Sep 14, 2008 | Translation News
Dear Language Friend, Have you ever been greeted with a nice “sup!?”, or has a friend wished you “hf” when you were about to leave for an event? Did his choice of words leave you with a puzzled face? Welcome to the world of Internet language. Those are actually acronyms and abbreviations of real words or even whole sentences! Lenka de Graafova, Managing Director. Thanks for reading. “thx 4 reading” What is Internet and SMS (Text) language? Though chatting on the Internet and phone is very interactive and live, it is by no means as fast as oral communication. Because of this reason, some other ways were developed to increase the electronic communication speed. Internet slang became one of the ways to increase electronic communication speed, and it is also used for texting. This is quite handy, not only in terms of speed, but also in terms of efficiency. Internet slang tends to be shorter than actual orthography, leaving space in the message for more words. As texting has a character limit, this is a good way to cram more information into one message. As cell phones are gaining popularity, more texts are sent daily. Many people use acronyms because it is faster, more comfortable and easier to type short words. This abbreviated language is of course preferably used in informal settings, e.g. between friends and family members. Acronyms and Abbreviations In Use Nowadays, there are so many acronyms and abbreviations around, so it is impossible to list them all. Below, we will provide a few examples of acronyms and abbreviations and categorize them into 5 forms of shortened...
Aug 14, 2008 | Translation News
Dear Language Friend, Ever complained about the unpredictable spelling of English words? Or even French? Indeed, these mismatches between pronunciation and spelling have been categorized as major flaws of our National Languages by poor spellers, and spelling errors have been a major “needle in the eye” for linguists since the Renaissance period and even earlier on. Contributed by Annie Pei. Thank you for reading. The Challenge of Words For many of us, spelling is definitely a challenge. Looking back on our elementary school years, some of us relive the glorious marks on our spelling quizzes whereas others… well… let’s just say those quizzes really weren’t golden moments in their lives. Sometimes, the errors are humiliating, such as when the word love mutates in a very sad fashion to become “luv”. But just when those unfortunate few thought they had their native language all deciphered, along comes the challenge of learning a second language. Suddenly, “random” slashes on top of certain letters appear (French and Spanish, for example), dots appear on top of e’s and o’s, etc. Gradually, the longing for words to be spelt the exact way they’re pronounced dominates the thoughts of those poor language students who are unable to spell in their native languages let alone others. School and other sites providing language courses induce nightmarish scenarios and the non-linguistically talented pupil has no escape. Change is Coming But lo and behold! Throughout the years, many languages have sought to reform the ways certain words are spelt. In the year 2004, France acknowledged changes to the spelling of approximately 2,000 words in the French vocabulary (“levraut” has...
Jul 14, 2008 | Translation News
Dear Language Friend, Over the course of history, there have been many who have attempted to create new languages. J.R.R. Tolkien would be a prime example, creating a whole new dialect used by the Elves in his famous series, The Lord of the Rings. However, there is one language that stands out in particular, one that even has native speakers-Esperanto, a language created with the objective of bringing the world together. Read on for further information regarding this intriguing tongue that was once expected to bring world peace and facilitate negotiations! Contributed by Annie Pei. Thank you for reading. The Importance of Communication It is no surprise that since the beginning of time, mankind has been striving to achieve universal linguistic comprehension. Politicians depend on the absence of language barriers to negotiate, challenge, and propose ideas that are understandable amongst other municipal, provincial, and world leaders. Economically, one of the key reasons why trade has been able to cross nations, oceans, continents even, is due to the work of business partners speaking the same languages around the world, or at least using interpreters and translators to facilitate communication. Even socially, language communication is a main factor in the relationships we form with others and how we interact with friends and strangers in everyday life. But there are times when no one is able to relate to another, posing problems for everyone. Realizing this, in the year of 1887, one man formed a new language, a language we now recognize as Esperanto. What is Esperanto? In 1887, Doctor L. L. Zamenhof, a Polish man of Jewish descent, created a language...
May 14, 2008 | Translation News
Dear Language Friend, Spring finally came to Vancouver! With the arrival of the nice warm weather, my spirits are lifted with the breeze. I personally came from Japan and this is my second spring in Canada. In spring time, I always feel like trying something new. Have you ever felt like that? So last spring, I started doing yoga. Since then I have been practicing yoga regularly, and as a result, developed an interest in India. In this newsletter, I will talk about Indian languages and one of the popular Indian exercises – yoga. Contributed by Makiko Hirota, an aspiring translator of Japanese at LingoStar. Thank you for reading. Languages in India In India, more than a hundred languages are spoken. The languages of India primarily belong to two major linguistic families – the Indo-European and Dravidian families. The northern Indian languages from the Indo-European family such as Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi, Sindhi, Bengali and Oriya evolved from Old indo-Aryan such as Sanskrit, while Hindi, Urdu and the closely related languages were strongly influenced by Persian and Arabic. The south Indian (Dravidian) language has a history independent of Sanskrit. However, in later stages all the Dravidian languages were heavily influenced by Sanskrit. The major Dravidian languages are Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. Indo-Canadians (Canadians whose origins trace back to the Indian sub-continent) In Canada, Indian community has been growing fast. There are close to 400,000 people whose mother tongue is Punjabi in Canada. With the latest census showing a 35% increase in Punjabi speakers since 2001, Punjabi has become the 4th most spoken language after English, French and Chinese...
Mar 14, 2008 | Translation News
Dear Language Friend, The other day an interesting article caught my attention. The focus was on the use of English at the upcoming Olympic events in Beijing. In this issue of our Newsletter we will look into “Chinglish” signs that are being scrapped from buildings in Beijing. And, in the aftermath of the Tibetan events, we will give you some background information on the Tibetan language, its origins and future. Lenka de Graafova, Managing Director and the LingoStar Team. Thank you for reading. Chinglish and the Beijing Olympics The summer Olympic Games in Beijing are approaching and those who are visiting the Chinese capital for this huge event are advised to learn some Chinese. Otherwise you might end up ordering “steamed crap” from a restaurant menu which has exclusively been translated for YOU! There are numerous faulty translations displayed on signs, shop names and restaurant menus all around the city. Some might make you laugh but most of them will make you want to learn some Chinese. Here are some examples of “Chinglish” translations of signs that tell you what to do and what not to do: – Please keep your personal information out of other people when shopping in our store. – Your careful step keeps tiny grass invariably green. – Please don’t cross any railings lest suddenness happens! – There are dangerous animals please don’t near. – No Photoing. No Smiking! Tibetan versus Chinese in Tibet Chinglish signs are being removed from important locations in Beijing but Chinese signs are waiting to be put up in Tibetan Lhasa. Tibetan protests earlier this month have to do with...
Feb 14, 2008 | Translation News
Dear Language Friend, I’m sure you have all heard about Chinese New Year, but perhaps you did not know that the Koreans celebrate KOREAN NEW YEAR! In this Newsletter we will introduce you to the customs of a Korean New Year. We give our thanks to our Korean colleague Jy Hye Kim for the contribution to this Newsletter. Lenka de Graafova, Managing Director. Thanks for reading. Koreans do celebrate New Year’s Day on January 1st, but the lunar New Year is in fact more important and more popular in Korea. This Korean New Year (Seol-nal) is the first day of the Korean lunar Calendar (generally between January 12 and February 19), and the celebrations last for three days. Koreans celebrate lunar New Year on the second of the three days; on the first day the women need to prepare everything, especially food, for the following day. All family members get together and celebrate the arrival of the New Year. Religious Service For Their Ancestors So, HOW DO KOREANS CELEBRATE THE LUNAR NEW YEAR? This depends on the family’s religion and tradition, but most families perform a religious service for their ancestors in the morning. This entails the women preparing about 44 different kinds of food over the course of more than two days. However, you cannot put just anything on the table. Food that is not allowed on the table during the religious service: – Any spicy food – Soups (interestingly, only the solid ingredients of soups are served, not the liquid) – Fish with scales that have the word ‘chi’ in their name (e.g., gal-chi, kkong-chi, sam-chi) –...
Jan 14, 2008 | Translation News
Dear Language Friend, Do you ever wonder if certain English words are unique to the English language only? In this issue of our newsletter, we will tell you WHAT apparently are the most untranslatable words in foreign languages, HOW certain concepts in one language might require creativity, and WHEN to use adapted translations. Lenka de Graafova, Managing Director. Thanks for reading. Language Conversion Occasionally, our translation office receives a call where a person is asking whether we can convert English to, for example, Spanish. It is interesting that language translation is often perceived as language conversion. Is it possible to simply convert phrases and words from one language to another? We wish! If this was the case, Google translation would have been used on a daily basis and it wouldn’t produce funny translations. Some IT experts believe that they will be able to find the ultimate language tool that will convert languages, but professional human translators will tell you differently. They will argue that idioms, emotions, cultural references and language-specific phrases will just not pass the simple word-by-word conversion test. So this brings us to the topic of translatability of certain words between languages. Believe it or not, some words are just not translatable. This means that for a certain utterance, no equivalent text or utterance can be found in another language. Of course, the degree of translatability depends on the nature of the expression and the translator’s creativity and ability to tackle the translation difficulty. Luckily, a translator can resort to a number of translation procedures to find an appropriate equivalent. Untranslatability Internet sources reveal these ten...
Dec 12, 2007 | Translation News
Dear Language Friend, Christmas Wishes! Another year is nearly over. How did it go for you? Have you learned a new language? Or did you get mixed up with languages? In this issue of our Newsletter, we will tackle the differences between mixed languages and code-switching and address a few issues regarding bilingual speakers. But most importantly, we would like to wish you a great holiday season! Whatever your plans are, enjoy it to the utmost and don’t forget that Santa speaks many languages! Best wishes from LingoStar, Lenka de Graafova and the LingoStar Team. Thanks for reading. Do You Mix Languages? I love walking around Vancouver, Burnaby and other cities of the Lower Mainland and sneakily listening to the languages people speak on the street. Picture a day, biting cold but sunny, an old couple walking along the beach chatting. Was that Polish, Serbian or Bulgarian? Is it my imagination or do all retired Russian citizens in Vancouver gather around Beach Avenue? Do I hear Mandarin frequently spoken around the Edmonds area? Is Japanese the leading language on Robson Street and its surrounding neighbourhood where all the ESL students seem to gather? I find it fascinating to guess the languages spoken on the street. I often get it right; but I’m usually puzzled when trying to distinguish between Arabic and Persian. There’s another thing I find intriguing; it’s slightly annoying yet quite understandable at the same time. It regards mixing languages. I am referring to balanced adult bilinguals who speak (nearly) perfect English with a (nearly) perfect Canadian accent and at the same time consider another language...
Sep 11, 2007 | Translation News
Dear Language Friend, Do you realize that there are more Japanese restaurants in Vancouver than Starbucks? In this issue of our newsletter, we would like to introduce you to Japanese culture and discuss WHAT kind of Japanese food is popular, HOW Japanese national holidays are different from other countries, WHEN you might need translation of car manuals, electrical products and computer games, and WHERE to learn Japanese quickly. Our Japanese speaking project manager Yukiko has contributed to this Newsletter. Lenka de Graafova, Managing Director. Thanks for reading. Japanese Food After coming to Vancouver from Japan, I’ve noticed that it’s very easy to find authentic Japanese restaurants and that many people are interested in Japanese food. So I was wondering why has Japanese food boom taken place in so many countries? The answer is: The more people are becoming health-conscious, the more it is igniting the Japanese food boom. Surprisingly, I got the impression that Vancouverites eat ‘sushi’ more often than the Japanese. The Japanese eat “sushi” at special occasions only, the same way Western people roast a turkey a couple of times a year only. The sushi culture has been an interesting experience for me and it almost feels like Western people eat “Thanksgiving dinner” many times a year. However, I have to admit that some of the sushi restaurants in Vancouver are better than the ones I know from Japan. Apart from sushi, have you already tried Japanese tavern? If you want to discover something new about Japanese food, try eating in any Japanese restaurant and you’ll be presented with a menu of hot and cold dishes. Traditional...
Jul 11, 2007 | Translation News
Dear Language Friend, In this issue of our newsletter, you will find out WHY you should not miss the Caribbean Days Festival, you will discover HOW calendar systems differ between cultures, WHEN different cultures celebrate New Year, and WHAT all this has to do with translation. Lenka de Graafova, Managing Director. Thanks for reading. The Caribbean Days Festival When: The weekend of July 28th-29th Where: North Vancouver at Waterfront Park and other locations Come to North Vancouver and explore the colorful, exotic and vivid Caribbean culture. The Caribbean Days Festival, which is organized by the Trinidad & Tobago Cultural Society of BC, takes place for the 20th time. Don’t miss the various celebrations including a Multicultural Street Parade, a Caribbean Boat Cruise, Food Fairs, Musical Festivals, Outdoor dances and much more. Did you know that… …Canada is home to approximately 294,000 people originally from the Caribbean and Bermudas? …that the vast majority settled in Montreal and Vancouver and approximately 6,000 people of Caribbean origin are presently living in Vancouver? Talking about Cultures and Calendars Article contributed by our native German project manager Tina The other day, it was on a Thursday, I was chatting with my Persian friend about his family back home. “How is your family doing in Iran?” “They are doing great. They are off for the weekend right now.” “What do you mean they are off for the weekend right now? It is only Thursday!?” “Well, you know, in my country, the week starts on Saturday.” “On a Saturday?” “You got it. Everybody is off on Fridays and some people also on Thursdays.” “Really?...
