March 2004
Inverted commas
March 31, 2004
Going around my local shops yesterday, I noticed the following sign outside my butcher's: "fresh" chicken legs I don't quite understand what they wanted to achieve here with these inverted commas. When they don't introduce a quote, inverted commas are...
Spelling bee
March 29, 2004
In his comment on Être et avoir, Anthony mentioned Spellbound, a wonderful documentary on children competing in spelling bees (contests in which competitors are eliminated as they fail to spell a given word correctly) in the USA. This led me...
Turning down jobs
March 26, 2004
Yesterday, I turned down a large job (roughly 75,000 words) offered by a nice, professional and reliable client who has always agreed to my rates. I agonised over it for quite a while. The subject matter was psychometric assessments, with...
Reflexive pronouns
March 24, 2004
Is it me or are reflexive pronouns used in an increasingly incorrect manner? I'll admit that this is one abuse of grammar that makes me want to reach for a chainsaw annoys me slightly. Consider these examples: "My mother, my...
Être et avoir
March 22, 2004
I finally saw the film Être et avoir (Nicolas Philibert, 2002) this weekend. Everything conspired against me seeing it when it was showing in Brighton, so, after months of hearing how wonderful it is, I got to watch it on...
Translation of EU laws by new members
March 19, 2004
A snippet of translation-related news for you courtesy of Le Nouvel Observateur: more than half of the ten countries that are going to join the European Union on May 1st still haven't finished translating 85,000 pages of European laws into...
The Bee's Knees
March 17, 2004
Well, I'm astounded. The bee's knees?? That's an expression? And all these years I've thought people were saying business in a funny way. Thanks to today's entry on Open Brackets, I can now stop giving my very own version of...
Blog
March 15, 2004
Here are the translations I've found for blog: Blog Blogue Weblog Joueb Webjournal Carnet Web Carnet virtuel Cybercarnet Blog-notes From this list, I like carnet Web, because it is quite short and accurately describes what a blog is: a logbook...
Twitten
March 12, 2004
I'm absolutely snowed under and have no time to write extensively, but I thought I'd share this adorable little gem of a word I discovered while translating a brochure on events happening in Sussex this summer. It's a Sussex dialect...
Transposition
March 10, 2004
HEALTH WARNING: do not proceed with reading this entry unless you are interested in translation theory in its driest form. Your brain might switch itself off in protest. Last week, I translated a documentary on the Trojan wars, and I...
Evil
March 8, 2004
The way politicians have been using the word evil in the last few years has been really bothering me. The latest example was Tony Blair saying on Tuesday, after the attacks in Baghdad and Karbala: "If there was any clearer...
Interpreting nightmare
March 5, 2004
I've been away interpreting for two days in Hastings. This meeting certainly pushed my adaptation skills to the limit, as I had to deal with three very different styles of presentation, all with their own challenges. I think that, although...
Good fences make good neighbours
March 1, 2004
I found this expression while subtitling an episode of The Dukes of Hazzard. It is meant to indicate that the best way to maintain cordial relationships with your neighbours is to make sure their space and yours are clearly demarcated....