Vancouver-based Arabic translator Jim-Ryan in an interview with LingoStar About the translation industry and the challenges of Arabic translations Arabic is the third most spoken language after English and French by the number of countries in which it is spoken, the fifth most spoken language by the number of native speakers, and sixth most spoken language by the total number of speakers, both native speakers and second-language speakers included. These numbers clearly indicate that the Arabic language is important worldwide. This led us to invite our Arabic translator Jim-Ryan to do an interview about the challenges of Arabic translations, the characteristics of the Arabic language, and the translation industry in general. We met passionate Arabic translator Jim-Ryan, who has cooperated on translations with LingoStar since 2010, in a café in Vancouver. 2010 was also the year in which his translation career began. Born in Syria, his native language is Arabic. Having lived in France and French-speaking Canada for several years, he became fluent in French as well. However, with English as his second language he mainly translates from English into Arabic these days. He told us that languages have always been a passion for him, although the translator job is not even his main career choice: Jim-Ryan is also an actor. So, we started by talking about his first job for LingoStar – a translation of a script. It turned out that he had also auditioned with a film company for parts of the script that he had translated. Jim-Ryan pointed out that it was challenging to experience both the actor’s approach and translator’s approach to the text. That’s...
Share Your Story With LingoStar! We are always looking for unique life stories to showcase to the linguistic community. If you have any interesting experiences travelling abroad, unique cultural encounters, or even just a time you found yourself lost in translation, we want to hear about it! Don’t hesitate to share your life stories with us and email them to...
