And the translating continues…

You may have noticed that I have added a couple more ‘Happy Customers‘ to my list. It’s great to get new customers and it’s great to be able to be involved in new projects and cultural initiatives . One such initiative is the MAIFF* Mallorca International Film Festival. The festival is planned for 2011 and the team behind it is busy organising and promoting the festival in Mallorca and further afield. I have recently translated their website into English.

Entrevistas

Fue un placer poder conocer a Jacqueline Tobiass, presidenta del Instituto de Relaciones Culturales Baleares-Israel, junto con Joan Aguiló Martí, referente a un reportaje que estoy escribiendo para la revista In Palma. Dejo aquí una foto de nuestro encuentro (cedida por Jacqueline), y espero poder dejaros un enlace a mi reportaje muy pronto. (Está previsto para mediados de diciembre, en la edición de invierno de InPalma).

Este reportaje también me ha llevado a entrevistar a Manel Quadreny Cortès de Arca Llegat Jueu y Albert Bonín de Memòria del Carrer.

The stumbling blocks on the way

I have now been fully freelance for more than 6 months and the whole experience has definetely been a learning curve. It has been very hard work. It has not been smooth sailing.

I have come across numerous stumbling blocks along the way, not least of all MySelf, and I am learning a lot about my work, what I like and don’t like about it, and the people I have come across along the way.

I wish I could say they have all been lovely people. But, life throws many challenges at us as we go forward and one of those challenges, for me, has come in the form of people. People who are either challenging to work with or who are not completely honest in the way they live their lives or conduct their business. The long and the short of it is that I have had to take myself along to the public courts in Palma and denounce a certain someone who obviously knows no better and refused to pay me for months on end!

I shall save you all the gory details, the knock to confidence and the frustration that this situation caused, and say that, months later, now that I have put the matter into a judge’s hand I know this was just one of the bigger tests I have had to watch myself go through, and yes, it all happened for a reason.

The good news is that there is a very helpful service open to citizens in Spain which allows you to go along to the public courts and denounce such people for not paying you monies owed (provided you issued an official invoice of course) by means of a very simple process which involves filling out some forms and providing photocopies of your paperwork. I shall let you know in due course when I get my money and how it all finished up. At the moment I am feeling pleased and slightly proud of the civilised city I live in wherein I can denounce some of the ‘baddies’ without the services of a lawyer and at no further cost to my impoverished self.

The future is bright.

¨Call yourself a writer?¨

This is a meme I have just completed about writing. I am going to link to some other writers I know, see If they fill it out too.

So, here goes:
1. Which words do you use too much in your writing?
Like, of course, I think
2. Which words do you consider overused in stuff you read?
Made up words like ‘Google it’
3. What’s your favourite piece of writing by you?
My diary! So things I write and hardly ever share with anyone else.
4. What are your other favourite blogs?
I love http://www.consuminglilly.com/, http://www.mywritingblog.com/ and http://rang-thecoloursoflife.blogspot.com/, but there are loads I love.
5. Regrets, do you have a few? Is there anything you wish you hadn’t written?
I think there is more I regret not having written than things I regret actually having written. I wish I had kept a diary while I was living in India for example.
6. How has your writing made a difference? What do you consider your most important piece of writing?
It would be quite vain of me to say my writing is making a difference to other people yet. I like to think people find some of my articles in InPalma magazine entertaining, something to read while you are waiting at the hairdresser’s or something. Otherwise I feel my writing makes a great difference to myself; it’s immensely therapeutic and keeps me sane. At the moment I have reached the point that my writing is actually paying the bills, which I am very proud of and I consider that to be quite an important achievement. To date my most important piece of writing has to be my Masters Dissertation on Zeus and his procreative power in Homer and Hesiod. I miss the hours of reading and research that involved and hope to be able to do something like that again soon.
7. Name three favourite words
Trust. Love. Courage. Slightly soppy I know but I’m trying to be honest here..
8. …And three words you’re not so keen on
I hate ‘nice’, I think it’s really weak… there are so many better words. I’m really un-keen on swear words too; they hurt my ears, no one should ever swear in front of a lady!
9. Do you have a writing mentor, role model or inspiration?
I can’t think of any specific names, although I love Jane Austen novels and Seamus Heaney poems. Anyone who has published stories that move millions deserves a prize.
10. What’s your writing ambition?
To write a book or two after I have made my millions managing online blogs and websites!
11. Plug alert! List any work you would like to tell your readers about.
I think my friend from Durham Uni is someone to watch, I love her writing style!
http://leabeegeebee.wordpress.com/

So, that’s me!

The Official Rules
If you have time to do this meme, then please link to my post here, then link to three to five other bloggers and pass it on, asking them to answer your questions and link back to you. You can add, remove or change one question as you go. You absolutely do not have to be what you may think of as a “published” or “successful” writer to respond to this meme.

Have fun, and I look forward to reading more responses!

Las islas baleares carecen de profesores de latín y griego

Me llamó la atención esta noticia en el Diario de Mallorca del sábado 17 de octubre.
Ocho institutos de las islas baleares carecen de profesor de lenguas clásicas, lo cual es un problema porque si los estudiantes eligen estudiar ‘Humanidades’ en Selectividad, tienen que cursar Latín y Griego.
Parece ser que en España todavía se necesitan licenciados en Clásicas.. ¿pero, por cuanto tiempo?

Translation makes you more aware of shades of meaning

I am convinced that translation and writing go hand in hand and that you have to be good at writer to be able to translate. After all, what you produce at the end of the day needs to read like a piece written in your target language, so in effect it is like producing a new piece of writing, or at least transporting the original to new readers. I have just been reading this article in More Intelligent Life (a magazine that I am a fan of) about Lydia Davis, who is an accomplished writer and a prize winning translator of French.

Lydia has been described as ‘The best prose Stylist in America’ but up until recently she has been unable to drum up enough support for her writing in order to be able to dedicate her days to it. So she has worked as a Professional Literary Translator of French for many years, to pay the bills as it were, although it seems she gave her translation work as much care and attention as she would her own writing, working with extreme precision, searching for the RIGHT WORD in all occasions. Her most well known translation work is her version of Proust’s Swann’s Way and she is currently working on a translation of Flauvert’s Madame Bovary.

In recognition for her translation work Davis recently received a ‘genius’ (!) grant from the MacArthur foundation, as well as a prestigious prize from the French government. This grant has now enabled her to concentrate on her writing.

“Translating makes me much more acutely aware of shades of meaning,” she explains. “You have a set problem and you can’t get around it by avoiding it. You have to pick just the right word.”

thanks go out the More Intelligent Life for another great article!

Artículos publicados en In Palma, Otoño 2009

Se han publicado tres artículos míos en la última edición de la revista In Palma.
aquí os dejo los enlaces:
Árboles Singulares de Palma de Mallorca
El último grito gastronómico; Medusas a la Carta
Slow Food

Las traducciones publicadas no son mías.

E aquí mi artículo sobre Slow Food;

SLOW FOOD.
DIME LO QUE COMES Y TE DIRÉ QUIÉN ERES

“Soy gastrónomo. Me gusta conocer la historia de un alimento y del lugar del que procede, me gusta imaginar las manos de quienes lo han cultivado, transportado, manipulado y cocinado, antes de que se me sirviera. Desearía que la comida que tomo no prive de comida a otros en el mundo. Me gusta la gente del campo, su modo de vivir la tierra y de saber apreciar lo bueno. Lo bueno es de todos; el placer es de todos, porque está en la naturaleza humana”. Carlo Petrini, fundador del movimiento de Slow Food.

La filosofía de Carlo Petrini se hizo movimiento significativo cuando en 1986 pudo parar la apertura de un McDonalds al lado de las escaleras de la Plaza España en Roma. A partir de allí Petrini y sus seguidores formaron Slow Food con base en Bra, Italia, para luchar contra el crecimiento de fast food y todo lo que ello implica en nuestra sociedad.

No se trata sólo de promocionar la comida ecológica o los productos locales, sino que se trata de una forma de vida que tiene en cuenta cada aspecto de los alimentos que consumimos, desde su procedencia y quién los cultiva, hasta la manera en la que llegan a nuestros mercados y cómo finalmente los preparamos y consumimos. El pensamiento Slow tiene sus raíces en el placer: todo el mundo tiene derecho al placer que nos proporciona la comida. “Comparte cada día una comida con la persona a la que quieres”, dice Carlo Petrini. Su movimiento defiende una parte esencial de nuestra cultura mediterránea, la tradición de preparar cada día una buena comida y disfrutar compartiéndola al rededor de la mesa con la familia. Defiende la importancia de reservar unas horas del día para la preparación y consumo de nuestros alimentos.

Para preservar tal disfrute de la gastronomía, Slow Food ha identificado los elementos que tenemos que cambiar o conservar en nuestra sociedad. Se trata de todo lo relacionado a la comida, desde las semillas, pasando por el agricultor, el transporte, la venta, preparación y la cultura de consumo de los productos. Para ser verdaderos consumidores Slow tenemos que ser conscientes de cada producto que consumimos y de como ha llegado a nuestras manos. Esto implica también la conservación y promoción de los productos que, por razones de coste, van desapareciendo de nuestras cocinas. La facción de Slow Food en Illes Balears, por ejemplo, está reintroduciendo 3.000 especies de árboles frutales autóctonos a las islas que se han dejado de cultivar. Increíblemente, sale más barato importar manzanas de Nueva Zelanda que cultivar las que crecen aquí, y ello a pesar de la polución y el impacto que tiene sobre el planeta importarlos.

Para impulsar sus creencias y convertir a más gente en gastrónomos y consumidores inteligentes Slow Food lleva a cabo centenares de actividades por todo el mundo. En la actualidad tiene unos 100.000 miembros y más de 1.000 asociaciones, las denominadas ‘convivia’ del movimiento. España todavía no tiene sede nacional de Slow Food, pero sí que existen 30 asociaciones, incluida la de Illes Balears. Estas asociaciones intentan concienciar a la gente sobre su filosofía a través de actividades varias, como degustaciones de productos locales y en riesgo de erosión genética (hace unos meses en un huerto de Selva, Mallorca, se invitó a varios cocineros y personajes de renombre de la gastronomía balear a degustar siete variedades de tomate que en la actualidad se encuentran fuera del mercado).

LA EDUCACIÓN GASTRONÓMICA ES FUNDAMENTAL

“Dime lo que comes y te diré quién eres”, dijo Brillat-Savarin. Para empezar a concienciar a la gente, el movimiento ha iniciado varios proyectos por todo el mundo como son el de instalar en los colegios un huerto donde los niños puedan aprender a cultivar verduras y a identificar a los cambios estacionales del año, o talleres de degustación y maridajes. El movimiento quiere concienciar a todos de la importancia de una alimentación “buena, limpia y justa”. Con esta misma intención se está promoviendo la comunicación entre productores con eventos como Terra Madre, que tiene lugar cada dos años en Turín, Italia, y donde se debaten e introducen innovaciones en los campos de gastronomía, globalización y economía con la intención de preservar y promover métodos de producción alimentaría sostenibles.
Terra Madre es una red de comunidades de alimento, coordinada por Slow Food que cuenta con la colaboración de 250 universidades y centros de investigación además de más de 450 académicos dedicados a un desarrollo sostenible para la alimentación mundial. Terra Madre se une a otro evento coordinado por Slow Food: el Salone del Gusto, la mayor feria de alimentación y vino del mundo.

“EXISTE UN FUTURO, SIEMPRE…”

Petrini es el primero en reconocer que en el mundo en el que vivimos “es muy difícil comer bien”. El movimiento de Slow Food ha sido tachado de “elitista” en varias ocasiones. Los que así lo definen argumentan que en los tiempos que corren, tener que pagar más por la comida “porque es buena, limpia y justa” es un privilegio que solo se pueden permitir unos pocos. “Por mi parte, estoy convencido de que tenemos realmente la posibilidad de aportar nuestro granito para un futuro más feliz”, dice Petrini. El italiano tiene claro que “la educación de la gente “ es fundamental para darle la importancia que se merece. De igual manera hay que ayudar a los productores para que sea más fácil y económico cambiarse al cultivo ecológico.

El manifiesto de Slow Food plantea que “la velocidad de nuestras vidas acabará con nosotros”. Adaptándonos a una vida ´Slow´, con la alimentación como base de nuestra cultura, podremos preservar nuestro entorno y ser más felices. ¿Tenemos la fuerza de voluntad para comer sólo alimentos estacionales y ecológicos? ¿Mantendremos la costumbre de sentarnos a la mesa en familia para cenar? No será sencillo, “pero existe un futuro, siempre, si el gastrónomo tiene hambre de cambio”, concluye Petrini.

When it rains, it pours

It is raining and raining and raining at the moment. Is it me or does heavy rainfall usually come with heavy energy and big shifts in mood? I am very unpredictable in this kind of weather!
I am mostly hiding inside writing web content for various clients. Today I have watched a video class about writing content for websites and realised that many of the techniques they are recommending I already do.. Like searching for popular articles on the web on the subject, putting them all together and then coming up with my own original article on the theme. It involves a lot of reading and it means I learn a lot about the subject in hand and am able to come up with a well researched and well written piece of valuable content. SEO does of course have a very important part to play, and I have to consider the keywords the client or website in question may be targeting and try to incorporate those keywords in a non intrusive and intelligent manner into the text. It takes practise and patience, and I am proud to say it is now a skill I am quite well versed in..
Content is king, and anyone with a website needs content, and preferably original and SEO optimised content. I have discovered that this is a niche market that I can do quite well in, so I am happy to be able to offer it as one of my many services. I think it ties in quite nicely with translation, especially as many websites nowadays need versions in different languages. So often I can write the content and then translate it into spanish or organise its translation into other languages.

How to translate a video on dotSUB – 3 Translation(s) | dotSUB

How to translate a video on dotSUB – 3 Translation(s) | dotSUB

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have you seen this?

I have just come across dotSUB. I was looking for videos on the theme of translation. dotSUB is a web based tool which allows anyone to add translated subtitles to online videos. All you need to do is register and start translating. You don’t need to pay a dime, nor do they pay you a dime for doing it!

The video I have embedded above explains how users can start adding subtitles to videos.
I had a quick look at their FAQs but so far have not been able to find out how dotSUB controls the quality and correctness of the translations submitted. Anyone know? I hope they do have some measure of control, otherwise they could be a lot of information getting ‘lost in translation’.