Polish translation weblog

In the talking bear, the mysterious talking bear has just begun his or her account of things (with one comment by the equally mysterious David, who addresses the blogger as Mis). Perhaps it is a he called Michoslaw and perhaps he is in Krakow.

Some translators argue about whether a non-native speaker can translate into a language, but the net is cast wider here:

bq. The other problem is choosing the language to translate to. There’s no point in “selling” a language that no-one’s going to want. The issue of determining which language to choose, however, comes and goes in trends.

bq. Kazakh, darling? Oh, that’s so passé!

bq. I’ve always liked to think that English as a global language will always come in handy, and as I speak Polish fluently as well as having a good knowledge of Russian and French (the latter being not so useful out here), finding work is much more of a problem than I though it would be.

I’m not sure I understand the ‘as’ there. The more languages you speak, the harder it is to find work. Probably the harder to make up your mind which to translate into.

Perhaps one should stick to languages like Serbo-Croat or Czechoslovakian that one day offer a choice (give or take a change of alphabet).

4 thoughts on “Polish translation weblog

  1. Thanks for the comments. I myself do not wish to translate into any language other than English, as that is my native language. I fully agree with the fact that you should only translate into the language you are most proficient in. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case over here in Kraków, hence my ranting on the matter.

    As for the blog, it is a stage for my ramblings on life in general, translation, obviously, playing it’s rightful part.

  2. Margaret,

    Long, long ago I used to speak some Polish, largely (in fact, exclusively) because I was married to a lady from that great country. I seem to remember that mis (probably with some sort of diacritic on the s, but no doubt Michoslaw will put me right there) means “bear”, so it probably fits the context of the grumbling bear’s website.

    Robin

  3. Michosław: I see – that explains your text.
    Don’t know if the comments are slow, but I have removed one of two that are almost the same.

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