q = f(t) (where ”q” is quality and ”t” is time)
11/07/2014
Yes, yes, I know. I have neglected my blog for far too long...
Author: Thomas
Have You Ever Experienced a ”Translator’s Block”?
11/07/2014
Writers often complain about ”writer's blocks”. These are periods of time during which they are unable to produce new work. I'm curious whether this term can apply to translators as well. Fortunately, I haven't experienced any major blocks, however, there have been times when...
Cultural Iconic Brands. Some Examples from the Auto Industry
11/07/2014
A recent news according to which an old Romanian iconic bicycle brand (famous in the communist regime) has been revived by a couple of investors, reminded me of how important it is for brands to acquire cultural iconicity and how iconic products can be...
O Corpora, O Mores!
11/07/2014
I have always considered corpora essential for the translation of various specialized texts. I actually believe that one cannot possibly begin to translate without consulting similar texts in the target language (the so-called parallel texts). It is highly essential to experience, to understand and...
Do you say NO to a translation?
11/07/2014
It is every freelance translator's wish to maximize his/her incomes, which means that the situations in which a translator refuses to work on a project are quite exceptional. The most common reason for rejecting a translation project is the lack of expertise in the...
Source text oriented vs. target recipient oriented translations
11/07/2014
Source text oriented or target oriented? That is the question. In fact, this has been the question for a long time. Both approaches have their advocates. While some assert that a translation is mainly a ”copy” of the original and it should clearly reflect...
Standard Romanian Characters vs. MS Legacy Romanian Characters
11/07/2014
I decided to post this after I noticed that the issue of the Romanian standard characters generates misunderstandings. I hope this will be especially useful to clients and project managers who don't understand Romanian, but who require translation services into Romanian. There are two...
Attempting to Define Culture
11/07/2014
The word culture has become too common a word these days, and more often than not we tend to take its meaning for granted. We use it for professional purposes and for personal purposes, we invoke it whenever we feel threatened by others, but...
My View on the Reliability of MT
11/07/2014
I feel that I owe some explanations after my first article about machine translation (MT). In my previous post, I stated that machine translation can be a very useful tool, but it cannot and should not replace the human translator. I will very briefly try...
It’s Us Against the Machine?!
11/07/2014
One of the hot topics at the FIT Europe Seminar in Bucharest this weekend was the so-called threat of automated translation to translation professionals and to the translation industry in general. The conclusion of the FIT Europe Seminar panel discussion was that machine translation, although...