In modern times, the use of gender in Spanish has become a controversial political and social football as society tries to include male and female genders (and other possibilities in the gender spectrum) in its speech and texts. Traditionally—and some would say correctly in grammatical terms—the masculine form has been used to refer to a […]
The window for sending presentation proposals for the IAPTI 2018 conference in Valencia has now closed. We are extremely impressed by the number and variety of interesting proposals received from all around the globe. It is going to be a difficult task to narrow them down for the conference, but it certainly looks like this […]
IAPTI is inviting all translators and interpreters to submit presentation proposals for its 5th International Conference from September 29-30, 2018 in the beautiful Mediterranean city of Valencia, Spain. Here experienced colleagues will give practical, relevant talks and workshops on many facets of our profession and discuss current trends with peers from around the world during the […]
This award-winning book deals gives practical advice for freelance translators on how to organise workflows and improve the quality of services we give to our monolingual clients, guiding them through the translation process to meet their needs…and much more. For translators starting out or those who wish to make the leap to a more […]
Six reasons why machines can never replace human translators One Humans read between and behind the lines. (What is the author’s intent?) “What did you think of our report?” “It’s OK, I guess.” Depending on the human source and target cultures, this reply can be construed to have very different meanings. If […]
Sometimes in my talks for translators I give the audience a simple test with a surprising result. I ask for a show of hands to see who knows what a word such as “isomer” means. Usually fewer than 5% raise their hands. I say this is surprising because nearly all of you reading […]
As many who translate scientific texts know, this is one of the very few professions where the world of arts and letters is condemned to cooperate with and understand the world of science and engineering. Let’s face it, the average fine arts undergraduate doesn’t usually hang out with the chemical engineers on campus at […]
Los traductores que trabajan con textos científicos ya saben que esta es una de las pocas profesiones donde el mundo de las artes y de las letras está condenado a entenderse con el mundo de la ciencia y de la ingeniería. Seamos sinceros: los estudiantes de bellas artes no suelen irse de copas con […]
If you ask most foreign translators what they least like about working in another country, they will often name the bureaucracy involved. When I first came to Spain I quickly learned to take a newspaper with me when visiting any government building to while away the hours. Nowadays I take my laptop and set up […]