Keeping a Translator's Journal

Journaling is often described as the practice of keeping a written record of your thoughts and feelings regarding events in your life. Some of the benefits associated with journaling are reflection, a chance to process events and your reactions to it. It can also help you keep your thoughts organized, set goals, write down ideas. …

A Few Dictionaries for Dictionary Day

Three years ago I first learned that October 16 is Dictionary Day, at least in the United States, where they honor Noah Webster on that date, the date of his birth. It's a nice holiday, and being a translator, I'm quite happy to adopt it. It's just over a fortnight after International Translators Day (September …

The Language of Darmok – a Translator's View

"Darmok" is an episode of Star Trek – The Next Generation first broadcast in 1991. The exceptional thing about this episode is that the universal translator, the "magic" device they have that instantaneously translates between any two languages, doesn't work. Or rather it works more as we'd expect it to work, it translates words, but …

אבל מחשב זה באנגלית – לא?

לפני כמעט שני עשורים, כשרק התחלתי את דרכי בעולם האינטרנט, עבדתי באקטקום, ספקית שירותי אינטרנט, והתחלתי שם בתמיכה טכנית. אחד התפקידים שלקחתי על עצמי בתמיכה היה כתיבת הוראות התחברות. באותה תקופה יצאה לאוויר העולם מערכת ההפעלה Windows 95, בתחילה באנגלית בלבד, ובהמשך גם בעברית. נראה מובן מאליו של-Windows 95 יש לכתוב הוראות התחברות באנגלית, ול-Windows …