Another important question in this area is not to presume anything, especially that all members of the group have the same information. The coordinator must establish a work plan with all the information and analyze it with the necessary frequency as it is modified or develops.
The risk assessment is another one of the manager’s key [...]
Archive for January, 2009
Project Management for Translations (Second Part)
Friday, January 30th, 2009Translation experts
Thursday, January 29th, 2009As we all know, the doors that the world of translation open for us are countless and one of them is the possibility of working as an expert translator.
What does an expert translator do? They are trained and certified professionals in the field of translation who are responsible for testifying in court about any controversy [...]
President Obama, the Power of Words, and Official Chinese Translation
Monday, January 26th, 2009Following up on my post from last week on President Obama and the power of words, it’s interesting to note how the words in President Obama’s inauguration speech were evidently deemed by the Communist Party of the People’s Republic of China to be too powerful for the people of China. Not only was the live [...]
Research
Friday, January 23rd, 2009 We often get a translation on a topic that we don’t know in detail. What should we do? We have a few possibilities:
If we find the terminology and content of the document(s) to be too complex and the amount of text involved would require research on our part that would take too much time [...]
Project Management for Translations (First Part)
Friday, January 23rd, 2009The coordinator of translation projects or Project Manager (PM) promotes a work environment in which reigns the uniformity of criteria. In this sense, the coordinator of the project is the nexus among all participants. His/her mission is to assure that the team is informed and motivated and that each one of the team members works [...]
The Economist cracks down on Americanisms
Thursday, January 22nd, 2009The Economist is the well-known and acclaimed magazine newspaper(!) about…well, economics…that is published in the UK. One of its proudest principles is how it likes to take stands on issues and argue in favor of or against topics. It is read by important, influential, and intelligent people throughout the world. So as I was thumbing [...]
President Obama and The Power of Words
Thursday, January 22nd, 2009Tuesday night, at some moment during my CNN and BBC viewing marathon of inaugural activities and the apparent zenith of Obamamania, one of the many political analysts/commentators referred to “the power of words”. Although I’ve read one of Barack’s books and seen dozens of his debates and speeches, never underwhelmed by the man’s use of [...]
The RAE Dictionary
Tuesday, January 20th, 2009What do we mean when we say that the RAE (Real Academia Española) Dictionary is the only “accepted” dictionary for translating into or from Spanish? Simply put, it means that our work must be able to base itself on the norms and standards established by the institution. That is the reason that its dictionary [...]
How to search for terms or add a new term in MultiTerm:
Monday, January 19th, 2009When we are translating, surely we might want to add terms in order to complete our termbase or to search for a term in order to maintain the consistency of the translation.
To search for a term:
A. Go to the MultiTerm window and enter the term. If you don’t want to write the whole word or [...]
Lost in Translation:
Friday, January 16th, 2009The administration of the City of Buenos Aires, headed by the businessman Mauricio Macri, appears to have translated and adopted a common environmental campaign slogan in Brazil for its own faux environmental policy marketing and political greenwashing purposes. However, the direct translation to Spanish of the Brazilian phrase “Jogue Limpo” loses the polysemy which makes [...]
Sapir-Whorf and Experimentation
Thursday, January 15th, 2009If any of you languagephiles out there are not familiar with the Spair-Whorf hypothesis, it posits that the language a person speaks influences his or her thought patterns perception of the world. I have always found this fascinating for a variety of reasons, but especially when considering something like word order in the construction of [...]
Different Ways of Celebrating the New Year
Wednesday, January 14th, 2009As we saw in the last article that in different countries Christmas is celebrated differently, New Year’s is similarly celebrated differently in different countries.
In Germany, they say goodbye to the year with a toast in honor of St. Sylvester, and they receive the New Year with fireworks in order to ward off bad spirits. It’s [...]
Christmas Traditions
Tuesday, January 13th, 2009In this special time of year, I would like to interrupt our MultiTerm classes in order to talk about the different ways in which Christmas is celebrated in different parts of the world.
While the objective of the celebration may be the same, in every country different traditions are adopted.
In Argentina, children write letters to Santa [...]
“Voseo”
Friday, January 9th, 2009What does it mean to use “vos” instead of “tú” when speaking Spanish? It’s a phenomenon that has its origins in the Spanish spoken in Argentina and Uruguay where the abovementioned subject change is used when talking to someone. Generally speaking, “vos” is used as a replacement for “tú” in conversations and texts where [...]
Neutral Spanish
Thursday, January 8th, 2009
What does “neutral Spanish” mean? This has been a hotly debated topic in many sectors, particularly in the field of translation.
It has been decided that neutral Spanish is the form of Spanish that is broad enough to be understood in any Spanish-speaking country. But…is this goal even possible? Does neutral Spanish really even [...]
Adventures in Subtitling and Soccer
Tuesday, January 6th, 2009I am in the midst of a true culture war here in Argentina, and all I have for protection is my trusty blanket. I was watching a broadcast of “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” the other night that was subtitled in Spanish for consumption throughout the South American Spanish-speaking countries, including Argentina, and his guests [...]
Tips for new (or not so new) interpreters
Friday, January 2nd, 2009As we ring in the new year (Happy 2009!), I thought it fitting to provide the list of tips that the AIIC (Association Internationale des Interprètes de Conférence) for any of my readers who are embarking on a new career as an interpreter to coincide with the start of a new year. This is the [...]
