Category: Travel and culture

Excitement is mounting in the film industry at the prospect of the annual Oscars ceremony on February 26th and there is one award category in particular which will be of interest to those working in translation: the Best Foreign Film award. To be eligible for the award each film must…

Choosing a translation provider can be a daunting and intimidating experience for some. For anyone who hasn’t used a language services provider before or needed to have a document translated, knowing what questions to ask, what red flags to look for and how much the services will cost will all…

As we’ve said before in this blog, just being able to speak another language does not make you an interpreter. Professional interpreters have done much training and study to get into the field, they may have also spent a significant amount of time in another field such as law or…

The origins of English sayings: The Rule of Thumb   A friend and I recently went on a Jack the Ripper walking tour of London (which I would highly recommend, particularly on a warm day!) and, aside from learning the stories and conspiracies surrounding this notorious murderer, also learned some…

Specialist translation: Wine and other drinks   Oenology: the study of wines. And no, that doesn’t mean just looking at a glass of wine somewhat intently then glugging away. The study of wines and other alcohols is a huge field of study, and a complex one at that. A very…

Languages in focus: Basque – Part Two Having spoken with a native English person living in Spain and learning Basque in part one, I thought it would also be interesting to gain the perspective of a person who grew up surrounded by Basque. Victoria, whose Basque name is Gurenda, also…

Specialist translation: Experts in the field It is a frequent misconception that every translator can handle every type of text that’s thrown his or her way. Wrong! In fact, if sourcing a translator privately, you should be wary of translators that do accept anything and everything from legal texts to…

Top 10 interesting facts about translation With all the doom and gloom we’ve been experiencing in recent times with an uncertain political and economic climate I thought we’d keep it upbeat and light-hearted in today’s blog post. Let’s dive into some interesting facts about translation! Translation is a Latin word…

Latin language …. And other things the Romans did for us   On a recent trip to Italy and having visited several Roman historical sites such as the coliseum, Herculaneum and Pompeii, I was struck by how many things in Western civilization have been influenced by the work of the…

Language: it’s child’s play! Part one   At university, for my degree in languages, I studied language acquisition and how this differs depending on whether it is your first or second language, and how old you are when you start learning. There are many theories about how we acquire language…