Love Your Translator

Ah, translators! Invisible, overworked, underpaid, and…underloved? Check out the Love Your Translator campaign and Facebook page. Get some stickers and show love for translators!

Danish

This comedy sketch may be old news to some of you, but I only recently was introduced to it and it made me laugh. It’s about how difficult Danish can be to understand, even for Danes. I lived 20 minutes from Denmark for years, and I still would rather speak English to a Dane!

Illustrated “Untranslatable” Words

I really liked these pictures of untranslatable words, but I do have to question the premise: if the words/concepts aren’t translatable, how can they be turned into illustrations? Drawing is a form of translation too, right?

Word Crimes

By now, many of you will have seen Weird Al Yankovic’s music video “Word Crimes”, but I couldn’t help linking to it anyway. It’s way better than the original song it is parodying (I won’t give any publicity to the song and artist by naming them), and it’s a funny, tongue-in-cheek treat for word nerds.

Common Grammar Mistakes

Okay, this video is really silly, but it does helpfully explain some common spelling/grammar mistakes, so it’s worth checking out.

Word Nerds and Scrabble

I can’t help it – as a word-lover, I’m a big fan of Scrabble. Travel Scrabble accompanies me on many trips and I regularly play Scrabble online with my mother, who lives 4000 miles away.

Scrabble and Bananagrams are favorite games to play with some of my other word nerd friends. And I play Alfapet (also now called Scrabble), the Swedish version of the game too.

It’s not just that it’s a fun game. It also helps teach me new words and keep other words fresh in my mind. So it’s beneficial and relaxing and enjoyable all at once.

So when my partner showed me this video with tips for how to improve at Scrabble, I had to watch.

Translation as a Comic Strip

This is a fun blog/book/comic strip, which features a translator and his adventures in comic format. There are so many metaphors for translation and perhaps translation is a comic strip could be one too, but regardless of that, check the site out.

Word Nerds ‘R’ Us

This list of the “50 Coolest Online Tools for Word Nerds” is definitely for me. It has links to references sites and sites where you can play games, among many other things. As a proud word nerd who plays Scrabble regularly and works with language on a daily basis, I enjoyed the list.

A Round-Up of Articles

As you read this, I am at a conference, attending stimulating sessions on the connection between authors and translators (and I’m giving a talk myself, on the Swedish author and translator Gösta Knutsson). Here’s some interesting reading to keep you occupied while I’m away.

The first article is about the use of French in France, and how this compares to the way many Americans complain about the role of Spanish in the U.S.

Next is a piece on linguistics, which includes the sentence: ‘Language diversity is the “crucial fact for understanding the place of language in human cognition”’.

The Swedish author Stieg Larsson has become a worldwide phenomenon and this article explores him and his work, including its translation. I don’t usually read thrillers myself, but I have read and enjoyed his first book in Swedish, and I plan to read the next two while I’m at home next month, recovering from surgery.

Here, Edith Grossman explores translating Quixote.

The next piece on all the languages in NYC and on preserving languages.

Finally, have a laugh with these funny signs from around the world.

Multilingual Eye Chart

In non-Latin-alphabet-employing countries, what do people use for eye charts when they go to the optometrist? Certainly not the standard one in the US or the UK, which is now being replaced by computerized projections. This question never occurred to me until I learned of multilingual eye chart. While this multilingual eye chart would not be practical for actual use, it is enjoyable to look at, and would be fun to have in the classroom.

Fun Foreign Vocabulary Words

I recently mentioned The Wonder of Whiffling website and now want to also mention its sister site, The Meaning of Tingo. I love books and websites on unusual words.

The Five Things Tag

Erika Dreifus tagged me on 23 December and I actually wrote this up right away, but since I had other posts planned, it is a month later that I am posting this.

What were you doing five years ago (December 2003)?

1. Living in Helsingborg, Sweden.
2. Trying to adjust to life in Sweden, even after having already spent 2.5 years there.
3.Teaching English at a variety of schools around southern Sweden, and thus spending a lot of time commuting.
4. Translating, editing, and writing (much like I do today).
5. Working towards an MFA in fiction.

What were five things on your list for today?

1. Finish a book review.
2. Write a draft of an article based on some of my research.
3. Try to get rid of my terrible back pain.
4. Attempt to find the holiday presents I had hidden and then forgot where I hid them!
5. Get organized for my trip to Chicago to visit my family (as I post this, I am now back from said trip!).

What are five snacks you enjoy?

1. Dark chocolate.
2. My grandmother’s noodle kugel and cookies (which I have now enjoyed in Chicago!).
3. Matzoh spread with peanut butter or sunflower seed butter.
4. Plantain chips.
5. Fruit, especially bananas and apples.

What are five things you'd do if you were a billionaire?

1. Charity would be the number one way I’d spend the money, with a particular emphasis on charities related to education/literacy, to medical research, and to providing food, clean water, and a source of livelihoods to people.
2. I would want to make sure my relatives and friends had enough money for living expenses, education, and other necessities, as well as for some special treats.
3. I’d travel more, including more frequent trips to visit relatives. My trips would also include lots of time spent at museums and at interesting restaurants.
4. I’d like to have one permanent house/apartment that I’d do up very nicely, with a wonderful kitchen where I could happily cook and bake and also a library with lots of lovely books.
5. Like Erika, I’ve long fantasized about starting a publishing company. In my case, I’d like one that focused on literary translations to English. While running it, I’d also continue my own translation work, as well as my research, writing, and editing. So having money would not necessarily buy me time!

What are five jobs you've had?

1. Translator, writer, and editor (okay, so I’ve had these same jobs for a long time!).
2. Acquisitions editor at a publishing company (although I got paid minimum wage for that!).
3. Teaching a writing workshop at a senior citizens’ home.
4. Tutor in Latin and math.
5. One summer I worked as a temp while also studying and that included work at a candy exhibition. The smell of sugar was truly sickening after a few hours.

Who are five people you want to tag?

1. Eric Dickens.
2. Andrew Shields.
3. Ola Wikander. (And now with a blog in English, too!)
4. Simon Ager.
5. Chad Post.

A Site for Word Nerds

I'm an admitted linguaphile (or a word nerd, as some of my friends so very politely term me), so I enjoy this site, where I can indulge my frequent desire for unusual new words.

Wild Words from the Voice of America

Someone from Voice of America contacted me to suggest I might be interested in a new blog by one of VOA’s reporters, Ted Landphair. This blog is about various places Mr. Landphair has visited and it features a section entitled Wild Words, where he explains some of the unusual terms he comes across. I’d never heard of “burley” before and I liked the phrase “red-headed stepchild.”

The Smell of Books

I can’t be the only bibliophile to love the smells of books and of libraries. Leather, a hint of dust or mustiness, ink, even pipe tobacco. Mmmm.

So for my birthday a few weeks ago, I was very pleased to receive an amazing perfume called In the Library. This is one of many unusual scents created by Christopher Brosius. I recommend it for all book-lovers!

Speaking of Punctuation…

Well, after reading Alfie the Apostrophe, I was in the mood for more punctuation. So I was glad Erika Dreifus sent me this article.

And further speaking of punctuation, what punctuation mark are you? I’m a colon! Take this silly quiz to find out.

Here’s what the quiz says about me and all the other colons out there:

You Are a Colon

You are very orderly and fact driven. You aren't concerned much with theories or dreams... only what's true or untrue. You are brilliant and incredibly learned. Anything you know is well researched. You like to make lists and sort through things step by step. You aren't subject to whim or emotions. Your friends see you as a constant source of knowledge and advice. (But they are a little sick of you being right all of the time!) You excel in: Leadership positions You get along best with: The Semi-Colon

Learn Vocabulary and Help Others

I freely admit that I love word games. Scrabble is probably my favorite (and if you’re on facebook, feel free to join me in a game – scrabble is about the only good thing I think facebook has - but make sure you let me know who you are when you "friend" me!).

Anyway, a word game I found not long ago is Free Rice and it is addictive and also is a way of donating to charity. You correctly define words and rice is donated through the UN World Food Program. That’s a game worth playing!

Just for Fun – Machine Translations or Novel Excerpts?

Can you tell the difference between machine translations from German and sentences from novels by William Faulkner? It is hard to know if this silly page is a harsher criticism of Faulkner or of machine translation!

“Interpreting” Seven Languages At Once

Well, I wasn’t going to mention it, but since it’s a hot topic on translation lists, here is a link to Catherine Tate's recent comedy sketch about an interpreter. Yes, it’s supposed to be humorous, but I have to point out that the sketch refers to a translator but is actually about an interpreter, that there is probably no interpreter who can work with so many different languages simultaneously, and that an interpreter needs much more than just a certificate (especially a TOEFL certificate!) in order to be successful at his or her job. And I won’t even mention the characterizations of the different nationalities and languages!

For more on interpretation and translation, see the next post, which will be by a guest blogger.