Blog

01
Oct

Old-fashioned words

According to a study carried out by Lancaster University and Cambridge University Press, some once-popular English words are fading from use. “Marvellous”, “fetch” and “pussy cat” are all words which have fallen from favour, while the new-fangled “awesome”, “internet” and “treadmill” are on the up. The previously oft-used “cheerio” has been replaced with “see you later”, and “Walkman” has been overtaken by “smartphone”.

Read more: http://tinyurl.com/qcylscm

 

 

28
Sep
26
Sep

Incomparable vs. uncomparable

Two or more things that can’t be compared with each other are uncomparable.
Something that is so good that it is beyond comparison is incomparable. Some dictionaries don’t list
Some dictionaries don’t list uncomparable, and your spell check might say it’s wrong, but it’s a perfectly good, useful word. It fills a role not conventionally filled by incomparable.

Source: Grammarist

25
Sep

Verbal-Linguistic Test

Are you good with the written and spoken word? Do you communicate with style or find yourself stumbling over your words? Find out where you stand with this (tought) test. language_admission_test_graduate_school_0

Please note that this assessment is meant for those whose first language is English.

Take the test

24
Sep
23
Sep

Translation misconceptions

1) If you know a foreign language, you can be a translator
2) Translating is easy
3) Computers can now do translations
4) Having a professional translation is not crucial

Source: translatorbase.com

23
Sep

The bilingual mind – Aneta Pavlenko

the bilingual mind aneta pavlenko

If languages influence the way we think, do bilinguals think differently in their respective languages? And if languages do not affect thought, why do bilinguals often perceive such influence? For many years these questions remained unanswered because the research on language and thought had focused solely on the monolingual mind. Bilinguals were either excluded from this research as ‘unusual’ or ‘messy’ subjects, or treated as representative speakers of their first languages. Only recently did bi- and multilinguals become research participants in their own right. Pavlenko considers the socio-political circumstances that led to the monolingual status quo and shows how the invisibility of bilingual participants compromised the validity and reliability of findings in the study of language and cognition. She then shifts attention to the bilingual turn in the field and examines its contributions to the understanding of the human mind.

More info

 

 

22
Sep
21
Sep
21
Sep

Reviewing the reviewer:-(

THE FACTS

You find a potential client. You send them your CV and they love it. They ask you to do a test translation. When you receive their test, you think “Piece of cake.” You do the translation using the best of your knowledge and send it back to the client. You’re abso-freaking-lutely that your test is perfect and that you’ll get a pass.

THE PROBLEM

Instead, you receive an email from the potential client, who regrets to tell you that you failed. How’s that possible? How did your perfect test end up in their Trash folder? Angry and frustrated as you are, you ask them to send you their reviewer’s corrections. And they do.

THE HEART ATTACK

When you open the revised file, you see that their reviewer has corrected your translation based on an imaginary grammar! In other words, the reviewer has fallen into the pit of common grammar errors and traps.

What do you do? Dbigstock-Very-angry-woman-19666925o you correct the reviewer’s corrections? It’s sad to realize that a non-professional translator managed to sell his inadequate proofreading services to your potential client and that now you are the one who failed:-(

This has happened three times so far in my 16-year career. Of course I did correct the reviewer’s corrections, by inserting comments with explanations, arguments and references to the appropriate grammar rules. I had to prove that the reviewer was wrong. And I did it!

THE RESULT

At the end, the potential client apologized for this misunderstanding, terminated their co-operation with their reviewer and asked me to sign their NDA.

A win-win situation, if you are the lucky one to receive your file back from the reviewer. We all know that clients hardly give you feedback about your test piece:(

But it’s worth trying!