In the News

Keep up-to-date with all the latest terminology news! Selected for you: 

• Does Knowing a Language Mean Fluency?, by Aim Danışmanlık, January 20, 2012. Michael Erard explores in Babel No More: The Search for the World’s Most Extraordinary Language Learners — the first serious investigation into the phenomenon of seemingly superhuman multilingual dexterity.

• Free and Open-Source Software and Tools for Translators, by Translations Lisko, January 16, 2012. As a freelance translator in the twenty-first century, you will inevitably need translation tools. Many translators purchase proprietary software at a high price, unaware that there is a world of free and open-source software and tools available for public use online. Read on to find out where and how you can access these tools.

• Computerized corpora and the future of translation studies, by erudit.org. A discussion of the centrality of corpus-based studies within the entire discipline of translation studies. The author, Maria Tymoczko, warns against the possible danger of pursuing scientific rigour as an end in itself through empty and unnecessary quantitative investigations.

• Terminology infrastructures and the terminology market in Europe, by Christian Galinski. There seems to exist a vexing relationship between the possibility to use one’s mother-tongue and the positive economic development of the respective language community. People whose mother-tongue is not (or not sufficiently) developed from the point of view of specialized language or who are denied to use their mother-tongue in education and training, for accessing information or in their daily work situation tend to be/feel disadvantaged.

• The dreaded comma splice, by economist.com, January 10, 2012. I was surprised to see Arnold Zwicky, a linguist, use a comma splice. A few commenters took me to task for being over-picky. The question came up again in the comments several days ago, when a frequent commenter asked for a post on the comma splice.

• Internationalization: Making your WordPress site Multilingual, by Geoffrey Hoffman and Ani Lopez, January 10, 2012. The decision to create a website in more than one language is an important one, regardless of the framework in which your website is programmed. If you use WordPress, several options already exist as plugins or plugin collections that can make the task easier and save a lot of time.

• 10 Types of Hypercorrection, by dailywritingtips.com. Well-meaning writers and editors sometimes mangle the language they’re trying to manage — a fault called hypercorrection. Errors of this class are the result either of adherence to a spurious superstition about proper form, a misunderstanding about a point of grammar, or an attempt to fit a square idiom into a round pigeonhole. Here’s a list of some of the categories of hypercorrection. 

• China develops minority language translation software, by proz.com, January 9, 2012. China on Friday announced five software applications designed to further promote and standardize the use of minority languages.

• 2011 Word of the Year shows how old words take on new meanings, by Mallary Jean Tenore, January 9, 2012. The American Dialect Society has chosen “occupy” as the 2011 Word of the Year. “It has taken on new parts of speech (as an imperative verb: ‘Occupy!’ or as an attributive noun: ‘the Occupy movement’) and new meanings, related to the protest movement and its style of demonstrations,” Ben Zimmer, chair of the organization’s New Words Committee, told me.

• “Occupy” Named 2011 Word of the Year, by Ben Zimmer, 9 January 2012. As the selection of the American Dialect Society’s Word of the Year approached, a certain air of inevitability had begun to surround occupy, the word revitalized by the Occupy protest movement. 

• At What Age Do Translators Do Their Best Work?, by patenttranslator.wordpress.com, January 8, 2012. There is a theory that most rock musicians write their best music about 5 years after they first put together a band and start performing and writing songs. I think it is safe to say that unlike rock musicians, translators don’t do their best work while they are still quite young.

• Multi-Lingual Terminology in Global Markets, by Arta Doci, January 7, 2012. Quality product localizations are important contributors to a competitive edge in global markets. The benefits of accepted multi-lingual terminology are instrumental to quality localization.

• Top 25 grammar and language mistakes, by Daphne Gray-Grant, January 5, 2012. It’s true that corporate communicators need to aim at colloquial language—we don’t want to be so colloquial that we assault our readers’ eyes with errors. Here are 25 of the most common ones.

• Are there words that contain the letter ‘q’ without a ‘u’ following it?, by oxforddictionaries.com. In the spelling of all standard English words, the letter q is followed by u. The Oxford Dictionary of English does contain various words in which q is not followed by u: all but one (QWERTY) have reached English from other languages.

• Key terms from the export world, by consiliumglobalbusinessadvisors.com, January 4, 2012. Export.gov’s Top 50 Search Phrases of 2011.

• Top 10 Languages in the Internet, by internetworldstats.com. Internet World Stats presents its latest estimates for Internet Users by Language.

• Meaning of noosphere, by wordsmith.org. Noun: The sum of human knowledge, thought, and culture.
• Getting to the Promised Land of Machine Translation, by Donald A. DePalma, January 3, 2012. Until a few years ago, anyone wanting to use machine translation (MT) had to buy it from a commercial supplier or build it themselves. Then along came the Moses decoder.
• ODT files in translation environment tools, by Erik Hansson, January 2, 2012. After an interesting afternoon with a friend who was a bit frustrated with the behavior of her translation assistance technology with an ODT (Open Office text) source file, I decided to have a look at how a variety of common tools handle this format.
• The Myth of Determinacy (Equivalence), by John Bunch. There is a pernicious myth in the translation world, that goes something like this: for every word in a language, there is one “right” translation of the word in a foreign language. As in: X in German = Y in English. This is of course nonsense, if you know anything about language, and/or have any translation experience.
• Preserving language a must, say experts, by Lan Lan, January 2, 2012. The Vietnamese language has been developing very quickly along with the development of the country but many strange and complicated words and phrases being used by young people nowadays have altered the language, says Associate Professor Ha Quang Nang.
• Decoding a Translation Memory Analysis, by bodeuxinternational.com, January 2, 2012. If you have never read a translation memory analysis report before (or even if you have), they can be confusing. Below is an example of an analysis of a document to be translated. Such a report is generated when a document or set of documents in analyzed against a translation memory using a translation tool such as WordFast, SDL Trados or other.
• Don’t let these words occupy your vocabulary in 2012, by theglobeandmail.com, January 1, 2012. Nothing strips a word of all its meaning like using it over and over. Case in point, the word “amazing,” which has gone from describing sheer astonishment to a simple affirmation of the slightly above-average. Which is exactly whyLake SuperiorStateUniversity wants to ban it.
• The Web of Language, Dictionary droids write definitions untouched by human hands, by Dennis Baron, January 1, 2012.  There’s a new breed of dictionary, untouched by human hands. The New York Times reports that teams of programmers have developed software that automates the making of dictionaries, eliminating the need for human lexicographers, who may favor some words and neglect others. These new dictionary droids comb the web, selecting words in context, defining them automatically based on that surrounding context, and tabulating the definitions and citations for subscribers to consult online. And they do it all faster than you can say Google.
• Does your language shape how you think?, by underpaidgenius.com, December 31, 2011. When I first got involved in studying linguistics, I read the work of Benjamin Whorf, whose theory — The Whorfian Hypothesis — was that language shapes thought, and as a result, people can only think thoughts that are expressible in the languages they know.
• Adventures in Hyperpolyglottery: Inside the Mind of Extreme Language Learners, by Nataly Kelly, December 29, 2011. Admit it. At one point or another, the words “Learn a new language,” have appeared on your list of New Year’s Resolutions. Like most resolutions made with the best of intentions, this one frequently fizzles out well before the year comes to an end. But speaking multiple languages is not uncommon — it’s the normal state for many human beings all over the world. So why is it so hard for people to achieve such a simple goal?
• Spurious Claims about “Bilingual Experts”, by patenttranslator, December 21, 2011 . What does the translation business look like from the perspective of our clients? What are they thinking when they end up on the website of a translation agency or translator?
• Translation Memory Software Advantages and Disadvantages, by Matt Moore, December 21, 2011. Prior to discussing the merits and pitfalls of utilizing translation memory software, it is imperative to understand precisely what this technology is able to do. For starters, translation memory or TM, is essentially a workable database of information relating to language. It stores bits of data – packets of information – in segments.

• The Value of Professional Linguistic Review, by Nick Peris, December 19, 2011. All Translators I know are consummate professionals, who take great pride in the quality of their work. They are well-used to using various sources of reference material to ensure they meet the expectations of their customers, and they systematically proof read their work before delivery. Most of them use CAT tools, which allow them to maximise consistency and partly automate quality control.

• 10 Essential Marketing Skills for Freelancers, by freelanceswitch.com. As a freelancer (or potential freelancer), you live and die by your ability to sell your services. And unless you’ve got some kind of agent or marketing firm doing your marketing for you, you’ve got to be your own marketer.

• Is the Print Dictionary Doomed?, by June Thomas, December 17, 2011. Introducing June Thomas’ new podcast about nonfiction books and their authors.

• Switzerland’s Romansh, Struggling to Survive, by thelanguagejournal.com, December 3, 2011. Apart from German, French and Italian,Switzerland has another national language that many people across the globe have never heard of. This language, which originated from Latin, is called Romansh. Romansh is also known by these names: Romansch, Rumantsch, Romanche and Rhaeto-Romansch. InSwitzerland, speakers of this unfamiliar language account for about less than 1% of the whole population of the country.

• Differences among languages, by economist.com. December 1, 2011. ROMAN JAKOBSON, a linguist, is credited with the notion that languages differ not so much in what they can express as what they must express. The common trope that language X has no word for Y is usually useless (it usually means language X uses several words instead of one for Y). But languages do differ significantly in what they force speakers to express, something Lera Boroditsky talks about often in support of the “linguistic relativity” hypothesis.

• Optimizing Document Translation with Adobe Captivate Screen Captures, by blog.globalizationpartners.com, November 30, 2011. Captivate is an authoring tool designed to assist in creating multimedia eLearning content. If you need to develop branched scenarios for soft-skills training or create software simulations where you need to take a lot of the screenshots for complex branching, then Adobe Captivate is exactly what you need to use. Your translation services agency should also be familiar with Captivate and how to handle embedded rich media in FrameMaker files, destined for multiple delivery formats.

• The Failure of Bing’s Language Translation Tool, by Transliteria  November 30, 2011. Microsoft’s Bing search engine unveiled a language translation tool in June 2009, their answer to Alta Vista’s popular Babelfish. The initial launch allowed users to type in a query, such as “How do I say I love you in Spanish,” and the translation was provided.

• Princesses Learn Spanish, by earlylanguages.com. Princesses Learn Spanish (TM) is the new free iPad and iPhone app designed to expose children to their first Spanish words and expressions.

• Language Learning Activities, by everydaylanguagelearner.com. The following are activities that any language learner can use as part of their language learning program.  They are divided into three categories though with a little work they can be adapted to cross into other categories.

• Definition of babel from Oxford Dictionaries, by oxforddictionaries.com. Noun[in singular] a confused noise made by a number of voices.

• Do Turkeys Come From Turkey?, by Grammar Girl, November 23, 2011. A couple of years ago, Steve Bell wanted to know whether “turkey,” the name of the bird, is related to Turkey, the country.

• The “Word of the Year” should be a word, by Geoffrey K. Pullum, November 23, 2011. The Oxford Dictionaries organization (responsible for marketing the Oxford English Dictionary and its many spinoffs and abridgments) picks a word at the end of each year that they think epitomizes the main currents of what happened in the world.

• What is your word (or expression) of the year?, by bbc.co.uk, November 23, 2011. The lexicographers at the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) have come up with their Word of the Year. Actually, they haven’t. They’ve come up with an expression – squeezed middle.

• Gained In Translations – A translator (and fiction writer) on the tricky task of turning Israeli novels into English, by Evan Fallenberg, November 22, 2011. A much-discussed fact in the publishing world is the following statistic: only about 3 percent of all books published annually in theU.S. are works translated from another language.

• What Are The Hardest Languages To Learn?, by vox.com. Learning a new language can be difficult, but some languages can be trickier than others. For native English speakers, the difficulty level of a new language depends on a variety of factors.

• George Orwell’s 5 Rules for Effective Writing, by pickthebrain.com. In our society, the study of language and literature is the domain of poets, novelists, and literary critics. Language is considered a decorative art, fit for entertainment and culture, but practically useless in comparison to the concrete sciences. But is this an accurate assessment of value?

• A word a day, Meaning of mantissa, by wordsmith.org. An addition of little importance.

• New books to feed your brain, by Lisa McLendon, November 19, 2011. Who doesn’t love a word book? Especially one filled with such delicious words as “gossamer,” “purloin” and “sclerotic.” Mignon Fogarty has selected 101 words that stay on the educated side of the educated-pretentious divide, so you’ll sound smart but not “pedantic”.

• What is a CAT Tool? (a short introduction), by metatexis.net. CAT tools are designed to help translators translating texts. How does MetaTexis achieve this? In the following paragraphs, I will try to explain the basic functions of MetaTexis and, indeed, of any CAT tool.

• Spanish in America: Language of the ghetto?, by economist.com, November 16, 2011. Many believe that while previous waves of immigrants quickly learned English, today’s Latino immigrants do not, retaining Spanish and refusing or ignoring English, enabled by widely available television and radio in Spanish.

• BuzzWord, Definition of Common Era, BCE CE, from Macmillan Dictionary, by Kerry Maxwell. Method of numbering years which refers to the period of time that began after the birth of Jesus Christ.

• Proof of Income: A Freelance Problem, by freelanceswitch.com. If you’re renting an apartment or buying a new home, you’ll probably be asked to provide proof of your income. Freelancers can’t exactly present a pay stub, though, making what should be routine paperwork much harder.

• Free/open-source machine translation systems and tools, by computing.dcu.ie. Here’s a non-exhaustive list of links to existing free/open-source machine translation systems, which I will try to complete as I find about them.

• Words: Definition of smattering, by Mnemonicdictionary.com. (noun) a slight or superficial understanding of a subject.

• Word Soup – Unbelievable words, by blog.wordnik.com. The strange, obscure and totally unbelievable moments in pop culture, celebrity news and reality TV, Word Soup will bring you those words.

• Complexity of translation – what Gets Lost In Translation, by npr.org, November 14, 2011. The Russian language has a word for light blue and a word for dark or navy blue, but no word for a run-of-the-mill generic shade of blue. So when translators are tasked with converting “blue” from English to Russian, they’re forced to choose a specific shade.

• Danish – Dansk, by aboutworldlanguages.com, November 14, 2011. Most Danish words are derived from Old Norse and Middle Low German. Later borrowings came from standard German, French and English. There are many differences in pronunciation among the various dialects of Danish.

• 8 Reasons Freelancers Should Charge More Than Employees, by freelancefolder.com, November 14, 2011. One of the biggest issues that beginner freelancers face is deciding how much to charge their clients.

• 9 Ideas For Finding Target Language Reading Materials, by everydaylanguagelearner.com, November 14, 2011. One of the challenges many language learners face is in finding quality reading material in the target language. Outside of languages found in your geographical region, finding translated and even original literature in the target language can be a difficult proposition.

• On Language: the use of the word Revert, by nytimes.com. The only usage I find acceptable is ‘to return to a previous state. Revert, as the major American and British dictionaries have it, does indeed primarily refer to a return to a former condition, belief or practice.

• How to Ace Your Next Freelancing Job Interview, by freelancefolder.com., November 13, 2011. Most people don’t realize it, but freelancers frequently face interviews. Some tips to help freelancers prepare for various types of interviews that they might face.
• Weird Words: Siccity, by worldwidewords.com, November 12, 2011. If a weather forecaster were to predict a period of siccity, his audience would be unlikely to understand that he meant a drought was on its way. This ancient word for a state of extreme dryness has long ago been abandoned by English speakers.

• Why Being a Native Speaker of the Target Language is so important for the Translator?, by Matt Moore, November 11, 2011. Translation services are best achieved when the recipient of the message understands precisely what was intended by the sender of the message. The art of translation is one that requires an in-depth understanding of communication, language, culture and idiosyncrasies.

• The Story Of English In 100 Words by David Crystal, by dailymail.co.uk, November 10, 2011. English as we (more or less) know it began forming in the Fifth Century, when Saxons, Angles and Jutes arrived fromGermany and mingled their vocabulary with remnants of the Latin left over from the Roman occupation.

• What is the term for a word that has two opposing meanings?, by Oxforddictionaries.com. A word with two opposite meanings is sometimes described as a contranym: the verb cleave is usually given as the classic example of such a word (it means both ‘split or divide’ and also ‘adhere or stick fast’).

• 300% Increase in Translations Spurred by Volunteer and Sponsor Support, by gala-global.org, November 10, 2011.  Translators without Borders, a U.S.-based charitable organization that facilitates the transfer of knowledge to those in need, has reached two million words of volunteer translations since the beginning of the year.  The organization, which works with translators from around the world, reached the two million word mark at the end of October.

• Oops: A History. When did we come up with a word for making mistakes?, by Forest Wickman, November 10, 2011. Around the 1930s. The first known appearance of oops in print comes from a 1922 Washington Post  caption, apparently for a cartoon, but it’s unclear whether the exclamation carries the same meaning it does today.

• Why I Use Twitter – and Why You Should Too, by Catherine Christaki, November 10, 2011. Not in my wildest dreams did I expect the numerous benefits Twitter has offered me. I thought the main advantages, like networking and finding clients would be for power users only, but I was wrong. Even if you’re new, if you’re not as active, you’ll still benefit. Take a look to see what you might have been missing!

• Wikipedia eyes India for language growth, by technology.inquirer.net. Wikipedia is banking on growth in the mobile phone sector and increased Internet access to boost content in Indian languages ranging from Hindi to Telugu. The online encyclopedia currently has versions in more than 20 languages spoken inIndia, but the number of pages compared with English, and considering the size ofIndia’s 1.2 billion population, is small.

• New Words: Oxford English Dictionary, by oed.com. Oxford leads the field in recording the entry of today’s new words into the language. We use printed evidence of new words from magazines, newspapers, books, song lyrics, practical manuals – indeed from any published source. Slang and dialect words are also collected.

• One size does NOT fit all when translating for Spanish market, by dynamiclanguageblog.com, November 10, 2011. More than 16 percent of theUnited States population is of Hispanic origin. Census Bureau uses the term “Hispanic” to refer to people fromCuba,Mexico, Puerto Rico, South andCentral America, or any other Spanish culture. So when we say to advertise to the Hispanic population, we mean to do so after researching just which subculture you are trying to reach. If translating into Spanish, for example, a company should figure out which region their target market comes from.

• What is the origin of the word quiz?, by oxforddictionaries.com. The story goes that aDublin theatre proprietor by the name of Richard Daly made a bet that he could, within forty-eight hours, make a nonsense word known throughout the city, and that the public would supply a meaning for it.

• British Medical Journal: Language is essential for access to information, by translatorswithoutborders.tumblr.com. People who most need healthcare information are not likely to have a good understanding of English (or of French, Spanish, or Portuguese).  Language is a large obstacle to comprehension and people with scant knowledge of English tend to be those who need access to information the most.

• How do global businesses manage their multilingual content?, by Alex Wares, November 10, 2011.  IKEA, Hilton, Prada and J&J Leading The Way In Content Localization and Multilingual Marketing.

• Getting started with Twitter – A translator’s journey, by Catherine Christaki. How to use Twitter & tips to enhance your Twitter experience. I’ll tell you the main reasons on why I tweet so actively and how it’s changed my life. I created my account following many recommendations on how it can be a great networking tool for translators.

• First Physical Evidence Bilingualism Delays Onset of Alzheimer’s Symptoms, by sciencedaily.com. Researchers at St. Michael’s Hospital have found that people who speak more than one language have twice as much brain damage as unilingual people before they exhibit symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. It’s the first physical evidence that bilingualism delays the onset of the disease.

• LinkedIn now available in Swedish, by press.linkedin.com.  LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network with more than 135 million members worldwide, launched a Swedish language version. From 9th of November, members can select the Swedish version of LinkedIn right from their homepage.

• Some brand names don’t translate well, by Adam Wooten. Many global companies, like Coca-Cola, Nike, Google, Intel and Microsoft, choose to use the same brand name in multiple countries. This is not possible for every brand, but it can often be an advantage.

• Focusing on Bilingualism among Children That Learn Foreign Languages, by abroadlanguages.com, November 10, 2011. How bilingualism could affect a child’s learning capabilities.

• Top Words of 2011 – Global Language Monitor’s 12th Annual Survey of Global English, by languagemonitor.com, November 10, 2011. The Global Language Monitor has announced that ‘Occupy’ is the Top Word, ‘Arab Spring’ the Top Phrase and ‘Steve Jobs’ the Top Name of 2011 in its annual global survey of the English language.

• A name is a name. Right? by Lisa Carter. Some of the characters in the novels are named Turing, Ashley, Adriana, Mr. Jiang and Voltaire. As names, they’re perfect as is in whatever language. Right? But in some novel names have meaning. Meanings that aren’t obvious unless translated. Yet, you don’t translate names. Or do you?

• Is Online Translation Management the Future? By Charles, November 9, 2011. The majority of small and medium sized translation companies specialized in internationalization, localization and Translation services have their own modern and informative websites but they are also following the big players in the industry and providing online translation facilities.

• Apprenticeships for translators, by Sarah Dillon. The topic of apprenticeships, work placements or internships for translators interests me for several reasons, not least because I believe on-the-ground learning alongside more experienced peers is a vital part of education in any field. But it’s particularly interesting in translation because of the way in which our industry is organised.

• Translate more Indic languages, by googlemobile.blogspot.com, November 9, 2011. Google Translate for iPhone app updated these new alpha languages: Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu. This brings the total number of languages supported by the app to 63 languages.

• Official Document Translation, by Suzanne Deliscar, November 8, 2011. In highly multicultural countries such asCanada and many others, thousands of immigrants arrive in the country each year, bringing foreign qualifications and other documents for accreditation in their adopted home.
• Lost in Facebook Translation – Why the Facebook translation tool is a failure, by Jean-Christophe, November 8, 2011. Facebook has decided to make it easier for its users with international friends who do not always interact in a shared language. So, if you come across a status, comment or similar written in a foreign language, you will soon have the possibility to translate them in another language of your choice.
• How not to translate, by thehouseoftranslation.blogspot.com, November 8, 2011. 8.45 Feeling quite desperate. Haven’t had new work in 2 weeks – 09:00 Received email from new client. Looks like big potential – 09:05  Not in my specialty but how hard can medical translation be?
• Free template for your translator site, by qabiria.com. Professional translators should always have an online space where they can promote their translation or interpreting services. Qabiria provides a free web template for all, that you can use to create a professional and appealing website in a few minutes, even without knowledge of HTML or web design.
• 10 of the Most Surprising Things About Freelancing, by freelancefolder.com, November 7, 2011. It was over ten years ago, well before I became a freelancer, but I still remember. “I don’t believe anyone could earn decent money through the Internet.” Today I am today doing exactly what I thought could never be done. There are many things that I didn’t know about freelancing until I became a freelancer myself.

• Is “cloud” a technical term (yet)?, by bikterminology.com. We have jargon, we have words, we have phrases…we have terms. Can words become terms? How would that happen? And has “the cloud” arrived as a technical concept yet

• Interpreters: Life/Death, by translatontimes.blogspot.com. We’ve really enjoyed sharing this public service announcement video by TAHIT (Texas Association of Healthcare Interpreters and Translators). You are in for a very powerful message. Have a look at a situation when interpreters can make the difference between life and death. This is a great video to underline the vital importance of interpreters, especially in the healthcare sector.

• Tiramisu word, by Geoffrey K. Pullum, November 6, 2011. The name of the Italian dessert called tiramisu is simply the Italian phrase that translates into English as “pull me up”. The tir- root is common to most Romance languages, and means “pull”. The pronoun mi means “me”, as even a child might guess. And su “up” is from the same Latin root as the sup- of superimpose or superscript.

• How to Provide the Context to your Translator?, by Matt Moore, November 5, 2011. Translation services form part and parcel of a bustling niche market in the world of e-commerce and international communications. Oftentimes the message that is being promoted is misinterpreted by the recipient. This presents myriad challenges to both the sender and the receiver.

• Appalachian Dialect, By Kelly Rippin, November 2, 2011. While many things define the Appalachian culture, the dialect sets us apart from the rest of the country. “What we’re looking at, is how the language that everyone speaks, is different than what used to be spoken in the area and in what directions it’s changing,” explained Kirk Hazen, an Associate Professor at WVU. “What we mostly study are sound differences, and differences in how the same kinds of patterns are used”.

•  The Joyful Side of Translation, by Adam Thirlwell, October 28, 2011. The theory of translation is very rarely comical. Its mode is elegy, and severe admonishment.

• Being a translator should be hard, by Sarah Dillon, October 28, 2011. One of the best perks of my other job is that I get to attend some truly fantastic talks by the most interesting, inspiring and successful people in our profession. Building and growing a business is hard, and that freelance translators and interpreters need to expect it to be that way. Yet not as many translators seem to grasp this aspect of business ownership. It’s no secret that translation has a low barrier to entry, and freelance work an even lower one. Significant results don’t materialize overnight – they require continuous (or at least continual) practice combined with a strategic approach, a long-term commitment and plenty of hard work.

• The Best Industries For Starting a Business Right Now. Translation and Interpretation Services, By Inc.com, October 28, 2011. Talk is cheap, but solid communications are priceless in this global economy. The U.S. military and businesses expanding overseas are two of the translation and interpretation industry’s best customers. Overall, the market grew some 18 percent last year.

• The dream of a terminologist, by exacterm.wordpress.com. I’m dreaming of a terminology workbench. A software environment with customizable terminology management work-flow. Such a program should (just like a translator’s workbench for the translation process) automate the different steps of terminology management and information acquisition. Which components should be included in a (multilingual) Terminology Workbench?

• State of the industry reports for freelance translators, by ProZ.com, October 27, 2011. ProZ.com state of the industry reports take a look at some of the changes that are affecting translators, as told by translators. The reports include discussion of the trends, obstacles and opportunities to freelance work in the translation industry today, and how freelance translators are dealing with these trends.

• Why Is There an Apostrophe in Hallowe’en?, by Grammar Girl, October 26, 2011, What’s your take on the apostrophe in Hallowe’en? To use or not to use? One early spelling of Halloween was all hallows’ even, in which even meant evening. The all and s got dropped, hallows’ and even became a closed compound, and the apostrophe took the place of the v, giving us Hallowe’en—just one of many transitional spellings along the way to Halloween, which the Oxford English Dictionary shows as first appearing in 1786.

• European Language Industry Association – Presentation Networking Days Athens, 10-12 November 2011, by elia-association.org. Michael Fritz of Tekom will hold a conference about the Revision of ISO/IEC 82079 – The most important international standard for technical communication.  There are many international standards out there for the language industry but only one horizontal standard for technical communication, ISO/IEC 82079. This standard is very important for members of the localization industry as well. It contains some important recommendations for technical translations and includes a plethora of hints how to design technical documents better, thus helping to make it easier to translate them.

• EU – DG Translation – Call for tenders – Translation of EU policy and administration documents, by DG Translation European Commission – Deadline for submitting tenders is 22 November 2011. To download information, select the language you wish to translate into. If you want to offer translation for several target languages, please submit a separate bid for each target language you wish to offer.

• The cost of (good) translation, by sciencetranslation.net – The translation market, as any other industry, you will find charlatans, swindlers, but also serious businesses and premium providers.

• Is This the Future of Punctuation!?, by Henry Hitchings, October 22, 2011. On the misuse of apostrophe’s and our increasingly rhetorical language.

• International On-line Conference in Translation and Interpreting Studies, Translation and Interpreting in the Digital Age: Perspectives on Practice and Research, by University of Salford United Kingdom. Use this link to access the online conference venue.  Two decades after the emergence of the Word Wide Web, the profound changes that the Digital Age has brought into our lives are starting to become ever more apparent. Technology is transforming the way we communicate, work, research – even, some claim, the way we think. As the new media and infrastructure proliferate, research and practice in translation and interpretation and their manifold interconnections with the technical environment invite re-consideration from all quarters of this diverse field.

• First Spanish Informatics dictionary for deaf signers, by Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, October 18, 2011.  The dictionary translates more than 700 informatics terms into Spanish Sign Language. Program, portal, browser, web are some examples of the 700 informatics terms that Sign Language dictionary collects. This technical dictionary, also available in electronic format, aims to improve the study of the signers people (deaf and deaf-blind), who are short of access to university studies. It is a step forward to ensure that students with this disability are directly involved in science and technology. Deaf-signers or just signers are distinguished by the use of sign language. Deaf people may intercommunicate orally, that is, reading lips. On the contrary, signers use sign language. So far, no deaf signer student has achieved graduate degrees in engineering at the UPM. The main obstacle encountered is the lack of bilingualism because, although universities provide interpreters, they are not specialists in technical concepts. The result is a very low number of students who stay more than one or two years in this kind of degrees. The purpose of the dictionary is to describe correctly the technical terms that are often not included in ordinary language or that are included in a wrong or inaccurate context.

• TermWiki Toolbar Functionality, by Termwiki.com. The TermWiki Toolbar is a free, powerful tool for quick term reference and translation. Installed in minutes, it is an invaluable tool for all of your terminology management and glossary development needs. The tool includes search functions for term reference, filters for language, industry, product category and company, links  to enable batch term translation and term addition contribution.

• Patent Language Translations Online (PLuTO),by Sorcha Corcoran, October 18, 2011. A new machine translation system, funded by the European Commission, has been developed by researchers at the Centre for Next Generation Localisation at Dublin City University. PLuTO aims to improve access to multilingual digital patent libraries, thus reducing the time and cost associated with patent information access and filing.
• Seven favorite tools in translation business, by Tess, October 18, 2011. Some applications that make translation work and life easier. Most of these tools are free and easy to use.
• The Linguistic Approach to Translation, posted by Article Alley, October 17, 2011. Since all word of one language may or may not have a corresponding word in the other language, Linguistic study becomes essential for the purpose of translation. Linguistics pertains to scientific study of language. Linguistic approach to translation focuses primarily on the issues of meaning and equivalence (same meaning conveyed by a different expression). Linguistics thus tries to discover ‘what’ the language actually means.
• Definition of Generation Rent and Generation Y, BuzzWord from Macmillan Dictionary, by Kerry Maxwell, October 17, 2011. The expression Generation Rent refers to the generation of people born from the eighties onwards, who because of changes in the economic situation are more likely to rent their homes than buy them.  Generation Y is a demographic term referring to a generation of people, particularly those from Western nations, who are characterized by their familiarity and everyday use of digital technology, online communication, new media. The term usually represents people born between 1979 and 1995.
• Theoretical and practice models for freelance translators, by Liudmila Davydova, October 16, 2011. Learn how to make your work on language skills more effective.
• Ethics of Interpreting and Translating, by Infotra, October 14, 2011. A Guide to Obtaining NAATI (National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters Ltd) credentials.
• Take advantage of the efficiencies of CAT tools, by Dynamic Language, October 10, 2011. Translation Memory tools, also called Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT), ensure that a translator won’t need to translate similar or identical content multiple times. They help translators to build a database of content over time, as well as glossaries of key terms.
• Facebook launches new In-Line Translation Tool, by Charlie White,  October 6, 2011. Facebook has introduced a new tool that makes instant language translations appear with a single click. The translate feature lets bilingual users enter a human (and often more accurate) translation in that pop-out window. If enough other users vote positively on the accuracy of a human translation, it will replace the one from Bing each time the Translate button is clicked. The human translations can be managed by page administrators using a “manage translations” link underneath posts on pages they manage.
• 14 More Wonderful Words with No English Equivalent, by Haley Sweetland Edwards – October 4, 2011. Earlier this year, Bill DeMain introduced us to 15 Wonderful Words with No English Equivalent. Now that you’ve integrated those into your vocabulary, here are 14 more.
• The 20 Best Books for Language Lovers, by onlinecollege.org, September 28, 2011. Do you agree with them? Post here the title of your favorite one.

• 15 Wonderful Words With No English Equivalent, by Bill DeMain, July 22, 2011. The Global Language Monitor estimates that there are currently 1,009,753 words in the English language. Despite this large lexicon, many nuances of human experience still leave us tongue-tied. And that’s why sometimes it’s necessary to turn to other languages to find le mot juste. Here are fifteen foreign words with no direct English equivalent.

• The “Geronimo” Code Name Controversy, by Ben Zimmer, May 6, 2011. One of the more unforeseen outcomes of the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound is a controversy over a code name used during the mission: Geronimo. Native American groups have protested the use of the code name as a denigration of a heroic historical figure, by equating him with a modern-day terrorist and mass murderer.

• Hopefully disinterested, macmillandictionaryblog.com, April 26, 2011. Words are slippery. Their meanings can mutate and multiply, differing according to where and how they are used.
• How Does Google Translate Work? geekosystem.com, April 20, 2011. Is language solvable in the same way as a Rubik’s Cube?
• Social Media Glossary, SocialBrite.org, April 13, 2011. What is a moblog? What is nptech? And what about splogs? The social media landscape is fast changing and filled with strange terms to the uninitiated. Here’s a quick guide to some of the terms you may encounter.
• Future of French language ‘to be decided in Brussels’, Euractiv.com, April 11, 2011. Officials at the International Francophony Organisation (OIF) have warned of “catastrophic” use of French in EU institutions, as the language’s position in Brussels becomes ever more fragile, a conference heard last week.
• EU patent office, Google seal pact on translation, Euractiv.com, March 25, 2011. The European Patent Office (EPO) and American Internet giant Google signed on 24 March an agreement to collaborate on machine translation of patents into 32 European, Slavic and Asian languages. 
• Japanese Disasters Need-to-Know Glossary Update, The Global Language Monitor, March 20, 2011.
• Why Is the Libya War Called Operation Odyssey Dawn?, The Daily Beast, March 22, 2011.
• Lexicon of war has a new buzzword, guardian.co.uk, March 22, 2011