We still have a month left before 2009 comes to a close forever, but Merriam-Webster has already published its “words of the year” (what about the remaining 9% of 2009!?!?!?). The interesting aspect of M-W’s list is that it uses the words that were most looked up on its online dictionary as the basis for [...]
Archive for November, 2009
Translator Training
Friday, November 27th, 2009This concept is extremely important. I am not just talking about the education that a translator receives in their studies, but also about culture in general, which is even more important when a translator is specialized in a certain field or fields.
A translator’s training consists in their ability to master their mother tongue: writing, spelling, [...]
Thanksgiving
Friday, November 27th, 2009Thanksgiving has yet again befallen us, and all around the US (and in the many parts of the world where American expats and Americanophiles happen to be tucked away) folks are likely enduring the several hours of fasting to make space for the turkey, gravy and stuffing bedecked eat-a-thon that descends right about nightfall.
Despite the [...]
Specialized Translation Agencies
Friday, November 20th, 2009Years ago we used to see that translation agencies in various countries of the world would only work with a few language pairs, three or four at most. They worked with only one translation program and its staff was made up of only local translators.
Today the need to satisfy clients and the clients’ growing needs [...]
Health Care and Medical Translations
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009A reform to the health care system in the United States is coming, though the details of the new system are still being worked out. One aspect that is highly important in these proceedings, and often overlooked, is that all policies and practices at insurance companies and hospitals will have to be reworked and reworded. [...]
The Pashto Language
Friday, November 13th, 2009Spoken by the Khan’s or Pashtuns (inhabiting Afghanistan and the west of Pakistan) as well as by groups in India, it is one of the official languages of Afghanistan, along with Dari.
With regards to the linguistic history of Pashto, it comes from the Indo-European language of families, discussed HERE, and more specifically forms part of [...]
The Importance of Language on Websites
Friday, November 13th, 2009As I was searching for something on the Internet, I came across a very interesting point that brings up a topic of great importance for us today.
“If I can’t read it, I’m not buying it”. This is something often heard from people who are trying to make purchases online.
A lot of companies have doubts and [...]
Boosting Business with Website Translation
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009Business leaders in today’s global economic context are feeling pretty beleaguered by all the goings on (or lack thereof) of the present, and many are struggling to come up with ways to inject new life into their operations. A small bit of token advice for such distraught global businesspersons: let website translation be a motor [...]
Translations of Manuals and Handbooks
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009One of the most essential aspects of multinational companies in the 21st century is uniformity of parts, processes, procedures, etc. The offices and factories of the most successful companies look and operate exactly, or nearly exactly, the same at any branch in the world. This allows for clear communication, easier understanding of problems, and the [...]
Automatic Translation?
Friday, November 6th, 2009Automatic translations, better known as machine translations, have experienced something of a resurgence lately. Today, there have been numerous advances in the field of translation, including different programs used for translation. These advances, specifically the programs, have simplified the lives of translators and have shortened delivery times, which has enhanced both productivity and quality (consistency, [...]
Dari
Friday, November 6th, 2009An apocope of “courtly Persian,” fārsi-ye dari is, along with Pashto, one of the principal Persian languages spoken contemporarily in Afghanistan (especially in the capital and the southern and western regions).
This language is also known as “Persian,” “Persawan,” or “Afghan Persian.”
Over half the population are native speakers of this language, and it is the principal [...]
The Importance of Plain Language
Thursday, November 5th, 2009Are you tired of not understanding the texts you read or speeches you listen to? If so, you are most certainly not alone: there are scores of frustrated readers and listeners out there that know they have a fairly decent linguistic level, yet find it simply impossible to understand a lot of what passes today [...]
Subtitling or Dubbing for Multimedia Translations
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009With the ever-increasing presence and importance of online video content, companies looking to enhance their presentations and appearance need to make important decisions regarding how this video content will be communicated in other languages.
There are two choices for how the translated text will be expressed in an online video, which applies to all video content: [...]
