Updating Your Website? Do Your Prep!

There are no shortcuts in translation: changing a few words here and there in your original text does not mean that the translator will only have a few words to change – far from it! The whole sentence or even paragraph will have to be reviewed. However, there are ways you can help to make...

Need Your Website Translated? Do Your Prep!

Sending a link to your website for a translation quotation may seem like the quickest and easiest way for you, but a translator will only be able to give you a rough “guesstimation” from that. Presumably, the text content of your website were originally prepared in MS Word (and possibly Excel) before being communicated to...

When Work and Fun Come Together

As a translator specialising in visual arts, pictures on my website are a must. The issue is that translation does not quite lend itself to pictures, hence the plethora of translation websites displaying either photos of shelves loaded with language books and dictionaries or images of foreign countries. While both themes are perfectly relevant and...

Translating with Design in Mind: the Space Challenge

When working on texts destined to be published in a strongly visual context (e.g. website, magazine, brochure, illustrated book, etc.), one of the challenges is space. Because the same story in two different languages will always result in two different lengths, the layout, font size, and other visual parameters need to be adjusted significantly. English...

How “International” is your Business?

It is intriguing to notice that many organisations claim to be “international”, yet their website is available in English only. The myth that everyone speaks English is widespread amongst those English speakers who, interestingly enough, do not speak another language themselves. (I am yet to meet someone who can communicate in another tongue and still...