What appears to be a perfectly simple sentence in English turns out to be an insurmountable task and a huge headache for some of us translators.

Between 1979 and 1983 the BBC developed an ambitious initiative, called the BBC Computer Literacy Project. The people behind it had a grand vision. They were on a mission to help the general public, i.e. their viewers, to understand and make use of information technology.

Companies like Yahoo and Google claim that it was serendipitous encounters between employees that sparked innovations such as Gmail and Street View. Must we conclude therefore that these breakthroughs would have never happened if their staff were all working from their kitchen or living room?

Looking through the ITI Bulletin May-June 2021, in an article on revision and fine-tuning texts, I came across the term “trans-editors”. Frankly, this was completely new to me.

Polig makes the point that translating press releases poses particular challenges and demands skills that go “beyond accuracy and completeness of information”. My question is: “Does it?”

I was and still am delighted to have been the “midwife”, bringing out into the light of day the English version of this landmark literary work of the mid-twentieth century and for Donald O. White to get the recognition he deserves. And to all who have not read it, I can only say: You really should!

Brian Mossop in his coursebook Revising and Editing for Translators (in the Translation Practices Explained coursebook series) devotes chapter 7 to the topic “Checking for Consistency”. That seems fair enough, and not at all unexpected. But if you look more closely, you see that section 7.3 is called: “Over-consistency”. This I found intriguing.

Mokusatsu, v. take no notice of; treat (anything) with silent contempt; ignore [by keeping silence]; remain in a wise and masterly inactivity. – Kenkyusha’s New Japanese – English Dictionary, p. 1129.

The University of Lleida shines the light on the activities that go on behind the scenes. Volume 1 contains contributions and interviews on approaches and techniques adopted by translation professionals, as well as insights from teachers and students of translation.

So what’s the most interesting thing you’ve ever translated? – A question that I get asked from time to time, and I assume you have been caught in that situation too.