Well summer came and went too fast - like always. Now the leaves are changing here in Fort Collins and we're getting some cool, rainy days. Perfect translating weather!
I did get to visit with a lot of translators when I went to San Francisco in July... Italian, German, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish. I even got to speak some German with an old friend that I studied with back at my college exchange program in Germany. He's now working in the localization department at Google, which was really fascinating. I also got to tour Oracle on my tour through Silicon Valley. Needless to say, it was a very worthwhile trip. I really enjoyed sitting down with the translators and just asking questions about their native languages - whether it's grammar, cultural influence on the language, how these issues fit into our projects, or anything else. |
| Hanging out at Google HQ |
In particular, I learned a great deal about Chinese on that trip, and I have been learning more about the language ever since. Chinese is a difficult language to get a "grasp" on for a few reasons. First of all, there is a disconnect between the spoken and written versions. By that, I mean that there are many spoken dialects that are different enough to almost be classified as different languages (in fact, Cantonese is considered to be a different language), but they often use the same alphabet. On top of that, there are different alphabets used in different areas (simplified script vs. traditional). Mandarin is the most widely spoken dialect, and simplified characters are used in the People's Republic of China, so that is the most common "version" (for lack of a better word) of Chinese that our clients are looking for. However, traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and other areas, so that is also common. As I update this blog, I hope to include more language-specific information like this, because I feel like it could be very useful to a lot of readers.
What else is new? We have been working on a few side projects here and there over the summer. We recently translated the Project Smile non-profit website so that Spanish-speaking families could use the wonderful service they provide. You can find that here: http://www.projectsmilefc.org/spanish/index.php.
Right now all signs point to Denver, with the American Translators Association annual conference next week. It is October 27-30, and over 1,500 translators and interpreters will be in attendance. I was able to go to the 2007 annual conference in San Francisco, and it was phenomenal, so I am really looking forward to this one.
Until next time!
Best,
Geoff
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