Mandarin Chinese constitutes the official and most widespread spoken dialect of the People’s Republic of China; it’s the official language of the Republic of China (Taiwan) and one of the four official languages of Singapore, while its writing system is also used by speakers of other Chinese dialects. It belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language family. The Chinese language is of particular interest not only…
What I’ve learned from yoga about professional translation
When you start practicing yoga, you are told things you find hard to believe; one of them is that you can apply things you learn about yourself on the yoga mat to your everyday life. It sounds quite ambitious, but one of the main goals of the yoga philosophy and practice is self-awareness. Even if you resist it initially, at some point you are…
Interview of the month – Olga Patrounova
Interview of the month – Olga Patrounova (professional translator and interpereter) What is your relationship with the Greek language? How and why did you start learning it? When I was younger, I spent a few years with my parents and sister in India, where my father, an engineering professor, was posted as a UNESCO delegate. On our way back to Moscow we travelled around…
One Trial – Four Languages
Exhibition and Conference on the birth of Simultaneous Interpretation in the Nuremberg Trial Friday, November 20, 2015 “All about Interpreting” The exhibition on the ground floor of Goethe-Institut is actually an installation featuring the biographies of the interpreters who worked at the Nuremberg Trial (written in German and in Greek). It is an interesting exhibition in a beautiful, cozy space. The conference started with an…
3 reasons to invest in a high-quality translation
One of the biggest problems faced by the translation sector is customer perceptions on translation cost, which is often deemed too high. This is due to the fact that translation, both as a science and as a profession, is largely misunderstood due to the ignorance surrounding this field. However, if you are considering translating your website, advertising material or any other company documents and…
Interview of the month – Konstantina Papyraki
Interview of the month – Konstantina Papyraki (philologist, Greek language teacher) Tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you first start teaching Modern Greek? My name is Konstantina Papyraki and I come from Heraklion, Crete, where I still reside at the moment. I graduated from the Athens School of Philosophy in 2008, having studied at the Faculty of Philology, with a specialization…
Translating Europe Forum: the importance of mentoring and (social) networking for professional translators
This colourful conference, organized by the EU Commission, took place in Brussels on 29 and 30 October and brought together almost 500 translators, interpreters and linguists of all ages and nationalities to discuss and debate the issues that are impacting the sector today. The reigning atmosphere was one of optimism and enthusiasm, which was resonating in the beautiful amphitheatre provided by the Commission for…
Translation: how subjective can it get?
Every profession, science and activity has its own set of rules. Some rules are broadly established and widely accepted, while others aren’t. There are also unwritten rules, corporate policies/cultures, schools of thought when it comes to science, and probably many other types of rules, as well as each individual’s personality, which play a role in the process. Let’s see what happens in the case…
Interview of the month – Robin Waterfield
Interview of the month – Robin Waterfield (writer-classic scholar and translator) So, tell us a bit about yourself. Why ancient history and why the Classics? I sort of drifted into studying Classics. I had a traditional British private-school education, in which Latin and Greek featured prominently. I started Latin at age 8 and Greek at 10. Aged 13, I wanted to change to modern…
Interview of the month – David Bellos
Interview of the month – David Bellos (Princeton University professor – translator – writer) First of all, we’d like to say it’s an honour to have you on our blog. We have read your book Is that a fish in your ear? and we would like to ask what drove you to write it. It seems to be directed to a wider audience and not…