This is going to be a very practical text which, as we hope, will facilitate our cooperation with clients. It should prove useful to other translators as well. Feel free to use it as a checklist enumerating the particular stages of how to place an order for translation and our process of carrying it out. There’s also a neat translator’s brief that we’ve prepared. And […]
In my previous text, I told you a little bit about the idea of plain language. And I did my best to use plain language for that purpose 😉 In this text, I’m focusing on the subject of plain language in translation. Can you use plain language as a translator? Can you simplify the language of the texts you translate? How to apply the rules […]
Prosty język. Lenguaje claro. Linguagem simples. Leichte Sprache. INTRODUCTION TO PLAIN LANGUAGE The first time I heard about Simple English was a long time ago, in my university days. Then, several years ago, the notion of prosta polszczyzna, or plain/simple Polish, came within my orbit. So, the concept of plain language has been around me for some time now. As a translator and editor, I […]
Remember the MythBusters show? Today, I’m going to become a myth-buster myself, to bust a couple of common myths about translation and translators. What is a myth? Do I mean “a story from ancient times, especially one that was told to explain natural events or to describe the early history of a people”? Of course not. The myths I’m about to deconstruct here are, as […]
Technical writers! To the outside world, it may seem you’re experts-above-all, who know a technical area inside-out, every nook and cranny, and write this knowledge down in understandable English. Those who actually do the job know very well that this is partly true; technical writers have broad technical knowledge, but their expert knowledge often comes from a subject matter expert (SME). However, usually SMEs and […]
INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH As long-time language learners, we may forget when and how the whole process of language acquisition started (and it may seem like there is no end to it ?). And yet, there must have been a time when we uttered our first words in the second language, and they didn’t have to be “mum” and “dad”. Are you able to track your […]
Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash If you buy a blender, a washing machine, or a machine with conveyors for wrapping cardboard boxes with heat-shrink film, you’ll get an instruction manual, a user guide, or a similar document. Even though these three devices are radically different, their manuals share similarities, especially in the case of various industrial machinery. If you deal with technical translation, you’ll […]
The price of translation – what does it actually cover? In this text, we will refer to the hackneyed saying “time is money” but the reverse is also true: “money is time”. All the tasks which are related to a translation order and take our time must translate into money. The money paid by our clients for translations means that we spent an adequate amount […]
Some time ago I wrote a text about the features of technical documentation that make translation easier. As I was writing that post, I realized that I could write a similar article about translation of agreements, terms and conditions, and similar legal texts. TRANSLATION OF AGREEMENTS AND LEGALESE Legal texts are in a way similar to technical documentation. If their writing is sloppy, they become […]
I translate a lot of technical documentation, mainly instruction or installation manuals. Translation of such texts requires some knowledge of the topic in question, skill, attention to detail, and most importantly common sense. Yet even the best translators can go from mildly upset to seething with fury when an instruction manual poses problems and difficulties due to its poor structure and editing. I have decided […]