Friday, June 24, 2011

Übersetzung deuscher Gerichtshöfe ins Englische

Amtsgericht: (lower) trial court (and registration/registry court), (lower) court of first instance (for civil and criminal matters)
Landgericht: (higher) trial court, (higher) court of first instance
Oberlandesgericht: intermediate court of appeal, appellate court, regional court of appeal
Bundesgerichtshof: court of last resort, highest German court of appeal, Federal German supreme court
Bayerisches Oberstes Landesgericht: highest Bavarian court of appeal, Bavarian supreme court of appeal

Arbeitshilfen für Übersetzer

Onlinedienste


del.icio.us

Die Vorteile internetbasierter Bookmarks sind die plattformunabhängige Verfügbarkeit, die Indexierung mittels Tags und der oft hilfreiche Beitrag der anderen Nutzer. Del.icio.us ist bedienungsfreundlich und schnörkellos und überzeugt auch durch den grössten Nutzerstamm. http://del.icio.us/

Textalizer

Der Textalizer ermittelt weit über das Zählen von Worten hinaus sämtliche relevanten Eckdaten eines Textes oder des Inhalts einer Website. http://textalyser.net/

Term-minator

Term-minator bietet Suchinterfaces in 5 Sprachen (Englisch, Deutsch, Italienisch, Französisch, Spanisch), mit denen Google über ein benutzerdefiniertes Suchformular mit mehreren Suchfilteroptionen abgefragt werden kann. Die Suchmuster enthalten Suchoperatoren, Webadressen oder geeignete Schlüsselwörter, die die Googlesuche auf Seiten einschränken, die Definitionen bzw. Übersetzungen, mehrsprachige Texte, Redewendungen,Glossare und andere translationsrelevante Informationen enthält. Die „Erweiterte Suche“ bietet noch engmaschigere Suchmöglichkeiten zur direkten Abfrage der Informationsbestände von vertikalen Suchmaschinen, terminologischen Datenbanken, Online-Lexika, Glossar-,Text- und Nachrichtensammlungen. http://www.term-minator.eu/de.html

Translatr

Eine auf Google Coop basierende, spezialisierte Suchmaschine, welche ausschliesslich in Onlinewörterbüchern, Glossarsammlungen und anderen Datenbanken sucht. http://www.translatr.info/

Performancing Metrics

Das mit Abstand komfortabelste und übersichtliche Webtraffic-Analyseprogramm erlaubt nach der Integration eines kurzen Codes in die Webseiten sowohl einen fundierten Überblick als auch das Tracken bis hin zum einzelnen Besucher in Echtzeit. http://pmetrics.performancing.com/

Mite

Online-Zeiterfassungstool mit umfassenden Funktionen, seit Kurzem allerdings nicht mehr kostenlos - leider. http://mite.yo.lk/

Normzeilen- Rechner

Berechet zuverlässig und in Handumdrehen die Anzahl Normzeilen (55 Anschläge inclusive Leerzeichen) eines beliebigen Textes. http://globtrad.com/normzeilen/

Umrechnung Wortpreis <> Zeilenpreis

Der FeeWizard hilft bei der Konvertierung von Wort- in Zeilenpreise (und umgekehrt), wahlweise anhand des Ziel- oder Ausgangstextes. Für die häufigsten europäischen Sprachen (DA, DE, EL, EN, ES, FI, FR, IT, NL, PT, SV - Kombination beliebig) sind Wortlängen hinterlegt, die Zeichenzahl pro Zeile kann selbst eingegeben werden: http://www.amtrad.it/feewizardol.php

Englische Silbentrennungen prüfen

http://www.yourdictionary.com Wort eingeben, "Go" klicken, Silbentrennung wird angezeigt.

Abkürzungen entziffern

http://www.abkuerzungen.de Abkürzung eingeben, "Finden" klicken, mögliche Bedeutungen werden angezeigt.

Skripte, Makros


PhProject

Diese Open Source-Groupware erlaubt die Arbeit mit und die Verwaltung von Projekten mit mehreren Teilnehmern. Zeitplanfunktion, Adressbücher, Chat, Forum, Mailclient, voll integrierter Terminkalender und Ressourcenplaner. Individuell zu vergebende Zugriffsrechte, Erinnerungsfunktion, Management wiederkehrender Termine z.B. zur Rechnungsverfolgung. http://www.phprojekt.com/

Bookmark-Makro

Bookmark-(Textmarken,Querverweise) Makro für MS Word Macht vorhandene Textmarken sichtbar und formatiert diese mit einer neuen Formatvorlage (tw4wininternal). In einem zweiten Schritt können die Originaltextmarken erstellt werden. Ideal für die Übersetzung von Word-Dokumenten in MS Word mit Trados.
http://www.ecm-e.de/cm_ger/forum/viewthread.php?forum_id=4&thread_id=44&pid=71#post_71

Zählmakros für Excel und PowerPoint

Je ein Makro für Excel und für PowerPoint, als .bas-Datei in der jeweiligen Office-Anwendung über "Extras/Makro/Visual Basic-Editor/Datei" importierbar. Beide Makros zeigen die Textlänge an; das PowerPoint-Makro ermöglicht es zusätzlich, die Landessprache der bearbeiteten Datei umzustellen, um sprachspezifische Funktionen wie z. B. die automatische Rechtschreibprüfung bequem nutzen zu können. Ansehen oder herunterladen: Excel-Makro bzw. PowerPoint-Makro.
Fragen, Anregungen, Lob und Tadel bitte an multifultor@t-online.de.



Programme


Opera

Kostenloser, werbefreier, ressourcenschonender und schneller Browser und massgeblicher Ideenlieferant der Firefox-Entwickler. Vielfältiger für Übersetzer interessanter Funktionsumfang: Tabbed Browsing, verwalt- und speicherbare "Sessions", integrierte Suchfenster für Suchmaschinen und On-Page-Suche, Webseiten zoombar, Mausgesten und Sprachfunktion sind integriert. http://www.opera.com/

Thunderbird

Schlanker und aufgeräumter Mailclient in Open Source: Integration verschiedener Accounts und Identitäten, RSS- Reader und Alerts. Praktische Neuheiten sind die visuelle Anordnung Korrespondenz in einer Sache und die Taggingfunktion für das Ordnen von E-Mails. http://www.thunderbird-mail.de/

Tor

Anonymisierungstool als ein auf Firefox basierender Browser basierend auf dem ursprünglich von der US-Navy entwickelten Sicherheitskonzept des "Onion-Routing". Ermöglicht es, beim Surfen die Herkunft und Identität des eigenen Rechners zu verschleiern. Nützlich auch für die Nutzung von Diensten mit limitierter Anzahl erlaubter Anfragen. http://www.torrify.com/software_torpark.html

OpenOffice

Office-Paket der Open Source- Gemeinde mit äquivalentem Funktionsumfang wie die verbreitetste kommerzielle Lösung (d.h. Textverarbeitung, Präsentationsprogramm, Tabellenkalkulation, Graphikprogramm und Datenbankverwaltung). Hervorzuheben ist beim Textverarbeitungsprogramm die Funktion, aus Dokumenten pdf.-Files zu erstellen und Dokumente in, aus und zwischen den verschiedensten Word-Versionen zu speichern und zu bearbeiten. http://de.openoffice.org/

Fensteranordner

Kostenloses Windows-Programm, das es ermöglicht, beliebig viele Anordnungen von Programmfenstern per Knopfdruck zu speichern und später wiederherzustellen. Den Liesmich-Text lesen oder gleich das Programm herunterladen.
Fragen, Anregungen, Lob und Tadel bitte an multifultor@t-online.de.

Konverter TTX oder QSC zu RTF

Konvertiert TTX und QSC Dateien zu RTF. SDL Trados (bis 2007) ist erforderlich. Wurde mit SDL Trados 2009 Studio nicht getestet! Download Link

PDFCreator

Erstellt PDF- oder Bilddateien aus Office-Anwendungen oder Webseiten. Kann (im Gegensatz zu vielen anderen kostenlosen Programmen) auch mehrere Seiten zu einem Dokument verbinden. http://de.pdfforge.org/pdfcreator

Suchprogramme


Copernic

Wer Google über deren Desktop Search nicht auch noch den Inhalt seines Rechners anvertrauen möchte, findet in Copernic Desktop Search eine leicht zu bedienende und zuverlässige Alternative. Durchsucht auch Attachments von E-Mails. http://www.copernic.com/en/products/desktop-search/index.html

Golden Dict

Das GPL-Programm Golden Dict bezeichnet sich als "dictiononary lookup program". Es beherrscht einige einschlägige Dateiformate und kann Internet-Suchmaschinen, z.B. auch die von Wikipedia, in die Suchen mit einbeziehen. (Weitere Erläuterungen erbeten. AvO 11.01.11) http://goldendict.org/

ac'tivAid

Die Skriptsammlung ac'tivAid von c't ist nicht nur hilfreich, um Windows effizienter gestalten, sondern hat auch einige sehr gute und für Übersetzer sehr interessante Funktionen, die mitunter die Installation anderer Tools überflüssig machen. Die Skriptsammlung ist mit eigenen Skripten beliebig erweiterbar und enthält Schmankerl wie die Suche in http://dict.leo.org oder http://www.dwds.de/ per einfachem Tastaturkürzel (und mit einer sehr komfortablen Anzeige direkt in dem verwendeten Programm), wodurch das Übersetzungsvolumen spürbar gesteigert werden kann. Betriebssysteme: Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista. http://www.heise.de/software/download/activaid/24593

IntelliWebSearch

Ähnlich wie ac'tivaid ermöglicht IntelliWebSearch die Suche per Tastaturkürzel in zahlreichen Online-Wörterbüchern, Verzeichnissen, Lexika und Glossaren (z.B. IATE, dict.cc, Wikipedia, Proz.com-Terminologie) und kann ohne größere Kenntnisse mit eigenen Suchen erweitert werden. Die Suche ist direkt aus dem Textverarbeitungsprogramm heraus möglich, die Anzeige erfolgt auf der entsprechenden Internet-Seite. Download unter http://www.intelliwebsearch.com/. Nähere Infos siehe dort oder im ATA Chronicle XXXVII, Juli 2008.

Multifultor

Ähnlich wie IntelliWebSearch, jedoch mit zusätzlichem Komfort und übersichtlicherer Bedienung. Der integrierte Assistent wird auch mit "problematischen" Online-Wörterbüchern fertig und unterstützt sämtliche Sprachcodierungen. Es kann auch in Festplatten-Wörterbüchern und im Windows-Index nachgeschlagen werden. Der integrierte Fenstermanager positioniert die Ergebnisfenster optimal, auch bei mehreren Monitoren. Keine Begrenzung der Anzahl der Wörterbücher oder Wörterbuch-Gruppen. Was kann Multifultor?

Fragen, Anregungen, Lob und Tadel bitte an multifultor@t-online.de.
Multifultor.zip         ReadMe        Kurzanleitung         Versionshistorie (aktuell ist 1.1.0.0)
Zertifizierte Signatur für Multifultor.zip

ApSIC Xbench

Beeindruckendes Tool zum Durchsuchen lokaler Referenzmaterialien. Liest per Tastaturkürzel (ALT+STRG+Bild ab) in angelegten Projekten. Integration von: Text mit Tabulation, Microsoft-Glossare (csv-Dateien), Exportierte Übersetzungsspeicher im Format Trados Workbench, Exportierte Glossare im Format Trados Multiterm, Dateien im Format Trados TagEditor, Zweisprachige, nicht bereinigte Dateien im Format Trados Word, Installierte Ordner im Format IBM TranslationManager, Exportierte Wörterbücher im Format IBM TranslationManager, Dateien im itd-Format von SDLX, Projekte im Format Star Transit, Glossare im Format Wordfast, Übersetzungsspeicher im Format Wordfast. Außerdem interessante QA-Funktionen. Download unter http://www.apsic.com/de/products_xbench.html

Untertitelung


Subtitle Workship

Ideale Freeware für Untertitel-Übersetzer, die mit bereits getimten Templates arbeiten. Mit Translation-Modus und Rechtschreibprüfung. Download unter http://www.netzwelt.de/software/3190-subtitle-workshop.html

Konkordanz


Antconc

Kostenloser Concordancer, http://www.antlab.sci.waseda.ac.jp/antconc_index.html Source: http://www.tw-h.de

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Google Dictionary for Word

GD4Word (Google Dictionary for Word) does one simple thing: Select a word, and press CTRL+ALT+D, a Google Dictionary window will open displaying the definition, translation and examples of that word.
GD4Word is a Word Macro and it only works inside Microsoft Word.
In Word 2003 and under,
Go to Tools–>Macros—>Visual Basic
Right click on “Normal”, and choose “Insert”—>”Module”
Paste the following code to the newly inserted module.

'code start

Public Declare Function ShellExecute Lib "shell32.dll" Alias "ShellExecuteA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal lpOperation As String, ByVal lpFile As String, ByVal lpParameters As String, ByVal lpDirectory As String, ByVal nShowCmd As Long) As Long
 
Sub Gdictionary()
 
Dim SLan As String
Dim TLan As String
Dim SText As String
Dim Gurl As String
 
SLan = "en"
TLan = "zh-CN"
SText = VBA.Trim(VBA.Replace(Selection.Text, Chr(13), ""))
 
Gurl = "http://www.google.com/dictionary?langpair=" + SLan + "|" + TLan + "&q=" + SText + "&hl=en&aq=f"
 
Debug.Print Gurl
 
ShellExecute 0&, vbNullString, Gurl, vbNullString, vbNullString, vbNormalFocus
 
End Sub
 
'code end
 
Then you can assign a keyboard shortcut to the macro: Gdictionary().
This code works when the source language uses ASCII characters only. If you want to make it work with pairs like Chinese to English, you will need to utf-8 encode your source text string.
“en”, “zh-CN” are shortcodes for the source language and the target language. You need to change them to your pair.
Google language short codes:
auto=Auto Detect,af=Afrikaans,sq=Albanian,ar=Arabic,be=Belarusian,bg=Bulgarian,ca=Catalan,zh-CN=Chinese (Simplified),zh-TW=Chinese (Traditional),hr=Croatian,cs=Czech,da=Danish,nl=Dutch,en=English,et=Estonian,tl=Filipino,fi=Finnis h,fr=French,gl=Galician,de=German,el=Greek,iw=Hebrew,hi=Hindi,hu=Hungarian,is=Icelandic,id=Indonesia n,ga=Irish,it=Italian,ja=Japanese,ko=Korean,lv=Latvian,lt=Lithuanian,mk=Macedonian,ms=Malay,mt=Malte se,no=Norwegian,fa=Persian,pl=Polish,pt=Portuguese,ro=Romanian,ru=Russian,sr=Serbian,sk=Slovak,sl=Sl ovenian,es=Spanish,sw=Swahili,sv=Swedish,th=Thai,tr=Turkish,uk=Ukrainian,vi=Vietnamese,cy=Welsh,yi=Y iddish
When translating with TRADOS Translator’s Workbench to Chinese, font of English letters in the target language is changed to Chinese font too. English letters usually look ugly in Chinese font. To avoid this, go to Translator’s Workbench window, click on File->Setup->Fonts->and deselect the “all fonts will be converted to the default target language font.”  Source: http://dallascao.com

Monday, June 20, 2011

Glossary of terminology management

Concept: A unit of thought constituted through abstraction on the basis of properties common to a set of objects. NOTE – Concepts are not bound to particular languages. They are, however, influenced by the social or cultural background.
Definition: Statement which describes a concept and permits its differentiation from other concepts within a system of concepts.
Designation: Any representation of a concept.
ELISE: an interinstitutional communication tool, used exclusively for the former Codecision Procedure, now Ordinary Legislative Procedure, to exchange information and to coordinate terminology in the process of translation at all stages of the procedure.
Glossary: collection of words that have special meaning in a project.
Term: Designation of a defined concept in a special language by a linguistic expression. NOTE – A term may consist of one or more words [i.e. simple term, or complex term] or even contain symbols.
Termbase: database that contains a collection of words that have special meaning in a given subject field.
Terminography: The recording, processing and presentation of terminological data acquired by terminological research.
Terminology: collection of words that have special meaning in a given subject field.
Terminology management: effort to control the usage of words that have special meaning in a given subject field.
Terminology management system: type of translation software that enables users to efficiently collect, process, and present terminology.
Terminology science: The scientific study of the concepts and terms found in special languages.
Terminology work: Any activity concerned with the systematization and representation of concepts or with the presentation of terminologies on the basis of established principles and methods.
Special language: Linguistic subsystem, intended for unambiguous communication in a particular subject field using a terminology and other linguistic means.
Validation: process of checking that an entry (or a part thereof) complies with certain established requirements.

EU Glossaries

General

 Specific

Terminology

5 mistakes of first time freelancers

If you’ve been freelancing for some time now, you’ll for sure have come across one of these mistakes.
If you’re just starting out as a freelancer, make sure you take notes and avoid these mistakes at all costs. They’ll costly to your business and they’re not good for your personal life either – yes, your business life and personal life will melt together when you become a freelancer, so get used to it.

Low balling your prices

You want a lot of work so you decide to put your prices at half of the normal rates in your industry. The results? You get a ton of people writing you and you feel great. Work is flowing in and you’re loving every minute of it; but then something happens.
You get swamped and realize that the amount of work you’re doing is worth much more than the pricing you’ve set for yourself. But now you can’t raise the rates because you’re already locked into all of this work.
Don’t make this mistake and set yourself up for headaches that you don’t need. Pick a price point that will be beneficial to you and allow you to keep the lights on.

Taking on too much work

Building on the first mistake, taking on too much work will break your back. Sure, you’ll be able to hustle for a while (Hell, we even recommend hustling & have tips on hustling) but after a while the jobs will blend together and you’ll slip up on someone’s work, which will cause problems for your business.
You should always market your business but make sure you’re not over committing to too many jobs at once. Knock the work out as it comes and don’t let a day slip by & you will be O.K. to market your business and grow your client list.

Neglecting your marketing

The best time to market your freelance business is when you’re your busiest. Yes, when you’ve got so much work you can’t take it anymore, you must market your business. By neglecting your marketing, you’re drying up the flow of work that comes in, which will bite you on the ass when you’ve completed all of your current work and are left scrambling to find more.
So take an hour or two per day to market your business. Write job leads, spend time marketing on social media sites & submit proposals for jobs. This will keep you in the loop and will allow the work flow to keep coming in.

Forgetting the follow up

Your previous clients can be some of the best clients to have because they’re more than likely going to feel great giving you more work, yet so many freelancers finish jobs and then forget about the client. Their name slips your mind & before long you forgot you even did their work.
Make sure you’re keeping in touch with previous clients to ensure they know you’re ready to work with them again if they’re in need of any more work to be done.
You also need to keep up with potential job leads. Just because you respond to their email once doesn’t mean they are going to hire you. Wait a few days and touch base with them. It might be just the reminder they need to pull the trigger and hire you.

Are you networking?

Most freelancers look at someone who does the same job they do as competition, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Freelancers might have an overflow of work that they need to pass along to someone else, so by friending them and having conversations with them, you’re much more likely to be the person they pass the work along to.
Plus, freelancers are worldwide, so the odds of someone stepping on your turf are slim to none online.
Another benefit of networking is that you will learn a lot more about the business and how to handle things by talking with others who are in the same boat as you, no matter how much of a One Man Army you may be. Source: proz.com

Fix Bootloader After Dual Boot Installation

The most common scenario, restoring Windows Vista or 7, is one of the easiest. Run the installation CD at startup, and after the location options select Repair Your Computer. Unselect your installation if the system locates it, and then open Command Prompt. Type in:
bootrec.exe /fixboot
Press enter, then type:
bootrec.exe /fixmbr
Close all windows, do a restart, and your Vista/7 bootloader should appear.
Those restoring XP have it even easier. Insert the install CD, allow it to proceed, then type r when it asks if you are repairing rather than installing. This brings up a command line, in which you should type, pressing enter between lines:
fixboot
fixmbr
exit

Finally, those restoring Ubuntu or a similar Linux system need to start by identifying the drive their system is installed on. From the terminal on an install disk, type:
  • sudo fdisk –l
  • From the information that this calls, identify the drive that holds the Linux system, such as /dev/sda2. Next, substituting in your own drive in place of sda2:
    sudo mkdir /media/sda2
    sudo mount /dev/sda2 /media/sda2
    sudo grub-install –root-director=/media/sda2 /dev/sda

    Source: ghacks.net

    How to Write the Date in English

    There are several different ways to write the date in English. They vary from formal to informal, and there are differences between British and American English. The following table shows some typical formats.
    FormatBritish: Day-Month-YearAmerican: Month-Day-Year
    Athe Fourteenth of March, 2011March the Fourteenth, 2011
    B14th March 2011March 14th, 2011
    C14 March 2011March 14, 2011
    D14/3/20113/14/2011
    E14/3/113/14/11
    F14/03/1103/14/11
    Note: which format to use is a question of formality, politeness and personal choice. Generally, the longer formats, such as B or C, are more polite (since they show more respect for the reader). Shorter formats, such as D or E, are used in less formal situations, for example a memo, a letter between friends or an impersonal business letter. Format F is rather official and is typically seen on an invoice or an official or technical document. Format A is extremely formal and mainly used on printed items, for example a wedding invitation. The numerical formats may use a full stop (.) or hyphen (-) instead of a slash (/), for example: 14.3.2011 or 03-14-11
    Note that another format exists which writes the date numerically in the order Year-Month-Day, for example: 2011/03/14. This is rare in British or American English and used mainly in very official or technical documents.

    Months
    NumberNameAbbreviations
    1JanuaryJanJ
    2FebruaryFebF
    3MarchMarM
    4AprilAprA
    5MayMayM
    6JuneJunJ
    7JulyJulJ
    8AugustAugA
    9SeptemberSepS
    10OctoberOctO
    11NovemberNovN
    12DecemberDecD

    In English, months are correctly written with an initial capital: January, February...

    Days of the Month
    1stfirst
    2ndsecond
    3rdthird
    4thfourth
    5thfifth
    6thsixth
    7thseventh
    8theighth
    9thninth
    10thtenth
    11theleventh
    12thtwelfth
    13ththirteenth
    14thfourteenth
    15thfifteenth
    16thsixteenth
    17thseventeenth
    18theighteenth
    19thnineteenth
    20thtwentieth
    21sttwenty-first
    22ndtwenty-second
    23rdtwenty-third
    24thtwenty-fourth
    25thtwenty-fifth
    26thtwenty-sixth
    27thtwenty-seventh
    28thtwenty-eighth
    29thtwenty-ninth
    30ththirtieth
    31stthirty-first
    Source: englishclub.com

    Thursday, June 16, 2011

    Quotes about Translation

    • "Fantastic writing in English is kind of disreputable, but fantastic writing in translation is the summit." Jonathan Lethem
    • "Woe to the makers of literal translations, who by rendering every word weaken the meaning! It is indeed by so doing that we can say the letter kills and the spirit gives life.” Voltaire
    • "Translation is like a woman. If it is beautiful, it is not faithful. If it is faithful, it is most certainly not beautiful." Yevgeny Yevtushenko
    • "A firm, for instance, that does business in many countries of the world is driven to spend an enormous amount of time, labour, and money in providing for translation services." Edward Sapir
    • "A translation is no translation, he said, unless it will give you the music of a poem along with the words of it." Millington Synge
    • "As far as modern writing is concerned, it is rarely rewarding to translate it, although it might be easy. Translation is very much like copying paintings." Boris Pasternak
    • "Translation cannot be dissociated from the notion of progress, some even maintain that a society can be measured by the translation it accepts -" Jean-Francois Joly
    • "Say what we may of the inadequacy of translation, yet the work is and will always be one of the weightiest and worthiest undertakings in the general concerns of the world." J. W. Goethe
    • "If I am selling to you, I speak your language. If I am buying, dann müssen sie Deutsch sprechen." Willy Brandt
    • "By reason of weird translation, many such sets of instructions read like poems anyhow." Brian Ferneyhough
    • "Dancing is the loftiest, the most moving, the most beautiful of the arts, because it is no mere translation or abstraction from life; it is life itself." Havelock Ellis
    • "For what is liberty but the unhampered translation of will into act?" Cyril Connolly
    • "If the dream is a translation of waking life, waking life is also a translation of the dream." Rene Magritte
    • "Nor ought a genius less than his that writ attempt translation." Sir.John Denham
    • "The best thing on translation was said by Cervantes: translation is the other side of a tapestry." Leonardo Sciascia
    • "Translation is an interestingly different way to be involved both with poetry and with the language that I've found myself living in much of the time. I think the two feed each other." Marilyn Hacker
    • "What makes literature interesting is that it does not survive its translation. The characters in a novel are made out of the sentences. That's what their substance is." Jonathan Miller
    • "When you're looking that far out, you're giving people their place in the universe, it touches people. Science is often visual, so it doesn't need translation. It's like poetry, it touches you." Story Musgrave
    • "Where words can be translated into equivalent words, the style of an original can be closely followed; but no translation which aims at being written in normal English can reproduce the style of Aristotle." Gilbert Murray
    • "God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice." John Donne
    • "A great age of literature is perhaps always a great age of translations." Ezra Pound
    • "Humour is the first of the gifts to perish in a foreign tongue." Virginia Woolf
    • "Translation is the paradigm, the exemplar of all writing…. It is translation that demonstrates most vividly the yearning for transformation that underlies every act involving speech, that supremely human gift." Harry Mathews
    • "I do not hesitate to read … all good books in translations. What is really best in any book is translatable—any real insight or broad human sentiment." Ralph Waldo Emerson
    • "Translation is entirely mysterious. Increasingly I have felt that the art of writing is itself translating, or more like translating than it is like anything else. What is the other text, the original? I have no answer. I suppose it is the source, the deep sea where ideas swim, and one catches them in nets of words and swings them shining into the boat … where in this metaphor they die and get canned and eaten in sandwiches." Ursula K. Le Guin
    • "To translate, one must have a style of his own, for the translation will have no rhythm or nuance, which come from the process of artistically thinking through and molding the sentences; they cannot be reconstituted by piecemeal imitation. The problem of translation is to retreat to a simpler tenor of one’s own style and creatively adjust this to one’s author." Paul Goodman
    • "Translating should be an enriching intellectual experience and you should end a job as a different person." Danilo Nogueira
    • "Poetry cannot be translated; and, therefore, it is the poets that preserve the languages; for we would not be at the trouble to learn a language if we could have all that is written in it just as well in a translation. But as the beauties of poetry cannot be preserved in any language except that in which it was originally written, we learn the language." Samuel Johnson

    Become a freelance interpreter with the European Institutions

    Freelance interpreters routinely work alongside staff interpreters in meetings served by the interpreting services of the European Institutions. For freelances there is no nationality requirement and all languages worldwide may be considered.
    Accreditation as a freelance interpreter is obtained by passing an inter-institutional interpreting test. To be eligible for such a test, you must:
    • Hold a recognised university degree in conference interpreting or
    • Hold a recognised university degree in any subject and a postgraduate qualification in conference interpreting or
    • Hold a recognised university degree in any subject and have documented experience in consecutive and simultaneous conference interpreting.
    If you think you are eligible for a test, you should complete an on-line application form and also submit copies of your CV, degrees and/or diplomas and, where relevant, proof of sufficient experience. You may apply at any time.
    Once you have done this, you will be sent an acknowledgement of receipt with a reference number.
    Tests are scheduled as necessary. An indicative calendar (see 2011) is set up every year, but can be subject to modifications at any time. As soon as a suitable test is planned, a selection committee will examine your application. You will then be notified that:
    • your application has been accepted and that you are being invited for a test, or
    • your language profile is interesting but not a priority. You will therefore not be invited to a test in the near future. However, your application will remain on file. There is no need to re-apply, or
    • your language profile is not in line with our requirements. Consequently your application has not been accepted.
    Please note that participation in a test is upon invitation only.
    The EU institutions are particularly interested in candidates working into or from the languages of the member states which joined the EU in 2004 or thereafter, or countries currently engaged in accession negotiations. There is also a limited need for Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian and other non-EU languages. As far as in Balkan languages Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian and Montenegrin are concerned please check with the following text. Read more.
    Also watch these behind the scenes videos trying to give a response to these frequently asked questions from candidates, universities and interpreting schools:
    • What is the test about? What kind of level do the candidates need to have?
    These videos (part 1, part 2) also show how the panel arrives at its conclusions. See: Europa. Source: proz.com

    Monday, June 13, 2011

    Bing Translator API

    There are 3 primary ways to interact with the service:
    They all seem to expose the same methods but it’s just the way you call them that differs.  For example, the sample code published for the HTTP method looks like:
       1: string appId = "myAppId";
       2: string text = "Translate this for me";
       3: string from = "en";
       4: string to = "fr";
       5:  
       6: string detectUri = "http://api.microsofttranslator.com/v2/Http.svc/Translate?appId=" + appId +
       7:     "&text;=" + text + "&from;=" + from + "&to;=" + to;
       8: HttpWebRequest httpWebRequest = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(detectUri);
       9: WebResponse resp = httpWebRequest.GetResponse();
      10: Stream strm = resp.GetResponseStream();
      11: StreamReader reader = new System.IO.StreamReader(strm);
      12: string translation = reader.ReadToEnd();
      13:  
      14: Response.Write("The translated text is: '" + translation + "'.");
    Then, for the SOAP method:
       1: string result;
       2: TranslatorService.LanguageServiceClient client = 
       3:                     new TranslatorService.LanguageServiceClient(); 
       4: result = client.Translate("myAppId", 
       5:                           "Translate this text into German", 
       6:                           "en", "de"); 
       7: Console.WriteLine(result);
    And lastly for the AJAX method:
       1: var languageFrom = "en";
       2: var languageTo = "es";
       3: var text = "translate this.";
       4:  
       5: function translate() {
       6:     window.mycallback = function(response) { alert(response); }
       7:     
       8:     var s = document.createElement("script");
       9:     s.src = "http://api.microsofttranslator.com/V2/Ajax.svc/Translate?oncomplete=mycallback&appId;=myAppId&from;=" 
      10:                 + languageFrom + "&to;=" + languageTo + "&text;=" + text;
      11:     document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(s);
      12: }
    Fortunately, it all works as you’d expect – cleanly and simply.  The really nice thing about this (and the Google Translator) is that when faced with straight-up HTML like:
       1: <p class="style">Hello World!</p>
    They will both return the following:
       1: <p class="style">¡Hola mundo!</p> 
    Both translators will keep the HTML tags intact and only translate the actual text.  This undoubtedly comes in handy if you do any large bulk translations.  For example, I’m working with another couple of guys here on an internal (one day external) tool that has a lot of data in XML files with markup.  Essentially we need to translate something like the following:
       1: <Article Id="this does not get translated" 
       2:            Title="Title of the article" 
       3:            Category="Category for the article"
       4:            >
       5:   <Content><![CDATA[<P>description for the article<BR/>another line </p>]]></Content>
       6: </Article>
    The cool thing is that if I just deserialize the above into an object and send the value of the Content member to the service like:
       1: string value = client.Translate(APPID_TOKEN, 
       2:                                 content, "en", "es");
    I get only the content of the HTML translated:
       1: <p>Descripción del artículo<br>otra línea</p> 
    Pretty nice and easy.  One thing all of the translator services have trouble with is if I just try to translate the entire xml element from the above in one shot.  Bing returns:
       1: <article id="this does not get translated" 
       2:          title="Title of the article" 
       3:          category="Category for the article">
       4: </article> 
       5:     <content><![CDATA[<P>Descripción del artículo<br>otra línea]]</content> >
    And Google returns:
       1: <= Id artículo "esto no se traduce"
       2: Título = "Título del artículo"
       3: Categoría = "Categoría para el artículo">
       4:  
       5: <Content> <! [CDATA [descripción <P> para el artículo <BR/> otra línea </ p >]]>
       6: </ contenido>
       7: </> Artículo
    Source: http://www.samuraiprogrammer.com

    Sunday, June 12, 2011

    Free term extractors

    Terminology extraction tools or terminology extractors can help suggest possible terms for inclusion in translation glossaries.  Term extractors may automatically suggest lists of glossary candidate words and phrases based on a number of factors including repetition, uniqueness, and clustering with other words.
    Some term extractors are free.
    Free Term Extractors Online
    Free Term Extractors for Download (APIs, Code, and Desktop Versions)
    Many of these tools, like ExtractKeyword.com or SEOKeywordAnalysis.com, were originally developed to aid in SEO keyword identification or indexing, but they can still be helpful to translators.

    Country dialling codes

    Country Country
    Code
    Country Country
    Code
    Country Country
    Code
    Algeria 213 Greenland 299 Oman 968
    Andorra 376 Grenada 1809 Pakistan 92
    Angola 244 Guadeloupe 590 Panama 507
    Anguilla 1264 Guam 671 Papua New Guinea 675
    Antigua and Barbuda 1268 Guatemala 502 Paraguay 595
    Antilles ( Netherlands ) 599 Guinea 224 Peru 51
    Argentina 54 Guyana 592 Philippines 63
    Aruba 297 Haiti 509 Poland 48
    Ascension Island 247 Honduras 504 Portugal 351
    Australia 61 Hong Kong 852 Puerto Rico 1787
    Austria 43 Hungary 36 Qatar 974
    Azores 351 Ibiza 34 Reunion 262
    Bahamas 1242 Iceland 354 Rodriguez Islands 230
    Bahrain 973 India 91 Romania 40
    Bangladesh 880 Indonesia 62 Rwanda 250
    Barbados 1246 Iran 98 St. Christopher 1809
    Belgium 32 Iraq 964 St. Lucia 1758
    Belize 501 Irish Republic 353 St. Pierre & Miquelon 508
    Bermuda 1441 Israel 972 St. Vincent 1809
    Bolivia 591 Italy 39 Samoa (US) 684
    Bosnia-Herzegovina 387 Jamaica 1876 Samoa (Western) 685
    Botswana 267 Japan 81 San Marino 378
    Brazil 55 Jordan 962 Saudi Arabia 966
    Brunei 673 Kenya 254 Senegal 221
    Bulgaria 359 Kiribati 686 Serbia 381
    Burundi 257 Korea , Republic of (South) 82 Seychelles 248
    Cambodia 855 Kuwait 965 Sierra Leone 232
    Cameroon 237 Lesotho 266 Singapore 65
    Canada 1 Libya 218 Solomon Islands 677
    Canary Islands 34 Liechtenstein 4175 Somalia 252
    Cayman Islands 1345 Luxembourg 352 South Africa 27
    Chile 56 Macau 853 Spain 34
    China 86 Macedonia 389 Sri Lanka 94
    CIS 7 Madagascar 261 Sudan 249
    Colombia 57 Madeira 35191 Surinam 597
    Congo 242 Majorca 34 Swaziland 268
    Congo , Democratic Republic of 243 Malawi 265 Sweden 46
    Cook Islands 682 Malaysia 60 Switzerland 41
    Costa Rica 506 Maldives 980 Syria 963
    Cote d'Ivoire 225 Mali 223 Taiwan 886
    Croatia 385 Malta 356 Tanzania 255
    Cuba 53 Mariana Island 670 Thailand 66
    Cyprus 357 Martinique 596 Togo 228
    Czech Republic 42 Mauritania 222 Tonga 676
    Demnark 45 Mauritius 230 Trinidad & Tobago 1868
    Djibouti 253 Mexico 52 Tunisia 216
    Dominica 1809 Micronesia 691 Turkey 90
    Dominican Republic 1809 Minorca 34 Turks & Caicos Islands 1649
    Ecuador 593 Monaco 377 Uganda 256
    Egypt 20 Montserrat 1664 Union of Myanmar 95
    El Salvador 503 Morocco 212 United Arab Emirates 971
    Ethiopia 251 Namibia 264 United Kingdam 44
    Falkland Islands 500 Nauru 674 Uruguay 598
    Faroe Islands 298 Nepal 977 USA 1
    Fiji 679 Netherlands 31 Vanuatu 678
    Finland 358 Nevis 1869 Vatican City 39
    France 33 New Caledonia 687 Venezuela 58
    French Guiana 594 New Zealand 64 Vietnam 84
    French Polynesia 689 Nicaragua 505 Virgin Isles ( UK ) 1809
    Gabon 241 Niger 227 Virgin Isles (US) 1340
    Gambia 220 Nigeria 234 Yemen Arab Republic 967
    Germany 49 Nive Island 683 Zambia 260
    Gibraltar 350 Norfolk Island 672 Zimbabwe 263
    Greece 30 Norway 47