Übersetz das doch mal kurz March 12, 2010
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Business practices, Fun stuff, German culture, Translation.1 comment so far
The German radio channel WDR3 featured a commentary yesterday about the work of translators that you German-speaking readers might enjoy hearing (warning: it’s in German). The title is Übersetz das doch mal kurz (Can you translate this quickly for me?). The speaker talks about how people expect translators to work quickly and compares translation and dental work, which I think is a good comparison. After all, no one expects a dentist to quickly fill a cavity at a low rate – and people expect dentists to know what they are doing because they have had the training. Enjoy!
And, thanks to Roland Grefer, here is a link to the MP3 in case you want to save it.
TGIF: Love in any language February 12, 2010
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff, TGIF.4 comments
I have loved this song since we sang it in high school – accompanied by sign language interpreters. Since Valentine’s Day is this weekend I thought it was only fitting. I hope you enjoy it and have a great weekend.
TGIF: Things we (Americans) say wrong February 5, 2010
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff, TGIF.3 comments
This video will probably make most native and non-native speakers’ heads spin, but I found it pretty amusing. As translators I hope you enjoy it as well. Enjoy your weekend! Thanks to Screw You!, an interesting blog for freelance writers that writes about bottom-feeding rates and the vendors who try to get away with paying freelance writers abominably low rates. One recent job that was featured offered $0.005 a word. And you thought translation job bids were bad!
On the swabish railway – EU Commissioner Günther Oettinger February 4, 2010
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff, German culture.2 comments
Several of my German colleagues alerted me to this rather humorous piece in the Frankfurter Rundschau entitled “Well done, Günther: On the swabish railway.” Günther Oettinger is a German politician and member of the Christian Democratic Union party (CDU). He was appointed as an EU Commissioner in the European Commission on October 24, 2009. He recently received a lot of criticism and ridicule when he announced that English would be the working language of the Commission – and then held an atrociously articulated speech in English that no one could understand. The joke in the article above is that he needs ghostwriters and that those ghostwriters also do a terrible job with English. The links below the article to other “speeches” are just as enjoyable. Enjoy!
TGIF: German coffeemaker commercial January 29, 2010
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff, TGIF.2 comments
If you are anything like me you have a deep appreciation for a fine cup of coffee. You don’t need to understand German to appreciate this commercial. Enjoy and have a great weekend! I promise to actually post a real blog post next week. I’ve been busy with life in the meantime…
TGIF: Israeli take on American airport security January 22, 2010
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff, TGIF.5 comments
This clip made me laugh so hard that I wanted to share it with you all. Thanks so much to Rina Ne’eman for tweeting it the other day! Enjoy!
How not to flirt in German January 11, 2010
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff, German culture.3 comments
ALTA Translation’s blog has a fun blog post this morning on How NOT to flirt in German. Although to be perfectly honest the lines don’t work in English either. If someone used them on me I would groan and roll my eyes and excuse myself. 🙂 But it’s a fun read for an otherwise blah Monday morning.
SNL Japanese game show January 9, 2010
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff, TGIF.1 comment so far
My friend and I were watching Saturday Night Live’s The Best of Chris Farley the other night, and I saw this skit for the very first time in which a man from America goes to Japan and ends up on a game show that he didn’t he plan to be on. I had to share it with all of you as well. It is hilarious. Probably not at all linguistically accurate, but you don’t need the language skills to appreciate it.
For those of you who don’t know him, Chris Farley was a comedian and actor who died at age 33 (way too soon if you ask me). Farley was a member of Chicago’s Second City improv group and a cast member of the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live. He also starred some successful movies in the 1990s like Tommy Boy and Beverly Hills Ninja. He never failed to make me laugh.
TGIF: A doggy Christmas surprise – Karácsonyi kutyás meglepetés December 18, 2009
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff, TGIF.2 comments
Since I won’t be posting on Christmas Day, this will be the last TGIF video for the year. I wish you all a happy holiday, whatever you are celebrating, be it Hanukkah, Christmas, the Winter Solstice or Kwanzaa.
This is just too precious! A dog school in Hungary made this video. These dogs are amazing.
TGIF: Hanukkah Song December 11, 2009
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff, TGIF.add a comment
Hanukkah begins tonight at sundown, so in honor of those of you who celebrate Hanukkah this video is for you. Even if you aren’t Jewish I promise you’ll enjoy the song. Everyone knows Adam Sandler from his movies, but this was one of the songs that shot him into the stratosphere of fame on Saturday Night Live. It’s one of my favorite songs that is played on the radio this time of year. For those of you who have difficulty understanding him singing, here are the words to the song.
So drink your gin-and-tonic-ah, and smoke your mara-juanic-ah,
If you really, really wanna-kah, have a happy, happy, happy, happy Hanukkah!
Musings from an overworked translator 