Christmass?

If you do spend money on big posters and window displays during the festive season, at least make sure you have it proofread before printing! Mary Christmass everyone!

Gay shop window?

This particular high-street shop better not use the same window display for their branches in Scandinavia! They have used the letter ö from the Swedish alphabet, not realising the message could now be quite offensive in Swedish... Be careful using our extra letters if you don't know how to use them, I'd say!

Bed weather?

I'm always fascinated by the rolling "Breaking News" text that is at the bottom of the screen during BBC news bulletins. Just yesterday the text said that rescue efforts in Indonesia following the volcano eruption had been affected by "bed weather". There a are many a morning that I wake up and think it's "bed weather" too, and contemplate just staying in bed rather than braving the wind and the rain outside, but I didn't think rescue services were afflicted by this as well...

Nokia. Connecting People... in different ways

Taking my new mobile handset out of its box, I glanced at the text printed on the box and noticed the different translations; first the English version, followed by the German version, the Spanish, the French, the Italian, the Swedish and so forth. Just comparing the tagline "Designed the way we work" with the various equivalent translations demonstrates the challenges a translator faces every day. Do we translated word-for-word; completely re-write and risk loosing the original meaning; find the equivalent in our language or, simply, leave the English version? "Designed the way we work" is apparently "Professionell. Elegant. Effektiv" in German. In French it's "Adapté à notre façon de travailler" and in Swedish? Well, the translator decided to leave it in English! And the Italian translator decided the same. The one language which was missing, and quite surprisingly so, was the Finnish version - for some reason they chose not to feature the language of Nokia itself. Just out of interest I would have liked to see it in Finnish... perhaps the original version?

Press releasing

A press release announcing the launch of our new website can be read here.

English is enough?

Last month the Telegraph newspaper reported that "the number of teenagers studying foreign languages has plummeted to a record low," following the recent publication of national A-level results. The article goes on:

"Only 13,850 students took an A-level in French this year as entries slumped by more than three per cent in just 12 months.

Over the last 10 years, the number of pupils studying the subject in the sixth-form has nose-dived by a third.

Figures also show a rapid demise in German, with just 5,548 A-level entries this year - a drop of almost 42 per cent since 2000.

The disclosure – in data published by the Joint Council for Qualifications – will fuel warnings that foreign languages are becoming largely extinct in state comprehensives.

Pupils from private schools and state grammars now make up a significant proportion of those taking the subject at the age of 16.

The slump has been blamed on a Labour decision to allow pupils to drop GCSEs in languages for the first time in 2004. This has had a serious knock-on effect on the number of pupils taking the subject at sixth-form and university.

Ministers hoped to reverse the decline by making the study of languages compulsory in primary schools but the plans were quietly scrapped during the legislative “wash up” before this year’s General Election.

According to the latest figures, the overall number of pupils taking other modern languages also slumped by seven per cent in 2010 – the fourth fastest drop of any subject this year.

Spanish was the only mainstream language to grow in popularity, with entries increasing by four per cent to 7,629. The rise has been put down to the influence of Latino culture in the US and the continuing lure of Spain as a holiday destination.

Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: 'With the exception of Spanish the disastrous decline of students taking a modern foreign language continues. This is a result of successive governments underestimating how vital possessing a modern foreign language is to Britain’s role globally.'"

A split in linguistic personalities

I can relate to the feelings of the author of this article very well, about "the identity shifts of people living in two cultures." Having been brought up in Finland, I have a hard time losing the traits that are so synonymous with Finnish culture; shyness, quietness and what other people might perceive as coldness. I would say I'm a different person in my adoptive country, the UK, and the English language and culture changes who I am; more outgoing, talkative and approachable - but sometimes, just sometimes, the Finnish in me shines through... I don't think you can fully "get rid" of your roots (why would you want to?) but you most certainly do, in some ways, develop linguistic personalities!

Thankyou?

But why are typos and mistakes merely annoying when you're closer to home? This one from Scotland.

Engrish

I dared not have the juice that apparently "cures sex"....



We weren't quite sure what we were supposed to do in case of a flash flood...




I love these little treats when I go abroad. Signs and menus with funny English. These delights are from Thailand.

Funny Translator

One could have hours of fun playing around with this new "gadget". It's called Funny Translator and it highlights the important difference between real translators and machine translation. It takes your English sentence and abuses it in a number of online machine translation tools. Several different languages later you have an end-result that barely resembles English anymore.

New documentary on languages

I'll be looking forward to watching this on the BBC soon:

"In Planet Word, a five-part series on language for BBC Two, Stephen Fry dissects language in all its guises with his inimitable mixture of learning, love of lexicon and humour.

From the cutting-edge of linguistic research to the glories of world literature, Stephen analyses how we use and abuse language, corral it for good and bad, and seeks out whether we are anywhere near to beginning to understand the complexities of its DNA."

How languages shape us

There's a new book out by Guy Deutscher called "Through the Language Glass: How Words Colour Your World" which studies the way different languages shape the way we actually see the world. Deutscher takes examples from languages all over the world and compares them, proving that a single word can change the way we see things - all depending on where in the world we live and what language we speak. A very interesting read.

Trust me, I'm a translator

Another interesting article about machine translation versus human translation in The New York Times. Could machine translation ever replace real translators? Probably not but help save lives it can, apparently, as it did in Haiti recently. Read more here.

Lingoleaf in Diplomat Magazine!

There's a really great piece on Lingoleaf in this month's Diplomat Magazine. Don't miss it!

Say what???

This post is borrowed from the Language Translation blog about the top 5 translation mistakes of 2009. Very amusing. Here's to an error-free 2010!



"The First Annual Jelly Donut Awards Recap the Top 5 Translation Errors of 2009

Accredited Language Services announces the first annual Jelly Donut Awards recognizing the top translation, interpreting and localization errors of the year. See the winners for 2009.

New York, NY (PRWEB) December 21, 2009 -- Translation was a hot topic in 2009, but sometimes for the wrong reasons.

That’s why Accredited Language Services, a US-based translation company, announces the first annual Jelly Donut Awards – recapping the top 5 real translation, interpreting and localization errors of the year.

The Jelly Donut Awards pay tribute to one of the most infamous translation errors in US history: John F. Kennedy’s pronouncement “Ich bin ein Berliner.” Although Kennedy intended to express empathy for the citizens of Berlin, his German phrase actually translated to “I am a jelly donut.”

From the highest levels of international politics to the ad campaigns of multinational corporations, 2009 saw some big translation errors – all of which could have been prevented by professional, accurate translation services.

#5. Unexpected Gifts

When a South Korean government representative visited Russia, he commented on the beauty of the endangered Siberian tigers of Eastern Russia. “Korea is very interested in Siberian tigers,” he told Vladimir Kirillov, head of Natural Resources Management.

But Kirillov heard a very different message. The Russian/Korean interpreter told him that South Korea was asking Kirillov to consider donating a tiger instead. Kirillov proposed the gift upon his return to Russia, and the tiger is now living in the wilds of South Korea - all because of a translation error!

#4. Game Over

Fans of the controversial – and resoundingly popular – game “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” might be confused by a translation error in the Japanese release.

In the American version, the Russian villain Vladimir Mararov organizes a massacre at a Russian airport. (Spoiler alert!) The player’s character, an undercover CIA agent, is instructed not to speak Russian, since Mararov intends to frame the Americans for the attack.

But in Japan, Mararov’s line, “Remember, no Russian,” was translated as “Kill ’em; they’re Russians.” The translation error did not properly set up Mararov’s plan to frame the Americans and left Japanese players confused as to why Mararov kills their CIA character and leaves his body and CIA identification at the scene of the crime.

#3. Look Before You Cross

Visitors to Wales should make sure to look both ways before they cross the street, thanks to a translation error in Cardiff. A temporary road sign this summer cautioned English-speaking pedestrians to “look left” to avoid dangerous road hazards.

The problem? The sign was translated for Welsh readers as “cerddwyr edrychwch i'r dde” – “pedestrians look right.” Luckily, no Welsh speakers were harmed in the making of this translation error.”

#2. Microsoft Misjudgment

Microsoft’s error in a website for Polish businesses became national news this summer. Although the translation of the ad copy was accurate, the company’s localization experts altered the photo accompanying the ad to “adapt” the graphic for Poland.

The original ad featured three racially diverse people sitting around a conference table, but the Polish ad replaced an African-American man's face with a Caucasian one. How did people catch on? The man’s hand hadn’t been changed.

#1. Translation Overload

During a foreign policy meeting between American and Russian leaders in March, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton presented Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov with a “reset button,” representing the erasure of past tension between the two countries.

But the English word “reset” had been translated to the Russian “peregruzka” - meaning “overcharged” or “overloaded.” The photo op of the two politicians pressing the button lost its international significance - and instead became a global joke thanks to the translation error."

Happy Holidays from Lingoleaf

We wish our friends, families and valued clients a very happy and peaceful holiday season. We would also like to thank everyone who has supported us during 2009 - the year Lingoleaf really kicked off! Our office will be closed 24 and 25 December as well as 1 January 2010, otherwise it's business as usual. Here's to continued success for the new year 2010!

St. Lucia

Having received a very kind invitation today from the Swedish Ambassador in London to attend "St Lucia, a Swedish mid-winter tradition" next week, I was reminded of this mid-December tradition that the Swedes, and Finns (!), like to celebrate each year. St Lucia is actually an Italian saint but was "adopted" by the Scandinavians as "she is associated with the idea of light...in the middle ages December 13th fell on the longest day of the year", according to a web source. In short, the procession consists of a travelling choir of young girls and boys, carrying candles and singing, and they visit elderly people in particular. It would be nice to have something similar here in the UK - winters get cold and dark here too!

No leaf left unturned

Hats off to the other half of Lingoleaf, who on very short notice managed to source a Gujarati interpreter for a very important client this week. Up until now, Lingoleaf has mainly been offering European languages but thanks to some very clever initiative, Anne showed that Lingoleaf is ready to take on any challenge and jump through hoops to cater to our clients' needs.

Why do we talk?

For those of you in the UK and if you missed last night's Horizon - Why Do We Talk? go to BBC's iPlayer and watch this very interesting take on the science behind human speech. It featured an autistic man who was able to speak more than 20 languages! I'm jealous. Perhaps he'd like a job at Lingoleaf...?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00nx7n4/Horizon_20092010_Why_Do_We_Talk/

English, you've got nothing on Finnish!

Remember my previous post about Finnish tongue-twisters and possibly some of the longest words in the history of humankind? The languagetranslation.com's newsletter claims English is one of the oddest languages out there. Do you agree?
From their website:

25 Language Oddities

Many cultures find that English might possibly be one of the most difficult languages to learn. Not, in fact, for its words, but for the fact that it has so many unusual and contradictory rules. Just looking over an English study book will tell you that so many odd ifs and buts apply to so many words that it is enough to drive one crazy. Here are 25 examples of the oddities in the English language.

25. “Rhythms” is the longest English word without the normal vowels, a, e, i, o, or u.

24. Excluding derivatives, there are only two words in English that end -shion and (though many words end in this sound). These are cushion and fashion.

23. “THEREIN” is a seven-letter word that contains thirteen words spelled using consecutive letters: the, he, her, er, here, I, there, ere, rein, re, in, therein, and herein.

22. There is only one common word in English that has five vowels in a row: queueing.

21. Soupspoons is the longest word that consists entirely of letters from the second half of alphabet.

20. “Almost” is the longest commonly used word in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order.

19. The longest uncommon word whose letters are in alphabetical order is the eight-letter Aegilops (a grass genus).

18. The longest common single-word palindromes are deified, racecar, repaper, reviver, and rotator.

17. “One thousand” contains the letter A, but none of the words from one to nine hundred ninety-nine has an A.

16. “The sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick” is said to be the toughest tongue twister in English.

15. Cwm (pronounced “koom”, defined as a steep-walled hollow on a hillside) is a rare case of a word used in English in which w is the nucleus vowel, as is crwth (pronounced “krooth”, a type of stringed instrument). Despite their origins in Welsh, they are accepted English words.

14. “Asthma” and “isthmi” are the only six-letter words that begin and end with a vowel and have no other vowels between.

13. The nine-word sequence I, in, sin, sing, sting, string, staring, starting (or starling), startling can be formed by successively adding one letter to the previous word.

12. “Underground” and “underfund” are the only words in the English language that begin and end with the letters “und.”

11. “Stewardesses” is the longest word that can be typed with only the left hand.

10. Antidisestablishmentarianism listed in the Oxford English Dictionary, was considered the longest English word for quite a long time, but today the medical term pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is usually considered to have the title, despite the fact that it was coined to provide an answer to the question ‘What is the longest English word?’.

9. “Dreamt” is the only English word that ends in the letters “mt”.

8. There are many words that feature all five regular vowels in alphabetical order, the commonest being abstemious, adventitious, facetious.

7. The superlatively long word honorificabilitudinitatibus (27 letters) alternates consonants and vowels.

6. “Fickleheaded” and “fiddledeedee” are the longest words consisting only of letters in the first half of the alphabet.

5. The two longest words with only one of the six vowels including y are the 15-letter defenselessness and respectlessness.

4. “Forty” is the only number which has its letters in alphabetical order. “One” is the only number with its letters in reverse alphabetical order.

3. Bookkeeper is the only word that has three consecutive doubled letters.

2. Despite the assertions of a well-known puzzle, modern English does not have three common words ending in -gry. Angry and hungry are the only ones.

1. “Ough” can be pronounced in eight different ways. The following sentence contains them all: “A rough-coated, dough-faced ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough, coughing and hiccoughing thoughtfully.