The Most Common Language on Earth
In the English-speaking Western world, many people assume that the most common language on Earth is English. It seems to be spoken in nearly every country, at least conversationally if not fluently. It would follow that translating a document…
Translation in Life – When Translation Gets Tough
After the fall of Nazi Germany in 1945, the international community brought many of its leaders to face the court for their war crimes, at the Nuremberg Trials.
In the proceedings, the judges, lawyers and defendants involved spoke in German,…
Enforcing the Toubon Law of August 4, 1994
This law requires the use of French in all software used by French companies.
In July, Danone employees took legal action so that it would be compulsory for their software, until that time in English, to be translated.
“We are very pleased;…
New Year’s Celebrations Around the Globe
New Year’s Eve celebrations are among the oldest and most universally observed. They generally include ceremonies which are expressive of death, invigoration and celebration over the renewal of life. In some countries, parties are thrown on…
French and French Canadian
Just as Great Britain and the USA are divided by a common language, so are France and their former colony in the Americas, Canada. In fact the dichotomy here is even bigger than between the two versions of English. While it is widely known that…
Concordances, dictionaries and thesauri, oh my!
Concordances, dictionaries and thesauri are all related tools, each with the purpose of helping the linguist to select the correct term. They are also unique, each providing valuable assistance to the linguist in its own way.
Concordances…
Screen translation and text Expansion for the Movie and Televison
Recently a friend, who is a graphics editor, made a comment about the translations of a video he was editing being longer than the original dialog, which was causing obvious problems for captioning purposes. “After all why use two words when…
Fat Tuesday Celebrations Around the World
Fat Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent. As Lent is a season of penance and strict self-discipline, Fat Tuesday in many countries has become a day of celebration before it begins. Here are some of the Fat…
English and French, a match made in…Hastings?
English is a Germanic language, but its native speakers will find it more difficult to draw parallels between it and its sister languages, German and Dutch, than for example speakers of Spanish and Italian, which are Latin-based languages where…
What are the differences between Chinese Simplified and Chinese Traditional?
This article is basically a Comparison between Simplified Chinese and the Traditional Chinese in the context of English to Chinese translation, and it’s only intended to provide some very basic information to people who are looking for Chinese…