Musings from an overworked translator

TGIF: Emma Thompson to the rescue March 13, 2009

This clip from Césars 2009 (France’s version of The Oscars) is one of those edge-of-your-seat clips, but not for the reason you would think. You don’t need to understand French to appreciate it, although I’m sure the French speakers will enjoy it more for the humor of the presenter. You only need to watch about the first 1:45 or so to see why I named this post what I did.

TGIF: Berlitz La Bamba March 6, 2009

It’s Friday. That means it’s time for another language-related video. This time it’s the Spanish fraction’s turn to enjoy a little humor (well, actually everyone because this is a pretty well-known ad even amongst those of us who don’t know Spanish). This Berlitz ad was a Cannes Lion finalist and won a silver medal at Epica 2006. Enjoy!

TGIF: French language school commercial February 26, 2009

Language schools always have the best commercials. This one made me chuckle and is sure to make you laugh as well.

TGIF: Scout and Paws February 20, 2009

Sorry for the delay in posting today’s video. Friday kind of snuck up on me. I hope you enjoy this cute little ad, which reminds me of one of the first videos I put up with the bilingual cat. It isn’t quite as funny, but it is amusing all the same.

TGIF: 16 Language Love Song February 12, 2009

In honor of Valentine’s Day on Saturday, here is a cheesy, yet clever little song showing you how to say I love you in 16 different languages. I’m willing to bet most of you linguists will be able to identify all 16 of them.

And here is an interesting video featuring even more languages (even if some of them are phonetic and not 100% correct). It was made in 2008 by a young German, but it is still relevant today. I particularly like the little bit for the Germans towards the end. If you don’t have a Valentine I’ll be happy to be your Valentine.

So Happy Valentine’s Day!

TGIF: Man vs. computer February 6, 2009

There are plenty of videos on Youtube of folks taking out their aggressions on their computers. Here are a couple of my favorites.

The video that started it all:

Angry German Kid (a.k.a. Der echte Gangster, Slikk or Leopold) is a 15-year-old actor from Bergisches Land, Germany. He plays a character, Der echte Gangster, a parody of a wannabe gangster. This video is him overreacting because he wants to play a video game. Remember folks, he’s just acting.

And my personal favorite:

TGIF: A trip down memory lane January 30, 2009

Here are two ads from Compaq Computer Corporation featuring John Cleese from the mid to late 1980s. I can’t get over Compaq’s idea of a portable computer. Ah, that brings back memories. Remember how we used to have to boot from a floppy? What? You’ve never heard of a floppy? Oh you kids these days… I think my dad still has some if you want one. Lord knows he can’t use them with his new computer, which doesn’t even have a diskette drive :-). Enjoy!

TGIF: Grammar bullies January 23, 2009

One of my pet peeves is people putting an apostrophe to pluralize something like CD’s or 1980’s <shudder>, but I had to chuckle at his comments about Lynne Truss, the author of Eats, Shoots & Leaves. I happen to like her book, and I imagine you do as well. But then again I also love The Deluxe Transitive Vampire and The New Well-Tempered Sentence by Karen Elizabeth Gordon. As translators we can’t help but become Grammar Bullies. I hope you enjoy this – and hope you can understand what the dudes in the video clip are saying, because I was totally at a loss. It’s still a cute little clip.

TGIF: Punctuation Police January 23, 2009

Come on, admit it… don’t you sometimes wish you could do this to language offenders 🙂 ?

TGIF: Some more Victor Borge brilliance January 16, 2009

OK, now that I’ve gotten started watching Victor Borge videos on YouTube I can’t stop. Here are a couple more showing off his talent for humor and classical piano.

The Muppet Show was a “don’t miss” show for me when I was growing up. The Muppet Show was a television program featuring a cast of Muppets that was produced by Jim Henson and his team of Muppeteers from 1976 to 1981. The idea behind The Muppet Show was that the Muppets had a weekly show that would have famous human guest stars in a kind of vaudeville theater atmosphere.

Here is Victor Borge playing Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 and trading puns with my favorite Muppet of all-time, Rolf the Dog. Since I was learning how to play the piano at that time the show aired Rolf was a natural choice for me.

And here he is performing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Bobby Benson and the Baby Band.

And last but not least, here he is performing the William Tell Overture backwards (from “The Best of Borge”).