How to punctuate a sentence

Via Lifehack.

Rules, rules, rules

Click below to go and listen to this funny song found in the internets. Oh, and kudos to all you people that guess what the song is about!

Interpreters and Translators

People often think that interpreter and translator are the same. Of course, they're not. The basic difference is that translators work with text only, and interpreters with speech.

But there are other differences that one may want to consider:

You are an interpreter if...

1. You can rise at 6:30 a.m. many days in a row.
2. Your working wardrobe consists of suits, which you keep wrapped in plastic to avoid wrinkles and expedite packing.
3. You are prone to sore throats and foot problems.
4. You talk all day; in your leisure time, you frequently just want to be quiet.
5. Your bathrobe has been to hotels all over the globe and in half the cities in your country.
   
6. You are sick of hotel and restaurant meals and are dying for home-cooked food.
7. You know many words in your second language that you have never seen written down.
8. You have met most of the professional colleagues you know on interpreting assignments (or at ATA conferences.)
9. You are always traveling and long to be at home more so you can spend quality time with your family.
10. You struggle not to gain weight from constant exposure to banquet and catered meals and your work leaves you little time for exercise.
11. You stay up half the night stewing about the way you interpreted a term.
12. Your favorite dictionaries are battered from rough treatment by baggage handlers.
13. It drives you nuts to have the work you do referred to as translation.
14. You are chronically tired and short of money and you suspect that the world underrates how hard you work and how much you contribute.
    

You are a translator if...

1. You are miserable unless you can get up 11 a.m. and go to bed at 3:00 a.m.
2. Your working wardrobe consists of jeans and sweatshirts (or shorts and t-shirts, it it's hot), which you store conveniently on the floor of your closet.
3. You are prone to carpal tunnel syndrome and backache
4. You are alone with a computer all day; when you are with other people you tend to jabber.
5. Your bathrobe is what you are apt to be wearing at 2 in the afternoon.
6. You are sick of looking at four walls all day and are dying to go out to dinner.
7. You know many words in your second language that you do not know how to pronounce.
8. You have met most of the professional colleagues you know through e-mail or Internet chat rooms (or at ATA conferences.)
9. At home you are always working or thinking about work, so the best way to spend quality time with your family is to travel together.
10. You struggle not to gain weight from spending all day sitting on your duff and the constant availability of your refrigerator and your work leaves you little time for exercise.
11. You stay up half the night stewing about how you'll translate a term the next day.
12. Your favorite dictionaries are battered from the rough treatment they get on your desk when you are in a "term search frenzy."
13. It drives you nuts to be asked if you ever did "simultaneous translation" for a celebrity.
14. You are chronically tired and short of money, and you suspect that the world underrates how hard you work and how much you contribute.

Bow wow

Now you have seen everything: A dog bark translator.

I'm not sure that this is such a good idea. I mean, dogs surely would not be as popular if one suddenly knew that all their yelping and barking when one comes home, instead of being his/her excited way of showing how much we were missed, means: "Hey, where the heck were you?!? I want to go for a walk, you know. Do you think I enjoy being left alone all day long?"

I think I'll probably just pass this one.

Via: Tecnochica

Technorati and Edelman Partner on International Blogosphere

Technorati and PR firm Edelman have announced a relationship to localize Technorati in Chinese, Korean, German, Italian and French. It's always good that languages other than English are taken into account for further growth and development. But I cannot help to wonder: What about Spanish?!? Why would they not include Spanish in this effort is beyond me.

About 400 million people speak Spanish worldwide, 28 million of them in the US. Even when not all of them are part of the blogsphere, I'd say that Spanish-speaking people most probably represent a significant portion of it, wouldn't you agree?

Via Technorati Weblog

Rubber Flame

rubber flame
Originally uploaded by tengpow.

A little Engrish post for your enjoyment.
Have a great weekend!

Vision and Posture Reminder

You know all about those long hours at the keyboard that we, heroic translators, endure day after day. And if you're like me, you probably find yourself getting too close to the monitor every now and then without even realizing it. Bad for your eyes, your neck and your back!

Well, you may be interested in this little USB gagdet that is mounted on top of the monitor, and visually alerts you when you get closer than 35 cm from it. You have to take good care of yourself, you know.

Via Gizmologia