How Do You Decide to Buy a Book?

Today one of my friends asked me how I generally bought a new book. At first it sounded weird to me. Generally, I just walk into a bookshop, check the recent books, have a look at the best sellers around the world, try to find the books that my friends recommend and go to main literature section. Since I took lessons about literature in university, many American or British writers are quite familiar to me. If I want to try something new, I read the back cover or sometimes just the cover is enough. 🙂 This is me, buying a book.

Then I remembered this interesting article below which is about a 6 year old girl guessing the plot of the books by its cover. 🙂 Maybe it was a good way to judge a book like a few years ago; however, the covers may be confusing these days… Anyway, let’s see how this little girl did! 🙂

“I think it’s a book about a haunted theme park and it stars a magical magic guy and he’s good and evil and he’s trying to get rid of the ghosts. And I think at the end, since it’s haunted by a ghost, he tried to make the park go on fire and it did.”

 

 

“This is about a girl that goes mining. I don’t know why, but she looks like she would go mining, mining for gold.”

 

 

“It’s about a person who is a robot, a very colorful robot. He’s pretty fancy for a robot.”

 

 

“It looks weird. I think this must be a book about a tree. I would not read a book about just a tree. And it looks like it’s a sad tree too since it has no friends.”

 

Well, sometimes it’s better not to judge the books by its cover! 🙂

 

The source and for more: http://twentytwowords.com/2012/07/23/a-6-year-old-guesses-the-plots-of-classic-novels-based-on-their-covers/

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Maps Explaining the World

All these years, I see that people who are interested in languages are also interested in almost every topic in the world. 🙂 Especially those related to foreign cultures are the top… We are curious about their languages, cultures, religions, rituals, traditions, law systems, education systems, attitudes… You see, almost anything but we have a reason to be like that since translating a languages is equal to translating a culture… Without knowing anything, the translation process is just poor and many times results in mistakes.

2 days ago, my friend shared a post by Washington Post. It was about the maps of the world- yeah I know you are excited. 🙂

Well, the original post contains 40 different maps explaining the world in a different way. Here, I’ve chosen the ones in which I think you will be interested most.

 

Where people are the most and least welcoming to foreigners

Major religions

Where people are the most and least emotional

Where people feel the most and least loved

The most and least ethnically diverse countries

Legal systems

 

 

The source: http://wapo.st/14kqhbX

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Untranslatable “Love Words”

 It is interesting that we have tens of “love words” that we use everyday. I call them “love words” in quotation because I couldn’t find a better phrase for them. 🙂

The other day, some of my friends call me as “gülüm”. When we translate this into English, it is “my rose”. It sounds quite funny when translated. 🙂 “Gül” means “rose” in Turkish and we use it as a “love word” among family members or close friends. Similarly there is “kuzum”, the translation is “my sheep”. 🙂 I know how funny it sounds.

Then I just thought the English “love words”. There is “honey” and we directly use it in Turkish but it is a recent usage – probably just pass from English with the new generation and television.

I’m sure there are tens of untranslatable “love words” in your language as well… What about sharing them with us? 🙂

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Real-time Translation Service by Google

Maybe you’ve heard of it but 3 days ago, Google announced that a real-time translator is on its way- and it is for mobile!

Of course the concern of this tool is not “perfect translation” but to give at least the gist of any speech real-time, on the phone.

I don’t wanna make it longer and I’ll give you the details of the article which was published at techradar.com:

 

Google has its sights set on the future with projects likeGoogle Fiber and Google Glass, and now it’s adding real time voice-to-voice translation to that list as well.

Google’s Vice President of Android Hugo Barra said this week that Google is now in the early stages of creating real-time translation software that it hopes to perfect within the next “several years,” according to The UK Times.

The company already has prototype phones that can translate speech in real time, so that a user speaks into the device in one language and the person on the other end hears it in a different one, like the fictional Babel fish in “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” or the TARDIS in “Doctor Who.”

“That is where we’re headed,” Barra told the publication. “We’ve got tons of prototypes of that sort of interaction, and I’ve played with it every other week to see how much progress we’ve made.”

To read more, click here.

 

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Roger That!

Last night I was watching a movie called “Olympus Has Fallen”. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it but it is a good one, I recommend. 🙂

Anyway, during the movie, I heard “Roger That” a lot. Of course it was not my first time hearing it but it was the first time it made me think. I decided to search why the military use “Roger That” instead of “okey” or “understood” 🙂

I learned that it was first used during WWII. Here is what I’ve found on web:

 

 

“Roger” means “I have received all of the last transmission” in both military and civilian aviation radio communications. This usage comes from the initial R of received: R was calledRoger in the radio alphabets or spelling alphabets in use by the military at the time of the invention of the radio, such as the Joint Army/Navy Phonetic Alphabet and RAF phonetic alphabet. It is also often shortened in writing to “rgr”. The word Romeo is used for “R”, rather than “Roger” in the modern international NATO phonetic alphabet.

Contrary to popular belief, Roger does not mean or imply both “received” and “I will comply.” That distinction goes to the contraction wilco (from, “will comply”), which is used exclusively if the speaker intends to say “received and will comply.” Thus, the phrase “Roger Wilco” is both procedurally incorrect and redundant. (Wikipedia)

“I was told during my Navy training that ROGER stands for Received Order Given, Expect Results.” (Andy McBride)

 

If you have more to say, you can comment under this.

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Think & Smile

I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of it but there is an old social network called “Reddit”. I don’t use it frequently but one of my friends is a huge fan of it. The other day, he sent me a link which is full of intellectual jokes, which I think you’ll love!

These jokes are generally about famous philosophers or scientists and they reflect the wit of these people. They may be about theories or concepts used in science or philosophy.The link follows: “What’s the most intellectual joke you know?” Let’s see some of them…

 

 

Jean-Paul Sartre is sitting at a French cafe, revising his draft of Being and Nothingness. He says to the waitress, “I’d like a cup of coffee, please, with no cream.” The waitress replies, “I’m sorry, Monsieur, but we’re out of cream. How about with no milk?”

“Is it solipsistic in here, or is it just me?”

A physicist, a mathematician and an engineer were each asked to establish the volume of a red rubber ball. The physicist immersed the ball in a beaker full of water and measured the volume of the displaced fluid. The mathematician measured the diameter and calculated a triple integral. The engineer looked it up in his Red Rubber Ball Volume Table.

Werner Heisenberg, Kurt Gödel, and Noam Chomsky walk into a bar. Heisenberg turns to the other two and says, “Clearly this is a joke, but how can we figure out if it’s funny or not?” Gödel replies, “We can’t know that because we’re inside the joke.” Chomsky says, “Of course it’s funny. You’re just telling it wrong.”

Day 19, I have successfully conditioned my master to smile and write in his book every time I drool.- Pavlov’s Dog

A physicist, a mathematician and an engineer stay in a hotel.

The engineer is awakened by a smell and gets up to check it. He finds a fire in the hallway, sees a nearby fire extinguisher and after extinguishing it, goes back to bed. Later that night, the physicist gets up, again because of the smell of fire. He quickly gets up and sees the fire in the hallway. After calculating air pressure, flame temperature and humidity as well as distance to the fire and projected trajectory, he extinguishes the fire with the least amount of fluid. At last, the mathematician awakes, only again to find a fire in the hallway. He instantly sees the extinguisher and thinks, “A solution exists!”, and heads back into his room.

 

To be continued! 🙂

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Social Media for Translators

If you’re reading this right now, it means that you are in social media in this or that way. For me, it is irreplaceable. Using social media, I communicate, network, read, discuss, learn… There are more actions than I can count here. In the morning I wake up and check my Twitter and Facebook feed. During the day when I give a break I check my Instagram and Pinterest. I also use social media to promote my works (esp. Linkedin). I’m sure you use social media in countless ways.

So how should translators use social media? I came across this book on amazon.com. I have ordered it and I’m waiting for the shipping.

If I find it helpful, I’ll definitely write a review here.

It is undeniable that social media is not just a fad but rather an essential part of business today. It is crucial in any online marketing strategy, particularly for SEO purposes, to boost brand awareness and to drive traffic to your website. But just setting up profiles on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn is not enough. So take a look at what else you need to bear in mind when developing a social media marketing strategy for your translation business.

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The Language of the Week: Punjabi

Last week, I got a great comment about my blog. Sarai Pahla stated that her favorite part is “The Language of the Week”. So, I hope there are people out there like Sarai who like my articles and the information that I try to compile here.

4 years ago, I guided almost 50 students from Pakistan in a sports festival organized by my university. We got very close friends and I really loved their culture and language… I was quite amazed when they tell that there are tens of languages used in Pakistan. This week, I choose a language of my old friends from Lahore city: Punjabi. For those who want to learn more about languages spoken in Pakistan and India:

 

Punjabi is spoken by 130 million native speakers world wide making it the 10th most widely spoken language in the world.

Mostly inhabitants of the historical Punjab region in India and Pakistan speak this language.

It belongs to Indo-Aryan language family.

The word Punjabi is derived from the word Punjab which means “five waters” in Persian “panj aab” and refers to five major eastern tributaries of the Indus River.

Punjabi emerged as an independent language in the 12th century.

Punjabi is one of the languages recognized by the Indian constitution at the state level, in Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, and West Bengal.

Punjabi has always been an integral part of Indian Bollywood cinema.

Punjabi is spoken as first language by over 44.15% of Pakistanis.

Punjabi has three phonemically distinct tones that developed from the lost murmured (or “voiced aspirate”) series of consonants.

Punjabi has a canonical word order of SOV (subject–object–verb).

Punjabi distinguishes two genders, two numbers, and five cases of direct, oblique, vocative, ablative, and locative/instrumental.

 

And let’s see how it is transcribed:

ਲਹੌਰ ਪਾਕਿਸਤਾਨ ਪੰਜਾਬ ਦਾ ਦਾਰੁਲ ਹਕੂਮਤ ਐ। ਲੋਕ ਗਿਣਤੀ ਦੇ ਨਾਲ ਕਰਾਚੀ ਤੋਂ ਬਾਅਦ ਲਹੌਰ ਦੂਜਾ ਸਬ ਤੋਂ ਵੱਡਾ ਸ਼ਹਿਰ ਐ। ਲਹੌਰ ਪਾਕਿਸਤਾਨ ਦਾ ਸਿਆਸੀ, ਰਹਤਲੀ ਤੇ ਪੜ੍ਹਾਈ ਦਾ ਗੜ੍ਹ ਐ ਤੇ ਇਸੇ ਲਈ ਇਹਨੂੰ ਪਾਕਿਸਤਾਨ ਦਾ ਦਿਲ ਵੀ ਕਿਹਾ ਜਾਂਦਾ ਏ। ਲਹੌਰ ਦਰਿਆਏ ਰਾਵੀ ਦੇ ਕੰਡੇ ਤੇ ਵਸਦਾ ਏ ਉਹਦੀ ਲੋਕ ਗਿਣਤੀ ਇੱਕ ਕਰੋੜ ਦੇ ਨੇੜੇ ਐ ।

lahor pākistān panjāb dā dārul hakūmat e. lōk giṇtī dē nāḷ karācī tō᷈ bāad lahor dūjā sab tō᷈ vaḍḍā shahir e. lahor pākistān dā siāsī, rahtalī tē paṛā̀ī dā gā́ṛ e tē isē laī ihnū᷈ pākistān dā dil vī kihā jāndā ē. lahor dariāē rāvī dē kanḍē tē vasdā ē uhdī lōk giṇtī ikk karōṛ dē nēṛē e.

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Source: Wikipedia.

 

 

The History of the Oxford English Dictionary

Looking familiar? I’m sure each and every one of you has this dictionary. 🙂 In deed, the Oxford English Dictionary was my first dictionary. 

Last week we were discussing about how come we all have the same dictionary… And I decided to Google its history…

For those we want to learn key information about the OED can just have a look what I’ve found.

 

 

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED), published by the Oxford University Press, is the premier British dictionary of the English language.

Work began on the dictionary in 1857 but published 1884.

It was a project under the name A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles; Founded Mainly on the Materials Collected by The Philological Society.

In 1895, the title The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) was first used.

In 1928 the full dictionary was republished in ten bound volumes.

In 1933 it was republished in its reprinting as twelve volumes with a one volume supplement.

In 1989, the second edition was published in twenty volumes.

The first electronic version of the dictionary was made available in 1988.

The online version has been available since 2000.

As of August 2010, it has been receiving two million hits per month from paying subscribers.

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With descriptions for approximately 750,000 words, the Oxford English Dictionary is the world’s most comprehensive single-language print dictionary according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

Rules for Freelancers

If you’re freelancer, it is quite hard not to procrastinate at home. 🙂 You just want to start something but without noticing, you happen to be distracted by Facebook or other social networks… – or simply by Wikipedia. Yeah, I like reading Wikis, too. 🙂

So, if you want to keep up with your deadlines, you just have to make some rules for themselves. Whenever I get a translation, I use this tactic: “I will not check other websites until I finish 5 pages.” I’m sure you all have such rules and it will be useful if you share them with us. 🙂

Let’s see another alternatives…

 

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