakt [...]
Via Boing Boing, I see a French court has courageously ruled in favor of consumers being forced to pay for something that Google is giving away for free, a very producerist opinion indeed: A French court has ruled that Google's...
Wie versprochen, eröffne ich mit diesem Artikel eine kleine Reihe über meine Lieblingspodcasts in 4 Sprachen zum Thema Wissenschaft und Medizin. Beginnen wir mit dem ganz Speziellen: japanischen Podcasts. 1. Science Podcast Genau genommen ein Portal, das täglich verschiedene Podcasts bereitstellt. Am besten gefällt mir die halbstündige Sendung des CoSTEP (Communicators in Science and Technology Education [...]
Aktuelle Infografik zeigt die Komplexität und Vielschichtigkeit des lokalen Suchmarkts auf Im Blog des lokalen Marketing-Unternehmens Balihoo ist eine interessante Infografik veröffentlicht worden, die sich mit dem Lokalen Suchmarkt befasst. In dem interessanten Schaubild werden die Zusammenhänge, Unterschiede und Vorteile fĂĽr Marken und Unternehmen angesichts des “SoLoMo-Shoppers” hervorgehoben und in Zahlen gefasst. Den Abschluss bildet [...]
Die bab.la GmbH hat mit der App „Deutsch-Englisch Wörterbuch“ eine kostenfreie Möglichkeit auf den Markt gebracht, Deutsch-Englisch-Übersetzungen auf dem iPhone nachzuschlagen. Mehr als 500.000 Wörter enthält die Datenbank, für die keine Internetverbindung nötig ist, inklusive sind außerdem Spezialbegriffe und Redewendungen.
The recent newsletter of the American Translators Society contained a summary of an article published by New Scientist (Great Britain) about a free language learning website called Duolingo (Learn a Language, Translate the Web. At this point, it only teaches German and Spanish. So far, so good.
But Duolingo not only teaches its users a new language, it has them translate from that language and check translations provided by other learners of that language. This is not just a learning exercise (incidentally, apparently not supervised by a teacher), but Duolingo uses these efforts to build paid-for translations of websites.
Not to disparage talented language learners, but I wouldn't dream of translating from a language I hadn't thoroughly mastered. Unless the website in question consists entirely of short subject-verb-object sentences, maybe with an occasional adjective thrown in, I doubt very much that such a translation would adequately grasp the subtleties inherent in the original.
Granted, the initial translation is reviewed by other amateurs before being accepted. But simply having several people who are just learning a language deem a particular translation correct does not make it so. I have edited text translated by professionals who had mistaken a subject for an object in a long German sentence. How much more likely is such a mistake for someone who is not fully fluent in the language?
Duolingo seems to be another step in the continuing decline of linguistic quality, both for translations and text written in the author's native language (to wit: typos, grammatical errors and repeated text in books printed by large publishers). Can we stop that decline? Is it even worth trying?
But Duolingo not only teaches its users a new language, it has them translate from that language and check translations provided by other learners of that language. This is not just a learning exercise (incidentally, apparently not supervised by a teacher), but Duolingo uses these efforts to build paid-for translations of websites.
Not to disparage talented language learners, but I wouldn't dream of translating from a language I hadn't thoroughly mastered. Unless the website in question consists entirely of short subject-verb-object sentences, maybe with an occasional adjective thrown in, I doubt very much that such a translation would adequately grasp the subtleties inherent in the original.
Granted, the initial translation is reviewed by other amateurs before being accepted. But simply having several people who are just learning a language deem a particular translation correct does not make it so. I have edited text translated by professionals who had mistaken a subject for an object in a long German sentence. How much more likely is such a mistake for someone who is not fully fluent in the language?
Duolingo seems to be another step in the continuing decline of linguistic quality, both for translations and text written in the author's native language (to wit: typos, grammatical errors and repeated text in books printed by large publishers). Can we stop that decline? Is it even worth trying?
La FundaciĂłn Leizaola (una instituciĂłn privada cuyo fin es promover la lengua y cultura vascas, o al menos eso dicen) quiso animar a los jĂłvenes vascos a usar el euskera en su vida diaria. Los ejecutivos de la fundaciĂłn pensaron que se necesitarĂa nada memos que el arma publicitaria definitiva: el sexo. AsĂ que filmaron dos vĂdeos de baja calidad y estĂ©tica porno, sazonados con sexo machista (por los que recibieron más de 3.500 euros en subvenciones pĂşblicas) y los subieron a YouTube. Y, desde luego, han conseguido publicidad: la noticia se puede leer en El PaĂs, El Mundo, La RazĂłn, ABC, El Correo, La Vanguardia, 20minutos...
(Los vĂdeos ya han desaparecido de YouTube, pero aĂşn se pueden ver en El PaĂs.)
Y yo me pregunto: Âżpor quĂ© la FundaciĂłn Leizaola pensĂł que utilizar el sexo para promocionar el vascuence era una buena idea, teniendo en cuenta la tradicional reticencia de los vascos hacia todo aquello relacionado con el sexo? Como muestra de la mojigaterĂa vasca, un tweet de @sirtrauma: «Me fui de vacaciones a Bilbao con una caja de 12 condones y volvĂ con 14».
(Espero que la supuesta falta de sentido del humor de los vascos no sea más que otro tópico como este y que mis amigos euskaldunes me perdonen).
The FundaciĂłn Leizaola —a private foundation that aims to promote the Basque language and culture, or at least that's what they say— wanted to encourage young people to use Basque in their daily lives. Their executives thought that nothing less than the ultimate advertising weapon was needed —sex. So they shot two low-quality, porno-style videos spiced with male chauvinist sex —for which they got more than 3,500 euros in public subsidies— and they uploaded them to YouTube. And they've got publicity indeed: the news can be read at El PaĂs, El Mundo, La RazĂłn, ABC, El Correo, La Vanguardia, 20minutos...
(The videos are no longer available in YouTube, but they can still be seen at El PaĂs.)
What I wonder is: why the Fundación Leizaola thought that promoting Basque through sex was a good idea, given the proverbial reluctance of the Basque people towards sex? Just a tweet of @sirtrauma as an example of Basque prudishness: “I went to Bilbao on holiday with a 12 condoms box and I went back with 14.”
(I hope the supposed lack of a Basque sense of humour is just another cliché like this one and that my Basque-speaking friends can forgive me.)
(Los vĂdeos ya han desaparecido de YouTube, pero aĂşn se pueden ver en El PaĂs.)
Y yo me pregunto: Âżpor quĂ© la FundaciĂłn Leizaola pensĂł que utilizar el sexo para promocionar el vascuence era una buena idea, teniendo en cuenta la tradicional reticencia de los vascos hacia todo aquello relacionado con el sexo? Como muestra de la mojigaterĂa vasca, un tweet de @sirtrauma: «Me fui de vacaciones a Bilbao con una caja de 12 condones y volvĂ con 14».
(Espero que la supuesta falta de sentido del humor de los vascos no sea más que otro tópico como este y que mis amigos euskaldunes me perdonen).
* * *
The FundaciĂłn Leizaola —a private foundation that aims to promote the Basque language and culture, or at least that's what they say— wanted to encourage young people to use Basque in their daily lives. Their executives thought that nothing less than the ultimate advertising weapon was needed —sex. So they shot two low-quality, porno-style videos spiced with male chauvinist sex —for which they got more than 3,500 euros in public subsidies— and they uploaded them to YouTube. And they've got publicity indeed: the news can be read at El PaĂs, El Mundo, La RazĂłn, ABC, El Correo, La Vanguardia, 20minutos...
(The videos are no longer available in YouTube, but they can still be seen at El PaĂs.)
What I wonder is: why the Fundación Leizaola thought that promoting Basque through sex was a good idea, given the proverbial reluctance of the Basque people towards sex? Just a tweet of @sirtrauma as an example of Basque prudishness: “I went to Bilbao on holiday with a 12 condoms box and I went back with 14.”
(I hope the supposed lack of a Basque sense of humour is just another cliché like this one and that my Basque-speaking friends can forgive me.)
Wednesday February 1, 2012
Starting a business from home - tips for freelance translators trying to get translation jobs. Importance of marketing - tips for home based business start up.
Tips on starting a small business as a translator, home based job opportunities and afforable home based business opportunities.
A small business outsourcing plan for a highly profitable translation business.
One or two months ago, I published a post about internet slang. Now , let’s move on to SMS language. In SMS, we simply pay for each letter we use. Consequently, the less letter we use, the less we pay. It is a very simple logic espacially if you want to tell many things in [...]
One of the main points that the translation agency owner made is that she has a hard time determining who is legitimate as a translator, and who is not legitimate. A valid point. I kind of made a bit of fun out of the whole thing, but she has a very good point, and I imagine that this is a problem for agencies. I suggested that she just hit Delete to any suspect mail, which is actually the way most companies deal with spam mail or anything that looks like it. I mean, think about it, when you get a mail that doesn't look "probably" legitimate, what do you do ? Well, you hit "Delete", or you put some kind of spam filter on it, or you do something else to "send it into the cornfield", as they say.
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| "There is no University of Africa. You are a bad applicant ! Into the corn field !" |
But beyond that, I have been thinking about this issue. Assume you don't immediately "send the translator into the cornfield" of translation applications, how can you determine if your translator is legit ?
Here is a simple point system I devised.
Btw, this assumes you have done some basic research and for instance know what the main translation schools in the world are, etc.
Note that this system is not to ultimately find out about how legit your translator is, but how to - on first impression - decide if the translator is probably legit.
Point system:
Translator has own website as a translator = + 5
Website is well written and looks like it took some time to do = + 5
Website has a good blog about translation = +5
Website has client lists, references, etc. = + 4
Translator went to a known school of translation = +8
Translator's email to you is well written = + 3
Resume looks well written and professional = +2
Translator has some picture of him or her you can see, and it looks ok = + 3
Translator went to a school you have not heard of = 0
Email is poorly written = - 10
No website = - 2
Google search of person's name and "translator" produces nothing = - 8
Google search of person produces negative things = - 8
Translator does not live in western Europe, the US, Canada, NZAUS, etc. = - 3
Translator seems young = - 4
No translation degree = - 3
Claims to translate into more than one language, or into a foreign language = - 4
Translator seems to promise too much and have no limits = - 3
That should help, I hope.
You obviously will want to have some system in place to figure your translator out, but I think this "system" is a good step between the spam / cornfield part and really getting to know your translator.
Freunde von mir haben ihre Eltern noch nie mit dem Vornamen angesprochen, auch, wenn sie seit zwanzig Jahren nicht mehr im Kinderzimmer wohnen. Es sind zum Teil die gleichen, die ihre Eltern siezen. Und auch die Eltern sagen einander Sätze wie: "Könnten Sie bitte Ihren Arm anders legen, er drückt mich zwischen den Rippen?" oder: "War ich auch nicht zu heftig für Sie?" So zumindest stellt sich unsereiner (das lieber nicht) vor.
In Frankreich gibt es diese Schichten, in denen das Siezen auch in Familien zum guten Ton gehört. Sie gehören meist qua Geburt oder wirtschaftlicher Macht zur Oberschicht. Aber auch unter Gleichaltrigen an der Uni siezen sich erstmal alle; Siezen ist in Frankreich die Grundform.
"Du" und "Sie" sind natürlich auch bei unseren Nachbarn soziale Indikatoren, sie unterstreichen Abstand und markieren Annäherung. Neulich sah ich das in einem französischen Film:
Im Film gibt es ein wirkliches soziales Gefälle zwischen der Bankangestellten aus der Stadt und dem einfachen jungen Mann vom Dorf, das vergleichsweise lang aufrechterhaltene "Sie" zeugt davon (und, sehen Sie genau hin, auch die Kleidung). Am Ende kommen sich die beiden natürlich näher. Das Duzen und Siezen ist ein kleiner Aspekt ihrer Annäherung, vom namentlich nicht genannten Untertitler unnötig verschenkt.
AuĂźerdem kenne ich niemanden, der in so einer Situation "Wir werden uns schon kennenlernen" sagt, und auch die Antwort "Toll!" ist sowas von ausgedacht und tot....
Wie kann so etwas passieren? Die Untertitelung ist mit zuwenig Sorgfalt hergestellt worden und vermutlich von jemandem, der sich noch nie Gedanken über Filmdramaturgie gemacht hat. Oder die betreffende Person hat sonst am Fließband amerikanische Serien untertitelt. Da gibt es für Untertitler jedenfalls ein ungschriebenes Gesetz, wie vom Sie-You auf das Du-You umgeschwenkt werden kann: Spätestens, wenn zwei miteinander geschlafen haben, duzen sie sich.
______________________________
Illustrationen: Da ich hier keine Kollegen denunzieren
möchte, gebe ich nicht mehr Informationen preis. Wer
mehr dazu erfahren möchte oder sich in seinen Urheber-
rechten beeinträchtigt fühlt, wende sich bitte an:
caroline[at]adazylla.de
In Frankreich gibt es diese Schichten, in denen das Siezen auch in Familien zum guten Ton gehört. Sie gehören meist qua Geburt oder wirtschaftlicher Macht zur Oberschicht. Aber auch unter Gleichaltrigen an der Uni siezen sich erstmal alle; Siezen ist in Frankreich die Grundform.
"Du" und "Sie" sind natürlich auch bei unseren Nachbarn soziale Indikatoren, sie unterstreichen Abstand und markieren Annäherung. Neulich sah ich das in einem französischen Film:
 |
| Er: Vous voulez venir ? (Hier: Möchten Sie mitkommen?) |
 |
Sie: Si vous voulez ! (Wenn Sie möchten.) |
 |
Er: On peut se tutoyer ? — Sie: Ouais, d'accord ! (Wollen wir uns duzen? — Hm, OK!) |
AuĂźerdem kenne ich niemanden, der in so einer Situation "Wir werden uns schon kennenlernen" sagt, und auch die Antwort "Toll!" ist sowas von ausgedacht und tot....
Wie kann so etwas passieren? Die Untertitelung ist mit zuwenig Sorgfalt hergestellt worden und vermutlich von jemandem, der sich noch nie Gedanken über Filmdramaturgie gemacht hat. Oder die betreffende Person hat sonst am Fließband amerikanische Serien untertitelt. Da gibt es für Untertitler jedenfalls ein ungschriebenes Gesetz, wie vom Sie-You auf das Du-You umgeschwenkt werden kann: Spätestens, wenn zwei miteinander geschlafen haben, duzen sie sich.
______________________________
Illustrationen: Da ich hier keine Kollegen denunzieren
möchte, gebe ich nicht mehr Informationen preis. Wer
mehr dazu erfahren möchte oder sich in seinen Urheber-
rechten beeinträchtigt fühlt, wende sich bitte an:
caroline[at]adazylla.de
soweit nichts anderes vermerkt: (c) caroline elias, caroline@adazylla.de
Esto sĂ es una noticia bien redactada, y lo demás, tonterĂas. Señores redactores de elmundo.es: vale que todos somos humanos y a todos se nos escapan erratas, pero este párrafo roza la indecencia lingĂĽĂstica y periodĂstica y no tiene perdĂłn ni excusa, se mire por donde se mire. Filed under: errores lingĂĽĂsticos, lengua, perlas lingĂĽĂsticas
Heute wurde ich per Twitter gefragt, was helfen könnte, wenn das Upgrade beim Einspielen über das Backend die Grätsche macht. Da das für meine Kunden in absehbarer Zeit auch relevant werden würde, hab ich das gleich mal auf meiner … Weiterlesen
O Rodrigo Farias, do Grupo TIBRA, informa que a Junta Comercial do Estado de Sergipe (JUCESE) está planejando um concurso para Tradutores PĂşblicos e IntĂ©rpretes Comerciais. Ainda nĂŁo há anĂşncio oficial, muito menos edital e tampouco se sabe a quantidade de vagas disponĂveis. Por enquanto sĂł se sabe que o edital deverá sair em março [...]
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This information was brought to you by Fidus Interpres, a translation blog with over 1 million visitors since 2008. The blog is run by Fabio Said, a Brazilian Portuguese translator living in Germany, and the author of a Portuguese-language book about the translation industry. To contact Fabio Said, please click here.
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Este artigo foi publicado no Fidus Interpres, blog de tradução que obteve mais de 1 milhão de visitantes desde 2008. O blog é mantido por Fabio Said, tradutor brasileiro de inglês e alemão residente na Alemanha, autor de Fidus interpres: a prática da tradução profissional. Para contatos com Fabio Said, clique aqui.
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Too many of us translators, me included, get caught up in the source language. We think that our native language is kind of automatic, and we don't have to work on it. This is wrong for the following reasons:
- The target language text is the only thing your client and reader will see.
- No matter how good your translation skill is, if you can't write well in your native language, it is all for naught. The black and white text on the page in your native tongue is the only thing the reader sees of your awesome translation skills.
- Language is constantly evolving. Words are being invented today in my native American English, that I don't know about. I need to keep up.
- If your text is 100% "perfect" from a translation point of view, but does not flow well, you are still going to be viewed as not very good.
This all hit me recently when I picked up two different books on psychology. I love Amazon Kindle and I am constantly reading several books at once (a vice or a virtue, you decide). I bought Daniel Kahnemann's "Thinking Fast and Slow", and Chip and Dan Heany's "Switch". Both are sort of about the same subject: how our minds work and how we can understand them. Switch is more about how to make changes in organizations and ourselves, while "Thinking Fast and Slow" is about the two competing systems in our minds.
Even though Kahenmann's book is considered better and more scientific and "meaty" (he won the Nobel Prize !), I ended up reading not it, but "Switch". Why ? Because, while "Thinking..." is a better book in terms of pure content, "Switch" is just better written, it flows better, it is more fun, and it is written in a peppier, fun style.
This leads me to an insight:
Style beats content.
"Switch" uses metaphors like "the rider" and "the elephant" for our conscious mind and our emotional mind. "Think" classified them as "System 1" and "System 2". I found the elephant rider metaphor more compelling and easier to understand (whenever I am tempted now to break my diet and reach for an extra piece of pizza, I say to myself, the "elephant" wants to eat, but the "rider" has to bring him back "on course", back to the path.
The Heanys just write well. I have no doubt that they have honed their writing over many years. Their content is also not bad, and the book is quite good. But this should be a lesson for us translators: bad style can throw the reader off and you will lose her. (I assume if you have read this far in my blog post, that my style doesn't totally suck, for instance).
One of the reasons that I blog is to practice and hone my native language skills. It is a great way to do that, because you are basically writing short essays, and you are motivated because you know that people are going to read your blog.
Another, related point about writing and keeping up your native language skills is that the best way to work and live as a translator is to live in your home country, and take short trips to big cities in your source language country, according to Durban. This does two things:
- By living at home, you stay up on and hone your native tongue.
- By taking short trips abroad, you can gain direct clients (by meeting them face to face, which Durban thinks is critical for making money in the profession).
One reason that I am glad that I lived in America from 2000 to 2011, is that I honed and got back into my native American English, having lived in Germany from 1992-1999. I think that had I not done that, my native English would have slipped a bit.
There is however hope, if you are a translator living in a country where your native language is not spoken. It is to do the following:
- Constantly read newspapers and magazines in your native tongue
- Try to have friends that speak your native language, in your foreign country
- Be present on social media (Facebook, Twitter). Goes without saying
- Read books like William Zinsser's "On Writing Well". Read "Strunk & White", make it a major goal to be an expert in writing your native language. Read George Orwell's "Politics and the English Language". It is great.
Think of yourself as a writer first, and a translator second.
I know this goes against the grain for most translators, but I am also sure the best, highest-paid translators think this way. The best way to guarantee that you will be a low-paid "intern" in this industry is to think of yourself as a "nuts and bolts" translator who sort of "codes and de-codes" language (see my blog post on that subject). The royal road to being a high-paid professional is to think of yourself as a writer first, who uses translation as a means to prep your content, so that you can then write in your native language. Putting the "writer" in the driver's seat, with the "translator" as the navigator (rather than the other way around) makes a lot of sense to me.
The best translators who make the top money, in addition to being good business people (many have MBAs), also think of themselves primarily as expert writers.
Anthony Pym talks about "re-texting" rather than translating. The notion is that you are a (technical) writer, not a translator, and you are using the source text as a kind of reference (you can still be "faithful" to it !), but you are ultimately writing a totally new text. I think this is very important !
Note that this gives you a lot of power as a translator. As soon as you divorce yourself from the "coding and de-coding" model of translation, you are empowered, and you are writing a new text. I commented on how "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" is much better in English than in the source language, Swedish (see my blog post on that). This is because the translator wrote a whole new novel, using the source as a kind of template or "help".
Note that this gives you a lot of power as a translator. As soon as you divorce yourself from the "coding and de-coding" model of translation, you are empowered, and you are writing a new text. I commented on how "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" is much better in English than in the source language, Swedish (see my blog post on that). This is because the translator wrote a whole new novel, using the source as a kind of template or "help".
So what does this mean, when the rubber hits the road ?
Here is what you can do, after your paradigm change from translator to writer who translates:
- If you are doing economic translation, read "The Financial Times" every day (I do). Read "The Economist". Notice what makes good writing in English. Notice phrases used and terms used. (One of the great things about both those magazines is that, while they are put out from London, their English is a kind of British/International English, which makes a lot of sense to me. It is not "too American", nor "too English", it is just right for the international market).
- Read the "glossy magazines" put out by top-level advertising firms. What stands out and what makes the writing so good ? What flows well. What is concrete in its imagery. What is compelling. What works for you, on an emotional level.
- If you are doing media or art translation (I do), read those magazines and memorize phrases and notice how the syntax flows.
- Blog (like I do) to practice writing.
Excellent native language writing skills are - I am certain - what separates the highly-paid, good translators from the masses of "interns" who code and de-code language. This will only be more true in the near future, when translation uses more and more machine translation and CAT tools, and translators are viewed as "post editors".
It pays (literally) to become an excellent writer.
Today, dear readers, I am reporting back from the United Nations Office at Geneva, Switzerland, where I attended the CIUTIÂ International …
Spiegel Online erweitert mit einer neuen, englischsprachigen iPhone-App seine Mobil-Präsenz. Damit gibt es das internationale Angebot der Nachrichtenseite ab sofort auch auf dem Apple-Smartphone.
Tuesday January 31, 2012
La Dirección General de Traducción de la Comisión Europea ha anunciado los idiomas de las oposiciones para traductores que se convocarán este verano. El español no está entre ellos (lástima), pero si conocéis a traductores que tengan como lengua A el estonio, el francés, el inglés, el irlandés, el letón o el portugués y que puedan estar interesados en trabajar para la UE, decidles que estén atentos a la página de la EPSO a partir del mes de julio.
Otro dĂa, más.
Volunteers for the Twitter Translation Center are working to get the social network site ready for Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew and Urdu.
In another example of crowd-sourced translation efforts, Twitter is opening up to languages that read right-to-left. Volunteer translators are doing the translation and localization groundwork.
The Twitter.com platform itself should be available in Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew and Urdu in the spring, “As soon as…volunteers have completed their translation work,” states a recent blog post from Twitter.
Asking site users to do translation work has been controversial in certain cases. A few years ago, professional translators on LinkedIn balked at the social network’s request to get them to translate the platform for free.
With over 425,000 volunteers already contributing to its Translation Center, Twitter apparently isn’t having such trouble.
So how well do these languages tweet?
Despite some diligent research, I couldn’t locate any information on how Farsi, Hebrew and Urdu fit into a 140-character format.
I did find a blog post showing that Arabic could express a sample 130-character English tweet -- in just 93 characters. So despite its dense appearance to non-readers, Arabic is apparently quite compact – and, so, perfectly adapted to Twitter.
Betty Carlson
See Also
- Language Translation, Inc.
A leading language translation and interpretation service provider for more than 20 years.
American are often accused -- quite rightly -- of having an instinctive weakness for showbiz that causes them to attach all sorts of fripperies and bells and whistles to the most mundane -- or profound -- things. Witness Baconnaise, Christian...
SĂ, lo habĂ©is adivinado, esta entrada no va sobre aplicaciones para iPad. Lo siento, la prĂłxima vez será, lo juro por mis pijamas de traductora autĂłnoma, que aparecen retratados en ese ridĂculo banner nuevo que veis arriba. Tocaba un cambio radical en … Sigue leyendo 
Die Nachrichten häufen sich: Facebook und Google überbieten sich gegenseitig in ihrem Bemühen, immer mehr der persönlichen Daten zusammenzuführen und unter angeblicher Benutzerfreundlichkeit zur Verfügung zu stellen. Nur: Weder Facebook noch Google sind Wohlfahrtsvereine, die aus purer Menschenfreundlichkeit mit hohen … Weiterlesen
ASETRAD ha publicado hoy el nĂşmero 6 de «La Linterna del Traductor». En esta ocasiĂłn el nĂşmero incluye una entrevista de Pilar de Luna y JimĂ©nez de Parga y un artĂculo mĂo acerca del estado actual de la interpretaciĂłn judicial en España y que se titula «Una breve radiografĂa de la interpretaciĂłn judicial en España». [...]
ASETRAD ha publicado hoy el nĂşmero 6 de «La Linterna del Traductor». En esta ocasiĂłn el nĂşmero incluye una entrevista de Pilar de Luna y JimĂ©nez de Parga y un artĂculo mĂo acerca del estado actual de la interpretaciĂłn judicial en España y que se titula «Una breve radiografĂa de la interpretaciĂłn judicial en España». [...]
The other day I was talking to a friend in graduate school about his program and he invited me to his graduation. When I asked when it would be, he answered that he had two semesters left and then he … Continue reading
Bonjour auf den Seiten eines Logbuchs aus dem Inneren der Dolmetscherkabine. Manchmal texte ich meine Einträge aber auch am Schreibtisch oder am Flughafen, denn ich bin Übersetzerin und Dolmetscherin für die französische Sprache, da gehören Reisen zum Beruf. In den letzten Jahren konnte ich mich auf Medien, Politik, Kino und Gesellschaft spezialisieren. Und immer sammele ich Vokabeln ...
Etliche Dolmetscher, die ich kenne, bleiben in den Ferien gern zu Hause, zumindest in einem Teil derselben. Denn Dolmetscher reisen oft, nicht alle, aber die anderen dafĂĽr umso mehr.
Einmal hatte ich zwischen anderen Jobs ein Drehbuch zu übersetzen, es war der Film von Jacob Berger "Ein Tag" (Une journée), der u.a. im Wartebereich eines Flughafen spielt. Recht ausführlich wurde deshalb im Vorfeld des Drehs der Flughafen detailliert beschrieben. Und dann erlebte ich diese merkwürdige Doppelung: Ich saß selbst auf dem Flughafen, wartete auf irgendeinen Anschluss, und tippte eine Geschichte in den Laptop, die am Flughafen spielt.
Viele komische Vokabeln kamen darin vor, zum Beispiel les portiques de détection et de sécurité. Wo ich schon mal vor Ort war, durchlöcherte ich die Sicherheitskräfte ... und lernte das Wort "Türsonde" und dass manche "Torsonde" dazu sagen, außerdem so selten schicke Worte wie "Handsonde" und "Luftsicherheitsassistent". Derjenige, der die Sonde in der Hand hält, heißt übrigens "ein Sonder". Sonderlich ... bizarre, vous avez dit bizarre ?
Ich flog damals einige Monate lang fast jede Woche. Noch Jahre später haben mich die Sicherheitsassistenten erkannt und mir neue Vokabeln zugeraunt, dabei war ich da schon längst bei einem anderen "Drehort".
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Foto: C.E.
Einmal hatte ich zwischen anderen Jobs ein Drehbuch zu übersetzen, es war der Film von Jacob Berger "Ein Tag" (Une journée), der u.a. im Wartebereich eines Flughafen spielt. Recht ausführlich wurde deshalb im Vorfeld des Drehs der Flughafen detailliert beschrieben. Und dann erlebte ich diese merkwürdige Doppelung: Ich saß selbst auf dem Flughafen, wartete auf irgendeinen Anschluss, und tippte eine Geschichte in den Laptop, die am Flughafen spielt.
Viele komische Vokabeln kamen darin vor, zum Beispiel les portiques de détection et de sécurité. Wo ich schon mal vor Ort war, durchlöcherte ich die Sicherheitskräfte ... und lernte das Wort "Türsonde" und dass manche "Torsonde" dazu sagen, außerdem so selten schicke Worte wie "Handsonde" und "Luftsicherheitsassistent". Derjenige, der die Sonde in der Hand hält, heißt übrigens "ein Sonder". Sonderlich ... bizarre, vous avez dit bizarre ?
Ich flog damals einige Monate lang fast jede Woche. Noch Jahre später haben mich die Sicherheitsassistenten erkannt und mir neue Vokabeln zugeraunt, dabei war ich da schon längst bei einem anderen "Drehort".
______________________________
Foto: C.E.
soweit nichts anderes vermerkt: (c) caroline elias, caroline@adazylla.de
A aquellos que vivan en Argentina quizás les interese saber que a partir de abril 2012 se ofertan varios cursos de interĂ©s para intĂ©rpretes organizados por la empresa Excelti. SegĂşn su página web, Excelti es un equipo de traductores e intĂ©rpretes dirigido por Olga Ălvarez de Barr que se dedican, entre otras cosas, a la [...]
Dolmetscher und Übersetzer, die sich für die jüngsten wissenschaftlichen Entwicklungen auf ihrem Gebiet interessieren, können auf ein neues Fachmagazin zugreifen: „TC3 - Translation: Computation, Corpora, Cognition“ lautet der Titel des Journals, das sich mit neuen Erkenntnissen auf dem Gebiet Übersetzen und Dolmetschen befasst. Als „Open Access Journal“ steht es allen Interessenten kostenfrei im Internet zur [...]
While one of the more unpredictable award competitions in years unfolds here, the CĂ©sars will occur in parallel, making me wonder if the symetric calendar (CĂ©sar reveals himself two days before Oscar) could portend anything on the latter, ahem? What looks like a fictionally framed look at French child protective services garnered thirteen nods, followed [...]
It’s (still) that time of year again, as evidenced by my gym, where throngs who’d just as well do just about anything else are . . . at the gym, because . . . of their New Year’s Resolutions! Carrying forward last year’s: Investing myself in my TM tools: 2011 was my best year thus [...]
Sobre pruebas de traducciĂłn se ha escrito mucho (aquĂ, aquĂ, aquĂ y aquĂ) y muy bien. Sin embargo, en todo lo que he leĂdo, siempre he echado algo en falta o ha estado disponible en diferentes ubicaciones. La semana pasada estuve haciendo bastantes pruebas (algunas para clientes muy chulos e importantes ) y, como no [...]
Mit dem Ansatz, das zweisprachige Web als Basis für ein Online-Wörterbuch zu verwenden, erfreut sich Linguee wachsender Beliebtheit. Gerade hat das Startup aus Köln die Marke von zwei Millionen Suchanfragen pro Tag durchbrochen.
This is something that I have been wondering about for almost two years now, since I started blogging at the end of February 2010. Translators and translation agencies who design their blog mainly to attract new customers will probably put emphasis on professional content. But what is in fact “professional content” (is there even such [...]
Tips on how to become a language translator. How to find legitimate online jobs, part time jobs online, home jobs. Learn how to find a profitable niche.
Monday January 30, 2012
What is social networking? Tips to benefit from free social networking sites and social media and how to avoid common mistakes.
Es soll mich einer, nein lieber eine ganze Horde, zurückhalten. Die ONE Konferenz, vom 9. und 10. Mai 2012, ist auf gutem Wege und ich bin so dermassen von den Referatseingaben besoffen, dass ich zusätzlich am 1. Tag Abendtracks von 16.15-19.15 eingeführt habe. Zum Beispiel zum Thema Intranet, das wir gar nicht im Programm hatten. [...]
If so, visit Forvo. What is Forvo? Forvo is the largest pronunciation guide in the world. Ever wondered how a word is pronounced? Ask for that word or name, and another user will pronounce it for you.
Whenever you send a confirmation to a client by email, stating that you will do a proposed job for him or her, you should immediately send a work order listing the job to be done, the amount to be paid, deadline, etc., which contains your terms and conditions (also known as: contract terms, or work order terms, or general terms and conditions, terms of service, etc). Regardless of what you choose to call them, they are very important. They clearly spell out all expectations, and prevent you from being taken advantage of. They make you look like a professional, which is what you are. All businesses do this.
I have been re-writing my German terms and conditions, or work order terms if you want to call them that.
This led me to think about what good order terms should contain. I have written them in Germany and the U.S., having lived on both sides of "The Pond", and so I have a bit of a background. I also am basing this on what experienced translators have included in theirs (I got mine from more experienced translators when I started out), and also what various national translation associations say you should put in them.
By the way, if you don't have written terms and conditions or a work order contract like this and you are sending your translations out, you are:
a. Marking yourself look like a naive non-professional (sorry, but that is just so). You are then much more likely to be taken advantage of by a client, if you don't have a written contract or terms like this.
b. Setting yourself up for some rather nasty surprises down the line, and/or arguments with your clients as to what you both actually meant, when you agreed to the translation, over the phone.
Here is what they should contain (note that I am not an attorney, and this information is thus provided "as is", and you should consult with an attorney in your own country to make sure that your terms are relevant and enforceable in your specific country. Also, this list is not comprehensive, but is more of a starting point, or "best of").
What every translator's terms and conditions should contain:
- Definitions along the lines of, "I am the translator", "you are the client".
- Something that states that you are a freelancer (if you are) and are not working directly for the client as an employee (this can have big tax repercussions !).
- Something to the effect that your work is up to the general standards of your industry and will be carried out along those lines.
- A clause that states that the client is to provide you with proper instructions in writing, as to: the use of the translation, any internal terms, glossaries, and terminology you are to use [that way, if the client later complains about a term you used, you can indicate that he did not provide you with a glossary or style guide or terms list]).
- A clause that says that you as a translator have a right to correct the translation, if the client doesn't like it, before payment terms are changed.
- A clause stating that the client's own terms are not in force unless you agree to them explicitly.
- A clause that limits your liability to the amount of the invoice.
- A clause that says that you will protect client confidentiality, for information the client specifically indicates is confidential.
- A clause indicating within what time period the client must pay (14 days, 30 days, etc.).
- A clause indicating that you include value added tax (VAT), if it applies.
- A clause that says that you retain full ownership of the translation (copyright) until the client pays in full, and that the client has no use rights until full payment is made.
- A clause indicating that the law governing the terms is your home city or nation.
- A clause stating that changes to the contract must be in writing.
That should do it. Try to get a copy from your local translators' association, or off the Internet, or from a more experienced translator.
Terms and conditions or a work order contract or order terms make you look professional, set out very clearly the expectations of both sides, and prevent any confusion down the road. Trust me, this is very important. It makes you look good and protects you and your client.
Als Übersetzerin lernt man ja bekanntlich nie aus. Die tägliche Arbeit allein ist schon eine stetige Weiterbildung in sich, aber je nach Fachgebiet reicht das oft nicht. Nein, ich korrigiere: Wer sich nicht aktiv darum bemüht, in seinem Fachgebiet, ob nun Medizin, Europarecht, KFZ-Technik oder Wirtschaft, auf dem neusten Stand zu bleiben, der verliert schnell [...]
I received the following very helpful message from a contact and am forwarding it for your awareness and consideration. By following the simple instructions you can opt out. “Without attracting too much publicity, LinkedIn has updated their privacy conditions last summer. Without any action from your side, LinkedIn is now allowed to use your name [...]
Via Brad DeLong, signs that European officials are beginning to spot the problem with the "beatings will continue until morale improves" policy: Bowing to mounting evidence that austerity alone cannot solve the debt crisis, European leaders are expected to conclude...
TweetLas prácticas en empresas… o el consabido quebradero de cabeza de actuales y futuros egresados. Obligatorias o no, unas buenas prácticas en empresa pueden convertirse en nuestro primer impulso hacia el mercado laboral. Tener una primera toma de contacto en una empresa relacionada con nuestro sector de estudios puede proporcionarnos el empujĂłn necesario hacia la [...]
Every week we share many interesting blog posts and online articles on translation, interpreting, languages, freelancing, writing, social media, business and travel. If you missed any of the great content that was shared via Twitter last week, here is your chance to catch up. The content is listed in categories based on the topic, so [...]
I received the following request in my e-mail this morning: Hallo liebe Kolleginnen und Kollegen, bitte prüfen Sie sehr kritisch, ob die angehängten Text (nur Beispieldateien zur Ansicht) in Ihrem Fachgebiet liegen und ob Sie die Übersetzung (oder Teile) bis zum genannten Termin übernehmen könnten. Sprache: GB (UK) Umfang: ca. 49.862 Wörter / ca. 294 Seiten [...]
"Think about our sleeping neighbors. Thanks!" Spotted at Haus Schnakertz (g) in Cologne-Nippes, home to the best damn Wiener Schnitzel outside Vienna.
Adam Gopnik on mass incarceration, the 'moral scandal' of contemporary American life: The scale and the brutality of our prisons are the moral scandal of American life. Every day, at least fifty thousand men—a full house at Yankee Stadium—wake in...
Hoje vou responder a mais algumas perguntas que recebi dos leitores do blog nas Ăşltimas semanas. As perguntas de hoje estĂŁo relacionadas com a questĂŁo dos preços de traduções. Muitos estudantes de tradução e tradutores em inĂcio de carreira querem saber como cobrar, qual a mĂ©dia de preços do mercado e coisas assim. Mas essa [...]
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This information was brought to you by Fidus Interpres, a translation blog with over 1 million visitors since 2008. The blog is run by Fabio Said, a Brazilian Portuguese translator living in Germany, and the author of a Portuguese-language book about the translation industry. To contact Fabio Said, please click here.
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Este artigo foi publicado no Fidus Interpres, blog de tradução que obteve mais de 1 milhão de visitantes desde 2008. O blog é mantido por Fabio Said, tradutor brasileiro de inglês e alemão residente na Alemanha, autor de Fidus interpres: a prática da tradução profissional. Para contatos com Fabio Said, clique aqui.
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Who knew that a post about insensitive pastries would unleash such a fine and lively discussion? My thanks to all participants. Just to respond to a couple of points: My role is not to convey American values to my students,...
"Das einseitige Lernen einer einzigen Sprache als Zweitsprache auf der ganzen Welt und die Einsprachigkeit derer, die diese Sprache schon können, sind eine schreiende Ungerechtigkeit und eine bodenlose Dummheit."
"Wer nur eine Sprache beherrscht, versteht oft gar nicht, was Verschiedenheit des Denkens bedeutet."
JĂĽrgen Trabant (* 25. Oktober 1942 in Frankfurt am Main) ist ein deutscher Sprachwissenschaftler. Er lehrt als Professor of European Plurilingualism an der Jacobs University Bremen. (Quelle fĂĽr die Vita: Wikipedia)
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soweit nichts anderes vermerkt: (c) caroline elias, caroline@adazylla.de
Listed below are some tips on how to use Google effectively as a research tool. Here, you will find advanced search operators and other operators which you can utilise to [...]
(D.O.G.news 01/2012)
In der Technischen Dokumentation herrscht weitgehend darĂĽber Konsens, dass Terminologie zur Vereinheitlichung der Firmensprache (”Corporate Language”) eingesetzt werden soll, und das ist auch richtig so. Viele sind an der Erstellung der unterschiedlichen Dokumente und Publikationen eines Unternehmens beteiligt. Es ist daher wichtig, dass sie ein gemeinsames Vokabular verwenden.
Aber bei diesem Ansatz ist eine Komponente [...]
Kilgray Translation TechnologiesKilgray Translation Technologies started 2012 with their first visit to Ireland. The Localisation community here gathered in respectable numbers to greet the makers of memoQ at the Hilton Hotel, Dublin 2, Ireland on Jan. 25.
Peter Reynolds, Executive Director, spoke about the history and vision for Kilgray as a company. István Lengyel, COO, presented memoQ and lead an inspiring audience-driven workshop in the afternoon.
Este mes la Cámara de Comercio de Barcelona ha presentado el estudio La industria en China, elaborado a partir del análisis de los datos econĂłmicos del sector en este paĂs y las entrevistas realizadas in situ a treinta empresas que … Sigue leyendo 
Entstanden aus Domos und Elektronik: beschreibt z.B. das vernetzte und automatisierte Haus, in dem man beispielsweise mit dem Mobiltelefon vor der Ankunft zu Hause die Heizung einschalten kann.
Ever had the feeling the Internet is showing you what it thinks you want to see, but not necessarily what you need to see? The algorithmic editing of the web, as practiced by Google and many other feedback-centered services, tends to serve up what we like, the information dessert, so to speak, whereas we should [...]
Sunday January 29, 2012
I have been working half time for a week while enjoying another passion,  independent, international films at the Sundance Film Festival. This year I signed up as a volunteer to be able to truly...
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TweetWas Daten zu Suchanfragen angeht, ist Google seit jeher vorsichtig. Das durften wir vor allem im letzten Herbst erfahren, als Google mit der Umstellung auf SSL für eingeloggte Nutzer die Verfügbarkeit von Suchanfragen weiter eingeschränkt hat. Dass AdWords-Werbetreibende davon nicht betroffen sind, hat Google viel Kritik eingebracht. Dass es für AdWords-Werbetreibende seit einiger Zeit sogar [...]
... wird diese Brücke im Jargon der Bundestagsmitarbeiter ironischerweise genannt. (Im 2. Bild sieht man rechts oben ihre Spiegelung.) Fotografiert habe ich sie schon im Sommer bei einer Bootstour mit der Patchworkfamilie, den (in seiner Schnoddrigkeit typisch Berliner) Begriff habe ich erst vor kurzem gehört.
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Fotos: C.E. (Sommer 2011)
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Fotos: C.E. (Sommer 2011)
soweit nichts anderes vermerkt: (c) caroline elias, caroline@adazylla.de
Every time when I drive in my car listening to a music station and the announcer says “we’ll be right back, don’t go away”, I automatically hit the button for the next preset station. If that station too has commercials, I keep hitting the buttons until I find music that I can listen to. Sometime, [...]
Google Translate, Microsoft Translator and similar machine translation tools are unsuitable for most mission-critical translation jobs. But Google Translate can be effectively used as an aid for various translation-related tasks. This includes using Google as a back translation tool for validation and QA of translations (see a post I wrote about it here). In today’s [...]
Crear textos de partida unĂvocos y coherentes: un concepto, una palabra unĂvoca. Una idea, una frase, a ser posible corta y sin subordinadas. Adjuntar todo el material de referencia del que dispone (tanto en los idiomas de origen como en los de destino): glosarios, listas de abreviaciones, ilustraciones, páginas web propias y de la competencia, [...]
Daakaka wird nur noch von rund 600 Bewohnern des Inselstaates Vanuatu im SĂĽdpazifik gesprochen. Bevor die Sprache ausstirbt, wollen Wissenschaftler aus Berlin sie dokumentieren. Deren BemĂĽhungen wurden in einem Film beschrieben, dessen zehn Kapitel Ăśberschriften tragen wie “Bedrohter Sprachschatz”, “Weibliche Sprachgenies”, “Tor zur Welt der Buchstaben”, “Ein Wörterbuch fĂĽr Daakie”.
Die Zahl der Sprachen nimmt seit [...]
Daakaka wird nur noch von rund 600 Bewohnern des Inselstaates Vanuatu im Südpazifik gesprochen. Wissenschaftler vom Berliner Zentrum für allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft (ZAS) versuchen, die vom Aussterben bedrohte Sprache zu dokumentieren und suchen nach Möglichkeiten, sie zu bewahren. Das ZAS ist ein außeruniversitäres Forschungsinstitut des Landes Berlin, das auf das Zentralinstitut für Sprachwissenschaft (ZISW) an der [...]
Medidas coercitivas Antes de ejercer medidas coercitivas sobre los clientes, debemos intentar una aproximaciĂłn amistosa. Si no hemos recibido a tiempo el pago de un cliente, debemos otorgarle el beneficio de la duda por unos dĂas. Puede que nuestra factura se haya traspapelado o que el cliente estĂ© de viaje. Cuando llamemos para preguntar por [...]
Deciding on one binding language for international business contracts is essential.
In international business, companies typically sign their contracts in one language only.
When a language is set as the contractual language, the version of the contract in that language becomes the one and only contract. The choice of this binding language must be defined in the controlling contract itself, so there is no possible confusion in case of a dispute or litigation. It is thus clearly inadvisable to draw up contracts where two languages apply.
Translations of a contract can of course be made, even into several languages, but it is understood that these documents serve “for translation purposes only,” and do not replace the real contract.
Deciding what language to use is in itself a strategic decision. You may feel more comfortable with a contract in English, but you must also consider where the contract will be enforced.
For example, if you are working with a Chinese company and the terms of the contract will be enforced in China, you will be better off hiring an English to Chinese translator who will get the translation right for you.
Obviously, finding a highly qualified translator is essential in international business deals. At Language Translation Inc., located in San Diego, California, our experienced translators make the translated documents say exactly what they mean in the context of the other language and culture.
Betty Carlson
See Also
- Language Translation, Inc.
A leading language translation and interpretation service provider for more than 20 years.
