These were all at one time or other real websites. (Apparently). It’s childish, but so what?! It’s Friday 🙂 [Read more…]
Mobile translating at its best
This has nothing at all to do with translation. Except that, much like my profession of choice, it too is utterly, impossibly cool.
I’ve decided to divert our house-deposit fund towards this instead – a steal at US$129,000. Can’t you just see me translating away in the front passenger seat?!
HT to Bridgette over at Unclutterer for the link.
Friday funnies: Home office fiction vs reality
There’s a funny post over at new media producer Ian MacKenzie’s blog, contrasting what home office workers want you to think they are doing with what they are actually doing. Strangely enough, it reminds me more of my experiences working in a call centre than a home office. Much like working in the food industry, you really cannot imagine what goes on behind the scenes until you’ve worked in one yourself 🙂
Friday funnies: Hey, who transmogrified our office?!
Office jargon is one of those topics that’s so commonplace and overdone, at times it can seem like it’s just not funny anymore. But the following gem really made me laugh – a combination of the offending term itself and the amusing reaction of the “whistleblower”:
17. “I work in one of those humble call centres for a bank. Apparently, what we’re doing at the moment is sprinkling our magic along the way. It’s a call centre, not Hogwarts.”
Caroline Garlick, Ayrshire
Definitely time for the weekend when it comes to that!
This is from the BBC’s list of the 50 best worst examples of office speak, gleaned in response to Lucy Kelleher’s campaign against office jargon.
Big hat tip to Percy Baleman over at Translating is an Art for the BBC link.
Yes, but will it do my ironing?
I’m interested in new technologies and I enjoy jumping in and giving something a try. But I’m definitely not a techie and I often get bored by the trumped-up buzz around the latest virtual bells and whistles. So I had to chuckle when I saw Robin Blandford’s plea to would-be inventors last week:
Go get a hobby off your computer and solve a real problem…
If your idea is technology for technologists it probably won’t go anywhere. Go find a real problem that real people have and solve that.
Makes me think of something else I read recently, which said we should divide software manufacturers’ claims by ten to get a remotely realistic idea of what an application might actually offer us.
Gotta love those straight-talking Irish bloggers.
Beware the dreaded office-worker disease :)
… and no, it’s not RSI. How many of these do you find yourself suffering from?!
I’m not sure I agree with the diagnosis, mind you – I suspect they’re ailments common to all office workers in this day and age!
H/T to an anonymous comment on Rowan Manahan’s excellent Fortify Your Oasis blog.
RSS readers may have to click through to view, but trust me, it’s worth it.
Wondering what to buy the pedant in your life?
Try one of these… just what (s)he always wanted!
From Grammar Girl‘s Quick and Dirty Tips website shop.
Friday funnies: Make the naked translator into a super translator
I found this on a post from Translatorscafe dated WAY back to 2004. Ellen Kapuzniak was the original poster, and she called for translators to “dress” their stick-translator with the attributes required for a super translator, and then upload the results. Some of my favourite attributes include what looks like a million fingers (all the better to type 1,234,567,890 words per minute, apparently) and a fixed grin to dispel all doubts from the minds of prospective clients (sounds like my profile photo for Proz).
What would you add to the picture to make a super translator?
And more importantly, why am I faffing about with this today? I have a 5.30pm deadline that’s only getting closer…
Friday funnies: Shakira in Translation
I’ve always thought Shakira‘s English lyrics were poetic, but here’s another point of view 🙂
Top Ten Misconceptions about Translation and Translators
I’ve just found this great little piece on the website of NOTIS, a chapter of the American Translators Association (ATA). I don’t normally reproduce clips this long in full, but this one is worth it 🙂
Top Ten Misconceptions about Translation and Translators:
by Caitilin Walsh. Reprinted from the August 1994 ATA Chronicle.10. Anybody with two years of high school language (or a foreign-tongued grandmother) can translate.
9. A good translator doesn’t need a dictionary.
8. There’s no difference between translation and interpretation.
7. Translators don’t mind working nights and weekends at no extra charge.
6. Translators don’t need to understand what they’re translating.
5. A good translator doesn’t need proofing or editing.
4. Becoming a translator is an easy way to get rich quick.
3. Translation is just typing in a foreign language.
2. A translator costs $49.95 at Radio Shack and runs on two ‘C’ batteries.And the #1 misconception about translation and translators:
1. That marketing copy that took a team of 20 people two months to put together can be translated overnight by one person and still retain the same impact as the original.
Seems to me the image of translators hasn’t changed much since 1994… but I’d love to be contradicted. Does anyone disagree?
Incidentally, NOTIS has a page full of interesting articles and resources on client education – definitely worth a look.