Jul 27, 2022 | Blog, Communication, Language Services, Language Varieties, Translation, Worldwide
Discover Dutch and Flemish The Dutch and Flemish languages have many things in common. But they also have differences. Dutch is the official language of the Netherlands and one of the three official languages of Belgium. The population of Flanders, a northern Belgium region wedged between the North Sea and the Netherlands, speaks Dutch. However, the variant spoken here is known as Flemish. Flemish speakers account for 59% of the Belgian population. There are four principal Flemish dialects in Flanders. There is Brabantian, Limburgish, East Flemish, and West Flemish. But how do Dutch and Flemish differ from one another? Main differences between Dutch and Flemish The variations of this language don’t lay in grammar. The differences are in vocabulary and pronunciation. Usually, there are no changes in grammar; but in some dialects, the word order can change a little. Dutch speakers generally tend to pause between words; in Flemish, the words are often strung together. Let’s talk about the differences in pronunciation. Even those who don’t speak the language can perceive a variation in the pronunciation of different words. This is because the pronunciation of Flemish is more similar to French than Dutch, as Dutch leans more towards English. One example of this is the scraping G. The further you move south (from the Netherlands to Belgium), the sound of the letter G becomes softer, more like the French sound of the letter. The flow of words also becomes more relaxed. So we could say that Belgium has the softest version of Dutch (at least if we don’t take into account the African variants of the language). Do Dutch...
Jul 22, 2022 | Blog, Communication, Language Varieties, Translation, Worldwide
The vast majority of the people who live in the Netherlands speak English fluently. So do we need English and Dutch translations to target people in the Netherlands? In fact, at 70%, the Netherlands has the highest percentage of non-native English speakers in the world. The Netherlands is the only country in the European Union that doesn’t require foreigners to speak its own native language. This means that if you want to get a job, live, or even go to university there, you don’t need to prove that you speak a minimum level of Dutch. It is true that in most cases, students usually have to prove their language skills in the country’s official language before enrolling at a university; however, in the Netherlands, this is not the case, since many Dutch universities offer degrees in English. So compared to other countries, it is exceptionally easy to live in the Netherlands without speaking the country’s native language. About the Dutch language We may consider Dutch a small or not widely used language, but people actually speak it in several countries: it is the official language of the Netherlands and Belgium, where it takes the name of Flemish. People also speak it in Aruba, Suriname, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, Germany, etc. Dutch has its roots in a dialect of Low German and a lot of its words come from English. This is why people usually say that Dutch is a mix of German and English. Dutch has 23 million native speakers all over the world. As we have mentioned before, Dutch is spoken in several countries: the Netherlands, Belgium, etc. However,...
Jun 23, 2022 | Blog, Communication, Interviews, Tips for Translators
In this blog post, we’re introducing our former French intern who has completed an internship with our company. She’s described the process of looking for a translation internship and what her learning outcomes were. If you’re interested in looking for a translation internship in Canada, read on! Let me introduce myself. I’m a French university student and my mission was to complete an internship in Canada. Indeed, this is a requirement of my translation studies. This internship is part of the second year of my master’s degree in translation. Following a bachelor’s degree in translation (English/Portuguese and French) and then a master’s degree, this internship was the way to conclude my five years of studies in this field. My internship didn’t have to satisfy a long list of requirements. I had to work with one of my languages, evolve in a professional translation environment (translation agency/department or an independent translator) and a professional had to supervise me. Looking for an internship in a translation agency in Canada After an internship with an independent translator last year, it was logical for me to do this one in a translation agency. I wanted to discover precisely how an agency works from the inside, how to manage a project, and also be able to work on a range of diverse projects. Diverse in terms of languages but also services, not only translation but also interpreting, subtitling, and more. I wanted to combine this internship and my desire to discover Canada. It’s for this reason that I started researching Canadian agencies. Finding a translation agency LingoStar is one of the first agencies where...
Jun 21, 2022 | Blog, English language, Translation, Worldwide
The most spoken languages around the world English, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, French, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, Hindi and a whole lot more languages are spoken around the world. But do you know exactly how many? Well, the answer is 7,151! However, only 23 languages account for more than half of the world’s population. Nevertheless, we would like to talk about the top 10 most spoken languages in the world. First of all, it is important to point out that this top 10 has not always been the same. Indeed, the world is constantly changing, and with it the communities that speak different languages. They too are constantly changing. Some of them die, others are born, and others change according to the times in which they live. In 2022, at the top of the list, there is, unsurprisingly, English, immediately followed by Mandarin Chinese, each with over 1 billion speakers. In third place, there is Hindi, with more than 650 million speakers, and Spanish, spoken by more than 500 million people. French, Bengali, Modern Arabic, Portuguese, Russian and Urdu follow in our list, with over 200 million speakers each. The most spoken languages over the last century If we take a look at the top 10 in the early 1900s, we can see how slightly different things were. Indeed, the most spoken language was Mandarin Chinese. However, this is not unexpected due to the huge number of Chinese inhabitants. What may be more surprising, instead, is that the second most spoken language was not English, but Spanish. English gained the second position in 1911 and the first position only in 2013!...
May 25, 2022 | Blog, Holidays, Translation, Worldwide
Relation between travel and translation If you look in a dictionary, you will discover that the English term “translation” has two meanings. The first one says: the process of translating words or text from one language into another. The second one states: the process of moving something from one place to another. We can say that travel and translation are rather connected. A traveller moves from a place to another in order to discover new cities, new words and new cultures. In the same way, translating is a passage from one language to another, from a source culture to a target one. Thus, travel and translation are very much interconnected as they both focus on the idea of movement and passage. So, what happens when a traveller simply moves with their language and culture to another country? Travel books and translation Travel literature translated into many different languages tells us about foreign countries so we can understand facts about other cultures. By reading travel books we can discover new countries. They unveil for us what is hiding out there in the big world. They also allow us to study and compare different cultures. At the same time, a travel writer or a travel blogger translates new travel experiences. They also tell us about another reality by converting their travel experiences into a travel book or a travel blog. The most important moment of a trip and a tale starts when a traveller arrives in some unknown place and must find their way into a new culture. Similarly, a translator describes an experience by translating it from one language to...
May 24, 2022 | Blog, Language Varieties, Translation, Worldwide
Japanese words in English and other languages There are many languages in the world that are difficult to translate into English. Japanese is one of them. One reason for Japanese translation being really hard would be the unique development of Japanese culture. Japan is an island nation surrounded by the sea. For this reason, it developed its own culture and technology while adopting those introduced from the continent a long time ago. In this blog post, we will look at some hard-to-translate words that other languages and countries have adopted in their original form. With globalization, Japanese food culture is also spreading to other countries. Indeed, different Japanese meals and food items are being presented in the Japanese language in other countries. Some of the most popular examples of Japanese food names are sushi, tempura, ramen, and wasabi. Japanese translation and pop culture Another influential phenomenon is the Japanese modern pop culture. The globalization of recent years has led to the spread of Japanese pop culture worldwide, along with a growing preference for works that are uniquely Japanese. Two perfect examples of words being used in other countries using the original Japanese wording are Anime and Manga. A manga is a story that uses pictures and texts. On the other side, an anime is short for animation, wherein a cartoon has dialogue and music that cannot be heard in the comic. Thanks to these entertaining blockbusters, some of the Japanese words appearing in them are becoming widely used. For example, the word kawaii means cute or adorable. Japanese translation phrases derived from Japanese culture Another characteristic of Japanese culture...
Apr 24, 2022 | Blog, English language, Language Varieties
Creativity in a language is one aspect of human intelligence and we express it also through language and translation. Furthermore, we have to consider that languages change throughout time. Neology is the term we use to indicate the process of the creation of a new lexical unit. Neologism is the product of this activity. One of the most difficult challenges for translators is the necessity to find the right word. This happens because sometimes the perfect equivalent does not exist in the target language. That is why translators need to create new words or neologisms. How and why do we use creativity in language translation? Creativity in language and translation is important in a lot of fields, for instance in the technological field where translators have to manage large language databases. Furthermore, they have to do some statistical calculations in order to produce correct and usable text. There are a lot of reasons that push a community to create a neologism; the creation of a new word can derive from the need to name an original reference. This is the case for a new scientific discovery or invention or a new social expression. Neologisms in different fields and creativity in language translation Creativity in language and translation and, more generally, neologisms appear in the following fields: science and technology, culture and society, politics, and art. Over the last few years, scientific and technological progress has introduced procedures and devices in our daily lives that were impossible to imagine before. As a consequence, we have to create new words, especially in the IT and communication field where all new terms...
Apr 21, 2022 | Blog, English language, Traditions
Weather in small talk Spring has come with new beginnings and new weather conditions. Did you know that the weather is one of the most common topics for small talk around the world? In a lot of countries, people use small talk to fill awkward silences or as a way of breaking the ice and they do that by talking about the weather. Let’s imagine you are stuck in the elevator with a person you don’t know, what do you talk about? The weather of course! However, not every country welcomes small talk. Countries like Scandinavia, Sweden, Finland and Norway are not really into small talk. As for everything related to language, it is just a question of culture. For instance, in the USA and the UK, small talk is very common. Indeed, in the USA, small talk occupies at least six hours per day of conversation. In the UK, instead, 38% of British people make small talk about the weather. Talking about the weather – the weatherese language Actually, talking about the weather is not something we do just in small talk, but rather, there is a specialised language about the weather called weatherese. Forecasters use this language in weather forecasting. The problem is that forecasters seem to pay more attention to what the weather is than to how the weather may affect people. Indeed, specialised language is often used to save time, as most people do when speaking in a particular field. The problem with forecasters is that they are talking to a general audience, so they should be understood by everyone. On the other hand, academics...
Mar 25, 2022 | Blog, Communication, Traditions
The Language of Women As A Secret Language The language we speak shapes our thoughts about gender and our perception of reality. Many linguistic studies say that there are several types of languages in the world, including the language of women. There are natural languages (or human languages), formal languages, and artificial languages. The latter are often used and created either for amusement or for practical purposes, e.g. Esperanto. Among these are the languages created by women and for women. Mothers are key figures in children’s language development, so much so that we speak about a “mother tongue” to identify a native speaker of a particular language. However, from a linguistic point of view, there is no “female language”, “language of women” or “natural female language”. The Language of Women and Prejudices We also have to consider that our language reflects our social prejudices. What happens if none of the existing languages enable women to express the feelings and emotions inherent to them? What happens if women can’t express the way they feel and think because their language doesn’t contain the right words to convey their thoughts? Or because their language describes and reflects a patriarchal society? Think about how you use your language and whether it’s more geared towards how men or how women express themselves. Native Tongue As A Language of Women, By Suzette Haden Elgin The American linguist and writer Suzette Haden Elgin addressed this topic in the 80’s. She theorized that if women had their own language to express their opinions, they might represent reality in a very different way than when men talk. To...
Mar 23, 2022 | Blog, Communication, Worldwide
Gender Neutrality In Everyday Life Set in 1961, Hidden Figures is a film about the true story of a team of African-American mathematicians in which gender and racial distinction are broken down in favour of neutrality. The main protagonist, Katherine Johnson, is a talented woman who is hired to work for NASA. However, she works in a white, male-dominated environment, where the toilets for coloured women are in a completely different building from the one where she works. For this reason, every day she has to go back and forth between the two, meaning she’s often absent from her desk. When her boss demands an explanation for her constant absenteeism, Katherine, filled with indignation, makes a moving speech about how the racially divided, male-dominated society in which they live is impeding her from doing a good job. In agreement, her boss destroys the “colored ladies room” sign outside the toilets to stop the segregation. Hidden Figures might be set in the early sixties but gender and racial discrimination are still present in our lives. The difference is that today is not just about the distinction between male and female. This happens because we live in a gender-fluid society where things are far more complex. In this blog post, we will explore what is gender neutrality and how it affects languages. The Way Gendered Languages Shape Our World Historically, the masculine gender has always been the default gender for describing situations where both men and women are present. Indeed, with respect to gender, we can distinguish three types of languages: Gendered languages like Spanish, French and Italian, where nouns and...
