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LingoStar’s Blog 
Welcome to LingoStar’s blog! On this page, you can find a lot of interesting and useful information about the translation industry. Explore topics on website translation and localization and how successful localization can influence your business to help your company grow and go global.
Language Blog Topics
On this blog, you can also learn about professional translators and interpreters, multilingual search engine optimization (SEO), the importance of socializing and networking and translators’ professional ethics. Quite often we write posts about the languages of the world, other cultures, and their traditions. Not only do translators convert texts from a source language to a target language, but they also help people communicate with each other, help establish international contacts, and are often prominent figures in the social, economic, and political life. Lastly, of course, we want you to have fun, so on our blog, you can find many posts that will entertain you and, hopefully, make you smile!
We hope you enjoy our blog and discover a lot of interesting things!
Inspirational Quote: Check out Our New Positive Message
Inspirational Quote Translation into Italian, French, Japanese, Slovak and Czech. Whether you are having a bad day or just not in a great mood due to recent obstacles in your life, just remember, you are not alone. We all have daily struggles and those who can draw the motivation from within to push onward and to put there all into each and every day are those who will succeed in their endeavors. Check out our inspirational quote list below for some motivating words that can help you look forward and let go of negative feelings deriving from past events. The future is yours to take advantage of. Let’s inspire and support each other. Let’s share this motivating positive message with everybody. We are always happy to send your translations of the positive messages we prepare for you. Don’t hesitate to contact us and send us more translations. You are amazing! Inspirational Quote in English: Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose. – Lyndon B Johnson Inspirational Quotation Translation into Italian: Non possiamo recuperare il passato, ma possiamo vincere o perdere il futuro. – Lyndon B. Johnson Inspirational Quote Translation into French: On ne peut pas récupérer le passé, mais on peut gagner ou perdre l`avenir. – Lyndon B. Johnson Inspirational Quotation Translation into Japanese: 昨日を取り戻すことはできないが、明日は勝利するも敗北するも我々次第である。 -リンドン・B・ジョンソン – Lyndon B. Johnson Inspirational Quote Translation into Czech: Včerejšek již nespravíme, ale zítřek můžeme zvítězit nebo prohrát. – Lyndon B. Johnson Inspirational Quotation Translation into Slovak: Včerajšok sa síce napraviť nedá, ale stále môžeme na zmenu využiť zajtrajšok. – Lyndon B. Johnson Did you liked today’s Inspirational Quote? Follow Us For More! We at LingoStar know... read more
Some Embarrassing Welsh Mistranslation in Europe
Embarrassing Welsh Mistranslation The supermarket owned by the company Tesco in the UK seems to have bitten off more than they can chew with their attempt to branch out to the Welsh speaking local customers with their embarrassing translation of the text on their cash point machine in Aberystwyth into Welsh. Obviously unaware, the company had actually translated their text saying “free cash withdrawals” to “free erections”. This was embarrassing for the company and caught the attention of many Welsh speakers in the area. The Welsh translation reads “codiad am ddim” which translates to “free erection”. Some locals found the mistake amusing, while others were astonished at how poor of a quality translation the company used. A young man Garin Fitter, 18, elaborated on this after seeing the translation in person. “I am not sure how they came up with it because anyone with a basic understanding of Welsh would know it is the wrong word. “They must have used Google translate. I think it’s quite funny but I know some people might be offended they didn’t bother to check they had got it right.” Evidently, Tesco failed to take into account the ramifications that a poor-quality translation truly could have on their brand image. Although free translation services may be enticing for such a small piece of text, you can see just how detrimental even the mistranslation of a few words can truly be to a company’s reputation. This is why you need to take all of your translations to a reputable professional translation agency, no matter how big or small the translation is. Got Any Stories as Embarrassing?... read more
Check out Our New Inspirational Quote Translation
Inspirational Quote Translation into Italian, French, Japanese, Russian, Slovak, Czech, and Ukrainian Dear friends, Even in fairy tales happiness, fame, and success did not come to those who were sitting and doing nothing and hoping that the best is yet to come. We do not mean that real life cannot be as happy as lives of fairy tale characters. It can be and will be, but we shouldn’t wait for that very perfect moment which will make all our dreams come true. This rule has never worked. We are the ones who are responsible for our happiness, we are the ones who can make our dreams come true. What we should do is to stop waiting and start moving towards our goals and dreams. Everything is possible if you work hard, never give up and always find strength and inspiration to see the best in this world and in people around you. Let’s inspire and support each other. Let’s share this beautiful idea with everybody. We are always happy to send your translations of the positive messages we prepare for you. Don’t hesitate to contact us and send us more translations. You are awesome! Inspirational Quote in English: Don’t wait for the perfect moment. Take the moment and make it perfect. -Zoey Sayward Inspirational Quote Translation into Italian: Non aspettare il momento perfetto. Prendi il momento e rendilo perfetto. -Zoey Sayward Inspirational Quote Translation into French: N’attend pas le moment parfait. Prend le moment et rend le parfait. -Zoey Sayward Inspirational Quote Translation into Japanese: 完璧な時期を待ってはいけない。自分で完璧な時期にするのだ。-ゾーイ・セイワード -Zoey Sayward Inspirational Quote Translation into Russian: Не ждите идеального момента. Просто... read more
Being a Good Translator and How Not to Go Crazy?
Being a Good Translator Requires Working Hard. Here Are Some Tips that Will Make Your Work Easier While being a translator seems easy, it is actually not as easy as it seems. You want to know why? Let’s forget for a second that translators have to deal with tons of projects. Let’s forget about the piles of documents written in a foreign language and the pressure to meet a strict deadline. This sounds quite stressful, doesn’t it? Nevertheless, let’s forget about it and talk about the translation process itself. When working, translators spend hours and hours in front of a computer using various translation tools, dictionaries, and other programs. Working on the computer may sound like the most relaxed job in the world, but it is quite the opposite. According to Dr.David Agus, five of more hours of sedentary sitting is the health equivalent of smoking a pack of cigarettes… Constant sitting has long been known as a reason of back pain and blood-circulation issues, which can cause cardiovascular disease. Moreover, staring at a bright screen for hours can lead to headaches, blurred vision, and other vision disorders. Some advices Being a good translator is hard, mostly because of how long you sit in front of the screen of your computer. What can translators (and not only translators) do in order to reduce negative effects of working on the computer for so long? The first really good piece of advice is to adjust the colours of the monitor so that the background is a dark olive green and the text is a light yellow. This will help your eyes... read more
Enjoy Our New Positive Message Translation
Photography by Robert Demeter Our New Positive Message Translation into French, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Czech, Slovak, and Ukrainian Have you ever thought about sense of living? Why do we live our lives on this huge, lonely planet in the middle of nowhere? Maybe, there is no sense in this at all? Maybe, we just need to help each other feel loved and important in this life? Maybe, we just need to be happy and make everything we can to have no regrets when we are old and grey. As long as people on this planet share love, become friends, and inspire each other we can be absolutely sure that we are doing everything right. Be an example for the people around you, motivate them, help them improve and become better, make sure your life is inspiring! Help LingoStar translate this amazing message into different languages and share it with everybody! This life is so beautiful. Sometimes all we need is somebody to help us see this and not forget. Don’t hesitate to contact us and send your translations! We are looking forward to hearing from you! Positive Message in English: Your life is your message to the world. Make sure it is inspiring. Positive Message Translation into French: Ta vie est ton message au monde. Assures-toi que ce soit inspirant. Positive Message Translation into Italian: La tua vita è il tuo messaggio al mondo. Assicurati che sia d’ispirazione agli altri. Positive Message Translation into Russian: Ваша жизнь – это Ваше послание миру. Убедитесь в том, что оно вдохновляет. Positive Message Translation into Japanese: あなたの人生そのものが世界へのメッセージとなる。感動的なものにしよう。 Positive Message Translation into Slovak: Svojím... read more
Language Translation and Culture : What About Foreign Authors’ Books?
Language, Translation, and Culture Today, the field of Translation Studies is more popular and successful then it has ever been before. Translation, just like language and culture, has always been a major topic of discussion; however, the most attention to this subject arose in the twentieth century and over the last two or three decades translation has become more visible and more attractive than ever before. What happened? What made Translation Studies such an important and respectable industry? Harish Trivedi, Professor of English at the University of Delhi, claims that there were three distinct moments in the twentieth century that served as reasons for the current translation boom. The first reason, according to Professor Trivedi, was the movement of translating Russian fiction into English. It began in the 1890s and continued until the 1930s, and it revealed for the English-speaking readers a whole new world of writings that were absolutely different from traditional Western literature. This movement resulted in the so called ‘Russian fever’ and the new tendency of translating works of numerous Russian writers and poets. The other two movements started at the end of the twentieth century when much attention was paid to previously disregarded parts of the world: Latin America and the countries of the Eastern Europe. Obviously, Translation Studies is such a developed industry today that we expect to have an access to the most sophisticated works of literature from all over the world. Unfortunately, it is not so easy. Despite the fact that book stores shelves are full of brilliantly translated foreign literature, a lot of truly fantastic authors are just inaccessible to us... read more
Enjoy LingoStar’s New Positive Message Translations
Positive Message Translations into 7 Languages There is a very good expression which says that we should never, ever give up on our way to something we really want just because it is difficult to wait. Why? The answer is that it is even more difficult to regret having given up. That’s true. Maybe, it doesn’t sound very optimistic, but it is much better to fail knowing that you have done whatever you could than not to try at all. Nobody likes to fail. However, failure is not the end. On the contrary, it gives you a chance to start all over again and to avoid those mistakes that you have made before. Look at it from a different angle and you will see that every single dream, every goal is worth trying and working hard. No one says it will be easy. But how fantastic you will feel when your goal is finally achieved. What we should do is to support, motivate, and inspire each other. Together we can make all our dreams come true! Don’t forget to inspire the people you love! Let’s share this beautiful message with as many people as possible. Don’t hesitate to contact us and send us your translations of today’s positive message. Good luck, friends! The Positive Message in English: If the plan doesn’t work, change the plan. But never the goal. The Positive Message Translation into French: Si le plan ne fonctionne pas, change le plan, jamais le but. The Positive Message Translation into Italian: Se un piano non funziona, cambia il piano, mai l’obiettivo. The Positive Message Translation into Russian:... read more
The Most Mysterious Manuscript in the World and its Translation
The Most Mysterious Manuscript in the World The world is full of secrets and mysterious things people cannot find adequate explanations for. Languages are not an exception. Today, there exist several manuscripts that linguists simply cannot translate! One of such texts is the Voynich manuscript which has become one of the most mysterious objects in history and can be found today in one of the libraries at Yale University. So what exactly is the Voynich manuscript? It is an illustrated codex handwritten in an unknown writing system which was discovered by a book dealer Wilfred M. Voynich outside of Rome in 1912. This unique book that the world’s best cryptographers and linguists have been trying to decipher for decades dates back to 15th century (or even 13th, as many scientists believe). This book is 235 pages long, full of coloured images of astrological charts, different plants, and living cells that look as if they were observed with the help of a microscope. Who wrote it? Some lost civilization? Was it human beings that created the book? Therefore is there any message that we cannot understand? What Became The Most Mysterious Manuscript Today many scholars are working on this book, and they argue about its possible origins. For instance, Stephen Bax, professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Bedfordshire, claims that he managed to decipher some words. His main goal was to focus on the proper names in the text – the method used for successful deciphering of Egyptian hieroglyphs. So, he has deciphered such proper names as Taurus, Coriander, Cotton, Juniper, Centaurea, Chiron, Hellebore Nigella Sativa, and Kesar.... read more
‘Hamlet’ Translation: The Great Play in West Africa
Hamlet Translation for West African Tribal Elders One of the questions which many scholars have been trying to answer is whether people from different corners of the world share the same ideas and have the same values despite their cultures and languages. This subject was raised by anthropologists, philosophers, linguists and translators. One of these translators is Laura Bohannan, who translated Shakespearean Hamlet for a group of West African tribal elders. According to Bohannan just before she left Oxford, she protested that human nature is the same over the world and that the general plot and motivation of great tragedies will be clear everywhere. To translate the tragedy for the elders she had to take into account many cultural nuances; for example, the notion of ghosts does not exist in the culture of those tribes as they do not believe in the post-death survival of people. That is why the concept of ghosts became an omen sent by a witch to their culture. After the play was performed, the chiefs discussed it and disagreed on several moments. For instance, they thought that Hamlet had no right to investigate the reasons of his father’s death as it was his uncle’s business. One more thing that they noticed was that Claudius had to marry Gertrude in order to protect his family patrimony, etc. These examples demonstrate that not all cultures share the same assumptions. Hamlet turned out to be very exotic for West African tribes, and only certain moments were clear to them. If you are looking for a reliable translation agency to have your document translated into a language that... read more
Check Out LingoStar’s New Positive Message Translation
Photo by Robert Demeter, taken from http://www.robertdemeterphotography.com/ Positive Message Translation into Italian, French, Russian, Japanese, Czech, Slovak, and Ukrainian The easiest thing to do is to say that you cannot do anything. ‘I just can’t…’ How many times have you heard or said it? Have you ever tried to prove you wrong and actually DO it! LingoStar team believes that there are no impossible things to do. All that you are required to do is to start working! Certainly, great success doesn’t come to people who say they can’t; it comes to those who work hard to say ‘I could, and I did it!’. Don’t be afraid of anything because fear doesn’t help us become better and stronger. Don’t focus on problems and remember: every problem can be solved. Have hopes, have dreams, have plans, and they will motivate you! We hope you will enjoy this week’s positive message and help LingoStar translate it into more languages. We are very happy to receive your translations and add them to the list. Don’t hesitate to contact us. Let’s have fun together! The Positive Message in English: When you focus on problems, you’ll have more problems. When you focus on possibilities, you’ll have more opportunities. The Positive Message Translation into French: Si te concentres sur les problèmes, tu n’auras que plus de problèmes. Si, au contraire, tu te concentres sur le possibilités, tu auras plus de opportunités. The Positive Message Translation into Italian: Se ti concentri sui problemi, avrai solo più problemi. Se, invece, ti concentri sulle possibilità, avrai più opportunità. The Positive Message Translation into Russian: Как только вы сосредоточитесь... read more
Do Successful Translations of Our Favourite Sitcoms Exist?
Successful Translations of Sitcoms Successful translations are extremely important when it comes to written text of scientific genre. This is true: all kinds of written material are problematic. It is important to find the right equivalents for the unique terminology and to make the translation clear and adequate. However, what usually makes even very good translators struggle is humor. If you are a native English speaker, you are lucky enough to watch the world’s most popular sitcoms such as Seinfeld, Friends, or The Big bang Theory in the original language and to be able to enjoy all the creative jokes. But, some people don’t speak English at all, and nevertheless they somehow manage to fall in love with these shows. This is a sign of successful translation and localization. Certainly, it is not a big problem to translate universal jokes that are clear out of the context and will sound almost the same in every language. But, what about linguistic and cultural jokes? For instance, when one of the main characters of Friends, Phoebe, gets married (season 10, episode 12), she doesn’t want to put anything on top of her light wedding dress, although they have an outside wedding, and it is freezing cold. So her friend, Chandler, asks her if she won’t get cold, and Phoebe replies: ‘I don’t care. I’ll be something blue’. There is no need to explain the meaning of this joke for people of the culture where it is a tradition for a woman to have something new, something blue, and something borrowed on when they get married. However, some cultures just do not have this... read more
Check Out Our New Positive Message Translation
The Positive Message Translation into Italian, French, Japanese, Russian, Ukrainian, Czech, and Slovak What does it really mean to be the best? Does it mean to be the strongest or the smartest or the most good-looking person in the world? The problem is that every day the smartest and the strongest man gets a chance to meet somebody who is smarter or stronger. We shouldn’t focus on being better than someone else. Every day we should have a goal: to become better people than we already are. As long as you move towards this goal this life will make sense and will get even more and more interesting. Enjoy being yourselves! Check out LingoStar’s translations of today’s positive message. Don’t hesitate to send us your translations. Let’s share this message with everyone! The Positive Message in English: It’s not about being the best. It’s about being better than you were yesterday. The Positive Message Translation into Italian: L’importante non è essere i migliori, ma essere migliori di quanto si era ieri. The Positive Message Translation into French: L’important ce n’est pas d’être le meilleur, mais d’être meilleur de ce qu’on était hier. The Positive Message Translation into Russian: Дело не в том, чтобы быть лучшим. Дело в том, чтобы стать лучше, чем вы были вчера. The Positive Message Translation into Japanese: 一番でいることではなく、昨日の自分より成長していることが大事なのだ。 The Positive Message Translation into Slovak: Nie je dôležité byť najlepším, ale lepším ako včera. The Positive Message Translation into Ukrainian: Річ ну в тім, щоб бути найкращим. Річ у тім, щоб стати краще, ніж ви були вчора. The Positive Message Translation into Czech: Nejde o to být nejlepší.... read more
All Shades of Spanish: Spanish Translation – Part IV
Spanish Translation The increase of the Spanish speaking population in North America has resulted in an increased demand for professional Spanish translation and interpretation, especially in the legal and medical fields. Certainly, a translator has to have native or near-native fluency in one of the two languages if he or she wants to work with English – Spanish language pair. Excellent grammar and wide vocabulary are a couple traits that will make someone a good professional translator. However, these skills are just not enough to provide high-quality translation, especially in such important fields as medicine and law. To provide successful legal translation from Spanish to English, it is necessary to be familiar with nuances of all the legal procedures, otherwise you risk getting confused while translating. These include for instance, Spanish and English cognates. Read the following example: Las partes han acordado celebrar el presente contrato con el fin de construir un puente. The parties have agreed to celebrate this contract for the purpose of building a bridge. Do you think this is an incorrect translation? It looks quite adequate. However, in the case of contracts translation, such a translation is unacceptable. As this sentence refers to the formation of the contract, the word ‘celebrate’ is not appropriate, and a translator should use the word ‘enter into’ instead. This verb will denote the actual meaning of the sentence, and the result we will get will be more professional: The parties have agreed to enter into this contract for the purpose of building a bridge. It is also very important to know how to localize the text into English from... read more
To Translate or Not To Translate: Translation of Proper Names
Translation of Proper Names There is a common misconception that proper names are never translated. However, if you ever paid attention to various newspaper articles in foreign language or to some magazines, you may have noticed that, for instance, Queen Elizabeth II is translated as Reina Isabel II and Alliance Française is translated as Instituto Británico in Spanish. Translators actually do a lot of things with proper names. Sometimes they keep proper names non-translated, which leads to different pronunciation in a target language; sometimes they use transcription and transliteration, cultural adaptation, substitution, and so on. As you can see, there are a lot of ways to translate a proper name, and it requires very sensitive decision-making on the part of a translator. Besides, it depends on the type of translation. If one is specializing in the certified translation of official documents, one is unlikely to look for the meaning of the client’s name and just use transliteration to make it sound the same in the target language as it does in the source language. However, in literature we can often find examples of successfully (and unsuccessfully) translated proper names that have the same effect on the target audience as the original name does. For example, the most controversial and one of the most interesting characters of the Harry Potter book series – Severus Snape – doesn’t have the same name in other languages. In Romanian he is Severus Plesneală, in Hungarian – Perselus Piton, in Italian – Severus Piton, in French – Severus Rogue, and in Russian – Северус Снегг (Severus Snegg). For many translators it was more important... read more
Check Out Today’s Positive Message Translation
Positive Message Translation Into French, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Ukrainian, Czech, And Slovak Today, with this positive message translation, we want to remind you one more time that this life is beautiful. Just look around! Wherever you are, you can see life around you. And if for some reason you do not like this reality, do not start hating it. Try to think about what you can do to make it a little bit better. As soon as you make someone happier, you become happier too. Sometimes we get confused and believe that to be happy we need material things. These include huge houses, fancy cars, private jets. Moreover, we believe that we need to be successful, get a well-paid job, and have perfect bodies. All these things are just great! However, don’t forget that happiness is unsteady. In other words, one moment it is there and then you are so busy with all your routine problems that you just forget to live. Keep going, keep dreaming, keep achieving your goals! Above all, remember those simple moments that make you happy and smile. For instance, remember those mornings when you wake up and feel that everything will be just fine. That is to say when you are full of energy and ready to conquer this world. Therefore, no matter how hard it is, remember those moments and be sure: if you felt it before, you will feel it again. In short: smile, work, be active, laugh, love, and be HAPPY! Today LingoStar has prepared this amazing positive message for you and translated it into seven languages. Make your contribution, don’t... read moreTranslation Blog and News
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