I started teaching English while living in Poznań in 1999. I only knew two other native speakers there at the time, Peter and Peter, who were both from the East Coast of the US. And sometimes, we simply didn’t understand…
divided by a common language
Tagged with: American, British, English, false friends, Language, Translation, words
Posted in international, language, President's Day, translation
Posted in international, language, President's Day, translation
chocolate for everyone
Valentine’s Day both loses and gains something in translation. For the Japanese, today is the day when the women give chocolate (and only chocolate) to the men. This is because one chocolate company made a translation mistake, switching the genders, when…
Tagged with: cake, chocolate, Estonian, Finland, Finnish, friends, Japanese, Language, Translation
Posted in translation, Valentine's Day
Posted in translation, Valentine's Day
translators are like
If you google “translators are like”, you get: translators are like ninjas translators are like google bad translators are like big hairy spiders. While this has a lot going for it (we’re saboteurs, expert data crunchers – or terribly self-referential? –…
Tagged with: Central Europe, George Szirtes, Ginger Rogers, Hungarian, Kristina Zdravič Reardon, left-handed, shoes, Slovene, Spanish, Translation, translator
Posted in international, language, literature, translation
Posted in international, language, literature, translation
the ghost child
Once upon a time there was a little ghost. It lived all alone in the forest. All the other ghosts were born in the forest because they died there. They were very old or very young, and their families were…
Tagged with: Finnish, Illustration, Language, Literature, Moomins, pubilc libraries, subtitles, Terhi Ekebom, The Ghost Child
Posted in Illustration, language, literature, translation
Posted in Illustration, language, literature, translation
more stories, more words
“One forgets words as one forgets names. One’s vocabulary needs constant fertilizing or it will die.”— Evelyn Waugh “Human vocabulary is still not capable, and probably never will be of knowing, recognizing, and communicating everything that can be humanly experienced…
Tagged with: book sculpture, Brazilian Portuguese, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, English, Evelyn Waugh, Fiction, Finnish, Jose Saramago, Justin Rowe, Language, native, Roald Dahl, words
Posted in international, language, literature, words
Posted in international, language, literature, words
one word to begin
New years’ resolutions can be overwhelming, if like me, you make a lengthy list and then struggle to live up to your own ideals, often failing within the first week. So this year I decided to choose one word to guide…
Tagged with: Alice in Wonderland, Bible, English, gift, Illustration, Language, Oxford English Dictionary, Saint John's Bible, Welsh, words
Posted in faith, Illustration, language, literature, words
Posted in faith, Illustration, language, literature, words
new year, new translation: the assassin from apricot city
What does the rest of the world look like in the eyes of the rest of the world? That’s something we can never know. But good journalism in good translation can help. It’s not a good idea to have a…
Tagged with: Antonia Lloyd-Jones, Journalism, New Year, Polish, Ryszard Kapuściński, Turkey, Witold Szabłowski
Posted in international, language, translation
Posted in international, language, translation
silent night
The first time I noticed translation was probably while singing Christmas carols. We learnt to sing Silent Night in something resembling German and Welsh at primary school, and in learning Polish I realised that the fuzzy warm sound of carols I’d heard…
Tagged with: Christmas, Christmas Carols, English, Finnish, Franz Xaver Gruber, German, Joseph Mohr, Polish, Silent Night, Welsh
Posted in Christmas, language, translation
Posted in Christmas, language, translation
O!
‘Would it be of any use, now,’ thought Alice, `to speak to this mouse? Everything is so out-of-the-way down here that I should think very likely it can talk: at any rate, there’s no harm in trying.’ So she began:…
Tagged with: advent, Alice in Wonderland, Arvo Pärt, Bible, English, German, Language, Latin, Marc-Antoine Charpentier, o antiphons, vocative
Posted in language, translation
Posted in language, translation
found in translation 