Thanksgiving is synonymous with getting together, being grateful and understanding and celebrating all the good things the year just passed brought. Times like these help us to reflect on some of the most important values in life. Sharing, communicating, and exchanging with one another makes us feel good. It helps people to better understand each other. Not only does it give context to actions but it also makes us more tolerant and respectful. It breaks boundaries, bridges gaps and unites people across borders. The more we understand each other, the more tolerant, peaceful and unified our world will be. This is why cultural and linguistic diversity is our world’s true wealth. Differences bring us closer The translation industry exists because of cultural and linguistic differences. They are at the heart of everything we do. It is because we know about these differences and how important respecting them is that we can facilitate successful international communication. We are constantly reminded of the importance of using the services of professional and qualified translators in order to avoid ridicule or damaging misunderstandings. From poorly translated subtitles (e.g. Squid Games) to embarrassing and dangerous mistranslations made by international corporations or governments, the examples abound. With countless cultures and subcultures in the world, understanding differences, ours and those of others, is crucial. It brings us closer. Cultural and linguistic diversity brings open-mindedness and comprehension. It gives meaning to actions and words, it makes us unique, which makes sharing so much more rewarding. Learning about different traditions, foods, music, dances, colours, dialects and accents adds to the importance and the wealth of cross-cultural diversity. Cultural...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
