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Were you one of those kids who effortlessly scored 10/10 in spelling tests at school? Me too! My husband, on the other hand, has an uncanny ability to remember phone numbers, vehicle licence plates and passport numbers, but still struggles with getting the double letters correct in “carrots” and “broccoli”…

“Language poisoning” is a term used to describe a phenomenon I’m sure all translators will have experienced, namely the insidious influence the source language can have on your skills as a writer in the target language. Examples of foreign language poisoning are rife in poor-quality translations. In fact, if you…

Linguistic fluency for translators “So, are you fluent in X?” Translators have surely all been asked that question by their non-translator friends. Personally I’ve often wriggled around these queries in a way that disappoints the questioner. Because the truth is that fluency means any number of things. And fluency in…

I spend much of my day grappling with German texts, wrestling complex sentences into passable English and cursing the German penchant for burying the verb several miles off from its companion. So when I sit down for supper with the family, it can be frustrating to find that I need…

“Freelance translator”: it’s hardly a thrilling job description. Imagine how much more exciting it would be to have “Knight adventurer” printed on your business cards. And a tweet by Susie Dent suggests that this is precisely the origin of the now mundanely used freelancer: “a knight-adventurer who used his lance…

A recent trip to see family in Wales took me first into Shropshire (still in England) and then into Clwyd (over the border into the north eastern corner of Wales). As we drove, the road signs reflected the mixed linguistic heritage of this region and prompted lots of queries from…

Last month I wrote a blog post about the title of the latest instalment in the Star Wars movies series, "The Last Jedi". I confessed my almost complete ignorance when it comes to this particular movie franchise as I have somehow reached middle age without ever having seen any of…

English winter weather words are more fun than the season The British weather has a certain notoriety and for me January and February are when it truly tests the spirit. Short, dark days combined with damp and chilly conditions have me daydreaming about relocating somewhere more hospitable. Even any snow…

As an avid knitter and occasional crocheter, I was really excited recently to deploy my yarn-related knowledge to translating knitting patterns for a publishing company. Technique The target audience for the translated patterns was very much the general crafter and hobby knitter rather than an advanced fairisle sock knitting maestro.…

  For a little while now, I have been contemplating writing something about the way different languages are related to each other. Then I stumbled across this beautiful linguistic family tree and I knew this was the moment. What a glorious thing it is. If ever a non-linguist asks you…

“The babel fish is a small, leech-like, yellow fish, and by putting this into one's ear one can instantly understand anything said in any language” Douglas Adams, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Techno-geeks and travellers are eagerly anticipating Google’s latest product launch this autumn – the Pixel Buds are “smart…

Rather belatedly on September 1st I stumbled upon an article informing me that August had been Women in Translation Month. In a spirit of “better late than never”, this blog post looks back at some of the highlights from the social media and newspaper articles written to celebrate the literary…

  Unless you have been living under a rock for the past seven years, it will not come as a shock that the fantasy world of Game of Thrones, created by the genius of George R. R. Martin and brought to life – or rather, TV – by David Benioff…

  Scanlation refers to the process where foreign language comics are scanned, translated and then edited to make them available to a wider audience beyond their country of origin. It is most commonly associated with the production of English language versions of Japanese “manga” comics, particularly in the USA. The…

  What could be more British than an afternoon cup of tea and a scone with jam and cream? Visitors to Britain need to be aware that this innocent baked item is the source of all sorts of contentious debate: jam or cream first, double cream or clotted, is it…

Previously in this blog I wrote about the Oscars Best Foreign Language Film and, in particular, the somewhat arcane nomination process for this award. Here I thought I would look more closely at the three main approaches taken by the linguists who make these films accessible to foreign audiences: subtitling,…

              I’ll confess up front that I’ve always been something of a sceptic when it comes to claims that speech recognition is about to become the next big thing. During my time as an academic phonetician I did a placement with a speech technology…

Rosetta’s London office is located on Whitechapel High Street near Aldgate, very much in the heart of cockney London. The traditional definition of a cockney is someone who was born within the sound of Bow bells, which ring out from the church of Saint Mary le Bow in Cheapside just…

Recently I have done several projects which involved translating recipes. On the face of it this seems like a simple task: take the list of ingredients and convert into the target language; then simply do the same for the recipe method. Recipes tend to be very well structured, written in…

  Can prejudice against a dialect potentially influence decisions made in the criminal justice system? That is the question at the heart of a fascinating paper by John Rickford and Sharese King published in Language: A Journal of the American Linguistic Society. The paper investigates whether a jury’s attitude towards…

Excitement is mounting in the film industry at the prospect of the annual Oscars ceremony on February 26th and there is one award category in particular which will be of interest to those working in translation: the Best Foreign Film award. To be eligible for the award each film must…

I spent Christmas in my home town of Aberystwyth in Wales and this gave me a chance to indulge in one of my favourite pastimes, flicking through my parents’ back copies of the local newspaper The Cambrian News. Regional newspapers are always a delight for the London escapee with the…

We naturally assume that being a native speaker brings advantages in terms of being able to communicate clearly. Native English speakers, in particular, often feel that their prowess in a global language gives them a straightforward channel of communication to business colleagues all around the world. But a recent conversation…

Looking back – a year in words The New Year may be an arbitrary ticking over of the calendar but it is, nonetheless, a prompt to look back and reflect. 2016 may best be remembered as the year when facts and predictions became old hat. Who, 12 months ago, would…

Choosing a translation provider can be a daunting and intimidating experience for some. For anyone who hasn’t used a language services provider before or needed to have a document translated, knowing what questions to ask, what red flags to look for and how much the services will cost will all…

As we’ve said before in this blog, just being able to speak another language does not make you an interpreter. Professional interpreters have done much training and study to get into the field, they may have also spent a significant amount of time in another field such as law or…

At Rosetta Translation, we value proofreading. We handle myriad of documents on a daily basis for varying purposes, audiences and publications. Often, a translation only service will be sufficient for our customers’ needs, particularly if the document in question is for information purposes only and won’t be published anywhere noteworthy.…

The mighty United States of America is never far away from our news pages, particularly recently with the pending presidential election. The next few weeks will be an interesting time for Americans as the candidates ramp up their campaigns even more. November will be crunch time for voters to decide…

The origins of English sayings: The Rule of Thumb   A friend and I recently went on a Jack the Ripper walking tour of London (which I would highly recommend, particularly on a warm day!) and, aside from learning the stories and conspiracies surrounding this notorious murderer, also learned some…

Languages in focus: Basque   I’m spent a few days in Northern Spain (around Bilbao) this August with some Spanish family and friends who speak Basque. I’m intrigued by this language; an ‘island’ of a language surrounded by others which have nothing to do with it. Having also walked some…

Facebook: paving the way for intelligent auto translation We’ve discussed in several previous posts about the perils of auto translation, machine translation, the delights of Google Translate and so on. We have also looked at what poor translations cost to businesses and individuals, and have even highlighted some particularly bad…

Top 10 interesting facts about translation With all the doom and gloom we’ve been experiencing in recent times with an uncertain political and economic climate I thought we’d keep it upbeat and light-hearted in today’s blog post. Let’s dive into some interesting facts about translation! Translation is a Latin word…

What is the Moses machine translation system? Recently, I was talking with a translator friend of mine about machine-assisted translation (Google Translate in particular) and she mentioned Moses as a translation tool growing in popularity. I was a little bemused, as Moses, to me, is an important figure in Judaism…

Latin language …. And other things the Romans did for us   On a recent trip to Italy and having visited several Roman historical sites such as the coliseum, Herculaneum and Pompeii, I was struck by how many things in Western civilization have been influenced by the work of the…

Language: it’s child’s play! Part one   At university, for my degree in languages, I studied language acquisition and how this differs depending on whether it is your first or second language, and how old you are when you start learning. There are many theories about how we acquire language…

Aboriginal languages: Maori   Think of New Zealand and you’ll probably picture beautiful landscapes, outdoor adventures, the All Blacks rugby team and perhaps a nice glass of chilled Sauvignon Blanc. These are certainly images that come to mind for me. I also think of the Māori people, their language and…

In our past 2 posts we’ve looked at the good and bad points of Google Translate. 10 years down the line it is undoubtedly helping many people with their language quandaries. That said, it’s important to look at the flip side of the coin: are we becoming too reliant on…

  Believe it or not Google Translation was born in 2006, and so celebrates its 10th birthday this year. From its original 2 languages the tool can now deal with 103 languages including Hmong (a dialect spoken in China, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand), Shona (a Bantu language native to Zimbabwe)…

  Outside the translation and language industry little is really known (understandably perhaps) about translation technology. Machine translation is a type of this technology, for example Google Translate and Babelfish, of which many people have heard of. But, tools used by translators, translation companies and the people who require translations…

  In this series so far we have looked at the difficulties of the fields of medical and legal translation. Translating within the fields of marketing and media brings its own set of issues. As our readers should all be aware by now translation isn’t simply a case of replacing…

  Translations of a medical or pharmaceutical nature can be highly sensitive, and the implications of an incorrect translation for dosage, for example, could prove to be catastrophic. This is why it’s vital to have a highly skilled and trained translator translate your medical text. A mistranslated drug leaflet or…

    Translation in and of itself is never a straightforward case of taking one word and translating it into its equivalent form in another language. Each type of translation presents its own difficulties, and legal translation is by no means an exception. Here we look at the two main…

  Interpreting is a skill. Just because you speak more than one language does not mean that you are an interpreter. Training to be a consecutive, simultaneous or liaison interpreter takes years of education, work experience and continual professional development. Interpreters have many avenues for work; the corporate sector, public…

What is translation? The Oxford dictionary defines the term as: “A written rendering of the meaning of a word or text in another language”. I think this definition captures the true essence of translation; i.e. not simply replacing one word in one language with the exact equivalent in another, but…

  Rosetta Translation offers many language services to people all over the world: translating and interpreting in to and out of many foreign languages. We pride ourselves in the quality of the work we provide our clients, and the standards of freelancers we work with on a daily basis. We…

The apostrophe, that little hovering punctuation mark, is widely misused and misunderstood. Yet, it is so important that it has been given its own day in recognition; yes, the 15th August is officially the International Apostrophe Day, and we should all take time to appreciate the trusty apostrophe.  Its use…

Editing and subtitling videos has always been a hobby of mine. In a world where teenagers can build a career by posting Youtube videos and have their vlog, parodies and interviews subtitled for the larger audience to enjoy, it is important for companies to be present on the different platforms…

  You can learn the Korean alphabet in 1 day or less The Korean alphabet, or 한글 (Hangeul), was created during the 15th century by the court of King Sejong the Great, to help every Korean read and write the Korean language. Initially writing was the privilege of the elite…

While the umbrella term ‘project manager’ can be heard in almost all sectors in the professional world, from construction to IT, project management as a practice in the field of translation has only started to emerge in recent years and does not yet, therefore, have the long tradition it is…

It is always fascinating to my mum how I – a native French speaker living in London - am able to understand and speak a language that is not my own with apparent ease. She keeps asking me “how do you do that? You’re practically bilingual!” with a proud smile…