New Words and New Beginnings – What Are Neologisms? Spring is in full bloom, bringing with it new beginnings: a new season, new goals, and many plans. Language is another area where newness occurs. The vocabulary of any language is often enriched with new words, commonly known as neologisms. In this newsletter, we will look at new beginnings and new plans, but also new words, and we will discuss how weather conditions affect not only our mood but also the way we speak. If you are interested in these topics and would also like to learn more about cultural traditions related to Easter and April celebrations, this newsletter is for you. In particular, we focused on the challenges that translators face when translating neologisms. If you want to find out more about the creation of new words, read our blog post about neologisms >>. At LingoStar, we are passionate about translation and its challenges. That is why we always strive to produce the best translations for our clients. Want to learn more about the relationship between new words and translation? READ THIS NEWSLETTER >>...
Food and Language – What is the connection? Food is a vital part of life, and so is the language we speak. We all need food, it is fuel for our body, and it gives us energy and powers our runs. But food is also part of our language, our culture, and our identity. Food represents what we are, if it is true that we are what we eat. Hence the relationship between food and translation. As we all know, language and culture are intrinsically related. Since food is part of our culture and life, it is unavoidable that translating the language of food will represent a hurdle for translators. This is true not just for food, but also for any culture-related elements. To overcome this hurdle, translators have different translation techniques at their disposal. For this reason, we have dedicated this month’s newsletter to the challenges that translators have to tackle when translating food-related documents, such as recipes, menus, or idiomatic expressions. You’ll find an interesting blog post on this topic in our January newsletter. At LingoStar, we are passionate about translation and its challenges. That’s why we always try to produce the best translations for our clients. Want to know more about the connection between food, culture and translation? READ THIS NEWSLETTER >>...
December has arrived and this can only mean one thing: Christmas is in the air! We’re all feeling that warm and bright atmosphere typically present during this period and, of course, we’re all busy sorting out Christmas presents. Over the years, it’s become increasingly common to see AI under the Christmas tree. Indeed, the more time passes, the more children ask for technology-related presents in their letters. Nowadays, toys speak, sing and even walk! Dolls look more and more like real babies; they can drink milk, sigh and even cry. Artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly present in our lives and is being used to create appealing toys for children. For this reason, we’ve dedicated this month’s newsletter to artificial intelligence. At LingoStar, we always try to produce the best translations for our clients and it’s interesting to see how artificial intelligence is changing the world of translation. As you will read in our blog post, it’s easy to see how agencies use AI in their translations, especially when they need a text translated in little time. However, speed is not always synonymous with efficiency! In addition to celebrating a few favourite international days, our newsletter contains interesting material about how AI is present under the Christmas tree and how it is affecting the field of translation, especially in subtitling and dubbing. Read our newsletter to know more! READ THIS NEWSLETTER...
Hispanic Heritage Month and Halloween Time – October Newsletter October was Halloween month, but also Hispanic Heritage Month in Canada. It was therefore only natural for us – and great fun too! – to feature lots of interesting articles and news to celebrate these two events in our October newsletter. Halloween is a spooky festivity that many people around the world enjoy. As translators, we love to see how Halloween has brought new words and expressions into our language. In particular, in our blog post, we’ve analyzed the existing relationship between Halloween, religion and language. It’s fascinating to see how language is so flexible that it can be adapted to a multitude of applications such as religious language. As for Hispanic Heritage Month, this special occasion celebrates the fundamental contributions of Hispanics to the U.S. and Canada. In our newsletter, you will find articles and videos about Hispanic people who brought their contributions to America. Finally, at LingoStar, we’re always ready to take on new challenges. Take a look at our newsletter to find out about some of the projects we’ve been working on! Read on to find out more about Halloween and language facts from around the world! READ THIS NEWSLETTER...
Language Teaching: Learn how translation is helping – September Newsletter In September schools re-open in many countries after summer holidays. For teachers, this means thinking of new approaches and methods to make their teaching style more appealing. One of the subjects that requires a lot of thinking about is foreign language teaching and the role of translation. Have you ever wondered how teachers choose an approach to teach a foreign language? As you will read in our blog post, a lot of different approaches and methods have been used over the years. However, it is important to highlight that there is no right or wrong method to teach a language because every student is unique in his or her own learning style. Therefore, we can use different approaches. An important discussion about this teaching process is whether it is necessary to use translation. The grammar-translation method considered translation a useful tool to use. However, teachers haven’t always seen the use of L1 (native language) in foreign-language classes in a good light. Nevertheless, L1 usefulness has been revalued and today translation is a really valuable tool used when teaching a foreign language. In our September newsletter, you will find out more about this topic. Furthermore, at LingoStar we celebrate countries and their cultures each month. This time, we virtually travelled to Portugal, Greece, and Guyana. Read on to know more! READ THIS NEWSLETTER...
Ecolinguistics: How translation is helping fight climate change – August Newsletter Do you know that a language dies out every 14 days? And climate change is not helping. But how can language loss and climate loss be connected? August has been such a hot month with lots of fires and storms taking place in the world because of the planet heating up. But global warming is only one aspect of climate change. Despite the many events about the environment to raise people’s awareness, there is still a lot to do. The main issue is the lack of effective communication about the climate changes we are dealing with. Sometimes, we take the words we use to communicate for granted, but in some situations, choosing our words carefully is crucial. We just need to think about Africa, as you will read in our blog post, where little is being done to fight climate change. Moreover, people don’t speak English, leading to a lack of awareness of environmental issues. Therefore, translation has an essential role in helping people understand the meaning of global warming. In this newsletter, you will also find out about ecolinguistics, a branch of linguistics that explores the relationship between the language of a community and its environment. Furthermore, at LingoStar we celebrate various countries and their cultures each month. In August, we celebrated Argentine and Australian curiosities. READ THIS NEWSLETTER...
Explore the Canadian English Language Variety – January Newsletter 2021 is now well under way and it’s fair to say it’s not exactly the start we would have liked. But we remain positive and we look forward to better days to come.The economic and health conditions remain volatile and uncertain for the time being. But the one thing we know for sure is how important our mental wellbeing is. We will continue to share with you news related not only to our industry and our projects but also how to stay healthy mentally and physically. As we look at how the translation industry is changing, a new year also brings new resolutions. In this newsletter, you will for example learn a lot about the history of the Canadian English language. So it’s time to plan ahead, as we give you a glimpse of what lies ahead and what to look forward to this year.Thank you for your continued support! We look forward to a flourishing partnership with our loyal and new followers, clients and suppliers in 2021! READ THIS NEWSLETTER...
Experiencing Different Languages and Cultures: An interview with Lenka de Graafova, CEO of LingoStar Language Services Vancouver, Canada We recently interviewed Lenka de Graafova, M.A., CEO and Managing Director and owner of LingoStar Language Services Inc., who told us why she decided to provide translation services in Canada and set up her own agency in Vancouver, and what her experience of languages and cultures around the world has been like. Who is Lenka de Graafova, M.A.? In addition to being the director of LingoStar Language Services, Lenka de Graafova is a lover of world cultures and languages. Together with her team of multilingual writers, she regularly posts articles on foreign languages and cultures on social media. She is also an expert in creating websites in foreign languages and wrote the ebook How to make money online, not just in Czech in 2016. She is now about to release a brand new series of Localization Guides and the Beginner’s Guide to Multilingual Website Translation in English, published for the North American market. You can also download her free ebook for a quick overview of what to expect >> How to expand your online business – An Introduction Guide to Multilingual Website Translation. Lenka, you’ve been living in Canada for some time now. What brought you to Canada? I have lived in Canada for 16 years now. I’m originally from the Czech Republic. The desire to experience life on the other side of the world brought me here. I studied translation in the Netherlands and the UK and I wanted to experience everyday life in an English-speaking country. My goal was...
Vancouver Chinese and English Certified Translator and Interpreter An interview with a Certified Translator and Interpreter in Vancouver At Vancouver-based translation company LingoStar, we help our clients find a professional interpreter or translator who will fit their exact needs. For 14 years, Lenka de Graafova, LingoStar’s Managing Director, has been working with Wenhui Zhong, a certified translator (Chinese/English) and interpreter (Mandarin/English and Cantonese/English), based in Vancouver. Wenhui has worked as a Chinese Mandarin and Cantonese interpreter at all levels of Canadian governmental departments and agencies as well as companies in the legal, financial, medical, IT, media and gas industries, to name but a few. With this Star Story interview, we aspire to allow our readers to see how it all works behind the scenes of the interpreting profession. In this case, we introduce you to Chinese interpreting specifically. What does it take to become an interpreter? How do you handle the stress of interpreting and fatigue? What is the difference between Mandarin and Cantonese interpreting? Wenhui has kindly accepted to share his experience with us! Check out our interview! You are a Chinese translator and a professional interpreter in both Mandarin and Cantonese. These are two varieties of spoken Chinese that are actually very distinct. Can you explain how you became fluent and professional in both? I grew up in the city of Guangzhou, also known as Canton in southern China. It’s the traditional place where immigrants leave to go to other parts of the world like Southeast Asia and North America. When people talked about Chinese immigrants about 50 years ago, they were actually talking about Cantonese...
