Lisa Siegel's Posts - Connections Groups2024-03-28T21:38:25ZLisa Siegelhttp://connectionsgroups.ning.com/profile/LisaSiegelhttp://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2983191248?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1http://connectionsgroups.ning.com/profiles/blog/feed?user=fmkkim2dv250&xn_auth=noSo... think Rosita can do it?tag:connectionsgroups.ning.com,2011-01-03:2831845:BlogPost:579242011-01-03T00:20:53.000ZLisa Siegelhttp://connectionsgroups.ning.com/profile/LisaSiegel
<div class="navigation" id="nav-above"><div class="nav-previous">I just found this and figured... the next time you think 'the girl across the hallway speaks Spanish and can translate that'... think again!</div>
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<div class="navigation" id="nav-above"><div class="nav-previous">I just found this and figured... the next time you think 'the girl across the hallway speaks Spanish and can translate that'... think again!</div>
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<div class="post-1623 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-respect category-translationfail" id="post-1623"><h1 class="entry-title">Let’s All Be Translators — Colm Ryan</h1>
<div class="entry-meta"><span class="meta-prep meta-prep-author">Posted on</span> <a rel="bookmark" href="http://nopeanuts.wordpress.com/2011/01/02/clm-ryan/" title="10:48 am"><span class="entry-date">January 2, 2011</span></a> <span class="meta-sep">by</span> <span class="author vcard"><a href="http://nopeanuts.wordpress.com/author/nopeanuts/" title="View all posts by No Peanuts! for Translators" class="url fn n">No Peanuts! for Translators</a></span></div>
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<div class="entry-content"><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote><p>A translator who cannot translate properly is like a mechanic who is unaware that diesel won’t make a petrol engine go or a brain surgeon who thinks the brain is located in the pelvis….</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Guest Blogger Colm Ryan has a few choice words to say in favor of that much-maligned component of translation: quality.</p>
<p>________________________</p>
<p>Way back in the early 1980s, there was a popular graffito that went: “Yesterday I coudnt even spel executiv. Now I are one.”</p>
<p>If you replace “executiv” with “translater,” that 1980s graffito suddenly starts to ring frighteningly true today. It is my sad and sorry duty to inform you that the translation industry is full of people who not only cannot spell, they also cannot understand the foreign language they profess to be able to understand, and—rather more worrying—they cannot write in the language <em>they grew up speaking</em>.</p>
<p>A translator who cannot translate properly is like a mechanic who is unaware that diesel won’t make a petrol engine go, or a brain surgeon who thinks the brain is located in the pelvis, or a milkmaid who can’t find a cow’s nipples even with the aid of a handheld bovine nipple locator that beeps as it gets closer to its target and features an illuminated display that flashes “COW NIPPLES DETECTED – MULTIPLE HITS” in glowing red text. (The comparison is not unjustified. If you think about it, a good bilingual dictionary provides about this level of detail.)</p>
<p>We translators don’t just translate porn subtitles and clock radio instructions, you see: we also translate laws, contracts, and international treaties. We translate lists of ingredients that are closely scanned by people with allergies. We translate blueprints for rockets, the results of drug trials, and—remember this if you ever need to go to hospital while you’re in a foreign country—<em>we translate</em> <em>the operating instructions for complex medical equipment</em>.</p>
<p>That alone should be sufficient to impress upon you just how cataclysmically frightening this situation is.</p>
<p>You’ve may already have figured out that this article contains some of the translation howlers I’ve come across in my work. Recently, in fact, our translation agency received a commission to translate a book on the history of sport. As is common practice in these cases, we gave aspiring Italian-to-English translators a short extract to translate before considering them for the job. Below are a couple of sentences from the extract, on the history of tennis:</p>
<blockquote><p>I reali d’Inghilterra lo praticarono intensamente, nota era la passione di Enrico VIII per il gioco: la sua seconda moglie Anna Bolena venne arrestata per adulterio mentre assisteva a una partita del marito a Hampton Court.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For those of you who aren’t experts in Italian, here is a translation that would be considered “very good”:</p>
<blockquote><p>The English royals played it incessantly. Henry VIII was famously fond of the game; and his second wife, Anne Boleyn, was arrested for adultery as she watched one of her husband’s matches at Hampton Court.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>You need to know a couple of things before I continue. First, the verb <em>assistere</em> (as in “<em>mentre assisteva a una partita</em>” in the extract above) here means to watch or to witness. It’s a classic false friend, but one that all translators from Italian would be expected to know.</p>
<p>Second, there is no confusion possible in the original Italian that Ms. Boleyn was <em>committing</em> adultery while hubby was playing tennis. No: it clearly means that she was <em>arrested</em> while hubby was playing tennis. The kind of howlers I’m going to show you aren’t of the predictable “Anne Boleyn was discovered in flagrante delicto by the Tudor adultery police while she watched her husband play tennis over the shoulder of her manly lover” variety. Even bad translators aren’t quite that bad. (I hope.)</p>
<p>Here, then, are some entries we received. All errors have been carefully retained from the original tests submitted to us.</p>
<blockquote><p>The royal family of England practised it intensly [sic], Henry VIII’s passion for this game was well known; his second wife Anna Bolena was arrested for adultery while she was watching a match of her husband in Hampton Court.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>(Ask yourself: who, in the English-speaking world, doesn’t know that “Anna Bolena” has an English spelling?)</p>
<blockquote><p>The royal family of England use [sic] to practice it intensely; known was the passion of Henry VIII for the game….</p>
</blockquote>
<p>(More than a touch of Google Translate in that one, methinks.)</p>
<blockquote><p>… his second wife Anna Bolena was arrested for adultery in the middle of a game with her husband at Hampton Court.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>(Anna Bolena rears her ugly head again, and this time she’s actually <em>playing</em> tennis. Sigh.)</p>
<blockquote><p>The game was intensely adopted by the English Royalties and Henry VIII was an avid player: his second wife Anna Bolena was arrested for adultery while assisting her husband’s match at Hampton Court.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>(I can see her business card now: “Anna Bolena: Ball Girl to the English Royalties.”)</p>
<p>These are just four of no fewer than <em>ten</em> failed tests. You’ll be glad to hear that we did finally find someone to translate the book who can read fairly simple Italian (this text is by no means difficult) and who can write reasonably well. But now let’s give the translators who failed a chance to defend their work. After all, maybe they just had a bad day.</p>
<p>Here’s the reply we received from the author of one of the above tests, when she discovered she wasn’t going to get the job:</p>
<p>I am very suprised [sic] and disappointed at your comments. No one has ever refused my translations in my eleven years of translation work except for [your company] who do not seen [sic] to want to work with me.</p>
<p>And that, in every possible sense of the phrase, was all she wrote.</p>
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</div>Hot off the press! Or... am I paranoid!tag:connectionsgroups.ning.com,2010-11-12:2831845:BlogPost:539732010-11-12T14:00:59.000ZLisa Siegelhttp://connectionsgroups.ning.com/profile/LisaSiegel
<p>Oh, this one is VERY CLEVER! If it isn't, I'm just getting paranoid!</p>
<p></p>
<p>It comes with an attachment, but DO NOT OPEN IT!!!!</p>
<p></p>
<p>It is sent by someone who says he is Albert Wagner and the Subject line reads: "Vacancies". I recommend you read it, so you can see how clever he is. : )</p>
<p></p>
<p>Here it goes:…</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
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<p>Oh, this one is VERY CLEVER! If it isn't, I'm just getting paranoid!</p>
<p></p>
<p>It comes with an attachment, but DO NOT OPEN IT!!!!</p>
<p></p>
<p>It is sent by someone who says he is Albert Wagner and the Subject line reads: "Vacancies". I recommend you read it, so you can see how clever he is. : )</p>
<p></p>
<p>Here it goes:</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<table cellspacing="0" width="500" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<tbody><tr><td style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; FONT-FAMILY: trebuchet ms; COLOR: rgb(0,0,0); FONT-SIZE: 12px" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" valign="top"><div class="ecx ecxhtml_block" align="center"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 110%; FONT-FAMILY: arial; COLOR: rgb(51,51,51); FONT-SIZE: 20px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold">You can earn money and help children with us.<br/>We receive donations in United States, you have a possibility to become a<br/>"Freelance financial representative" of our organization.<br/><br/>Requirements:<br/>- free 2-3 hours a day;<br/>- 21+ years old;<br/>- Honest, responsible and prompt in operations;<br/>- Have an adaptable, flexible and professional attitude;<br/>- Polite, tactful;<br/>- Have constant internet access for communication with us via e-mail.<br/><br/>This job will give you:<br/>- part-time employment;<br/>- communication and business skills for working in other spheres of activity;<br/>- possibility to combine this job with your full-time employment and own schedule.<br/>Your job will be processing payments from our partners.<br/>You processing:<br/>1) Accept payments on your account and distribute them<br/>2) Accept check payment<br/> <br/>Our company is in Germany. We are not so long ago began to accept donations in the U.S.. Direct translations in Germany takes a long time. To do this we need staff that will process these payments. Your job will not take you long time. If you really want to work with us please contact us.<br/><br/>The contract you will find all the information. Read it carefully and if you want to work with us sign it and send us</span></div>
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<tr><td style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 8px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: rgb(255,255,255); PADDING-LEFT: 8px; PADDING-RIGHT: 8px; FONT-FAMILY: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; FONT-SIZE: 12px; PADDING-TOP: 8px" valign="top"><a href="http://www.anjiejie.com/unsubscribe.php?nid=1&e=alisaintl@hotmail.com&advertiser_id=2330&list_id=3644" target="_blank"><br/></a></td>
</tr>
<tr><td bgcolor="#CCCCCC" align="middle"><div id="ecxcontact_link" class="ecx ecxhtml_block"><p><b>Our mailing address is:</b><br/></p>
<div class="ecxvcard"><div class="ecxadr"><div class="ecxstreet-address">Kottbusser Damm 72</div>
<span class="ecxlocality">Berlin</span>, <span class="ecxregion">Berlin</span> <span class="ecxpostal-code">7456</span></div>
<br/>Copyright (C) 2010 WagnerINC All rights reserved. <br/></div>
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<p></p>Why is there a raised bump on the F key and the J keys?tag:connectionsgroups.ning.com,2010-02-07:2831845:BlogPost:224102010-02-07T03:43:57.000ZLisa Siegelhttp://connectionsgroups.ning.com/profile/LisaSiegel
<p>I just thought it was interesting... AND... in case you've ever wondered...</p>
<p></p>
<div class="content"><em>As the keyboard developed, there have been several inventions intended to improve the accuracy and speed of typing.<br></br><br></br>The F and J keys (used as "home keys") often have small raised bumps on their tops or bottoms. These are tactile aids for the typist. The locations of all the other keys on the keyboard are learned in relation to these "home keys" so the touch-typist must be…</em></div>
<p>I just thought it was interesting... AND... in case you've ever wondered...</p>
<p></p>
<div class="content"><em>As the keyboard developed, there have been several inventions intended to improve the accuracy and speed of typing.<br/><br/>The F and J keys (used as "home keys") often have small raised bumps on their tops or bottoms. These are tactile aids for the typist. The locations of all the other keys on the keyboard are learned in relation to these "home keys" so the touch-typist must be able to find the home keys by touch. <br/><br/>The inventor of the small raised bumps on the F and J keys, as well as other enhancements to other keys, is JUNE E. BOTICH (United States Patent 6667697). The abstract of her invention reads as follows:<br/>"The invention is directed to an improvement or enhancement of a keyboard. Particularly, the keys of a keyboard are enhanced or modified, to improve or instill a tactile sensation to a person doing the typing. In this respect, certain of the keys are modified by adding tactile edges to the keys, typing school and instructors and instructions for the beginners instruct the learners to place their fingers in the middle row of the lettered keyboard. Instructions further advise to divide this middle row into two groups, one for the left hand and one for the right hand. Both groups involve the four fingers of each group excluding the thumb. The four fingers of the left hand will be placed over the letters A through F and the fingers of the right hand are placed over the letters J, K, L including the semi colon. The outside edges of the key letter A of the left hand and on the semicolon key of the right hand have outside raised edges placed thereon. This way the four fingers of the left hand and the four fingers of the right are sort of cradled between the raised edges and gives the typist a tactile sensation indicating where exactly the fingers are placed on the keyboard which enhances the speed and the accuracy of the person doing the typing."<br/><br/>For a much more detailed description of her invention, please see:<br/></em><a href="http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6667697.html" rel="nofollow"><font color="#006699"><em>http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6667697…</em></font></a><br/><br/><em>For a practical description of the use of raised bumps on the F and J "home keys" on the keyboard to help users correctly position their left and right hand on the keyboard without having to look at it, and advances to that system, please see:<br/></em><a href="http://www.typeonline.co.uk/lesson1.html" rel="nofollow"><font color="#006699"><em>http://www.typeonline.co.uk/lesson1.html</em></font></a> <em><br/></em><a href="http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20090236210" rel="nofollow"><font color="#006699"><em>http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20090236…</em></font></a> <em><br/><br/>For background on the historical development of the keyboard, please see:<br/></em><a href="http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bltypewriter.htm" rel="nofollow"><font color="#006699"><em>http://inventors.about.com/library/inven…</em></font></a></div>Just for Laughs! A "Top 10" Listtag:connectionsgroups.ning.com,2009-12-02:2831845:BlogPost:186002009-12-02T14:59:42.000ZLisa Siegelhttp://connectionsgroups.ning.com/profile/LisaSiegel
<i>A little bit of humor…</i><br />
<br />
The Top 10 Misconceptions about Translation<br />
<br />
10. Paying promptly for the services of a plumber/lawyer/doctor is a must. However, the translator doesn't mind waiting indefinitely for payment.<br />
<br />
9. Anybody with two years of high school language (or a foreign tongued grandmother) can translate.<br />
<br />
8. A good translator doesn't need a dictionary.<br />
<br />
7. There's no difference between translation and interpretation.<br />
<br />
6. Translators don't mind working nights and weekends at no…
<i>A little bit of humor…</i><br />
<br />
The Top 10 Misconceptions about Translation<br />
<br />
10. Paying promptly for the services of a plumber/lawyer/doctor is a must. However, the translator doesn't mind waiting indefinitely for payment.<br />
<br />
9. Anybody with two years of high school language (or a foreign tongued grandmother) can translate.<br />
<br />
8. A good translator doesn't need a dictionary.<br />
<br />
7. There's no difference between translation and interpretation.<br />
<br />
6. Translators don't mind working nights and weekends at no extra charge.<br />
<br />
5. Translators don't need to understand what they're translating.<br />
<br />
4. A good translator doesn't need proofing or editing.<br />
<br />
3. Translation is just typing in a foreign language.<br />
<br />
2. A translator costs $49.95 at Radio Shack and runs on two AA batteries.<br />
<br />
And the #1 misconception about translation and translators is:<br />
<br />
1. The document that took a team of 20 people two months to put together can be translated overnight by one person and still retain the same impact as the original.<br />
<br />
<br />
: )The 'Sour Grape' Syndrometag:connectionsgroups.ning.com,2009-07-23:2831845:BlogPost:27162009-07-23T14:24:52.000ZLisa Siegelhttp://connectionsgroups.ning.com/profile/LisaSiegel
If you are a bilingual professional and your office outsourced translation services, what was your demeanor when the translation was received?<br />
<br />
Why do you think that your company thought they should outsource it, rather than give the work to <i>you</i>?
If you are a bilingual professional and your office outsourced translation services, what was your demeanor when the translation was received?<br />
<br />
Why do you think that your company thought they should outsource it, rather than give the work to <i>you</i>?Just for Laughs! 12 Tips from a Translator to a Client...tag:connectionsgroups.ning.com,2009-07-23:2831845:BlogPost:42912009-07-23T14:21:35.000ZLisa Siegelhttp://connectionsgroups.ning.com/profile/LisaSiegel
<u><b>12 Tips from a Translator to a Client<br />
on How to Enhance their Relationship</b></u><br />
1. Never give me work in the morning. Always wait until 5:00 p.m. and then bring it to me. The challenge of a deadline is refreshing.<br />
2. If it's really a "rush job" call in and interrupt me every 10 minutes to inquire how it's going. That helps.<br />
3. Always leave the office without telling anyone where you're going. It gives me a chance to be creative when I need to ask a question.<br />
4. Don't give me any…
<u><b>12 Tips from a Translator to a Client<br />
on How to Enhance their Relationship</b></u><br />
1. Never give me work in the morning. Always wait until 5:00 p.m. and then bring it to me. The challenge of a deadline is refreshing.<br />
2. If it's really a "rush job" call in and interrupt me every 10 minutes to inquire how it's going. That helps.<br />
3. Always leave the office without telling anyone where you're going. It gives me a chance to be creative when I need to ask a question.<br />
4. Don't give me any reference materials, glossaries or relevant info. I need to learn how to function as an independent translator.<br />
5. If you give me more than one job to do, don't tell me which is the priority. Let me guess.<br />
6. Do your best to keep me busy. I like translation and really have nowhere to go or anything else to do.<br />
7. If a job I do pleases you, keep it a secret. Leaks like that could inadvertently cause me to rise my rates.<br />
8. If you don't like my work, tell everyone. I like my name to be popular in conversation.<br />
9. If you have special instructions for a job, don't write them down for me. In fact, save them until the job is almost done.<br />
10. Never tell me about other people you're working with. When you refer to them later, my shrewd deductions will identify them.<br />
11. Be nice to me only when the job I'm doing for you could really change your life.<br />
12. Tell me all your little problems. No one else has any and it's nice to know someone is less fortunate.Is Translation considered as "Other duties as assigned" within your job description?tag:connectionsgroups.ning.com,2009-07-23:2831845:BlogPost:110322009-07-23T14:00:00.000ZLisa Siegelhttp://connectionsgroups.ning.com/profile/LisaSiegel
And, is it possible for you to tend to your duties and then render quality translations? Tell us about it!
And, is it possible for you to tend to your duties and then render quality translations? Tell us about it!Are you employed as a Translator?tag:connectionsgroups.ning.com,2009-07-23:2831845:BlogPost:110312009-07-23T14:00:00.000ZLisa Siegelhttp://connectionsgroups.ning.com/profile/LisaSiegel
Do you actually occupy a position as a Translator, that is, for a company which is NOT a translation company? Please tell us about it?
Do you actually occupy a position as a Translator, that is, for a company which is NOT a translation company? Please tell us about it?Why not hire a professional translator and do it yourself?tag:connectionsgroups.ning.com,2009-03-23:2831845:BlogPost:26532009-03-23T17:48:54.000ZLisa Siegelhttp://connectionsgroups.ning.com/profile/LisaSiegel
If you are one of the many who think that because you are bilingual are able to translate, please tell me about it.<br />
<br />
: )
If you are one of the many who think that because you are bilingual are able to translate, please tell me about it.<br />
<br />
: )