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?...
Jun 11, 2007 | Translation News
Dear Language Friend, Welcome to the LingoStar Summer Festival Guide (Part I) In this issue of our newsletter we invite you to find out: WHAT Vancouver offers in terms of cultural outdoor festivals in June, WHY you should not miss the festivals,po HOW you can bring tasty and easy-to-prepare recipes into your home and HOW all these festivals are related to language. Lenka de Graafova, Managing Director. Thanks for reading. Festivals are an integral part of the city’s events and offer people from different cultural origins the opportunity to express their cultural roots, traditions and linguistic background within a Canadian multicultural context. Summer has just started – time to spend time outdoors with your families and friends. Explore cultures from all over the world, taste new flavors, mingle with different cultures and enjoy summer! We have been thinking about what the word FESTIVAL really stands for and we have come up with the following suggestion: F Fun & Food E Experience & Explore S Sun & Summer T Time to enjoy I Ideas & Inspiration V Values & Variety A Activities L Learning How do you experience festivals? 2nd Annual Hellenic Cultural Week Ouzo, Retsina, Tzadziki, Kalamaria, Horiatiki, Souvláki, Moussaka…Does this sound all Greek to you? When I visited Greece a couple of years ago, I was amazed by the people’s hospitality, by the huge amount of ouzo they can drink and by the delicious food they eat. What are your first associations when you think of Greece? Ouzo, delicious wine, tasty foods, dances, lively streets, friendly people? Come and experience Greece in Vancouver. Organized by the...
May 11, 2007 | Translation News
Dear Language Friend, In this issue of our newsletter, we would like to introduce you to the know-HOW of desktop publishing work, describe WHAT some of the challenges are when dealing with multilingual documents and provide tips on how to make the typesetting process flow smoothly. The WHEN topic of this newsletter refers to the arrival of spring and the WHY to the large numbers of blossoming trees in Vancouver. Multilingual Typesetting / Desktop Publishing At LingoStar, we have recently seen an increasing demand for multilingual typesetting. People refer to ‘typesetting’ in many ways: “drop translated text into a brochure, insert text, layout the text”, etc. Despite its many names, the well established name of DTP (desktop publishing) or typesetting refers to the same process: Formatting a (foreign language) text into a format ready for print or optimized for web. At LingoStar we provide multilingual typesetting and DTP work as a continuation of our translation service. With the ongoing and ever accelerating globalization, we have seen more of our clients having their commercial documents translated and typeset in foreign languages in order to communicate with customers in different countries around the world. A high demand for Asian and Middle Eastern languages makes the localization and layout arrangement of multilingual documents more challenging and complex and this is why: The major complexity appears with languages that use a different writing system to the Roman alphabet. The fact that, for example, Arabic and Farsi read and write from right to left, doesn’t make things particularly easy. Also, Hindi and Punjabi use different encoding in their systems that is not always compatible...
