Around the web – May 2014

May is the month that saw me type my e-mail address (‘smartranslate’) in a text message and have the autocorrect turn it into ‘slave translator’! Anyway here’s a round-up of interesting articles about translation and language that have been published on the web during May and that you may have not have had time to see:

• On his blog ‘GosTalks’ Łukasz Gos-Furmankiewicz told us that “a marked lack of professional decorum is one of the reasons [translators’] status is often low”. Read more here.
• What are the difficulties of translating and interpreting Vladimir Putin’s peculiar sense of humour?

• The recent BP14 was colleague’s Rachel Ball’s first international conference on translation. In this blog post she tells us what she learnt from it. In another post Rachel wondered when is a translator ever like a doctor?
• Would you push a stranger off a bridge? A new study reveals that our moral standing is affected by whether we are reasoning in our native tongue, or in a foreign language.
• Here are 10 slang phrases that perfectly encapsulate the age in which they were coined.

The word ‘groovy’ began life meaning ‘conservative’

• Could this 1907 small ad apply to translators today?
• ‘Stop French-bashing!’ says this humorous blog post in franglais.
• Translation errors cost e-tourism €120 million every year in France alone. Read about it in English or French.
• This article (in French) discusses whether a translation qualification is necessary or not to work as a translator: Diplôme de traduction : indispensable ou superflu ?
• Finally, maybe Dorothy Perkins should just put apostrophes anywhere it wants in its advertisements:

Recent Dorothy Perkins ad

Don’t forget you have until June 9th to vote for your favourite language Twitterers, Bloggers, Facebookers and Youtubers! I’ve been nominated in the Twitter category. Read more about the competition here.

Related articles:

• Around the Web – April 2014
• Around the Web – March 2014
• Around the Web – January 2014
• Most popular tweets of 2013