TGIF: Eddie Izzard on Being Bilingual August 1, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff.add a comment
It’s Friday! Time for another video. This is a clip from comedian and actor Eddie Izzard’s Dress to Kill stand-up act. For those of you who are not familiar with Eddie Izzard, he is an Emmy-winning English stand-up comedian and actor who is currently starring in The Riches (on American cable channel FX) with Minnie Driver. As Wikipedia reports, “Izzard’s style is heavily influenced by Monty Python, especially in his use of a stream-of-consciousness delivery that jumps between topics as he free-associates onstage. He does not generally work from a script, due to his dyslexia.” His comedy style is expressed in rambling, whimsical monologue and self-referential pantomime. Despite the fact that some of his humor goes straight over the heads of the American audience it is still brilliant. This particular clip talks about the differences between British and American English.
And since I was just raving about American moviemakers, here is Izzard’s take on British vs. U.S. movies.
Hollywood gets lost in translation – Groan! August 1, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in German culture, Random musings, Translation Sites.3 comments
USA Today has an interesting article about how Hollywood is taking “a more active role in translating its [movie] titles to make sure ‘global launches’ go well.” Hollywood gets lost in translation examines the practice of titling movies for foreign audiences and cites several interesting examples. The author explains “Titles are often tweaked to sound better in the local language, or to provide a hint of the plot to audiences who might be skeptical of what is, to them, a foreign film.” It claims that “translations used to be left to foreign film distributors, with dubious results.” It is an interesting article that will hopefully educate USA Today’s ADHD-afflicted readership that there are other countries and cultures beyond our borders (dare to dream!).
I used to love trying to guess the American title of a movie or TV show when I lived in Germany and always enjoy researching the alternate titles on The Internet Movie Database when I come upon a movie or TV show title in a translation. For instance, the “Die Hard” movies are called Stirb langsam (Die Slowly) in German. “Die Hard 2” is Stirb Langsam 2 – Die Harder, “Die Hard: With a Vengeance” became Stirb Langsam – Jetzt erst recht (Die Slowly – Now more than ever), and “Live Free or Die Hard” has the imaginative title Stirb Langsam 4.0. And, yes, I needed to know this for a computer game.
It’s about time Hollywood started recognizing that they aren’t just making movies for American audiences. Now if only we could get them to stop including gratuitous shots of the American flag or other unnecessary shows of patriotism. Don’t get me wrong; I am as patriotic as the next person. However, after six years in Germany that kind of stuff really makes me shudder because instead of experiencing a swelling of pride or whatever the filmmakers expect us to react with I immediately wonder how non-Americans will react. Most Germans I know generally roll their eyes or make a comment. I had the same reaction at the Cleveland Indians’ game this past Sunday. Instead of belting out “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” during the Seventh Inning Stretch they started us off singing “God Bless America” (the ACLU would have had a field day…) and I sheepishly looked over at the Japanese guy sitting two seats over from me to see how he was reacting to it. OK, how did I get off-topic again…
I’m honored… July 31, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in German culture, Random musings, Translation Sites.add a comment
About Translation reported that my humble blog has been named one of the “Top 100 Language Blogs” by LexioPhiles. Considering the fact that I’ve only been doing this since May 30th, I’m frankly floored and honored to be included among such blogs as yndigo (34), About Translation (42), Translation Blog (52), Blogging Translator (53), and Thoughts On Translation (100). I came in at number 69, which makes me chuckle since I was born in the Summer of ’69. I enjoy reading these blogs very much and have discovered a couple new ones on the list to follow as well.
One of my latest finds (which isn’t on the list) is Nothing for Ungood, which Margaret Marks’ Transblawg (which should have also been considered – I’ve been reading Transblawg for years now) talked about yesterday. I wasted a good half hour of my day yesterday reading Nothing for Ungood’s hilarious insights on Germany and the German culture.
Getting excited for the ATA Conference in Orlando July 31, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Business practices, Marketing ideas, Random musings, Translation Sites.add a comment
I received the preliminary program for the ATA conference in the mail today and immediately went online and registered. I have attended the conference every year since I moved back to the U.S. in 2001, but I frankly wasn’t too excited about the conference this year and had considered not attending. However, as one of the members of the GLD conference planning committee, I got excited to attend Thea Dohler’s presentations on time management (to be presented in German). Then, to top it all off, the conference organizers asked Corinne McKay and me to present our preconference seminar on “How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator” again. Plus, Jost Zetzsche’s presentation “Translation Technology’s Ring of Power: One Tool to Rule Them All…and in the Darkness Bind Them” attracts me from the name alone! Unfortunately I won’t be able to attend Corinne’s presentation “Blogging: How and Why,” because I’ll be presenting the Orientation for First-Time Conference Attendees. I had planned on enjoying a lot of downtime during the conference, but a glance at the program tells me I will indeed be attending a session during almost every time slot. I am most excited about the Independent Contractor sessions this year. There are some fabulous sessions and speakers on the schedule like Jonathan Hine, Chris Durban and Ted Wozniak. I’m also really intrigued by Orestes Martinez’s Social Networking: How to Practice One of the Most Effective Marketing Tools Today. Guess I’ll have to plan on staying an extra day to enjoy Epcot and the Magic Kingdom.
Dear Project Manager, July 31, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Business practices, Random musings, Translation Sites.1 comment so far
Your e-mail this morning irritated me on several levels. I took the easy way out and simply told you I couldn’t accept the job and named two reasons (one being that I am busy with work from your German office, which is true). Here are the other reasons…
First of all, you attached a 4 MB file for a job that only contained about 500 words and should “only take 1 hour to review.” Secondly, you sent the e-mail to three separate e-mail addresses, two of which were incorrect and haven’t been used in several years (one for at least seven years now). I received two of the three e-mails – and had to download and manually delete both 4 MB attachments. And lastly (but I’m sure you personally were not aware of it), your agency has not yet paid my last two invoices, despite numerous e-mail reminders on my end and lame apologies on your end for the one that is now 30 days overdue (although I did mention this reason in my response as well). I hope you are able to find someone to accept your job. You certainly can’t count me anymore.
Cuil apparently no threat to Google July 29, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Tools.1 comment so far
Well, the initial verdicts are in and they are tepid at best. As Time Magazine reports in Why Cuil is No Threat to Google, “the new site poses little immediate threat to industry leader Google, or even its nearest competitors, Yahoo and Microsoft, in either relevance or breadth of results it delivers.” Interest in the new search engine crashed the server on Monday, but “even when it was working, the results were fair, at best.” Hopefully Cuil will survive because I really like the idea of a search engine not storing data on its users and the queries they make, but they will definitely have to do a better job at providing relevant search results. I use Google because it delivers accurate search results and saves me a lot of time. It looks like I will be continuing to do so.
Announcing a new search engine: Cuil July 28, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Random musings, Tools.6 comments
There’s a new search engine that is about to give Google a run for its money. Cuil (pronounced “Cool”), which was developed by husband-and-wife team Tom Costello and Anna Patterson, a search-engine researcher from Stanford University and a former Google employee, aims to rank the relevance of search results by content analysis rather than by popularity. Google, on the other hand, treats Web links as popular votes in weighing Web page relevance for a given query.
The founders of Cuil boast that it indexes 120 billion Web pages, “three times more than any other search engine.” Google, in response, announced on Monday that it now indexes 1 trillion URLs, though not all of them lead to unique Web pages. Says Patterson, “Our team approaches search differently. By leveraging our expertise in search architecture and relevance methods, we’ve built a more efficient yet richer search engine from the ground up. The Internet has grown and we think it’s time search did, too.”
Most importantly, Cuil promises privacy. “There’s a separation between search and surveillance. Whereas Google records information about its users and their searches to improve the user experience and to deliver more relevant search results and ads, Cuil remembers nothing.”
It still has a few bugs to iron out, but I’m confident they will be able to do so soon. Now we just have to see if it can go up against the 800,000 lb. gorilla and survive. I know I for one plan on giving it a try tomorrow. ..
Be sure to always carry business cards with you July 28, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Business practices, Marketing ideas.2 comments
As freelancers, we never know where our next potential job is going to come from. You also never know who you will meet or where you are going to run into a potential client. Therefore it is really important to carry a few business cards with you at all times. I know this, and yet I unfortunately was reminded of this lesson the hard way. I recently ran out of business cards, but have been so busy with work that I hadn’t had time to order more. It had completely slipped my mind.
Last Friday I attended a Murder Mystery dinner in downtown Cleveland with my Meetup.com Dining Out group. The gentleman sitting next to me at dinner was a patent attorney who had lived in Germany for three years while serving in the Army. Needless to say, he sometimes needs a translator. Imagine my embarrassment of not having any business cards in my wallet to give to him. I had to write my name, phone number and e-mail address on a slip of paper. I of course got his business card and immediately followed up via e-mail, but I certainly did not make the best impression I could have.
Learn from my mistake and carry business cards with you at all times. Excuse me while I run out to Kinko’s to drop off the file for my business cards…
A worthwhile cause July 25, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Random musings.1 comment so far
I just read about this homegrown charity on CNN.com, Pedals for Progress, and wanted to share it with all of you. I think I’ve found a charity I can finally get behind. Sure, I regularly donate to my usual charities, but this one just touched my heart for some reason. Pedals for Progress has collected and shipped more than 115,000 used bicycles to 32 developing countries worldwide, where they are sold at a low cost to local residents. Used bicycles offer access to jobs and health care that they might not be able to reach while walking. I have an unused bike languishing in my garage right now because I prefer the mountain bike that actually fits me and is therefore easier to ride. How about you?
TGIF: Catherine Tate’s 7 Language Interpreter July 24, 2008
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff.4 comments
I’ve been enjoying my time off and already have next week booked solid. How did that happen? Anyway, I wanted to take a few minutes to share this video with you all. I’m going to warn you that it is quite painful, yet hilarious to watch.
UK comedian Catherine Tate plays numerous characters in her variety show, The Catherine Tate Show , which debuted in February 2004. This particular clip aired on October 27, 2006. The try-hard wannabe “I can do that” character Helen Marsh didn’t really take off in the tennis and curling sketches, but was truly brilliant when she volunteered to act as an interpreter and reduced the languages of the world to a string of silly noises. Enjoy!
Musings from an overworked translator 