Tuesday 17 November 2009
Wednesday 4 November 2009
MDÜ Articles
The current issue of the BDÜ magazine "MDÜ" features two articles written by me, a reprint of the "What makes a good agency" article published in the ITI Bulletin earlier this year, and a new article (in German) on Linguee.
Thursday 10 September 2009
Translator ('fixer') dies in Afghanistan
I'm not familiar with the circumstances, and I'm simply posting the links to the Guardian reports entitled "Journalist rescued in Afghanistan pays tribute to translator who died in raid" and "British journalist's rescuers left dead Afghan behind" as examples of yet another thought-provoking episode in the 'Afghanistan saga'.
Wednesday 9 September 2009
50 things that are being killed by the internet
Thanks to Steven Marzuola for passing on the link to this article in the Daily Telegraph.
Re. item no. 8, I'm not going to mourn the end of phone books - see also my letter in the Leicester Mercury.
Item no. 14 is quite alarming: "The internet's draw on our attention is relentless and increasingly difficult to resist", although come to think of it, I was probably quite restless even before the Internet...
Item no. 29 is the reason why this post ended up in my translation blog rather than my other blog. It says "Sites like Babelfish offer instant, good-enough translations of dozens of languages". I'm not sure about that.
Re. item no. 8, I'm not going to mourn the end of phone books - see also my letter in the Leicester Mercury.
Item no. 14 is quite alarming: "The internet's draw on our attention is relentless and increasingly difficult to resist", although come to think of it, I was probably quite restless even before the Internet...
Item no. 29 is the reason why this post ended up in my translation blog rather than my other blog. It says "Sites like Babelfish offer instant, good-enough translations of dozens of languages". I'm not sure about that.
Friday 4 September 2009
Bundestagswahl, Wohnsitz im Ausland
My application to register as a voter in the forthcoming German elections proved to be quite an 'educational' experience, especially if one is interested in the finer technical details of PDF forms.
LinkedIn Crowdsourcing Translation Controversy
Thanks to Iwan Davies for pointing out Rachel McRoberts' excellent presentation describing the background to the recent LinkedIn crowdsourcing translation controversy.
Thursday 20 August 2009
Bring on the German lessons
An interesting (political, not language-related) analysis in the Guardian.
Tuesday 18 August 2009
HE Translations in Home Business magazine
HE Translations is featured in the Home Business magazine (p.4)
Monday 3 August 2009
Balkonien
Witzige Karikatur von Martin Erl in der Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung vom Samstag/Sonntag, 1./2. August 2009.
Friday 31 July 2009
which or that?
This BBC Learning English article sheds some light on this issue.
Thanks to Jacqui Birnie for providing the link.
Thanks to Jacqui Birnie for providing the link.
Thursday 23 July 2009
Sunday 19 July 2009
Thursday 16 July 2009
Senioren fit am Steuer
Not directly translation related, but here is part of a message I just sent to my brother, with "süddeutsche Reisegruppe" referring to my mother and her cousin:
Anbei die Titelseite der aktuellen VDI-Nachrichten mit einem Leitartikel, der insbesondere für die süddeutsche Reisegruppe von Interesse sein dürfte, aber auch für Zeitgenossen mit Midlife Crisis-Risko interessant sein dürfte.
Anbei die Titelseite der aktuellen VDI-Nachrichten mit einem Leitartikel, der insbesondere für die süddeutsche Reisegruppe von Interesse sein dürfte, aber auch für Zeitgenossen mit Midlife Crisis-Risko interessant sein dürfte.
Saturday 11 July 2009
Tool Kit Newsletter
The 144th edition of the Tool Kit newsletter arrived today - interesting and useful as ever.
Friday 10 July 2009
Thursday 2 July 2009
Paying tax by direct debit
Having recently discovered that one can set up a direct debit with HMRC I did this right away, (perhaps somewhat naively) assuming that I would no longer have to worry about/bother with six-monthly payments.
However, as it turns out, the six-monthly payment liability doesn't go away (although the amount to pay is reduced by whatever DD payments have been made in the preceding months).
Sorry if this is obvious to others - it wasn't to me until I spoke to HMRC this afternoon.
On further reflection, their so-called Direct Debit is in fact more like a Standing Order (they also refer to it as budget payment plan), i.e. the tax payer specifies the amount he or she intends to pay.
Why they call it Direct Debit is a mystery.
However, as it turns out, the six-monthly payment liability doesn't go away (although the amount to pay is reduced by whatever DD payments have been made in the preceding months).
Sorry if this is obvious to others - it wasn't to me until I spoke to HMRC this afternoon.
On further reflection, their so-called Direct Debit is in fact more like a Standing Order (they also refer to it as budget payment plan), i.e. the tax payer specifies the amount he or she intends to pay.
Why they call it Direct Debit is a mystery.
Friday 19 June 2009
Wednesday 10 June 2009
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