About a month ago, I remember stubbing my right toe while wearing sandals but did not think anything of it. Time went by and I noticed that the toe was sore and inflamed. To make a long story short, today I went to see my Family Clinic and was told that I had an ingrown toenail.
Some would go home and play “sick” to get all the attention they can. I went and surfed the internet to find an explanation.
In English, I found the following:
which explained in simple terms the problem, the cause, the symptoms and the treatment.
Du côté français, j’ai trouvé
It is interesting to note that the English description uses ingrown, i.e. having grown into the flesh.
The French uses the verb incarner, meaning to move into the flesh. Notice the Latin root incarnare which we find in the English word incarnate. Interestingly, English has lost the meaning of moving into the flesh, keeping the meaning to embody, to personify.
Un traducteur doit constamment être à l’affût de divergences de ce genre et trouver l’équivalent linguistique correspondant. A translator must watch out for this sort of linguistic trap and use the proper corresponding expression.
Monday, October 16, 2006
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Wedding video making – Tournage d’un film d'un marriage
A cousin on my wife's side was getting married last week and his parents asked me to videotape the ceremony. I had filmed the parents' wedding some 30 years ago so it was assumed I could do it again.
Incertain de mes compétences, j'ai décidé, avant d'acquiescer, de rafraîchir mes connaissances en matière de vidéographie. Un saut chez mon spécialiste (magasin Vistek, de Toronto), j'ai appris que la cinématographie avait abandonné la pellicule de 8 mm et l'avait remplacé par un disque numérique. Les différents sites spécialisés mentionnaient également les appareils à grand disque DVD, ceux à ruban numérique 8 mm et ceux qui fonctionnent sur carte mémoire (comme les appareils de photo numériques).
Fortunately, I had one week to practice with the digicam so I proceeded to get to know the device. I downloaded a copy of the owner's manual from the Internet and went over the various operations, how to recharge the battery, how to operate the controls, and how to view the results on the LCD viewer.
La pile au lithium était à plat; il a donc fallu la recharger avant de faire fonctionner l'appareil. Il m'a fallu également apprendre comment reconnaître la condition de la batterie sur l'écran à cristaux liquides et manipuler les différentes commandes. Le caméscope dont la taille avait diminué de moitié de l'appareil que je connaissais, n'était plus muni d'une poignée et le commutateur marche/arrêt était un bouton sur lequel il fallait appuyer à plusieurs reprises au lieu d'être une gâchette, qui relâchée, arrêtait immédiatement la machine. Donc toute une série de mouvements et d'actions qui étaient nouveaux.
The weather did not cooperate on the wedding day - it was around 11-12° C and raining all afternoon long. Fortunately, most of the proceedings took place indoors, in the Eagle's Nest Golf Club House. Using information I found on the Web, I fashioned a plastic cover out of a food zip-bag to protect the digicam.
Un des principaux défis était la durée de la pile : elle n'était que d'une heure et je m'aperçus que la pile s'épuisait très rapidement au cours du filmage. Heureusement, j'ai trouvé une prise murale dans la salle et ai pu reprendre mon filmage des invités et de la cérémonie.
Fortunately, the reception hall also had a number of handy wallplugs so that I could power my digicam that way when the battery started to run down. I managed to take a number of clips of the dancing, the toasts, some of the speeches and the cutting of the cake.
Une semaine plus tard, les parents du mari sont venus chez nous récupérer le caméscope. Nous avons visionné les 18 minutes d'enregistrement ensemble et ils étaient tous les deux ravis des résultats.
Taking movies must be like riding a bike, once you learn, you never forget. It was fun taking on the assignment and realizing what good results I was able to obtain after all these years of inactivity. Is amateur digital movie taking something that I should resume doing? Time will tell.
Incertain de mes compétences, j'ai décidé, avant d'acquiescer, de rafraîchir mes connaissances en matière de vidéographie. Un saut chez mon spécialiste (magasin Vistek, de Toronto), j'ai appris que la cinématographie avait abandonné la pellicule de 8 mm et l'avait remplacé par un disque numérique. Les différents sites spécialisés mentionnaient également les appareils à grand disque DVD, ceux à ruban numérique 8 mm et ceux qui fonctionnent sur carte mémoire (comme les appareils de photo numériques).
Fortunately, I had one week to practice with the digicam so I proceeded to get to know the device. I downloaded a copy of the owner's manual from the Internet and went over the various operations, how to recharge the battery, how to operate the controls, and how to view the results on the LCD viewer.
La pile au lithium était à plat; il a donc fallu la recharger avant de faire fonctionner l'appareil. Il m'a fallu également apprendre comment reconnaître la condition de la batterie sur l'écran à cristaux liquides et manipuler les différentes commandes. Le caméscope dont la taille avait diminué de moitié de l'appareil que je connaissais, n'était plus muni d'une poignée et le commutateur marche/arrêt était un bouton sur lequel il fallait appuyer à plusieurs reprises au lieu d'être une gâchette, qui relâchée, arrêtait immédiatement la machine. Donc toute une série de mouvements et d'actions qui étaient nouveaux.
The weather did not cooperate on the wedding day - it was around 11-12° C and raining all afternoon long. Fortunately, most of the proceedings took place indoors, in the Eagle's Nest Golf Club House. Using information I found on the Web, I fashioned a plastic cover out of a food zip-bag to protect the digicam.
Un des principaux défis était la durée de la pile : elle n'était que d'une heure et je m'aperçus que la pile s'épuisait très rapidement au cours du filmage. Heureusement, j'ai trouvé une prise murale dans la salle et ai pu reprendre mon filmage des invités et de la cérémonie.
Fortunately, the reception hall also had a number of handy wallplugs so that I could power my digicam that way when the battery started to run down. I managed to take a number of clips of the dancing, the toasts, some of the speeches and the cutting of the cake.
Une semaine plus tard, les parents du mari sont venus chez nous récupérer le caméscope. Nous avons visionné les 18 minutes d'enregistrement ensemble et ils étaient tous les deux ravis des résultats.
Taking movies must be like riding a bike, once you learn, you never forget. It was fun taking on the assignment and realizing what good results I was able to obtain after all these years of inactivity. Is amateur digital movie taking something that I should resume doing? Time will tell.
Friday, October 06, 2006
Particle-size-analysis
A colleague sent me a request for assistance. She said:
"The bibliography in English which reads XXX(brand name) Particle Size Analysis and has been translated by Analyse de taille particulaire Helos. Is this correct or should it read Analyse de taille particule Helos or Analyse de dimension particulaire Helos? The study is in English and there is no French equivalent."
My response:
) Particle size may be translated as taille particulaire, where the last word is an adjective qualifying the type of taille (size). What is harder to tell is whether the placement of Brand XXX is correct or not. It appears to be a brand name.
2) Termium, the Canadian Government Terminology Database, gives dimension de la particule as equivalent to particle size (in the chemical structures and medication field). That, still, does not mean that taille particulaire is wrong.
3) Particle Size Analysis - An Internet search under analyse granulométrique (particle size analysis) shows that this expression is used extensively in the pharmaceutical field. There are, nevertheless, many entries under analyse des particules.
From what I understand of the context my colleague provided, "XXX particle size analysis" is to be considered as one translation unit and should be translated as "analyse granulométrique XXX".
What is extremely gratifying is to find that here is a designer who cares enough about the project to double check things she was not responsible for. It is the final result that counts.
In the automotive industry, where I spent many years, we used to call this "Do it right the first time".
"The bibliography in English which reads XXX(brand name) Particle Size Analysis and has been translated by Analyse de taille particulaire Helos. Is this correct or should it read Analyse de taille particule Helos or Analyse de dimension particulaire Helos? The study is in English and there is no French equivalent."
My response:
) Particle size may be translated as taille particulaire, where the last word is an adjective qualifying the type of taille (size). What is harder to tell is whether the placement of Brand XXX is correct or not. It appears to be a brand name.
2) Termium, the Canadian Government Terminology Database, gives dimension de la particule as equivalent to particle size (in the chemical structures and medication field). That, still, does not mean that taille particulaire is wrong.
3) Particle Size Analysis - An Internet search under analyse granulométrique (particle size analysis) shows that this expression is used extensively in the pharmaceutical field. There are, nevertheless, many entries under analyse des particules.
From what I understand of the context my colleague provided, "XXX particle size analysis" is to be considered as one translation unit and should be translated as "analyse granulométrique XXX".
What is extremely gratifying is to find that here is a designer who cares enough about the project to double check things she was not responsible for. It is the final result that counts.
In the automotive industry, where I spent many years, we used to call this "Do it right the first time".
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