Musical musings/ Réflexions musicales

Over the years, I have dreamed of portable music. In the days of portable transistor radios, I dreamed of something with headphones (Sony read my mind). Then came the cassette player and the CD player, sometimes with a radio thrown in. In each case, each device was easy to load and play but the amount of music was limited by the media. Then as the MP3 appeared, its name started to change almost immediately because the MP3 format was no longer the only one available.

Ne pouvant plus résister, je me suis récemment acheté un lecteur Walkman NW (appelé en anglais Digital Music Player par Sony mais lecteur MP3 dans la version française de leur site). Sa mémoire de 4 Go (4Gb) est absolument énorme – j’y ai versé 15 CD jusqu’à présent et il me reste encore beaucoup d’espace libre. Le lecteur est également muni d’un récepteur radio FM qui marche fort bien et la réception (à Toronto) est excellente.

Une autre surprise agréable : le casque d’écoute à réduction de bruit. Lors de ma promenade quotidienne aujourd’hui, je me croyais en salle de concert tellement la musique était bonne! C’est alors que j’ai compris pourquoi les jeunes gens branchés à leur IPods semblent être dans un univers différent! Le monde extérieur disparaît et est remplacé par le monde interne de la musique.

I suppose we are going to have blackberries with cameras and mp3 players next. My concern is what do you do when the phone rings and you are listening to music or watching a downloaded videoclip, while driving your car? I know, the automotive manufacturers will come up with intelligent cars, which do not need drivers and who will take you along a programmed road to your destination while you listen to your favourite Mozart concerto.

Surrounded by killer whales - Épaulards partout!

Surrounded by killer whales - Aftenposten.no


Surprising set of photographs of killer whales in a Norwegian bay. Attention, les épaulards ont débarqué!

Bilingualism & dementia/ Bilinguisme et la démence sénile

Because Women’s College Hospital was affilitated with the Sunnbrook Health Centre for a short time, I subscribed to the French version of their Women’s Health Matters newsletter. Today’s issue covers a very interesting article on bilingualism and dementia which I would like to share with all my bilingual (and multilingual) colleagues.

Here is the lead French paragraph:

“Des chercheurs canadiens ont découvert des preuves étonnantes selon lesquelles l’utilisation de deux langues pendant toute sa vie aiderait à retarder de quatre ans l’apparition des symptômes démentiels, comparativement à l’utilisation d’une seule langue.”

http://www.femmesensante.ca/news/news_show.cfm?number=298

On the English side we have the following:

“Canadian scientists have found astonishing evidence that the lifelong use of two languages can help delay the onset of dementia symptoms by four years compared to people who are monolingual.”

http://www.womenshealthmatters.ca/news/news_show.cfm?number=599

I had mentioned this in my post of January 12 but thought that this new write-up would be of interest. J’avais mentionné ce sujet le 12 janvier dernier mais voici qu’il est à la une de nouveau. Je vous en souhaite bonne lecture.

CTTIC error criteria

In July 2006, I wrote about professional exam preparatory courses provided by ATIO and the interesting experience as a tutor that I have had over the last several years. Today, I want to share with my readers the criteria that are used to correct the course translations. They are of two kinds: comprehension and language:

Translation errors (Comprehension)

(T) Major errors - serious mistranslation denoting a definite lack of comprehen-
sion of the source language, nonsense, omission of a phrase or more.

T Minor errors - mistranslation of a single word, omission/addition affecting
meaning, lack of precision, wrong shade of meaning.

Language errors (Errors of expression)

(L) Major errors - gibberish, unacceptable structure.

L Minor errors - syntax, grammar error, ambiguity, convoluted structure,

unidiomatic structure, unacceptable loan translation.

l Minor errors - breach of spelling, punctuation or typographical conventions.

The first denotes the knowledge of the transfer mechanisms that are at play. A candidate deficient in this area would probably not have the target language as his mother tongue. He would also not have a very good grounding in recognizing the importance of the various elements of a sentence. He would thus omit or conceal certain elements, thinking that they are not important. My earlier post about Natural Canadian Spring Water is such an example where spring was translated as the springtime instead of small river.

Deficiencies in the second one usually denote lack of knowledge of the language proper. Errors in the use of the idiom, the syntax, the way sentences are built, the importance of signs such as accents and punctuation. Thus, in the post on Cultural interference, the Yield to Bus sign using the word Cédez, instead of Donnez la priorité or Priorité. Véhicule prioritaire would have been another way of expressing this.

This way of analyzing a translation is part and parcel of the method used in university translation courses so it should not be foreign to the aspiring candidate. A linguist who cannot tell the difference in these areas would not make a good translator.

Cultural interference in languages/Interférence de la culture dans la langue

When American companies started using the Best before formulation on food and food packaging, the world took notice and little by little, the same formulation appeared elsewhere. Thus, when the Canadian authorities set about implementing this system, they went with

Best Before and in French - Meilleur avant

While in English, one can use a comparative without formally mentioning the two compared products, according to French grammar, the two things compared must be mentioned. (so to a Frenchman or someone from another French-speaking country, this expression sounds somewhat strange).

In English, the sentence does not say This product is best before. There is also no explanation of what best means.

On packages from France, the DLC acronym is used; it stands for Date limite de consommation (deadline for consumption, i.e. should be eaten before…). The French is much more categorical – one should not eat the product after a certain date. It is like saying this passport expires on….. So it is not valid after that date.

A similar confusion is found with the Yield to Bus Act enacted by the Province of Ontario in 2004. Here is an explanation of how this works:

“When a bus displaying the Yield to Bus sign signals its intention to leave a bus bay by activating the left turn signal, drivers approaching from the rear in the lane adjacent to the bus bay are required to slow down or stop to allow the bus to re-enter the lane, unless it is unsafe to do so.”

So the original idea is to yield the right of way, or yield in short. The verb céder in French has somewhat different meanings:

- to give up (to let somebody have something)

- to sell or dispose of

- to give way to somebody (céder le pas à quelqu’un)

- to give in (sa mère lui cède en tout – his mother always gives in to him)

In the language of driving legislation, one speaks of “donner la priorité à quelqu’un”, to give someone the right of way.

Unfortunately, both Meilleur avant and Cédez are here to stay and the public at large has come to recognize and understand these expressions. The astute translator will have to take into account the culture of the end-reader and convey the expression in that reader’s understanding.

Comments on a blog/Commentaires sur un blogue

La traduction française du mot Blog avait été au début Carnet, ce qui implique un monologue de l’auteur sur une série de sujets divers. Comme tout autre phénomène sur Internet, le blogue évolue et se transforme en une tribune de nature personnelle ou commerciale. Les réactions aux dires de l’auteur constituent donc une particularité marquante d’un blogue.

The business blog thrives on feedback; that is the reason most business related blogs allow comments from their readers. A comment not only allows an alternate opinion, but also allows to leave an Internet trace with a feedback to the commenter’s blog or website.

And yet, many readers do not leave a comment. To encourage my Internet readers to do so, I am providing a link here to the explanation on how a comment is formulated, how it works and what the various choices the commenter has. Three are available: a) an anonymous comment, b) a Blogger signed comment, or c) a comment under an assumed name.

J’encourage donc mes lecteurs de s’exprimer si mes messages provoquent chez eux des réactions – que ce soit de sympathie ou de contrariété. Merci.

Networking as a process/Le réseautage - une méthode

Alors que mon message précédent parlait d’une occasion de réseautage et de ses résultats positifs, je voudrais décrire ici une présentation dynamique faite par Michael J. Hughes hier soir, lors d’une réunion de l’AIC , association que j’avais mentionnée dans ces pages auparavant.

Michael, a former executive, has found a valuable niche in the independent worker movement and is able to convincingly demonstrate the various elements of networking, the importance of each one of them and various ways of optimizing the experience of networking.

The introduction or greeting we use when we meet a new person can be structured in such a way as to foster the human element of “sympathie”, of sharing, of belonging to the same world. It is only when the listener understands that you care for him/her as a person, as a fellow entrepreneur, and that have common values and aspirations, that a spark is generated which can form the basis of a lasting relationship.

Je ne prétends pas être devenu un réseauteur (néologisme?) en une soirée, mais je suis reconnaissant à l’AIC d’avoir invité Michael nous parler. Je vais, de ce pas, étudier cette approche, et compte l’inclure dans mes prochaines occasions de réseautage.

Microsoft Vista: Not 'People Ready' - Forbes.com

Microsoft Vista: Not 'People Ready' - Forbes.com

Je parlais récemment de la publicité de Microsoft dont la devise "People ready" posait des problèmes de traduction. À juger par l'article dans Forbes, le lecteur anglais pourrait également avoir des problèmes de compréhension.

I guess I was not very far off the mark when I stated that the meaning of the People Ready tag line could be interpreted in several ways. I appears as though Daniel Lyons of Forbes could not quite figure out what Microsoft meant.

Business networking/Réseautage d’affaires

A winter’s evening, -15º C and leftover snow from yesterday's storm covering Burlington. What better time than to gather in the cosy Fireside Room of the Burlington Art Centre to socialize and listen to an impactful and dynamic presentation on financial planning by Thie Convery, entitled Financial Tips for the Self-Employed.

L’Association HPCA, dont je suis membre depuis quatre ans, est composée d’indépendants oeuvrant dans le domaine de la communication : relations publiques, rédaction publicitaire et autre, traduction, graphisme, etc., organise des réunions mensuelles pour ses membres. Celle d’hier soir a été particulièrement bien réussie grace aux efforts des organisatrices Anne von Rosenbach et Judy Snyder .

It is amazing how useful networking can be, especially for self-employed professionals. Thank you to the organizers for such a productive event!

Ethical translation/Conscience professionnelle

It is always tempting, especially for a translator in private practice, to accept work outside of his field of expertise; what businessman would pass up lucrative work! I am sure that many other professionals have to deal with the same dilemma.

Some years ago, an apprentice translator (who had just started translating) after a career in another technical field, boasted to me that he was doing translation about atomic reactors (he was in aeronautics previously). I was astounded to say the least and did express my concern that he may not always understand what he translates and he said “Yes”!

The Code of Ethics of ATIO, organization that I belong to since 1971, specifically states that:

“Members shall not accept work for which they lack the necessary qualifications. In accepting work, the member provides a moral guarantee that the service provided will meet the highest standards of quality”.

For various reasons, he never became a member of the ATIO, which was a relief to me.

Do you quiz your translator about his expertise, his experience, and his track record BEFORE hiring him to do work for you?

Visitors from other lands/Visiteurs du monde

As the number of hits on this blog increases, I am constantly amazed by the variety and the global character of the visits. This morning, for example, I had a visit from the city of Chennai, formerly Madras, in India.

My knowledge of Madras being strictly limited to the madras shirts that were popular a few years ago, I did a quick Internet search and found that Madras is now called Chennai and that it is a thriving 6-million strong city on the eastern coast of India, just north of the island of Sri Lanka (Ceylon).

Pour ceux de mes lecteurs qui ne connaissent pas mon site de recherche de visites (Sitemeter), je voudrai juste mentionner le détail que chaque rapport me donne. Ainsi, en plus du nom du fournisseur de services internet (ISP) du visiteur, je peux également apprendre son pays et sa ville d’origine. Indiqués aussi sont le temps de la visite, la durée de la visite, ainsi que les sites qui précédaient le mien ou qui le suivaient (Visit entry page, Visit exit page). Toutes ces données sont également disponibles sous forme de graphique ou de tableau.

Récemment, j’ai reconnu des collègues qui avaient consulté mes messages par l’adresse de leur fournisseur. À juger par la multitude d’articles sur les blogues, c’est surtout les liaisons qui existent entre eux qui importent. Ainsi, l’auteur d’un blogue mentionne dans son message la page (ou l’article) d’un autre « blogueur » et y joint un lien. Ces liens forment une véritable toile d’araignée de gens qui écrivent et lisent les blogues. Faites-en l’essai avec mon nom, suivi du terme blogue. Vous serez surpris.

How well do you know your customers?

The magazine Enterprise carries in the January 2007 issue an interesting article by Lior Yitzhaky, entitled ” How well do you know your customers” . Here is an excerpt:

“A number of years back, during my first week working in the head office of a national retailer, I was asked to produce a distribution that would allocate a special buy of bread makers to every store in the country. .. The analysis revealed that every store in the country had sold out of the bread makers with the exception of stores located in the province of Quebec. In fact, the stores in Quebec had not sold a single bread maker. While the usual suspicions of the stores not receiving the inventory – or not displaying it – were made, the reason for the discrepancy was very different. Further analysis revealed that due to the cultural differences in Quebec, they were unlikely to buy bread makers at all. You see, the culture in Quebec emphasizes home cooking and many Quebecers bake their own bread at home. The bread maker is considered a sort of insult and people would be embarrassed to have one in their home. What affected me the most from the above situation was not the realization that Quebecers did not like bread makers, but the fact that many employees at this retailer knew of the issue and yet failed to take actions that could enhance their performance. A simple misallocation such as this, lead to loss of sales, alienation of customers and unproductive inventory.”

I do not believe the employees felt that it was their call to question the decision of the head office. In our day of specialization, the product manager who ordered this item did not look at the cultural significance of the item and the possible reaction of customers to it. This falls into the same category as the Mist Stick hair curler, which an American company tried to sell in Germany, not realizing that the word Mist means “manure” in German. Or the intention of General Motors of selling the Buick Lacrosse sedan in Quebec until it was pointed out to them that lacrosse happened to be a swearword

A translator can often help a customer in pointing out these discrepancies and avoid embarrassment. In my own experience, that is what happened when a customer needed a bilingual chocolate cake package and thought that the approach would fly.

Has your translator offered this sort of help to you?

Schubert for two/Schubert pour violon et guitare

La musique classique est, chez nous, celle que nous écoutons sans nous lasser. Dans toutes ses formes, elle rafraîchit, elle réjouit et remplit le cœur. Lors de notre pèlerinage annuel dans notre magasin favori de disques classiques, l’Atelier Grigorian quelques jours après Noël, un disque de musique de violon et de guitare nous avait charmés. Cela faisait longtemps que je cherchais une musique calme, réservée, pour écouter pendant un repas. Nous sommes tombés sur le CD intitulé Schubert For Two, avec Gil Shaham et Göran Söllscher, de Deustche Gramaphon.

J'ai heureusement pu trouver sur Internet, un lien au CD en question . Je pense que cette approche est meilleure que d'essayer de copier un passage.

I visited the Blogger site and found some material on Posting audio clips. There are some explanations but I would have hoped to read a more detailed explanation. Uploading photographs was rather easy. I can now either use my own pictures or those that are available on the Internet.

The music piece available on the link above will give you an idea. The selections and arrangements of Schubert’s music are very well done (to my ear) and provide just the kind of music a quiet tête à tête requires. I would almost say that it would make a nice Valentine’s present.

The recording was made at the Glen Gould Studio, in Toronto, and is numbered 4715682.

Our business is folding (?!?!)

As I was driving on the Highway 401 in Toronto this morning, a panel truck passed me which bore on its side the company name (or tag line?):

Our business is folding

with underneath, a picture of a multifolded piece of paper.

My translator’s mind started to speculate what one have to do to create a French equivalent. If the motto is always used with the illustration, the meaning is quite clear; one could say:

Le pliage, c’est notre affaire! (Folding is our business!)

If, on the other hand, it is a company name which is not always accompanied by the graphics, the English becomes more difficult to understand. Imagine the receptionist answering your call and saying: “Our business is folding”, Jennifer speaking.”

It is the other meaning of folding which bothers me – is this business closing its doors?

There is often a play on words in marketing and advertising, which may be be quite successful in one language and one culture but which cannot be duplicated in another.

Translation is all context and that means not only language but culture, social milieu and country. Things which would be successful here can be a disaster in Europe and vice versa. It is like the story of the Mist Stick hair curler, which, in German, became the manure stick (since one meaning of mist in German is manure!)

Machine translating a heading/Traduction machine d’un titre

The following heading appeared on an Internet business website:

US factory orders jump

Using machine translation, the French equivalent by the LDS engine was as follows:
1) Les ordres d'usine d'États-Unis sautent

Using the Altavista translation engine, the following was provided :
2) Saut d'ordres d'usine des USA

Two vocabulary mistakes first of all :

1) the French word for order (meaning a promise to buy) is called commande.

2) Whereas in English jump may mean a) to spring clear of the ground, to leap; b) to rise suddenly; c) to rise suddenly in amount, price, etc., the verb sauter means to jump(a), to blow up or to fry. So the French can be read as United States orders blow up (?!)

To express the idea of a sudden increase implied in the verb jump, we could say augmentent soudainement. The syntax or word order and grammar in translation #1 are not correct: we could say instead

Les commandes des usines

since these are orders from many factories, not just one, and to show the country where this takes places, we would say

Les commandes des usines aux États-Unis.

So putting everything together, we would get

Les commandes des usines aux États-Unis augment soudainement.

One notices that sentence #2 just changed the word order and substituted orders jump with jump in orders. Otherwise, still the same ordrer/commande error as well as the jump/augmentent error.

Moral of the story: beware of machine translation if no native speaker is handy to touch up the results. You might offend the reader and lose a customer – is it worth it?

La plupart des glaciers auront disparu des Alpes d'ici 2050/Most European glaciers to disappear by 2050.

Un article dans la Cyberpresse relate les derniers constats des scientifiques à Vienne que les glaciers d’Europe pourront bien disparaître d’ici 2050.

In western Austria’s Alpine province of Tyrol, glaciers have been shrinking by about three percent a year, meaning their mass decreases annually by roughly a metre.

The only European glacier that I saw up close is la Mer de Glace, near the Haute-Savoie city of Chamonix. The summer camp that I went to for several years while a young boy always use to have an excursion to the Mer de Glace.

L’excursion se faisait en autocar et prenait toute une journée de notre camp qui se trouvait à Publier, sur la rive sud du Lac Leman (Lac de Genève). Google Images abonde de photographies de la Mer de Glace, dont j’ai tiré l’image ci-contre. Pour les adeptes de Google Earth, je vous recommande une visite virtuelle à Publier et sur les bords du Lac Leman.

Update on Sitemeter/Mise à jour sur Sitemeter

A technical glitch prevented me from viewing the statistics on my blog for a while and it was with great joy that I was able to view them again today.

Numbers have gone up but so has the mix of countries:

United States, Canada, France, United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Brazil, Chile, China, Serbia, Finland, Indonesia, Italy, Latvia, Morocco, Malaysia, Philippines, Romania and Turkey.

Vingt trois pays en tout – je n’aurais jamais pensé que mes lecteurs viendraient d’un si grand nombre de pays! Merci de vos visites – je continue dans la même voie et je serais enchanté de voir commentaires (qui peuvent se faire de façon anonyme, si vous le voulez).

Dementia/Speaking two tongues

The Globe and Mail carried today a very interesting article on the relationship between being bilingual and dementia.

Canadian researchers have linked multilingualism to the delay in the onset of dementia. While the sample of people tested was relatively small (184), it still points to a very interesting phenomenon.

“The findings extend previous research that has appeared to show the benefits of crossword puzzles and other mental workouts.”

I am not a medical person, but have been multilingual most of my life, with two predominating languages: French and English. Over the years, I have found that my fondness for multilingual communications has increased (or certainly not diminished) and that I seem to thrive on the mental challenges it poses. I also happen to love crossword puzzles and other mental workouts.

Who would have thought that being bilingual would be good for your health?

Assorted Protector Pads/Tampons protecteurs assortis

Picked up a US package of assorted pads (transparent, rubber, felt, etc) in a store the other day and noticed the somewhat strange French translation:

Pads are ideal for mounting on the bottom of objects that sit (1) on desks and tabletops. They also help prevent slipping and sliding of objects on smooth (2) surfaces.

The French reads as follows:

Les coussinets sont excellents sous les objets qui s'assoient sur les bureaux et les dessus de table. Ils aident en plus à prévenir le glissement des objets sur les surfaces douces.

What the author meant by sit is probably « objects that rest « on desks. Inanimate things to do not sit anywhere. This may be considered colloquial but it certainly has no place in informational copy on a package. The French ends up by saying object that take a seat on desks (??).

One method a translator may use to determine the exact meaning of a word is to replace it by its antonym (i.e. opposite) to see if the meaning is completely changed. The opposite of smooth in this case is rough, bumpy. Unfortunately, the word doux (douces in feminine plural) actually means sweet, soft, mild, gentle, pleasant but not the opposite of rough. It is the word “lisse” that is the right word (it could also be used in the expression bald tires – pneus lisses).

Why small mistakes are such a big deal? They compromise the seller’s credibility. The customer may think that the error happened because the seller DOES NOT CARE! He will therefore look elsewhere when buying another product from that same producer.

That’s not customer retention!

Winter Solstice Party \Party du solstice d'hiver

Around Christmas time, many people find various subtle and not so subtle reasons to have a party. I have just come back from a very special one called Winter Solstice Party which was organized by Helen and Keith of Capstone communications. As this is a third year that I have been invited, I thought I would share this rather original type of party with my readers.

Les deux hôtes travaillent dans le domaine du marketing et du créatif et ont établi un vaste réseau de contacts non seulement dans la ville de Markham mais également à Toronto et dans la province. Il s'agit d'un souper-partage (potluck dinner) auquel chaque invité apporte un plat de son choix. Ce soir, parmi les mets apportés par les quelques 60-70 invités, j'ai remarqué une très grande présence de suchi. Il y avait également de charcuteries, des plats aux légumes (couscous, aux fèves). Il y avait également beaucoup de trempettes, mais également des pâtisseries. du gâteau aux fruits (Christmas cake), des sablés (shortbread) de toutes formes, etc. Les tables croulaient sous la nourriture. À mesure que premiers plats se vidaient, Helen, les remplaçait par d'autres, l'un plus appétissant que le suivant. En plus des deux punchs (au vin rouge et au vin blanc), les vins de toutes origines se côtoyaient sur une table adjacente.

I remember the first time I attended a Solstice Party a few years back: I did not know what to do, what to say, how to behave. Experience has taught me to just be myself, be friendly, be curious and see to find out who the person opposite you is. It is amazing what variety of replies one gets to "And what do you do?"

Il y avait des gens d'affaires, des politiciens locaux, des amis de Helen par l'entremise du Club de femmes de l'université de Toronto, des membres de l'AIC , une foule de gens intéressants. Au cours de la soirée, j'ai renoué connaissance avec des gens que j'avais rencontré l'an dernier et qui se souvenaient de moi mais j'ai également fait connaissance de gens nouveaux.

There was the proverbial Christmas tree in the living room and the house was certainly decorated for the seaons but without any religious overkill. It was an occasion for people to renew their friendships and to make new friends. What a nice custom!

MICROSOFT PEOPLE READY/Publicité boiteuse

When Microsoft started running its People Ready advertising, I wondered immediately how they would get around the French equivalent. In my experience with an international company, we often had problems rendering a vague idea into French. Consider the tag line “It’s time”. At the beginning, it referred to the fact that it was the right time to purchase a new automobile. Then, in the subsequent years, different meanings were attributed to the words and the French creative people ran into problems of finding the equivalents (there were none to be found).

Another time, emphasis was placed on a device in the trunk of a car that would allow a small child trapped in it, to open it from the inside. I remember a whole booklet being put together where in addition to the copy, a drawing of an elephant trunk, was used. That is what killed the French. Indeed, “tronc” is the appendage of the elephant but “coffre” is the box into which one can place luggage, etc. The play on words just was not possible. You can image how lame the booklet was.

Today, I opened a French magazine (L’Actualité) and found a full-page Microsoft ad, in perfect French, which read as follows:

« Dans une entreprise people XX ready, le marketing et l’ingénierie sont sur la même longueur d’onde. »

In English, people ready appears to be a play on words. My understanding of it is that people are or become ready (and therefore productive) if they are provided the right tools (Microsoft). It took me several repeated readings of the English text to understand the message.

Why does Microsoft think French speakers (and readers) in Canada would understand the idea of “People ready” when it was left in English. If I had taken a complete French sentence and inserted an English colloquialism in the centre of it, how many French speakers would understand it?

Here is what the ad says:

« Des employés unis par des données sont des employés unis. Microsoft. Des logiciels conçus pour les entreprises où les employés sont toujours prêts. Microsoft.ca/peopleready. »

Is there a difference between people ready and ready people? There certainly is in my mind.

Bilingual creative advertising is always the result of cultural and linguistic consultation. That is why most of the ads in Quebec are rewritten in the French context, using French themes, and personalities. Microsoft fell asleep at the wheel.

Le tour du monde en moins de 80 jours/Around the world in less than 80 days

J'ai installé il y a moins d'une semaine un compteur de visites sur mon blogue et je n'arrête pas de m'émerveiller sur la variété de mes visiteurs. Le logiciel permet d'afficher les pays d'origine des lecteurs - voici ma liste :

Canada, Belgique, France, États-Unis, Malaisie, Indonésie, Australie, Argentine, Algérie et Irlande.

Je n'aurais jamais imaginé un public si vaste, dans le monde entier. Une grande partie des visites provient du programme blogger, donc une personne faisant de la cyber-recherche. Mais il y a également des recherches ponctuelles sur certaines expressions utilisées dans mes blogues. Les commentaires sont moins nombreux - je pense que les gens hésitent de s'exprimer, même s'ils peuvent le faire de façon anonyme.

Je tacherais de chroniquer ces développements dans les semaines suivantes.

Cap guns and translation/Le pistolet à amorces et la traduction

"A cap gun or cap pistol is a toy gun...

As I was reflecting upon the mechanism of translation, I remembered how fascinated I had been, when around the age 8 or 10, I received a cap pistol for Christmas. In addition to the novelty of the item and the noise it could make, I was immediately intrigued by how it worked. I had noticed several screws in the metal and proceeded to take the gun apart, revealing the springs, ratchets, and magazine for the cap tape. Over the next while, I attempted many times to put the gun back together, without success. Finally, one day, things fell literally into place and I was able to put the gun back together.

I am realizing that translation is a bit like that too, and that may be the reason that I like it so much. Indeed, one has to completely understand the message, be able to recognize its component parts, be able to see how they work with each other, and then put (back) a translated original, making sure that the parts are similar, that they work together properly, and that the whole piece holds together.

In commercial translation, one does not always have the leisure of unlimited time but a conscientious translator will demand and allow enough time to disassemble, analyze and assemble the piece again. Machine translation can remember the parts, can line them together but so far has been unable to reason and therefore to think things through.

I have read about machine translations from English to German or Danish, which stick to the English syntax (word order), therefore completely taking the German or the Danish "spirit” out of the text. It is this feeling that one has reading some of the recent translations from Chinese into English. The words are there but the meaning has been missed. Do you wish to send out messages without "feeling"? Hire a machine, it will be fast and cheap and the reader will probably be insulted. Great for repeat business!

A little zoom may be what the doctor asked for

Un collègue qui n'avait pas encore lu mon blogue m'appelé immédiatement pour me féliciter de mes efforts et me suggérer une petite modification. Celle d'agrandir la photo et de tourner le visage vers la droite, c'est-à-dire vers le texte. Voici ce qui est fait....

It appears as though my previous picture was turned away from the text and therefore the reader. A well-meaning colleague and friend suggested that I zoom it a bit and turn the face inward. You be the judge.

English Advertising/Italian song/French translation

Some time ago, a new client asked me to translate the packaging copy for one of his famous chocolate cakes. The approach was to liken chocolate to love and the vehicle used were the famous lyrics from the song “Amore” , by Dean Martin (and Perry Como fame):

"When the moon hits your eye/Like a big-a pizza pie/That's amore", "When the stars seem to shine/Like you've had too much wine/That's amore", and "When the stars make you drool/Just like pasta fazool'/That's amore."

Another panel extolled the virtues of the chocolate, using Jewish humour.

The song was well-known in Canada and in Quebec in the 50’s but appeared to exist only with the English lyrics. Translating the lyrics into French might have been a solution but the translator did not feel sufficiently qualified to write poetry in French. Using English lyrics on the French panel also felt like a no-no.

What absolutely stymied me is how to render English-Jewish humour in French (for the Montreal market).

I called the client, explained my predicament and suggested that the copy be reworked. He was disappointed and thanked me for my opinion. Several days later, he called me, thanked me for my comments and told that he had spoken with a very good, bilingual friend in Ottawa who had totally agreed with my opinion.

The translation was not done but I still had a grateful client who thanked me for helping him avoid a cultural and linguistic faux pas.

Toenail Health / La santé des orteils

Biology 101: Toenails are living tissue so they grow and need trimming. Just because the spike was removed, that did not mean it won’t regrow – it did. Fortunately, the chiropodist was monitoring the situation and was able to trim the nail again.

La solution à long terme est une chirurgie locale qui consiste à supprimer au phénol une partie de la racine fabricant la portion d’ongle qui s’incarne. Cette procédure est effectuée sous anesthésie locale, avec quasi-absence de douleur et aucune cicatrice visible.

It is amazing how much one can learn on the Internet. The procedure was explained to me in English and I was able to find the corresponding French text. A text written in the original language uses the proper syntax and wording whereas a mere translation might be stilted or take the wrong point of view.

That is the reason for having technical translations validated by an expert in the target language who can vouch for the proper tone, proper terminology and syntax. Using machine translation for this sort of copy is obviously very dangerous.

An evening at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts

The construction of the building appeared to take a lifetime, so it was with great interest that I read the article in the February 2006 issue of Canadian Geographic:

After having endured years of discomfort (in the seats and on the ears) at the old O'Keefe Centre, my wife and I were really looking forward to the performance of the Canadian National Ballet, the Sleeping Beauty. We were not disappointed.

The venue feels cosy and intimate, in a way the O'Keefe was not. Light coloured woodwork and stainless steel give the place a sense of airyness. Inside the hall, another surprise: it is light beige and silver. The seats appear to be larger than those of the O'K. and have a ventilation outlet underneath them - what a clever idea!

In the past, our seats were in row T, which felt quite far from the stage. In the FSC, it felt like some 30 feet had been removed in front of us. The orchestra pit is larger and shallower but it is the sound of the music which really surprised me. It did not sound like music coming from a loud-speaker! As the Canadian Geographic article describes it, acoustician Robert Essert used a "sound-burst diagram" in which sound emanating from the stage is depicted as tiny points radiating through the hall and reflecting of its every surface. ....."as the particles reflect back toward the stage, up to 90 percent of the sound audible to the audience will have bounced off the walls".

Pendant le ballet, un petit détail: les lumières dans les allées indiquant les rangées de sièges restent allumées (par précaution de sécurité?) mais sont distrayantes. Les services techniques devraient les mettre en veilleuse.

Le spectacle lui-même s'est mérité les éloges du Globe & Mail :

Les artistes de la soirée, Sonia Rodriguez et Alexandr Antonijevic, se sont admirablement acquittés de leurs rôles et ont bien mérité les applaudissements de l'auditoire.

En un mot, une soirée bien agréable, précédée par un repas for appétissant au nouveau restaurant Tundra de l'hôtel Hilton, sis à une rue au sud du FSC.

De passage à Toronto? Ne manquez pas une visite au FSC.

Adaptation is more than translating/ L'adaptation dépasse la traduction

In 1982, Tom Peters and Robert Waterman wrote the influential book "In search of excellence" which created new approaches to business. The book served as an inspiration to many companies and its title was used for many different programs aimed at improving sales.

When GM used the title as a tagline, a challenge presented itself for the Quebec market. A translator will always look for the "official" rendering of a book in another language. I thus discovered that the book had been translated in France by "Excellence intégrale".

It was thus decided that this tagline would be used on nametags connected with this particular sales activity. I remember witnessing the meeting of two sales people, one English and one French: the French one looked at his colleague's nametag and said "you are still looking for excellence, we have found it"!

This is a typical example of the French "way of seeing things", usually as a final result, not as a process. As long as the two titles are not set side by side, each one is ok. Side by side, they can create misunderstandings.

C'est pour cette raison que lors de l'élaboration d'un slogan pour le Québec, je le crée toujours à côté de l'anglais, pour m'éviter des surprises comme L'excellence intégrale. Ainsi, pour un récent client, j'ai trouvé l'équivalent suivant :

XX company delivers more than ideas, we deliver results

La XXX : plus que des idées, des résultats

Notez la disparition des verbes et du "we".

Pour indiquer que les clients du client sont également ceux du propriétaire du site Web, j'ai modulé

ABCD: Recognized by your customers

par

ABCD : Vos clients sont nos clients!

Ingrown toenail II (Onychocryptosis)

In my first post, I was proud of myself for having found the answers on the Web. I must admit now that I learned much more speaking with Lada Milos Lee, the Chiropodist, who performed a small operation on my toe and removed the nail spike that was giving me so much pain.

An injection of anesthetic really helped as I am sure I could not have stood the pain without it.

On m'a informé que mes visites quotidiennes au gymnase doivent être interrompues pour laisser à la plaie le temps de guérir. Un suivi dans une semaine devrait donner au pédologue un aperçu de ma guérison.

Une autre leçon: surveiller son corps, et en l'occurrence ses pieds pour remarquer à temps toute modification : douleur autour d'un ongle, rougeur ou boursouflure. Les personnes à risque sont celles qui ont des ongles incurvés et les personnes âgées (c'est bibi).

Conseils: ne pas porter de chaussettes ou bas trop ajustés et porter des chaussures qui laissent assez de place aux orteils.

When ingrown is incarné

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.

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.

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".