Month: January 1970

The difficulties of translation/interpretation from French to English and vice-versa. This was my initial one-liner to describe Céline’s site yet it does not cover all the aspects of it. I found myself trying to sum the site up with a fierce passion after reading it as I am into the same line of work and the correct translation of ideas always arouses my curiosity.

Upon first glancing at the site I posed a question: “How would the author manage to convey, in laymen’s term, the subtle difficulties involved in translating?” Not an easy task… I began to wonder if she’d actually be able to pull it off and interest the reader in the process.

I commenced my trip browsing around, navigating the site. It looks very professional. Simple white and blue template, a side bar with recent entries, recent comments, post highlights under “Category” titles such as Grammar, Culture, Idioms, Interpreting, etc. The site also includes a notify form for updates. Overall, the site has that certain “cleanliness” that Moveable Type gives.

The site title “Naked Translations” is followed by a description (something I always find soothing) and it also features a top menu that takes you to the “home” page where we find Céline’s picture and site introduction; her “About” page, where we learn she is French and moved to the UK nine years ago to complete a Master’s degree in English and ended up staying. We then have an “Experience and Credentials” page which I found pretty impressive. Her rates are also included in the menu (though given via e-mail) as well as the blog itself, called “Translation Blog”, where she explores the same subtleties I mentioned above.

After ending my browsing, I dived into the archives expecting nothing but rather impersonal posts regarding her profession. As I read on, though, I found my initial idea to be wrong. What I most liked about reading Céline was the way she managed to thread her translation difficulties with everyday existence. For example, her post on how to translate this : “Blaming Tony Blair is like trying to pin jelly to a wall”, into French while successfully conveying the meaning and then how she calls “mum” up in an effort to find some ideas on the Tony Blair remark, proved touching. Interesting merge of both the professional and private world there. The private-world posts range from overachieving, the holidays, self employment, the fear of losing good work for taking time out to the loneliness involved in being a Translator: “Solitude and isolation are big issues for freelance translators “, she writes. And the way in which she explains it has us nodding our head in approval.

Her posts relating to the areas of her profession are easily found in the side bar, under the Category title. Thus the posts under “Grammar” will contain just that. Difficulties in using the grammar of both languages when attempting to translate ideas. The Idioms posts deal with idiomatic expressions and how she relates them to daily life. The Interpreting posts I found to be most interesting, making you smile as you picture Céline’s ordeals. Whatever the category, her Translation Blog always manages to merge work with daily life. That is quite refreshing as a career blog will not, of course, appeal to all readers. However, this blog manages to broaden its horizons and interest both the translator and the average blog fan . Also, Céline found the way to explain, in a clear manner, the troubles which she faces when translating English to French and vice-versa to people like me, who do not speak French at all. Quite an interesting blog.

Naked Translations

Naked Translations, I am sorry to say, is a bleak and boring page visually. I mean even an interesting font in a larger size and a more colorful header bar would cheer the place up.

There is an “about me” link at the top of the page which I checked out immediately and found out that this blog is written by a woman who does English/French translation work. Celine is doing what a lot of us SAY we want to do, which is work from home. And it sounds like she enjoys it pretty well. She is highly trained and sounds like she has more than enough work to keep her busy.

The entries have to do with all aspects of her translation work, with a liberal smattering of discussions about all things “wordy”.
In the archives are several entries dealing with idioms such as:
“Spin Doctor”, “Scraping the bottom of the barrel”, and Pinning jelly to the wall”, and how difficult they are to translate into another language, that are quite amusing.

She attracts fellow word lovers from all over, and everyone seems to be having a great old time making puns and yucking it up in the rarefied world of translators and idiomiesters.

Since her blog began in November 2003, this author has given out some very succinct and useful information about her job, and how she has worked out difficult translation problems with a liberal dose of humor. This lighthearted tone keeps the blog from being pedantic, considering the subject matter.

The site is fairly well organized. Although for my taste, there are a few TOO many ways to get to things. There are archives and then several topical indexes too. Recent entries, recent comments…it all gets a little confusing. But on the plus side, there is a search function which might be helpful, and a notification option, a service that I think ALL blogs should have.
I prefer to get notified rather than having to check someone’s blog over and over to see if they have written anything lately.

If you love words, and know both French and English, and are involved in any kind of translation or interpretation work, this site would be interesting to you. Admittedly, this sounds like a select group to me, but I enjoyed my stay and the only French I know is Croissant, because I know how to make them from scratch!

I give this site a 4 for very nicely fulfilling it’s purpose. I would consider a higher rating though if the design was spiced up a bit.

Naked Translations

Upon entering Counting Sheep, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. Blog descriptions are something I usually appreciate, as this blog had none, I was left to a silent reverie on what it might contain. The diary of an insomniac maybe?

In any case, a simple, easy-to-the eyes, blue-beige design greeted me. Nothing spectacular. But nothing to complain about either.

As I scrolled down I encountered some pleasant surprises.

The much appreciated “About” section I found to be very complete, you can tell the author feels comfortable revealing facts about herself: Jo is a 30 year old woman married to a “Brit” (her words). She lives in Massachusetts and works as an applications developer. She goes on to mention the characters that have a say in her blog (Cast of Characters) and she finally ends with a paragraph on her hobbies and interests. More information on Jo I found in the “Some things you might want to know” section. She lets you in on the fact that her husband is older and she probably will not have children plus some other things of interest. Immediately a type of intimacy is created between the reader and the author. The blog also features a gastronomy site with her recipes (she is a marvelous cook) and another site dealing with her gardening. This is the type of blog which could never be criticized for lacking information on the author. The rest of the sidebar includes links to other blogs (many of them), a photo album, what she’s listening to and reading, recent posts and recent comments.

Then it was time for the archives. I dived right into them (the oldest archive was February 2004). As I read Jo, I felt pretty much at ease. Her writing is precise, intelligent and flows naturally. She discusses issues that range from house decorating to amusing stories on her husband’s hard time with American idioms and expressions. She opens a door into her life and we learn of her plans to travel, her views on work, anecdotes of her marriage, her ancestors, and her opinions on music. Jo is a well-read woman who knows how to deliver. The lengths of her entries vary from very long ones to some that contain barely a few lines. In my opinion, she is usually at her best when she speaks of “husband” (as she so tenderly calls him), her home, family and work life and her thoughts on music. Some of her other posts on random issues such as news, the internet, etc. (which are difficult to describe as they deal with miscellaneous topics) I found to be rather uninteresting when compared to the highlights I mentioned above.

I finished reading her blog with this thought in mind: “What would it be like to be Jo for a day?” I seldom ask myself this question when reading blogs. But Jo has painted a very unique picture of a simple, peaceful life with husband, dog, music and cooking. I give Jo a 4.5. A good, out-of-the-ordinary, well-written blog. If it hadn’t been for the shorter posts, where I sometimes felt lost and/or disappointed, or the fact that I never really did understand the name of her blog, I’d have given her a 5. But 4.5 is really good anyway. If you like intelligent and tenderly amusing blogs, I suggest you give Counting Sheep a try.

Counting Sheep

What words come to mind when you taste a fortune cookie? Inoffensive? Mild? The fortune cookie has this quality about it that will keep it smack dab in the center of the public’s hierarchy of favorite foods. It’s fitting that this site is called Fortune Cookie because it’s your average, run-of-the-mill, cookie-cutter (no pun intended) blog.

Fortune Cookie is the daily diary of a young woman named Susan. To Susan’s and maybe 95% of the website owning population’s credit, she’s the same age as me and leads a more active and interesting life. Well, a life interesting enough to blog about anyway. As always with blogs like this, a look at a whole day’s worth of entries turns into an exercise in stream of consciousness. There are no boundaries to what Susan will write about and that does keep things interesting. The problem is that there’s not much written about anything. There are exceptions, but most entries remind me of Police Blotters: time, place, who, and what. Many entries are intended for Susan’s friends to read. Filling out the rest of the entries are photos.

The site isn’t hard to navigate. The main entries are in the center while the rest of the site’s content are on the right hand side of the page. Extra content like her likes/dislikes, movies/tv shows she’s seen, etc., provide a closer look into Susan’s personality.

Fortune Cookie is not a bad website at all. However, I think most people outside of Susan’s circle won’t enjoy the site without getting deeper involved in her previous entries. I give this site a 3.
Fortune Cookie

Ahh… Yetzirah. I entered the page with a feeling of anticipation (one of those hunches you cannot quite understand). The name of course, had to belong to a woman. My hunch was right as a flowered site wallpaper greets the visitor. However, I found no title on the blog upon first entering. The overall design of the site I found to be rather “homely”. Kind of reminds you of Grandma’s kitchen and my first impression was that I’d be reading about the baking troubles of a cute grandmother. I felt the anticipation receding a little… And I began to think whether it would be worth the read. The site was easy enough to navigate, with calendars for archives and an index page, newest entry and first entry, links to take you back to the welcome page, links for sites she enjoys (only two though). I have to point out that there were no links to other blogs on her site that I could find. And the “friends” link in the side menu was broken.

My feeling of anticipation came back as I began reading the brief “about” middle bar. It displays a picture of a wood, beckoning us into Yetzirah’s forest. A brief description tells us she is Jewish, born in the fifties, married and with an obsession for writing. She calls herself a writer (and immediately the stakes are up, for when one calls himself or herself a “writer”, we readers begin to expect nothing if not good writing). Yetzirah goes on to explain the meaning of her name (a Kabbalistic term for a spritual world) and gently tickles our curiosity by announcing “chilling” posts on Pre Menopausal Syndrome, a make believe world called Bogwillow, her therapist (which she wants us to meet) and the inherent promise of a good time. Underneath this description we find her post highlights and that’s where I began to read. With a non-stop smile on my face.

Yetzirah’s post are nothing short of one’s expectations. They are witty, funny and never boring. Her highlights do her writing justice. I especially loved this post, where she describes a therapy session in her tub with all her writing devices (as she calls them); all imaginary characters, present in the tub with her. One cannot help but laugh at these characters: her therapist, a rubber ducky, the quirky residents of Bogwillow: Tilly, Milly, Chloe, Thaddeus of the Pack Rat fur hats, the Bogwillow Journal editor and The Oracle of Pupik (a hilarious omnipresent character). The interesting part is that they, at one point or another, represent Yetzirah’s Super Ego, Ego and Alter Ego. Talk about witty and insightful! Other highlights which I found funny where her “Consult the Oracle post”, where the Oracle of Pupik answers reader’s questions; her adventures trying on makeup for her son’s wedding; her Dr. Rubber Duckie therapy sessions; her very insightful (and downright hilarious) critique called “Catcher in the Rye…Reloaded” and I’m not even mentioning her Menopause rants. Hey, what more can I add? All her highlight posts are worth reading.

Regarding her “normal” posts, they range from gardening (she has her beloved peach trees and her blackberries) to her opinions on saved e-mails that occupy space on your hard drive to her troubles with a washing machine. Whatever Yetzirah writes of, you can be sure it will be worth a read and a laugh. I found her writing to be brilliant (in all honesty). A cute grandma that bakes cookies all day, she most definitely isn’t (not that there’s anything wrong with this).

Yetzirah is a sensitive, very out-of-the-ordinary woman with an ability to arouse your interest on even the most trivial things. A true writer with a writer’s soul… She is going into my list of favorites right away.

I give Yetzirah a 4.5 only because of the template which I just couldn’t find visually appealing (the flowers, the kitchen thing). I honestly think it does not do her blog justice. Had it not been for that, she would have received a 5. Nevertheless, her 4.5 comes through with a round of applause. And now my hands are sore, but hey, it was worth it.

Yetzirah