Text to Text Translations

14/04/2018

'The target of all business strategy is the human mind': such a simple truism, but so easily forgotten - especially when it comes to putting those business strategies into words.

I'm only three chapters into R. McKee and T. Gerace's book Storynomics (from whence the quote), but am pretty much sold on its thesis already: finding the story lifts business writing and can really make those working words work!

08/04/2018

According to the incomparable Michele Berdy, President Trump's tweets in Russian translation come across as 'more adult and kind of presidential'. It's amazing what a good translator can do for the quality of any text!

Donald Trump gets a lot of attention for what he says and how he says it. Try putting all those quips and tweets through a Russian language filter and seeing what comes out.

18/01/2018

I know it is not without its imperfections, but I just love this book - if only for ... well ... its sense of style! Even if you think your writing is pretty good you should give it a go. Think of it as gramatological maintenance.

The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr is currently FREE to download via http://amzn.to/2yddONL

01/01/2018

Happy New Year! Wishing you all every happiness and success in 2018!

С новым годом! Желаю Вам счастье и успех в год 2018!

10/12/2017

More 'alternative' proofreading and editing marks: the spade-shaped one would seem to be eminently useful!

Alternative proofreading marks

14/11/2017

Apparently gradable adverbs are in decline in British English. The researcher making the claim laments the effect as an erosion of British linguistic distinctiveness, but I'm as struck by what our more confident and direct mode of expressions means for our ability to voice, order and make sense of our world. In these uncertain times, I hardly think the need for linguistic reticence or measured expression has declined in proportion to its diminishing usage. Language can never be just a matter of words!

Is British English being swallowed up by American English – or are both versions simply following the same path to a more informal language?

02/10/2017

A translator in residence - what a fantastic idea from a great British institution!

It’s !

Swiss novellas, multi-modal translation and even shelfies: here’s a peek into what a day in the life of the Library’s current – and first ever – Translator in Residence is like… http://bit.ly/2x1B1AZ

12/09/2017

If the sign of a good CPD event is that it keeps echoing in thought far into the next week, then last Saturday's ITI Russian Network Translation Workshop with Fiona Paterson and Arch Tait definitely falls into that category. A really pleasant and inspiring day of translating - can't wait until the next one!

10/08/2017

... and we all know what happened to their revolt in the end!

The pedants are revolting.

12/07/2017

My current project is a bit different: researching multilingual business practice among local SMEs for the University of Nottingham. It's fascinating stuff and great to be working with my old school, although the novelty of data collection is definitely starting to wear off! Can't wait to begin analysing the results.

03/05/2017

A few days late for a May Day funny, but it still made me laugh. In English the sign would say something like:

'May Day Shopping Centre Ltd
(closed for May Day)'

Приходите завтра!

31/03/2017

http://www.lse.ac.uk/IDEAS/Projects/bara/barahome.aspx

I did some of the translation for this LSE history project last summer, but somehow never got round to visiting the completed site. I remembered this morning and have just spent a quick coffee break visiting some old texts; I am feeling quite nostalgic now.

The relationship between the UK and the Soviet Union was one of the key political and military relationships of World War II and the Cold War that followed it. Through the wartime alliance between the two powers it defined the outcome of the war against Germany and helped secure the defeat of the Na...