Around the web – June 2016

Unsurprisingly the run-up to and aftermath of the British referendum had a tendency to dominate news stories this month, including articles about translation and language.

• Because this brings a smile let’s start with these possible names for EU exits for all members of the EU (my favourites are those for the Czech Republic and Hungary).
• This article, written on May 9th, asks what Brexit could do to the UK’s translation industry.
• Brexit also brought about linguistic queries from the USA concerning British use of the terms ‘surgery‘ and ‘hokey-cokey‘, as well as American attempts to try and use bollocks…

When a US newspaper uses a front page full of Britishisms…

• Colleague Marie Brotnov asks whether it’s a myth that you get what you pay for.
• Words that only survive in stock expressions or phrases (such as ‘fettle’, ‘sleight’ or ‘shrift’) are known as fossil words. The Haggard Hawks blog looked at 10 of them and also 10 Portmanteau Words (blended words that bring together two existing words to form a new one).

‘Time immemorial’ is now used to mean “time beyond memory” or “time out of mind”, but it began life as a legal term in mediaeval England referring to anything that happened before the coronation of Richard I, on 6 July 1189.

• Feuding between the owners of translation multinational TransPerfect (potentially worth nearly $1 billion) means a Delaware Court have approved a plan to sell the New York-based company in an auction open to outside bidders.
• Nonverbal Communication Across Cultures: How to Offend And Confuse People Around the World Without Saying a Word!
• June 20th was World Refugee Day. Here are 3 Ways the Translation Industry Can Make a Difference.
• On June 9th the results of Bab.la’s Language Lovers competition were announced. You can take a look at the results here.
• June 9th was also National Freelancers Day in the UK. An article in The Guardian looked at what’s it’s really like to be a freelancer (endless holidays and free time?).

Although I don’t teach English I recently recorded a short podcast for language learners, and chose as my subject what it’s like to be a translator in Reunion Island. You can listen to and/or watch the podcast (and 101 others!) for free at Anglais.re’s website.

My podcast about translation is entitled ‘The Invisible Woman’.

Related articles:

• Around the web – April 2016
• Around the web – May 2016