Wilding Translation

I have recently again been asked by an agency for my rate, which they require expressed “per source word”. Before I go further, I would refer those of you who can read German to a good discussion of this matter at http://www.intra-eg.de/wort_gegen_zeile.pdf.

Let me say that I do understand that agencies need to know, in advance, what [...]

A perfect example from “My Switzerland” and the German version.

Read the first, and you may think that the Swiss are being refreshingly honest when they introduce ”The city of Zug, well-known for its steep taxes…”, although you’d think they would at least quietly ignore that flaw. Read the second, and you will hear of “Die Stadt Zug, bekannt [...]

This has been around for a while, but it is amusing – How *Not* to Discuss Rates with a Translator

I should stress that this is not at all like my [...]

A few weeks ago my attention was drawn to an article at http://www.translationautomation.com/perspectives/translation-leaks.html. In the associated discussion, I said that “it would be easy to pick holes in his largely spurious arguments if I had time”. Someone commented that, “suggesting that you have the capability but not the time to pick apart somebody else’s cogent arguments [...]

Catherine Tate Interpreter [...]

A (very good) agency for whom I work has sent me a job from a client I shall, of course, not name. It consists of 60 or 70 picture captions for a magazine. The end-client does not seem to think it worth giving the translators access to the actual pictures. After all, all we do in [...]

More than seven million words translated so far [...]

The New York Times has recently run a comparison of Web translation tools.  Over the last few weeks I have had reason to look at some Italian sites, and the existence of these tools has made me realise that there cannot be much money left in the business of “gist” translations. What has reassured me, however, [...]

Translation can do with input from the author [...]

I had to add an anti-spam barrier to the blog. [...]