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 […]
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 […]
In my previous article, I gave you a long list of the key dictionaries (mostly online ones) that we use at Translatorion when translating and proofreading. I hope you’ve found them useful in your language-related activities. If you have any questions concerning more specialised dictionaries – feel free to ask. DICTIONARY AS A TOOL A dictionary is more than a tool – and the art […]
Translators and dictionaries – are they synonymous? For most people, I guess, a dictionary is the most typical artefact associated with translation. Well, for some people, translators are actually like walking dictionaries. But the truth is translators are NOT dictionaries incarnate – they do not know all the possible meanings of all the possible wor(l)ds. One thing is for sure, though: skilful and effective use […]
This happens all too often to freelance translators who start their journey. You buy your first Computer Aided Translation software (CAT), learn the basics, set up a project, and finish a job or two. There comes another job; and another; and another one. You feed your CAT with anything and everything that comes by, piling in projects. However, you don’t use the CAT to its […]
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 […]
5 years ago, Translatorion was born. To celebrate Translatorion’s birthday, we’ll tell you about 5 things that we’ve learnt in the past 5 years. May the next 5 years be just as instructive and even more rewarding!
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 as well as our translator’s brief […]
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 […]