Category: Travel and culture

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When the obvious translation isn’t right

The topic of false friends comes up regularly in translation, and this week’s collection of translation glitches are similar but perhaps better described as “friends that might lead you astray”. All the examples we discuss here have what… Read More

September 20, 2022 by Alison Tunley

UK school modern language learning: a 2022 status update

The decline in numbers of UK school pupils taking modern language has been widely documented over recent years, including by the British Council, The Guardian, and in this blog. The British Council’s annual Language Trends survey for 2022 shows no sign of this tendency reversing and highlights the specific impact…

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September 13, 2022 by Alison Tunley

Back to Blighty after the dog days of summer

Overly literal translations are the scourge of a translator’s professional life, but when heading off on holiday they can become a source of endless amusement. I now have my family trained to look out for examples of linguistic faux pas, as previously documented in this blog. As my kids have…

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July 26, 2022 by Alison Tunley

Homophone errors – typographic mondegreens

A previous blog revelled in the linguistic joy to be found in eggcorns and mondegreens, which are misheard homophones that can become cemented in standard speech, sometimes even displacing the original correct form. A classic example is “dull as dishwater” rather than ditch water. In written documents, a similar phenomenon…

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January 3, 2020 by admin

Another New Year, another bash at language learning

New Year, new you. It’s that time where you reflect on your failings and resolve to improve. For me, it’s something of an annual tradition to commit to resurrecting my fading, and frankly never brilliant, Spanish skills. Last year I made a good stab at it and lasted several months…

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December 19, 2019 by admin

The great festive greetings manufactroversy

It’s almost as traditional as the tinsel, mince pies and yule log. No, I’m not talking about Christmas stockings, I’m referring to the debate about inappropriate festive greetings. Whether it’s claims that “Seasons Greetings” is offensive to Christians for failing to refer to the true reason for festivities, or suggestions…

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November 27, 2019 by admin

Translating the Neapolitan Novels

I have recently been immersed in the Neapolitan Novels, a series of four books written in Italian under the pseudonym Elena Ferrante. Sadly Italian is not a language I speak, so I have been dependent on the translations by Ann Goldstein. In fact, it was really my interest in Goldstein…

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September 25, 2019 by admin

The travelling translator’s dodgy translation miscellany

A trip abroad offers ripe pickings for the travelling translator. On our recent trip to Spain my kids developed a real knack for tracking down comedy English text, usually in the form of a dodgy translation from the original Spanish. Amateur translations in hotel rooms are always worth a chuckle:…

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September 13, 2019 by admin

The patron saint of translation

Let me introduce Saint Jerome, the patron saint of translation. Who knew we translators even had one? Not me, that’s for sure. I first stumbled upon Jerome in a casual mention by David Bellos in his book “Is that a fish in your ear? The amazing adventure of translation”. Jerome…

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September 6, 2019 by admin

The joy of new words: OED updates

It’s been a while since this blog delved into the wonderful world of new entries in the Oxford English Dictionary. Updates to the dictionary are made four times a year, with selected highlights summarised at the OED website by one of the editors. It’s worth adding to your diary because…

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August 13, 2019 by admin

Untranslatable words

A while ago a friend gifted me a little box set of “Untranslatable words”. Inside is a set of cards, each with a word in a foreign language describing a concept for which there is no direct equivalent in English. Even non-linguists seem to enjoy the idea that another language…

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Taylor Wessing LLP

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American Express

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Maximus Crushing and Screening

I have translated multiple projects with Rosetta now and I cannot emphasise how great the service they provide is; quality, turnaround time and pricing is the best I have found yet. The qualities of translations we receive are of the highest standard and communication from the start of a project to the end is consistent.

For a company looking into translations, I would highly recommend Rosetta as first pick, as the support and service they provide is first class.

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