a culture of language and thought

Bet that comment got your attention! I mean, who loves legalese, except maybe lawyers? Isn’t it to be abhorred, all those winding sentences, seemingly saying nothing? OK, you have a point there. *That* type of legalese I’d rather never read. But the trend is moving toward simpler, more direct language and I can see its [...]

It’s odd how sometimes all of the documents you’re working on at a certain point seem to come from the same country, or be on the same topic, as if the world has a particular message or teaching for you… (OK, that may be going a little far, but you will allow me just a [...]

I’ve been incredibly busy for the last couple of months.  My work days have been 10-14 hours, 6 if not 7 days a week.
In the meantime, Jon redesigned my site (if you hadn’t noticed, take a look around!), and in every e-mail I found the time to write, I asked friends and family for their [...]

…your brain literally refuses to cooperate?!
Your workload is heavy, deadlines roll in one after the after, you’re putting in long hours to stay on top of things, and one afternoon you look down at your most recent project and nothing makes sense. The words float up at you like ciphered messages but, try as you [...]

This year I have been contributing a regular column to Diálogos Online Magazine, a wonderful publication put out by a colleague, Martin Boyd, in Toronto. The latest issue has just gone live, so please do hop on over and check it out. Martin’s editorial addresses the growing influence of Hispanics on Canadian life, the feature [...]

I had an interesting conversation last night with a friend I hadn’t seen in a while. Phil asked what I was up to in terms of work, and I told him I have a deadline looming… A book translation I’ve been working on for about four months now is due toward the end of September, so [...]

I know, I know… Weeks have passed between posts, yet again. I have to blame it all on work and our move to Ottawa. But it’s really no excuse…
I’ve been swamped with work these days and that in itself is a very good thing. My lovely DVX has been the best investment I’ve made in [...]

OK, I got a little lost in the ether again, distracted by work and other things and not finding the time to blog… Sorry.
But as I sat here this morning, puzzling over how to translate a saying and getting nowhere in my searches, I started to ruminate and wanted to post some thoughts.
It is amazing [...]

In the last couple of months I’ve been doing a fair amount of back-translation. The more I do it, the less I realize I know. (Should I be admitting this?!) Well, perhaps what I should say is that I am beginning to realize how truly different it is from forward-translation.
I tried doing a little research [...]

Since I’m certified in the province of Ontario, I often get contacted to translate marriage certificates, diplomas, transcripts, driver’s licenses, etc. At first I thought that this was great – a direct client, a straight-ahead document to translate, and not a bad fee. But over time I’ve come to realize just how much extra time [...]