August 2009

Bone of contention

August 28, 2009

Why a picture of apples on an entry dedicated to the expression "Bone of contention", you wonder? Well, that is the beauty of translation: you start with a bone and end up with an apple. Let me explain. I...

Home

August 24, 2009

In the middle of the calm and deserted countryside an empty motorway stretches as far as the eye can see, unused since its construction. By the side of the road, only a few yards from the safety barriers, is...

Back-up system

August 20, 2009

While working on the redesign of the blog, I realised that my Translator’s tools category is rather bare: 12 entries in six years compared to 86 and 140 in the Freelance translation and Words categories respectively. It says a lot...

Guest post: 20 Free Online Resources for French Language Learners

August 13, 2009

When Karen got in touch with me about guest blogging here, I wasn't sure that a post on resources for French language learners would be entirely appropriate to this blog, but then I received her article and was so impressed...

All mouth and trousers

August 9, 2009

How I love being right. The other day, two of my Northern coworkers were politely but skeptically listening to me telling them that “All mouth and no trousers” is a Southern corruption of the original Northern expression “All mouth and...

Advice to an interpreting student

August 6, 2009

Q I'm a third-year student majoring in English. My dream is to become an interpreter. First of all, I'm concerned about the requirements when it comes to pronunciation and accents. My native language is French - I read that one...

Tattoo

August 3, 2009

Another weekend, another great British city: Edinburgh, one of my favourite places. It is getting ready for the upcoming Festival and, amongst many cultural highlights, its famous military tattoo. I was intrigued by this word, so of course I looked...