Around the web – May 2016

I had the pleasure this month of receiving a copy of a photography book that I’d translated – it’s always a pleasure to see one’s name in print, isn’t it? Anyway, here’s a round-up of the most popular articles about language and translation that appeared online in May.

• Alina Cincan of Inbox Translation undertook a mammoth task this month when she compiled a blog post with the favourite tools of 72 professional translators, including yours truly. CAT tools were excluded, and everything listed is either free or very affordable.

I love this photo mosaic!

• How do you deal with translating references to songs? Should they remain the same in your translation?
• Could understanding other cultures’ concepts of joy and well-being help us reshape our own?

The Positive Lexicography Project aims to catalogue foreign terms for happiness that have no direct English translation. (Illustration by Julianna Brion)

• The Man Booker International Prize was awarded on May 16, and as of this year it gives equal recognition to the writer and translator. BBC World Service interviewed Orhan Pamuk’s translator, and asked how someone completely new to translation ends up working for a Nobel laureate.
• Still on the subject of ‘Auntie Beeb‘, does BBC English dictate proper pronunciation?
• The singular pronoun ‘they’ could solve sexism – but is it grammatically correct?

He, she, they: it’s as easy as one, two three (Credit: Alamy)

• Curious about country name origins? Look no further.
• Here’s a video from ‘Haggard Hawks’ (aka Paul Anthony Jones) with 10 Words You Won’t Believe Exist.
• June 23rd will of course be the day of the Brexit referendum.  Do you know all of these 10 Funny Euro-English Words We Might Hear More Often If The UK Leaves the EU? More seriously, would Brexit stop a self-employed Brit from freelancing in another EU country?
• May 4th was Star Wars Day, and The Local France took a look at how the French translated the names in Star Wars. They also asked How did the French end up with their ‘crazy’ numbers?
• Don’t forget to vote in Bab.la’s 2016 competition for your favourite language blog (learning or professional), Facebook page, Twitter account and Youtube channel. You have until Monday June 6th!

I’ll leave you with this quote that I came across recently.

Related articles:

• Around the web – April 2016
• Around the web – March 2016
• Top Language Twitterers 2016

Top Language Twitterers 2016

Every year since 2009 Blabla language portal has held its Top 100 Language Lovers competition. There are five categories:

• Language Learning Blogs – blogs about the language learning process.
• Language Professionals Blogs – blogs by people using languages in their profession, such as translators or interpreters.
  
• Language Facebook Pages –Facebook Pages related to language topics.
• Language Twitter Accounts –Twitterers who share content about languages
• YouTube channels – Youtube users who vlog about languages.

The nominations received have been narrowed down to 100 for each of the five categories. For the fourth year running I’ve had the pleasure of being nominated in the Language Twitterer category for my account @Smart_Translate. Last year I arrived 8th in the Twitter category (having previously been voted 4th in 2014).

50% of the final score will be based on user votes. You can participate in voting here, or by clicking on the button to the top right, until June 6th. Note that twitterers are listed by name (e.g. Cath Cellier-Smart), not by Twitter handle. There’s no need to be on Twitter yourself to vote, as the link takes you to a web page where you just click on a link. You can also vote in the other categories by clicking on the links above.

Ranking and results will take place June 7th-8th, and results will be published on June 9th.

P.S. You can follow and/or tweet about the competition (all categories) on Twitter using the hashtag #tll16.

If you’d like to find about more about the competition see this article.