October 2004
Break
October 27, 2004
We're off to Prague for a few days, so I've closed the comments on most of my entries (I hope!) to try and deter spammers. Na shledanou!...
Terrorism
October 25, 2004
The word terrorism stems from "la Terreur", a period in French history. In 1793, the revolution was in danger of being overturned and the country was about to be invaded. As a consequence, the French government implemented the Reign of...
Payment problems
October 22, 2004
I have a client who I like working with, but I've always had to send reminders to get paid. My payment terms are 30 days from day of invoice, unless otherwise agreed. A couple of weeks ago he called to...
Shibboleth
October 20, 2004
During my morning reading of the Guardian, I found this sentence in an article by Jonathan Freedland: America's centre of gravity has moved rightward, creating a set of shibboleths that cannot be challenged. Shibboleths? According to the OED, it is...
Pronunciation issues
October 18, 2004
This weekend I was given a great little book, Schott's original miscellany, by Ben Schott, "a unique collection of fabulous trivia." The first article I read was about curious surname pronunciation. Here are a few examples: As written As pronounced...
Meeting the clients
October 15, 2004
Yesterday I did something I had never done before: I met clients in the flesh, as well as other freelance translators (Italian, Spanish and German) who have been working for them. It is very odd to think that in four...
To call a spade a spade and To rain cats and dogs
October 13, 2004
You know the expression "to call a spade a spade"? Well, in French, it's "appeler un chat un chat" (To call a cat a cat). And here, it's raining cats and dogs, but in France it would be raining halberds...
Nobody understands me
October 11, 2004
My sister sells tickets in a French train station and is in amost daily contact with English speakers, so she's been sent on an English course. She has a first assessment this week, during which she'll have to answer simple...
Inconsistent
October 8, 2004
I'm absolutely snowed under but wanted to take time to share one of those little victories that make me happy to be a translator : I am currently translating human resources documents for a very big Internet company, which I...
Lame duck
October 6, 2004
These days, it seems that whenever you get "Tony Blair" in a sentence, sooner or later you'll hear "lame duck". Here is the origin of this odd expression : The phrase "lame duck" was first applied on the London Stock...
Wanted: English speaker
October 4, 2004
I received an e-mail from Jenny, a theatre director who's working on translating a French play into English. She asked for my help understanding and translating the following sentence: Elle s'imposait, en une sorte d'excuse, d'indulgence préalable. This is the...