Weblogs zu Übersetzung, Dolmetschung, Lokalisierung 
Bitacoras sobre traducción, interpretación, localisación 
Weblogs on translation, interpreting, localization 
Friday January 27, 2012
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add to furlEsta semana Mariana La Greca, Mar铆a Olivera y el profesor Jes煤s Baigorri nos hablan sobre los efectos del biling眉ismo en el cerebro y de la creaci贸n y la implantaci贸n de la educaci贸n biling眉e en Espa帽a.
Un saludo,
El equipo de Don de Lenguas
Un saludo,
El equipo de Don de Lenguas
Spotted at my favorite bakery, Cafe J-----, a few days ago: They were in a big display with a several other petit fours with geometric decorations (no, not swastikas). I had to specifically ask for the 'Moor' and the 'Chinaman'....
Now before you start getting jealous, I am not writing this on the beach. The picture (Away From Keyboard, in …
Voice-over services are different from subtitling. While for some people they may be similar, and in some cases it can lead to confusion, they are in fact two completely different services. To put it simply, subtitling is basically the translation of source text that is placed at the bottom of the screen of a video, [...]
El pasado mes de octubre, en una visita al Museo Mar铆timo de Liverpool, descubr铆 la existencia de una especie de lengua criolla, desconocida hasta entonces para m铆: el polari. Y no, no es una lengua de alguna lejana colonia del Caribe o de 脕frica, sino el argot utilizado por los homosexuales brit谩nicos durante buena parte del siglo XX.
El polari, igual que otras lenguas criollas, ten铆a como base el ingl茅s, al que se a帽ad铆an palabras procedentes del rhyming slang o cockney (muy popular en el Londres de principios de siglo), del backslang (conocido como verlan en los barrios de la periferia parisina, donde todav铆a se usa much铆simo) y de idiomas tan variopintos como el yiddish o el roman铆. El nombre "polari" procede, se cree, del italiano "parlare".
Este "lenguaje secreto" permit铆a a los homosexuales identificarse entre s铆, crear conciencia de grupo y mantener conversaciones sin delatarse. Recordemos que la homosexualidad fue delito en el Reino Unido hasta 1967.
En la actualidad ha ca铆do en desuso, aunque algunas palabras, como "dyke", "fantabulous" o "glossies", han pasado al vocabulario com煤n. Como curiosidad, muchos de los sketches de Little Britain protagonizados por Daffyd, "the only gay in the village", incluyen juegos de palabras (para desesperaci贸n del traductor, imagino) con expresiones sacadas del polari, como "cottaging" o "minge".
Otro d铆a, m谩s.
Prostitutes Appeal To Pope.
As a translator/translation agency hybrid, I happen to know that translators are among the most difficult and possibly the strangest people on this planet. Difficult as in working with them and getting along with them. They get really angry very easily for all kinds of strange reasons, usually at the wrong person. I once sent [...]
Thursday January 26, 2012
There is fire on the mountain and nobody seems to be on the run. Oh there is fire on the mountain top, and no one is a鈥 running. [...] So you say you have a lover and you love her like no other So you buy her a diamond that someone has died on don鈥檛 [...]
Despu茅s de una 茅poca retirada de la blogosfera, espero que todos hay谩is tenido unas navidades geniales y que el a帽o que empieza os traiga todo lo mejor. Desde noviembre, mes en el que tuvo lugar la mesa redonda sobre blogs de APTIC, he estado bastante ausente y no por causas laborales precisamente. El volumen de … Read more
Los clientes est谩n en el mundo de los negocios para ganar dinero, no para gastarlo. Por lo tanto, uno de los mayores retos a los que un traductor profesional aut贸nomo puede tener que enfrentarse es al cobro de sus servicios. Afortunadamente, existe una serie de medidas, tanto preventivas (I) como coercitivas (II), que podremos tomar [...]
Otra semana m谩s con un dicho en mi cabeza revoloteando. Alg煤n d铆a聽 la curiosidad matar谩 al gato鈥 隆qu茅 obsesi贸n! Lo bueno es que al final uno investiga y aprende muchas cosas. El dicho que he tenido esta semana en mi cabeza es 鈥溌 buenas horas mangas verdes!鈥. 驴Alguna idea de d贸nde viene? Lo cierto es [...]
聽 What constitutes a good translation company to work for, either as a freelancer or an in-house translator? That question keeps popping up in my head from time to time, but I haven鈥檛 found the answer yet. An excellent presentation by Karen Tkaczyk at the 52nd ATA conference entitled “How to make translators rave about [...]
...throwing Greece under the bus: Angela Merkel has cast doubt for the first time on Europe's chances of saving Greece from financial meltdown and sovereign default, conceding that Europe's first ever multibillion euro bailout coupled with savage austerity was not...
TweetJohn Mueller von Google hat auf Google+ auf einen Hilfebeitrag nebst Formular von Google hingewiesen: Report spam in rich snippets. Das ist mir doch eine kurze Erw盲hnung wert. Seit Google die Rich Snippets nun f眉r nahezu jede Site anzeigt (vorbehaltlich des Markups nat眉rlich), muss sich Google auch darum k眉mmern, dass manche Website-Betreiber ihre Rich Snippets [...]
F眉r Bewerbungen bei einem Unternehmen aus einem der anglophonen L盲nder in Deutschland oder direkt im Ausland gelten andere Regeln als hierzulande. Mit der schlichten 脺bersetzung des deutschen Dokuments sei es allerdings nicht getan, vor allem nicht mit Hilfe einer elektronischen 脺bersetzungsmaschine, meint ein darauf spezialisierter Dienstleister.
Extrem vielf盲ltig kann das Ergebnis von 脺bersetzung sein, diagnostizierte eine hochkar盲tige Expertenrunde aus dem 枚ffentlichen Bereich und der Privatwirtschaft anl盲sslich einer Podiumsdiskussion, zu der Mag. Sabine Kern, Vorsitzende der Sprachdienstleister Wiens, im Rahmen der Informationsveranstaltung 鈥濪ie Sprache als Schl眉ssel zur Welt. Was sollten Auftragnehmer bei ihrem potenziellen Kunden beachten, um einen Auftrag zu erhalten?鈥 eingeladen [...]
Wednesday January 25, 2012
The New York Times recently reported on a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that returns works published abroad and previously not protected under U.S. copyright to protected status under U.S. copyright law. Since many such works were presumably originally published in languages other than English, it got me thinking about copyright for translations. According to the Copyright Advisory Network of the American Library Association, translators have a copyright to their translations, but need to obtain permission from the rights holder of the original work in order to publish that translation.
Technical text, such as computer documentation, is usually written as a "work for hire", i.e., the author either is an employee of the end client or relinquishes his/her copyright in the freelance contract. Most of my contracts with translation agencies also specify that I cannot claim copyright to my work. Since I translate mainly technical and legal documents that have little commercial value beyond their specific uses, such as documentation accompanying a certain device or a contract between two specific parties, this lack of copyright does not particularly concern me.
It did make me wonder, though, how contracts for literary translations are worded. Do they include the same language on copyright as most standard agency contracts? Given the relatively low rates most literary translations command, it would only seem fair that translators should be able to retain rights to their work. This is particularly true since the absence of such rights for the translator generally does not mean that the translation is in the public domain, but rather that a corporate entity (usually a publishing house) benefits from the translator's work.
An interesting perspective is provided by Lenita M. R. Esteves, who translated J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings into Brazilian Portuguese. She wrote about her experience with copyright issues after that book became a bestseller on the Translation Journal's blog, Translators Around the World.
If you translate literary works, what has your experience with copyright been?
Technical text, such as computer documentation, is usually written as a "work for hire", i.e., the author either is an employee of the end client or relinquishes his/her copyright in the freelance contract. Most of my contracts with translation agencies also specify that I cannot claim copyright to my work. Since I translate mainly technical and legal documents that have little commercial value beyond their specific uses, such as documentation accompanying a certain device or a contract between two specific parties, this lack of copyright does not particularly concern me.
It did make me wonder, though, how contracts for literary translations are worded. Do they include the same language on copyright as most standard agency contracts? Given the relatively low rates most literary translations command, it would only seem fair that translators should be able to retain rights to their work. This is particularly true since the absence of such rights for the translator generally does not mean that the translation is in the public domain, but rather that a corporate entity (usually a publishing house) benefits from the translator's work.
An interesting perspective is provided by Lenita M. R. Esteves, who translated J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings into Brazilian Portuguese. She wrote about her experience with copyright issues after that book became a bestseller on the Translation Journal's blog, Translators Around the World.
If you translate literary works, what has your experience with copyright been?
Hace poco ha salido publicada la preciosa web profesional de Fernando Villar Sell茅s (aunque creo que no es secreto que es El fot贸grafo ocioso). Siempre me han encantado sus fotos, y me ha venido a la memoria que yo tambi茅n salgo en alguna. En concreto, en estas con el famoso Horacio Elizondo, que estaban en [...]
Hace unas semanas le铆 la entrada de Vicent Torres (La Torre del Traductor Trastocat) que trata de los nombres y sus traducciones de Asterix y Obelix (aunque ya no s茅 ni c贸mo escribirlo) y provoc贸 en m铆 cierto inter茅s por los nombres de otras series animadas. En esta entrada comentar茅 algunos nombres de series y pel铆culas de animaci贸n que m谩s me han llamado la atenci贸n.
El personaje con el que me gustar铆a comenzar es el m谩s conocido y el m谩s querido por los ni帽os y los no tan ni帽os, Bugs Bunny. Bugs Bunny al principio se llamaba 鈥Serapio鈥 o "el conejo de la suerte" en algunos pa铆ses hispanoamericanos. Su dise帽o fue creado a partir de un conejo llamado Happy Rabbit. Su compa帽era sentimental es Lola Bunny que aunque no aparezca tanto, su primera aparici贸n fue directamente en la gran pantalla con la pel铆cula "Space Jam". Ambos conservan de apellido "Bunny" que significa "conejito" pero ahora bien, 驴por qu茅 su traducci贸n al espa帽ol se ha mantenido como "Bunny" y no se ha cambiado? A mi juicio, la palabra "Conejito" ser铆a muy dif铆cil de acoplar para darle ese toque "comercial". 驴Qu茅 pens谩is vosotros? 驴C贸mo cambiar铆ais esta palabra para castellanizar este nombre y de esta forma se entendiese mucho mejor?
Otro personaje tambi茅n muy querido pero que pertenece a otra casa (Disney para ser exactos) es Mickey Mouse. Este personaje conserva su nombre en ingl茅s al igual que Bugs Bunny. La cuesti贸n es 驴por qu茅 lo conserva? 驴Se entender谩 por todos que Mouse significa "rat贸n"? A mi juicio, la polisemia de "rat贸n" permite asociar el objeto al animal y por eso quiz谩s ahora la palabra se entienda mejor. 驴Qu茅 opin谩is? 驴Cre茅is que es correcto dejar as铆 el nombre? 驴Cu谩l cre茅is que ser铆a su posible traducci贸n para que se adapte a ese toque "comercial"?
En cambio, en el personaje del "Pato Donald" s铆 que se ha hecho ese cambio, con la consecuencia de la p茅rdida del sonido de la "d" ("Donald Duck"). La palabra "duck" tambi茅n se suele entender por todos, entonces, 驴por qu茅 aqu铆 s铆 que lo han cambiado y en el de Mickey Mouse no?
Volvemos otra vez con la Warner Bros. El personaje de "Porky", a mi parecer el m谩s curioso. Se ha mantenido otra vez su nombre en ingl茅s que significa "cerdo", pero a lo mejor han mantenido su nombre porque en espa帽ol se puede entender como "puerco" aunque esta traducci贸n tenga un car谩cter despectivo.
Alg煤n posible nombre con la palabra "cerdo" pordr铆a ser "cerdito" (aunque tampoco me quiero "mojar" mucho, porque es dif铆cil encontrar el nombre adecuado.
Otro que tambi茅n ha mantenido su nombre en ingl茅s es Peter. La traducci贸n de "Peter" al espa帽ol ser铆a "Pedro" y adem谩s mantendr铆a ese sonido "p", aunque no ser铆a del todo comercial. No es lo mismo Peter Pan que Pedro Pan.
Aunque que dentro del cuento de Peter Pan s铆 que hay varios personajes a los que les cambiaron el nombre a su versi贸n espa帽ola : "Juan", "Miguel" (hermanos de "Wendy") y "Jorge" (el padre). Quiz谩s porque eran mucho m谩s f谩ciles de encontrar su traducci贸n
Otro personaje de esta misma pel铆cula es "Campanilla" que proviene de "Tinkerbell" que significa "jugar" y "campana" y que se ha unido todo en una sola palabra. 驴C贸mo cambiar铆ais este nombre para incluir la palabra "jugar"?
En la pel铆cula de "La Sirenita" hay un personaje al que tampoco se ha determinado apropiado el cambio de nombre: "Flounder" que significa en espa帽ol "lenguado". Obviamente, encontrar una traducci贸n para incluir la palabra "lenguado" es casi imposible, por lo que creo que esta es la raz贸n por la cual se decidi贸 no cambiar el nombre. Algunas propuestas ser铆an de gran ayuda y sobre todo de gran imaginaci贸n.
Una vez m谩s, he de admitir que la traducci贸n est谩 en todas partes. Desde una pel铆cula hasta lo m谩s simple como pueden ser los nombres de los personajes. Alg煤n d铆a habr谩 que tomarse un descanso porque ya no se puede ver una pel铆cula sin pensar en la traducci贸n. Sin embargo, es cierto que mi parte curiosa siempre quiere aprender y conocer todo lo relacionado con este mundillo, aunque me vuelva loca y ya no se pueda ver una pel铆cula a gusto conmigo.
The ATA Language Technology Division recently shared an informative lecture about the use of language technology in European institutions. The lecture was presented last year at the META-FORUM 2011 in Budapest, a conference about technology solutions for multilingual Europe. (More videos from this conference are available online at聽META-FORUM 2011.) I didn’t know much about META [...]
Although transcription can refer to many different things (including gene expression and notating an unnotated piece of music) as a service, and in the field of language, transcription is the conversion of speech, or audio feed, into written text. Among its many purposes, this service can be used for creating captions/subtitles for a video, for [...]
En las versiones 2007 y anteriores de Trados, pod铆amos importar el contenido de una memoria de traducci贸n en formato Translator鈥檚 Workbench (*.txt) a una memoria TMW. Ahora, al entrar en las opciones de importaci贸n de Studio nos encontramos con la sorpresa de que no existe ninguna opci贸n para importar memorias en el formato propietario de …
This was posted a couple of days ago on a website, by an agency manager who was criticizing the "high rate" model of translation, as put forth in books like Chris Durban's "The Prosperous Translator", and I thought I would take the liberty to rebut it. I think it is very interesting because it shows how some (maybe many or even most) agencies think.
I would highly recommend that beginning translators read this.
Here goes....
I would highly recommend that beginning translators read this.
Here goes....
Agency owner blog post in italics:
"I read alot of articles regarding translation prices, and a lot of opinions regardinghow one, as a translator, should price their services. This blog is meantto be cautionary because I feel that some translators are overpricingthemselves above and beyond the market.
Mycomment:
If that is the case, those translators have no work, and will soon be outof business. "Pricing yourself above the market" would literally meanhaving zero jobs, or not enough work (the book "The Prosperous Translator" does not say you should set some high price, but rather, slowly increase your price, but only if you are at full capacity (full capacity is a good market indicator that your price is too low !). The blog writer didn't get that main point).
"The popular opinion is thatpeople pay for quality. If you want quality in anything, you must pay forit. However, translators, you must be sure that you can live up to thequality of the price you are asking for. Charging a higher price may makeme, as a translation buyer, perceive that you are a wonderful translator but itwill only take one negative review for me to NEVER use you again."
Mycomment:
Theidea that one "negative review" destroys you as a translator is amyth (think about that from the point of view of a restaurant or hotel owner, or airline). Good translators have their own built-in quality review and correction, sothat if a problem arises, they just fix it fast. The agency here wants us tolive on "thin ice", fearing "one mistake". Or so it seems, from here.
"When times are tough, andthey are, it is the Wal-Marts of the world who prosper, not theTiffany鈥檚. Higher end-lower end service providers exist in many otherservice areas, it is no different with translations. Yes, everyone wantsto BE the higher end, the highest quality, but very few actually ARE and evenfewer that are quality actually make money. When the going gets tough,the high end stores go out of business."
My comment:
Last I checked, Ferrari is still in business. Is Tiffany's out of business ? I just read about the booming mega-yachtbusiness. Swiss watches are still being sold. And note how the agency owner here is actually admitting that agencies operate on the Walmart model !! (see, we were right !). Yes, few are higher quality, and they earn better; that was our point all along. Just like there is a market for BMW, there is a market for Kias and those cheap Indian and Chinese cars. The translation market is no different.
"I know a lot of translatorspersonally and not all but some will tell you about the muck they made of theirfirst few projects. Some count years in college as 鈥測ears of experience鈥,so a 34 year old linguist with 鈥15 years of experience鈥 is accurate? Probably not. It is difficult for agencies, who field a lot of resumes,to judge whether or not you are being truthful on your resume."
My comment:
College is actually experience; when I was at university in Germany, I hung out with some of the best translators and translation teachers in the world. She writes: "Itis difficult for agencies to judge whether you are being truthful on yourresume". Wow. This is an agency, whose very job it is to figure out who tobuy translation from, admitting that it is relatively in the dark about the seller. (isn'tthat what tests are for ?). If you use this logic: how do I know I can trust mydoctor, accountant, or the guy who does my plumbing ? And yet, business getsdone... Trust exists in the business world. Most people can be trusted.
"...we jokingly suggested they should take alook at some of the resumes we get from all over the world, claiming degreesfrom 鈥淯niversity of Africa鈥︹︹ places and names we cannot verify without considerabletime and effort. The company spent a week on the 50 names we sent themand told us that all but 5 had information they were unable to verify, placingthem as 鈥渉igh risk.鈥
Are they really high risk? Who knows. It just shows whatagencies are up against."
My comment:
Um, if you can't immediately verify it, here is some free advice": hit Delete. "Highrisk". What is this, the CIA ? Are you hiring Jason Bourne ? Do agencies now have security risk levels ?This is starting to get good.... "It just shows what agencies are upagainst". So not only can't you judge quality reliably, but you also feelvictimized and on the defensive. Do your customers know this ?
"How did we end up with ourgo-to linguists? Well, most of them were middle of the road in price,picked at random and tested. After monitoring their work for a time, theybecame more and more trusted. Once we knew their abilities, we expandedour relationship with them and negotiated each document. We tell ourtranslators who the customer is and what we will charge. We arefair. Everyone鈥檚 work gets a second look from another set of eyes, it isalways proofed."
My comment:
"Middle of the road in price", after we took out 50% from thefee. But overall, if you pay them "middle of the road", I commend you. Some agencies don't. Btw, "middle" in rural Utah is a lot different than in central Paris. "Picked at random". Wow. "After monitoring their work for atime, they became more trusted". Agency as CIA here, again (question: do any of your trusted translators ever "go rouge", like in the "Bourne" movies ?). "Wenegotiated each document": read: dictated our price to the seller, a laWalmart. "We are fair". Fairdon't pay the rent, as they say, and "fair" is extremely subjective as a concept,when you are dealing with money. Regarding proofing, I have already blogged onwhy that doesn't work, when you have two different people doing it (see my blog: "Why the Four Eyes Principle Does not Work").
"Which leads me to anotherthought: if I am still going to pay someone to proofread your work, as wedo on each document, why should I pay so much? I even tell clients thatdeal with translators directly, 鈥淪end it to us and we will proofread it forfree.鈥 I have NEVER had a document that didn鈥檛 have at least oneerror. Human nature, which is prone to error, necessitates the need foranother set of eyes. No one is that good."
My comment:
Wow. When did I say my work needed to be proofread again ? I alreadyhave a 3-step work process, and all my work gets revised and edited, by the guywho knows best: me. "I have never had a document that didn't have at leastone error". LOL. Especially when you are looking for them ! (see variousblogs on "malicious editing"). "No one is that good".Misses the point. If you have good processes, you don't need to be perfect anddo what she is saying. The Ritz-Carlton also makes mistakes, but it has processes in place to fix them immediately.
"My main job is to encourage translators and help them find work, ofwhich there is plenty. However, you can 鈥減erceive鈥 your own value veryhigh but you are not likely to get clients if you price yourself out of the market. Be honest with yourself and don鈥檛 be afraid to negotiate. Like everythingelse, build a relationship with an agency first before you expect the higherend of the pay scale."
My comment:
I kind of doubt this. Given your CIA-like distrust, it doesn't soundlike that is your mission statement at all. Regarding negotiation, it is fine,maybe, but I have blogged on this before too, on how I am a seller oftranslations, not haggling over rugs in Morocco, or negotiating at a flea market.
"Remember that agencies arerun by human beings, who think like normal human beings, and most agencies arefairly small, we work in offices of less than 10 people. We aren鈥檛 morelikely to choose you because your rates are high."
My comment:
Really, I thought they were run by robots ! LOL. True, you are not goingto choose me when I quote you my German to English price, but that just provesmy point. The round peg of my business won't fit into the square hole of yourbusiness model. Exactly my point. That is what I am also arguing.
"If you want to work directly with companies, good luck with that, Iwish you the best. We are ALL trying to get into companies and that is achallenge. You are much more likely to get work from an agency although Ipersonally would try every angle."
My comment:
I am doing a text today that I physically picked up at a client's office here in Munich, i.e."directly working with companies". It is incredibly pleasant, too.Sure, if you convince yourself that agencies are the only game in town, and/oryou live 400 miles from the nearest city, you might never meet direct clients, andyou might buy into this. Otherwise, it is not extremely hard to meet directclients. You just have to find out where they hang out (a main point of"The Prosperous Translator").
Hoy empiezo haciendo una pregunta. 驴Cu谩ntas veces os han reprochado que cualquiera puede traducir sabiendo un poco de ingl茅s, franc茅s, o cualquier idioma? Hoy, a m铆, me ha pasado. De nuevo. Y para demostrar que no cualquiera puede traducir, voy … Sigue leyendo 
TweetIch habe heute morgen mal einen gro脽en Crawl gestartet. Wir haben verschiedene Listen mit Domains, die wir beobachten. Und diese Domains (insgesamt 6.000 St眉ck) habe ich mal daraufhin 眉berpr眉ft, ob diese auch das neue hreflang-Tag implementiert haben. Insgesamt ist dabei nur eine einzige Website positiv in Erscheinung getreten – und zwar www.snowtrex.de mit ihren Nachbarn [...]
Nach dem gro脽en Interesse an der ersten “Fachliste Medizin” im vergangenen Jahr hat der Bundesverband der Dolmetscher und 脺bersetzer e.V. (BD脺) die Liste jetzt aktualisiert und stellt sie wieder kostenfrei im Internet bereit: Die neue “Fachliste Medizin 2012″ enth盲lt die Kontaktdaten von rund 300 qualifizierten Dolmetschern und 脺bersetzern f眉r mehr als 30 Sprachen, die auf [...]
In der neuen Version wurde die Programmoberfl盲che auch f眉r Apples Multitouch-Tablet optimiert, wo sich nun ebenfalls 眉bersichtlich Textpassagen 眉bersetzen und anh枚ren lassen. Google 脺bersetzer unterst眉tzt insgesamt 63 Sprachen, wobei f眉r 17 Sprachen nicht nur eine schriftliche sondern auch m眉ndliche Eingabe 眉ber das integrierte Mikrofon m枚glich ist.
Like many other newspapers these days, The New York Times is spying on people who read The New York Times online. The newspaper makes people register first and then cuts them off if they have read more than 23 articles per month because it is trying to figure out how to make them pay for [...]
Tuesday January 24, 2012
Just a few moments ago, our very own Chip Gettinger chatted with Amber Swope of DITA Strategies on one of our most successful DITA webinars ever - we had over 240 attendees. It seems the hunger for learning about DITA best practises and the future trends for strutured content will continue to grow through 2012. We certainly hope so. If you missed it, don't fret - the recording will be available on our website as soon as possible. And here are some highlights of what our two 'gurus' discussed today, as well as some of the great questions asked. The...
I don鈥檛 know much about Wildcards in Word鈥檚 find and replace feature, but in one specific case it has been very useful for me many times:
Ctrl+H to open Find + Replace (Ctrl+L in Spanish)
Say the document has lots of amounts in dollars in it, but they are formatted wrong:聽$ 40.00 instead of $40.00
In the Find+Replace dialogue, you would tick the wildcards box and type the following in the 鈥渇ind鈥 box:
$ ([0-9])
Which means: find a dollar sign followed by a space followed by a number from 0-9
and in the the 鈥渞eplace with鈥 box:
$\1
which means: replace with a dollar sign with no space, followed by the first wildcard i used in the search box, i.e. the number range
This should find all of the instances of the dollar sign with a space and then a number and replace them with the dollar sign followed by the number. I would, however, not recommend using the 鈥渞eplace all鈥 function unless you are absolutely sure there are not instances where the space does not need to be deleted
Some links about wildcards in Word
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/add-power-to-word-searches-with-regular-expressions-HA001087305.aspx
http://wordprocessing.about.com/od/wordquicktips/qt/wildcard.htm
Yesterday's Tatort (g), "Kidnapped", was a creepy psychosexual affair which dealt with someone who kept little girls locked away in a basement for years, but never touched them sexually (which makes his behavior even creepier). Instead, he created a bizarre...
Latin was the first real international language, much like the way English has adopted that role today. It was largely spread around Europe, North Africa, and also to a lesser extent into the Middle East, by the expanding Roman Empire. At the time it was used as a way to communicate for people living within [...]
Hoy en d铆a la tecnolog铆a avanza a pasos agigantados y cada d铆a el mundo se digitaliza un poco m谩s.聽 Poco a poco el papel empieza a salir de nuestras vidas.聽 Al principio nadie apostaba por las c谩maras de fotos digitales, 隆mira ahora! Incluso tenemos 谩lbumes y marcos de fotos digitales. Lo mismo est谩 sucediendo con [...]
I am delighted to introduce the first guest post of this blog, written by Diana Rubanenko, a translator and editor …
According to a recent Harvard Business Review study, attempts to "delight" the customer are not a good idea. Far better to provide steady service, and reduce the effort that the customer has to make. I think that this is also good advice for us translators.
The findings:
The idea that companies must 鈥渄elight鈥 their customers has become so entrenched that managers rarely examine it. But ask yourself this: How often does someone patronize a company specifically because of its over-the-top service? You can probably think of a few examples, such as the traveler who makes a point of returning to a hotel that has a particularly attentive staff. But you probably can鈥檛 come up with many.
Now ask yourself: How often do consumers cut companies loose because of terrible service? All the time. They exact revenge on airlines that lose their bags, cable providers whose technicians keep them waiting, cellular companies whose reps put them on permanent hold, and dry cleaners who don鈥檛 understand what 鈥渞ush order鈥 means.
Consumers鈥 impulse to punish bad service鈥攁t least more readily than to reward delightful service鈥攑lays out dramatically in both phone-based and self-service interactions, which are most companies鈥 largest customer service channels. In those settings, our research shows, loyalty has a lot more to do with how well companies deliver on their basic, even plain-vanilla promises than on how dazzling the service experience might be. Yet most companies have failed to realize this and pay dearly in terms of wasted investments and lost customers.
To examine the links between customer service and loyalty, the Customer Contact Council, a division of the Corporate Executive Board, conducted a study of more than 75,000 people who had interacted over the phone with contact-center representatives or through self-service channels such as the web, voice prompts, chat, and e-mail. We also held hundreds of structured interviews with customer service leaders and their functional counterparts in large companies throughout the world. (For more detail, see the sidebar 鈥淎bout the Research.鈥) Our research addressed three questions:
- How important is customer service to loyalty?
- Which customer service activities increase loyalty, and which don鈥檛?
- Can companies increase loyalty without raising their customer service operating costs?
Two critical findings emerged that should affect every company鈥檚 customer service strategy. First, delighting customers doesn鈥檛 build loyalty; reducing their effort鈥攖he work they must do to get their problem solved鈥攄oes. Second, acting deliberately on this insight can help improve customer service, reduce customer service costs, and decrease customer churn.
(Harvard Business Review).
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Have you noticed that the way people work has changed over the past decade? As organizations adopt a more dynamic, real time nature of business, the way individuals and teams work together is changing as well. Of course, it鈥檚 the internet that has primarily driven this change - making collaboration, sharing and communication easier. According to Gartner, 鈥淏y 2015, 40 percent or more of enterprise work will be 鈥榥on-routine,鈥 up from 25 percent in 2010. [People] will work with others with whom they have few links. Teams will include people outside the control of the enterprise.鈥 To address this trend,...
This article about how to use Google as a research tool was written to help you make the most of Google in your work as a translator. This is the [...]
Aunque ya lo anunci茅 en Twitter y Facebook en su momento, simplemente quer铆a informaros de que el pr贸ximo viernes 3 de febrero dar茅 una charla titulada “Hay vida m谩s all谩 de la facultad” en el marco de las II Jornadas de transici贸n al oficio de traductor e int茅rprete de la Universidad de Alicante. Mi intenci贸n [...]
Aunque ya lo anunci茅 en Twitter y Facebook en su momento, simplemente quer铆a informaros de que el pr贸ximo viernes 3 de febrero dar茅 una charla titulada “Hay vida m谩s all谩 de la facultad” en el marco de las II Jornadas de transici贸n al oficio de traductor e int茅rprete de la Universidad de Alicante. Mi intenci贸n [...]
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Last year鈥檚 META-FORUM 2011 in Budapest was an international conference on technologies for the multilingual European information society and an official event of the Hungarian EU Presidency. Below you can watch the presentation by Conrad Toft of the European Economic and Social Committee. He talks about language technology and the European institutions. Please add your [...]
Der Preis zur F枚rderung der 脺bersetzung geisteswissenschaftlicher Werke geht in eine neue Runde: Die aktuelle Ausschreibung von Geisteswissenschaften International l盲uft noch bis zum 31. Januar 2012.
Monday January 23, 2012
Well, this term I got many courses on Linguistic and I guess I finally learn the difference between phonemic and phonetic alphabet. You can always find the scientific explanation on internet but for those who do not want a detailed and complex explanation, I will try to tell the difference 聽briefly. IPA, International Phonetic [...]
Use of Translation Memories Usually, companies expect to have the final approved version of a document before sending it for translation. What you probably do not realize is that by using a TM (Translation Memory), the translator can start working on the project before it has been officially approved. With a TM, costs and delivery [...]
Ver盲nderungen geh枚ren zum Unternehmensalltag. Die Gr眉nde f眉r Ver盲nderungen k枚nnen vielf盲ltig sein: Strategische Neuausrichtungen, Umstrukturierungen, der Zusammenschluss von Unternehmen oder Produkteinf眉hrungen sind nur einige Beispiele. Wie mit der Ver盲nderung umgegangen wird, ist eine Fragestellung, mit der sich auch die Unternehmenskommunikation nach Vorgabe der Gesch盲ftsf眉hrung besch盲ftigt. Wie Mitarbeiter softwareseitig dabei unterst眉tzt werden k枚nnen, dass sie jederzeit die [...]
Every week we share many interesting blog posts and online articles on translation, interpreting, languages, freelancing, writing, social media, business and travel. If you missed any of the great content that was shared via Twitter last week, here is your chance to catch up. The content is listed in categories based on the topic, so [...]
9 things to do NOW! While I slept soundly during the night of January 21 to 22, 2012, my Twitter account got hacked. I woke up Sunday morning to a slew of warnings from followers (thank you) and panicky emails. That’s the rub with getting an account hacked or pirated: usually you don’t even ... Read more...
(The German translation of this blog post is below)
Reading Chris Durban's excellent ebook, "The Prosperous Translator", has made me realize that there are many markets, or at least market segments in translation. One of the best segments for both the translator and the translation buyer is the quality (higher rate) segment (it is both more fun, and also more lucrative for the translator, and delivers better results for the buyer of the translation). This is the segment where the informed client buys translation directly from the translator. Often, the translation buyer knows the translator personally (for example, having met at a trade fair or conference).
The best practices of the most informed translation buyers are:
Die Best Practices der kl眉gsten K盲ufern von 脺bersetzungen sind wie folgt:
Reading Chris Durban's excellent ebook, "The Prosperous Translator", has made me realize that there are many markets, or at least market segments in translation. One of the best segments for both the translator and the translation buyer is the quality (higher rate) segment (it is both more fun, and also more lucrative for the translator, and delivers better results for the buyer of the translation). This is the segment where the informed client buys translation directly from the translator. Often, the translation buyer knows the translator personally (for example, having met at a trade fair or conference).
The best practices of the most informed translation buyers are:
- The buyer understands that translation is "not about translating words, but about translating the ideas behind the words" (as Chris Durban puts it)
- The buyer understands that a good translator is first and foremost a subject matter writer, and that it is about writing in the language being translated into
- The buyer understands that a good translator with subject matter knowledge asks good, relevant questions, thus helping the author make the source text better, and thus improving it. In other words, good translation adds value
- The buyer understands that translation is more than replacing one word with another in a foreign language, but about writing and thinking and communicating.
- Understands that a good translator can help the client build a company glossary, which is very useful for future writing
- Understands that by having a working relationship with the translator, he or she gets better results than he or she would through a translation company or agency, because he or she can directly communicate with the translator
- Is willing to be "educated" by the translator about what translation entails.
- Understands that quality, communication, and adding value is more important than obtaining the lowest possible price.
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auf Deutsch
Ich lese gerade Chris Durbans ausgezeichnetes ebook, "The Prosperous Translator". Dabei wurde mir klar, dass es viele M盲rkte, oder zumindest Marktsegmente in der 脺bersetzung gibt. Einer der besten Segmente, sowohl f眉r den 脺bersetzer und auch f眉r den K盲ufer von 脺bersetzungen, ist das Marktsegment, wo h枚here Qualit盲t und auch h枚here Preise zu finden sind. Dieses Marktsegment - aus der Sicht des 脺bersetzers, macht auch einfach mehr Spass und rentiert sich auch besser. Das ist auch das Marktsegment, in dem der Kunde 脺bersetzung direkt von dem 脺bersetzer kauft. Oft kennt der K盲ufer den 脺bersetzer pers枚nlich (z.B. von einer Industriemesse).
Die Best Practices der kl眉gsten K盲ufern von 脺bersetzungen sind wie folgt:
- Der K盲ufer wei脽, dass 脺bersetzung "nicht um das 脺bersetzen von W枚rtern geht, sondern um die 脺bersetzung der Ideen hinter den W枚rtern" (wie Chris Durban das ausdr眉ckt)
- Versteht, dass ein guter 脺bersetzer in erster Linie ein Autor ist, und ein Fachexperte ist, und dass es darum geht, gut zu schreiben (d.h. einen neuen Text zu schreiben)
- Der K盲ufer wei脽, dass dadurch, dass der 脺bersetzer gute und relevante Fragen stellt, der Text, aus der 眉bersetzt wird, verbessert wird. Eine Vermehrung der Qualit盲t
- Der K盲ufer wei脽, dass 脺bersetzung mehr als das reine Ersetzen von W枚rtern mit anderen W枚rtern ist, sondern das es um mitschreiben und mitdenken geht.
- Das ein guter 脺bersetzer dem Klienten helfen kann, ein firmeneigenes Glossar aufzubauen, was sehr n眉tzlich ist
- Versteht, dass, indem er eine Arbeitsbeziehung mit dem 脺bersetzer aufbaut, er bessere Ergebnisse bekommt, als wenn er 脺bersetzung durch ein 脺bersetzungsunternehmen oder eine Agentur kauft, weil er direkt und ohne wenn und aber mit dem 脺bersetzer kommunizieren kann
- Ist bereit, informiert zu werden von dem 脺bersetzer, 眉ber die Vorteile von guter 脺bersetzung
- Versteht, dass Qualit盲t der entscheidende Punkt ist, und nicht ein m枚glichst niedriger Preis
En primer lugar, debemos atenernos a la normativa y, en segundo lugar, al sentido com煤n. No obstante, existen t茅rminos con dos o m谩s traducciones correctas. Deberemos decidirnos entonces por una traducci贸n u otra. Pero, 驴cual? Un tercer criterio posible son los usos y costumbres y, en consecuencia, la comprensi贸n por parte la mayor铆a de los [...]
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Sunday January 22, 2012
When I read the first couple of sentences in the following quote of a Eurobarometer study conducted by the Gallup Organization about the languages preferred by European Internet users, I was very happy. While 90% of Internet surfers in the EU prefer to access websites in their own language, 55% at least occasionally use a [...]
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