http://translationmusings.com/2008/06/03/an-example-of-why-studyliving-abroad-is-so-important-for-a-translator/ featuring musings about my life and the translation industry Sun, 12 Feb 2012 02:27:30 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ http://translationmusings.com/2008/06/03/an-example-of-why-studyliving-abroad-is-so-important-for-a-translator/#comment-12 Wed, 04 Jun 2008 14:36:42 +0000 http://jillsommer.wordpress.com/?p=16#comment-12 Another example is from my days as a volunteer translator for German News/DE-News, which unfortunately closed up shop a few weeks ago after almost ten years. Most of the translators at the English version, DE-News, were volunteers who had full-time jobs or were even students, but most of the time they did a pretty good job with some really tough subject matter. Anyway, about six years ago I was proofreading a translation of an article about the German fighter planes (Tornados). The translator had misunderstood the term and thought they were talking about tornadoes (such as the ones that frequently whip through Kansas and Oklahoma – and occasionally through Ohio and Colorado). Needless to say, I had to completely retranslate the article.

]]> http://translationmusings.com/2008/06/03/an-example-of-why-studyliving-abroad-is-so-important-for-a-translator/#comment-11 Wed, 04 Jun 2008 03:45:56 +0000 http://jillsommer.wordpress.com/?p=16#comment-11 You are so right, what a great example! I remember doing a translation of an interview where the interviewee made several references to someone resembling “the Marianne.” Had I never lived/studied in France I wouldn’t have known that he was talking not about an actual woman named Marianne, but about the gal on the French coins, stamps, etc. who is roughly their equivalent of the Statue of Liberty. Plus the word Pappnasen is just cool! Good work!

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