Here are the most popular news articles, blog posts, and stories about language and translation for August 2021.
- Many news stories this month talked about the plight of Afghan interpreters. Here are articles on the subject from The Guardian, the BBC in the UK and USA, and Australia’s ABC
Australian military evacuated Afghan interpreters and contractors who served alongside Australian Defence Force troops
- Corinne McKay blogged about work/life balance (or “work/life clarity” as they call it on the Smart Habits for Translators podcast!)
- Should you ever do a free test translation for a potential client?
- Using the example of NY State Governor Andrew Cuomo’s resignation, Debbie Cameron wrote about how miscommunication is a weapon in the ongoing conflict between men who feel entitled to harass women, and women who challenge that
New York State Executive Mansion, home to New York State governors
- RuPaul’s Drag Race demands translation sensitive to global and local queer cultures
- Many words common to science have never been written in African languages. Now, researchers from across Africa are changing that
Researchers want to expand scientific terms in African languages including Luganda, which is spoken in East Africa.
- Why is English spelling so weird and unpredictable? asks Arika Okrent in this essay
- The smiley face that isn’t: To Gen Z, emojis often have a quite different meaning than for older people. (See also Emojis aren’t debasing language – they’re enriching it)
Apparently emojis now mean different things to different people
- In France the passe sanitaire has been in the news a lot this month. The Academie Française has decided that the gender of passe is feminine, and reconfirmed that it should be written with an “e”. (Here are two articles in French about the word: Ça pass(e) ou ça casse and N’écrivez plus «pass sanitaire» mais…)
Would there be fewer protests if the pass became a passe?
- Staying on the C-subject, what happens when we run out of Greek letters for variants?
- Last but not least, a must-read from colleague Nikki Graham, who tells how Twitter punished her for getting hacked. Don’t hesitate to share!
Elsewhere on the blog
A Smart Translator's Reunion 