We Don’t Charge Minimums to Nonprofits. End of Story.
We have been pretty busy lately, which is something that I certainly can’t complain about. Our clients are doing great things for their constituents worldwide and, as a result, they need an increasing amount of translation to make their good deeds go further. A few times in the past weeks, I’ve found myself with all of our usual linguists booked up and have had to look elsewhere for translators. (Sometimes it happens. We’ll be doing some heavy recruiting at the 52nd Annual American Translators Association Annual Conference in Boston at the end of October. If you’re a translator, please come …read more
Non Verbum e Verbo Sed Sensum Exprimere de Sensu
If you’re a translator, chances are you know what the title of this post means. If not, you probably think it’s something you’d hear at Catholic Mass. What it is, actually, is a quote by the patron saint of translators, St. Jerome, who wisely advised us to look at the deeper meaning of a text instead of just the words that comprise it. I was reminded of this quote the other day when I watched the launch of STS-135, the last trip for NASA’s Space Shuttle Program. (As a side note, I remember watching the first launch back in April …read more
Traumatic Brain Injury
The Washington Post has published an excellent report on Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and how it has been affecting US soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. I immediately thought of our client, Brain Injury Services, Inc., and the excellent work that they do with adults and children, helping them to build the skills and confidence they need to be able to have a productive life. We have a contract with BIS to provide interpretation at meetings between BIS staff and the brain injured person and their family. We’ve assisted at psychiatrist meetings, case update meetings, neurological testing, evaluations, and meetings …read more
Can You Guess Who Speaks Konglish?
Sorry, it’s not King Kong. Good try, though. Konglish is actually what Kim Seong-Kon, a professor of English at Seoul National University, and president of the Association of Korean University Presses, calls that odd mix of Korean and English that you can see on signs and menus when traveling all over Korea. It’s rarely proofed by a native English speaker, and often leads to some very unusual translations. Dr. Kim cites numerous examples in his article, published in today’s Korea Herald, but some of the more interesting ones he’s seen are a Korean dish called “omma son mat cheong guk …read more
Take This Sign to the I.C.U. – Stat!
So I’m sitting at the Virginia Hospital Center, waiting as my poor hubby undergoes back surgery for a herniated disk, and I decided to pay a visit to the ladies’ room before heading to get some lunch. I was saddened — no, embarrassed — no, horrified — no, ASHAMED when I saw this sign above the toilet. Even if you only took some high school Spanish back in the last Ice Age, you probably know that “please” in Spanish is “por favor”. It’s NOT “for favor”. The English says sanitary napkins OR paper towels. The Spanish leaves off all mention …read more
Upcoming Russian Translation Conference at Columbia University
Just passing along an interesting opportunity: The Politics and Pragmatics of Translation in the USSR: The Daily Life of Language in a Multi-National Empire Thursday, 07 April 2011–Friday, 08 April 2011 Room 1512, International Affairs Building. Sponsored by The Harriman Institute at Columbia University. This conference will bring together scholars from various disciplines across the humanities and social sciences to discuss the politics of language and the pragmatics of language policy under state socialism in one of the most linguistically diverse regions of the world. Invoking “translation” in the broadest terms, the conference will address such topics as the art …read more
That Virgin Can Sure Shake Her Booty
That got your attention, didn’t it? Just further proof to the fact that there’s always more than one way to translate a word, I’d like to point out that the latest edition of the New American Bible, coming out on March 9, is going to change “booty” to “spoils” (because “booty” is generally now reserved for shakin’ and callin’) and “virgin” to “young woman” (because the source word in Hebrew, “almah”, doesn’t necessary mean that the girl is a virgin). The former is semantics. The latter could have interesting repercussions. Never a dull moment in this field, I say!
Newsletter Recap
Our February newsletter went out yesterday via email to some of our favorite people. Did you miss it? Did we miss you? Please make sure to sign up on the website to receive the monthly publication. We’ll also send you special offers and discounts– and you’ll look like quite the hero to the CFO at your organization! In the meanwhile, go ahead and read the newsletters you missed here. We know it’s a guilty pleasure. We promise we won’t tell anyone. And if there’s something specific you’d like to see addressed in a future newsletter, drop us a line. We’d …read more
Translating Freedom
With all that’s been going on in the Egypt these past couple weeks — and what’s now spilled over to Bahrain, Iran, Tunisia, and others — I was very excited to see that the National Centre for Translation (an Egypt-based organization) is offering an encyclopedia with well-crafted translations of the constitutions of the United States, France, Germany, China, India, the Russian Federation, Japan, Brazil, Italy, Australia, Greece and Iran. They’re doing this to raise awareness and increase participation in the political process. Thank you, NCT, for promoting reform in this especially oppressed area of the world!
Crowdsourcing Gone Right
Here’s an excellent example of where “crowdsourcing” (delegating a task to a large diffuse group, usually without monetary compensation) has gone right. In Taiwan, the public was asked to report any incorrect signs they found in English. As a result, 72 signs with strange wording or grammatical mistakes have been fixed. Things like “steamed pork bun” had been translated as “hot meat package”. Yikes!
