As one of those translators who’s always said, “I love everything about my job except sitting at a desk all day,” I’ve been intrigued for a while by the idea of the treadmill desk. Exercising while you work has been in the news of late, ever since Dr. James Levine, an obesity researcher at the [...]
Archive for May, 2008
“A hamster wheel with e-mail”: the treadmill desk
Posted in Technology, Treadmill desks on May 7, 2008 | 30 Comments »
He/she/they or none of the above: some thoughts on gender-neutral language
Posted in Translation technique on May 7, 2008 | 5 Comments »
It’s interesting how some linguistic issues seem to get solved and then are up for solution again, as seems to be the case with gendered pronouns in English. The first wave of gender-neutral language was inspired by the realization that many professions that had traditionally been all male (fireman, mailman) were now becoming more gender [...]
Like, not enough into-English interpreters?
Posted in Links, Nubbin, Translation quality on May 6, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Here is an interesting post from the blog “Working Languages” about the EU’s shortage of qualified into-English interpreters. The EU blames the candidates’ poor English skills, characterized by overuse of the word “like,” while the blogger argues that a larger culprit is the lack of financial incentives for qualified interpreters.
Translation-targeted resumes: pitfalls and best practices
Posted in Freelancing, Marketing on May 5, 2008 | 4 Comments »
What with the U.S. economy on a downward slide and the euro continuing its climb above U.S. $1.50, many translators are marketing these days. Following are some tips on writing a translation-targeted résumé that will pass muster with potential clients. Let’s start with the obvious but often overlooked: prominently state your language pair(s). It sounds [...]
Translation memory discounts: yes, no, maybe?
Posted in Freelancing, Marketing, Technology on May 1, 2008 | 8 Comments »
The issue of translation memory discounts, whereby a translator charges a lower rate for words that appear as repetitions or fuzzy matches in a translation environment/CAT/TM tool, is a contentious one. On the one hand, a client might reasonably argue that changing “press the green button” to “press the red button” doesn’t involve translating four [...]
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Corinne McKay is an ATA-certified French to English translator specializing in international development, law and non-fiction books. She launched Thoughts on Translation in February, 2008 as a way to connect and share ideas with freelance translators around the world.
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