August 2005
Fifty French Farmers
August 31, 2005
Yesterday I accompanied fifty French farmers (okay, it was more like forty-seven, but fifty sounds better) around the beautiful, beautiful Sussex countryside, where they were looking at how their English counterparts are dealing with change in their industry. It was...
Testing
August 25, 2005
The French have a fondness for borrowing English words that actually don't exist. After le parking, (where you park your cars), le camping (where you park your tents), here comes le testing. Now I know testing exists in English, but...
I woz hacked
August 17, 2005
To David (you didn't leave your email address in the feedback form, so I can't reply to you) and others who might have been worried when a blank page showing "spykids ownz you" replaced this site between 4:30am and 9:30am:...
Quiet times
August 16, 2005
It feels ironic to be writing about how to use quiet periods to make sure they don't stretch for too long when I've been turning work down almost daily in the last three weeks (hence the lack of regular posts...
Quinoa and plonk
August 10, 2005
It's not every day that you learn a new word AND a new foodstuff! One of my healthier office buddies was having quinoa (keen-wah), a seed related to spinach, last week for lunch, so I tried it last night and...
Institute of Linguists Chartered status – frequently asked questions
August 5, 2005
Henry Pavlovich, director of the IoL, answers questions. From The Linguist, August-September (44,4) How it affects the IoL 1. What is the effect of the Charter on the existing Institute of Linguists (IoL)? The Chartered IoL would be a new...
Translating Harry Potter
August 3, 2005
The BBC website reports that unofficial translations of the latest Harry Potter book have started reaching certain markets and being sold. According to the story, "the unofficial translation omitted several paragraph of actions and contained some mistranslations, such as swapping...
The English church
August 1, 2005
Preparation is everything when interpreting. And I mean, everything. Your clients count on you to communicate in the most natural manner possible, and you can only do that efficiently if you are familiar enough with the subject matter and terminology...