swedish connection

in the news

slarsson — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 10:30:59 +0000

it would appear that the US government doesn’t seem to need (or respect!) professional translators; just post your documents on the web and let the world have a go at them. this article appeared in the boston globe:

US puts Iraqi documents on the Web
Goal is to speed up translation of files

By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff | March 18, 2006

Joseph Shahda of Randolph earns his living as an engineer. But in his spare time, he’s an intelligence agent, working to ferret out the truth about the regime of deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

When the US government on Thursday began publishing captured Iraqi government documents on the Internet, Shahda eagerly began to translate the files into English and publish them on a conservative website.

”I feel a sense of duty,” said Shahda, a native of Lebanon who supports President Bush’s decision to invade Iraq. ”I think it’s a duty for people who know Arabic to translate the documents.”

US officials hope that thousands of other Arabic speakers feel the same. Goaded by Congress, Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte has begun to release millions of pages of captured files online in an unprecedented effort to harness the Internet to disseminate raw intelligence material. There, anybody with a knowledge of Arabic can download the files and translate them for the world.

evidently anyone can translate, as long as you know two languages… hmm… toward the end of the article at least we see some encouraging commentary:

While conservative US bloggers, and some Iraqis, are eager to translate and read the Iraq documents, some prominent liberal bloggers scoffed at the release. ”To me, this is just more evidence that the Bush administration doesn’t take national security seriously,” wrote Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, founder of the popular Daily Kos website. ”Why doesn’t our government have enough translators to handle this job?”

unbelievable. or not…

in the beginning

slarsson — Sun, 19 Mar 2006 11:04:21 +0000

to start from the very beginning, well, where does a translator start? chantal wilford’s tips for translators is a good place to begin to learn about the life of a freelancer. from the agency side, check lingo24.com’s translation career guide. or you can learn about the issues that translators deal with on a day-to-day basis by finding the right mailing list. bruno aeschbacher had a long list of mailing lists for every language and topic imaginable. and to learn about how one translator got into the oldest profession, there’s always tim nicholson’s saga

hello world!

slarsson — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 18:03:48 +0000

moving right along, folks! this is my first post on wordpress. after importing everything from a very short-lived blogger site, i’m trying to figure things out. always something for a translator to learn.

then again, it’s friday. and time for a break after a night of deadlines; seven (yes, 7!) jobs went out to seven (yes, 7!) clients, all before the strike of 8 am (which is the strike of 5 pm in sweden). and that’s enough for one day.

a few of my favorite links: medical

slarsson — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 01:41:00 +0000

for the medical translator:

all you ever wanted to know about clinical trials at clinicaltrials.gov ; search for clinical trials here.

pubmed database of medical journals

merck medical dictionary powered by dorland’s illustrated medical dictionary

rxlist.com: the internet drug index

just to name a few

of totem poles and things

slarsson — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 23:00:00 +0000

so what’s all this about a swedish connection? it would seem that i’m not the only one in the pacific northwest making a swedish connection; cbc news reports:

Native spirits soar as Sweden returns historic B.C. totem pole
Last Updated Tue, 14 Mar 2006 14:35:34 EST
CBC News

A 134-year-old totem pole began a long journey home to British Columbia on Tuesday after being on display for decades at a museum in Sweden.

according to the article, the totem pole mysteriously left british columbia and the Haisla First Nation in the 1920s with a swedish diplomat, who donated it to the Museum of Ethnography in stockholm. the cbc article notes:

In return for the original, the Haisla have carved a replacement totem pole for the museum. Haisla band spokeswoman Louisa Smith said the new pole will serve as a symbolic link between the Haisla and the people of Sweden.

and that’s their swedish connection. meanwhile, having lived on the swinomish reservation in western washington for nearly two decades, another totem pole marked our comings and goings every day – and most of all, on those days we returned from sweden, the totem pole represented the culture shift.

and more business…

slarsson — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 02:31:00 +0000

words of wisdom: do not trust your project manager’s word count. count. and count again. and ask. a simple way to increase your income. thank you, anycount – and TO3000 – for making life easier.

the business of translation

slarsson — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 01:59:00 +0000

interesting food for thought here about language services at the US General Services Administration; click on translation services:

TRANSLATION SERVICES Services include the translation of written, electronic and multi-media material to and from English and native Foreign languages. Materials include but are not limited to: Business, Legal, Medical, Technical, Documents, Braille, Software, Website localization for Internet and Intranet, Video subtitling, captioning, and Transcriptions for Title III Monitoring. Client consultation and Project management services include translation formatting, proofreading, text adaptation, editing, graphic design, and desktop publishing.

then explore the terms of any contractor and find out what we’re really worth to the government…

translator on a break

slarsson — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 18:28:17 +0000

taking a break from translation

and today’s phrase…

slarsson — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 01:34:00 +0000

is value proposition; move over mission statement – stand back, vision! here comes value proposition:

What is Value Proposition?

Value proposition is a description of the customer problem, the solution that addresses the problem, and the value of this solution from the customer’s perspective.

and if there are any swedish translators around, colleague ro suggests this is an ideal solution for the icky erbjudande issue. not bad… and thank you, ro!

…and this is now

slarsson — Sun, 12 Mar 2006 03:47:00 +0000

so where to go from here? in a post 9/11 world? a blogging world that didn’t exist back then? there must be new links to find. other translators, other blogs. the life and times of a translator – translator assistants, feline, canine, or otherwise. and of course, the swedish connection. watch this space…

but meanwhile, today’s words await…about a gazillion of them…