Musings from an overworked translator

A ♥ for Language Blogs July 4, 2011

I was on vacation when Judy and Dagmar Jenner from Translation Times suggested a little experiment for translation bloggers to write a post listing their favorite language-related blogs. I don’t need a copy of their book, as I already own it, so I’m just doing this to share some blogs with my readers that they might not otherwise know. It seems most of those who have embraced this idea are introducing their readers to blogs that other bloggers have not suggested yet. I was going to avoid duplicates, but a lot of my favorites (like Thoughts on Translation, Translate This!, Translation Tribulations, There’s Something About Translation, Blogging Translator and the aforementioned Translation Times) have been mentioned and deserve mentioning again. Plus, I still have about 250 unread blog posts in my RSS feed after my vacation and can’t guarantee that they haven’t already been suggested. For what it’s worth, here are my favorite blogs (that are still active – I was shocked by how many translation blogs I have in my feed that haven’t posted in over a year or more!):

1. Naked Translations by Céline Graciet: this blog is completely bilingual (in English and French) and I can’t even imagine how much time she puts into each post.
2. Mox’s Blog by Alejandro Moreno-Ramos: Who doesn’t enjoy seeing our industry lampooned in comic form? Alejandro’s insights are hilarious.
3. Catherine Translates by Catherine Jan, a French to English translator who is from Canada (southern Ontario) but now lives in France. Her posts are insightful and interesting. She also posts interviews with notable translators.
4. Bunch of Thoughts on Translation by John Bunch, a German to English translator. He has been a translator since 1996 and a full-time freelancer since 2007. I also follow him on Twitter.
5. The Translator’s Teacup by Rose Newell, who writes about the translation industry and life as a freelance translator. I recently enjoyed her two-part series on what makes a good, successful and happy freelance translator.
6. false friends, good and bad translation, denglish, Tipps für Übersetzer by Martin Crellin. The blog is a mixture of German and English (but mostly German) and is often written quite tongue-in-cheek based on actual experiences with German clients who feel they “can English.”
7. Financial Translation Blog by Miguel Llorens. It is nice to hear well-reasoned arguments about how the sky is not falling (aka MT will not be taking over the industry as we know it).
8. The GITS Blog by Ryan Ginstrom, a Japanese to English translator and programmer. Ryan recently moved from Japan to take a job with Nintendo in the U.S. and his blog hasn’t been updated in a little while. I hope once things settle down he will be posting again soon.
Honorable mention: The Masked Translator (oh, where art thou, MT?!?! We miss you!).

Favorite non-language-related blogs:
1. Hyperbole and a Half – because it is pee-in-your-pants, fall-off-your-chair funny
2. Screw You! – a website by a freelance writer who rails against poorly paid writing jobs and job boards (surely we can all relate).
3. The Simple Dollar – because every freelancer should live frugally and understand investing.
4. Meet the Germans by Rory McLean – he lives in Berlin and writes about German culture for the Goethe Institut. It’s quite interesting.
5. The Grounded Traveler – because translators are at heart grounded travelers and love to travel. The author (Andy) normally writes about Germany and living as an expat there, but he recently married his wife in the U.S. (who he met online through Twitter) so he is also writing about the U.S. through the eyes of an expat who hasn’t been back in 10 years.
Honorable mention: Letters from Germany – even though Francesca died and her friend no longer maintains the blog, reading through the blog posts is well-worth your time if you are interested in German culture

I have to say that I am enjoying these lists. There are lots of blogs out there I was unaware of!