I’ve changed my provider. I was with domainfactory.de, whose service is excellent and who did everything possible to make the changeover work, but who didn’t give me enough bandwidth for posting (quite a problem with Movable Type, as far as I can tell). I am now with myhosting.de, which is a small provider (run by Florian Munz) with special interest in webloggers.

As a result, I can now show category archives. At the bottom of this post is the word ‘Weblogs’, and clicking on that brings up all the other entries on this topic.

One problem: for a long time I stopped using categories, because I got error messages, and I was going to remove them altogether, so not all the posts have intelligent category labels (yet!)

The cross-references within the blog don’t work properly. The entries are renumbered when the blog is imported at the new site. I will change them by hand, but I’m not sure when, and I’ll put category titles in the margin.

In 2001, Richard Schneider began his German-language news portal at Alexander von Obert’s website. It has just celebrated its second anniversary, and to mark the occasion there is an interview with Schneider, which has now entered the archives.

At Übersetzer-Portal Info is the page where you can choose between the items – for instance, there is Bruno Aeschbacher’s list of translators’ mailing lists, Lorraine Riach’s list of second-hand books for translators, and Anke Cherrak’s list of Internet dictionaries.

The news portal can be selected there or by its own URL. That shows the latest items and a link to the archives. One item reports the death at 55 of Brigitte Sauzay, who interpreted for four French presidents; another is on the German translator of the Harry Potter novels, Klaus Fritz, actually a translator of non-fiction who got the job because the most likely translators were all busy; an article on Luther, on the occasion of the release of the film; and two articles on attacks on interpreters in Iraq.

At the bottom of the page is the link to the archives. Following this, the interview with Schneider is dated November 3rd. And there are a large number of other interesting entries. As Schneider points out, the links won’t die. He writes up his own articles and would like some volunteers to help him.

One of Schneider’s sources is Google News. Carob (Not a Blog) has a Google newsfeed in the lefthand margin, with searches based on ‘Germany’ and ‘Übersetzer’ (translator). How do you do that, Robin? Just do a search and link the URL? Definitely worth looking at.

There are a number of articles in the Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German) on references. German job references are written in a sort of code, a secret language known to those who write them and those who receive them. You can buy books about it. The employee can sue for a better reference, but not insist on the best.

§ 630 of the German Civil Code gives a right to a reference. Here’s the original with Simon Goren’s translation:

Pflicht zur Zeugniserteilung. Bei der Beendigung eines dauernden Dienstverhältnisses kann der Verpflichtete von dem anderen Teile ein schriftliches Zeugnis über das Dienstverhältnis und dessen Dauer fordern. Das Zeugnis ist auf Verlangen auf die Leistungen und die Führung im Dienste zu erstrecken. Die Erteilung des Zeugnisses in elektronischer Form ist ausgeschlossen.
(The last sentence is post-Goren)

Duty to give a testimonial. On the termination of an ongoing employment relationship the employee may demand from the other party a written testimonial as to the employment relationship and its duration. The testimonial shall, on demand, contain a statement as to his performance and conduct at work.

I have twice been asked to translate such a reference into English, and both times I had doubts. In both cases the clients changed their minds. Now I think I would translate them literally, but first tell the client (as I did then) to consider the problems that might arise. Who is the translation for? Should I put a footnote indicating ‘this would be better if the word “always” was there’?

Interview with Andreas Mauritz, a lawyer who has written a book about references.

The closing wording is important: if there have been no problems: the employer writes that he very much regrets the employee is leaving, thanks the employee for the work done and wishes the employee all the best for the future. – If this wording is missing, something must be wrong.

The words ‘reliable’ (zuverlässig) and ‘honest’ (ehrlich) must be there.

Expressions like ‘He was popular (Er war beliebt) and ‘He was always held in great regard’ (Er wurde stets sehr geschätzt) are ambiguous (Was he sociable, or was his work top-notch? Was he helpful or a spineless idiot?) For an executive, this would be lethal: he mustn’t be popular, but fair.

Here’s a list of ‘grades’:

His/her conduct towards superiors, colleagues , subordinates and customers …
… was always exemplary (very good conduct, grade 1)
… was exemplary (good, grade 2)
… was always irreproachable / correct (grade 2- – vollbefriedigend, a grade usually only used for law students)
… was irreproachable /correct (grade 3)
… was without fault (grade 4, pass)
… gave no occasion for complaint (grade 5, fail)
… Nothing negative has been learnt of her/him (grade 6, very poor)

There is also a long list of terms with explanations of their meaning.

e.g ‘The atmosphere at work was improved as a result of his sociability’ (Durch seine Geselligkeit wurde das Betriebsklima verbessert) means he sometimes drank alcohol on the job.
And an article introducing the topic.

Yesterday Martin Hohmann, a member of the CDU, was expelled from the party for remarks he made in a speech on October 3rd, which are seen as anti-Semitic. I don’t intend to discuss the speech itself, which I have skimmed. Its main point was that Germans ought not permanently to be seen as beyond the pale, and that other nations could get away with things Germans couldn’t. The comparison that most struck me was a reference to the way Napoleon is remembered in France, with an implied comparison to Hitler – but surely Napoleon’s legacy and Hitler’s were somewhat different?

Anyway, Hohmann said the Jews could just as much be considered a Tätervolk (race of perpetrators) as the Germans. I wondered if there were varying translations – the word Täter can be a problem, but perpetrator seemed the right choice. The Independent had race of perpetrators. The BBC didn’t mention the term. The Guardian had nation of perpetrators. The New York Times wrote:

bq. As an example of those other people, Mr. Hohmann singled out the Jews, whom he called Tätervolk, a German term that has been widely translated as “race of perpetrators” but is probably more accurately translated as “nation of perpetrators.”

It also called Hohmann a legislator, which was a new term to me in this context.

I found nothing in the Telegraph online, but there was an article about the poor quality of German pop music:

bq. So dire has the situation become that some German chart toppers pretend they are foreigners. The red-haired Kelly Family pretend to be Irish, while the singer Sascha hints that he is Canadian….
Predictably, American and British acts are hogging the current top ten, while only three are German. But who has heard of Alexander, Jeanette or Sarah Connor?

Cat recommends bird: The IPKAT recommends Media Beak in the following terms:

bq. What do Larry Flynt, Jessica Lynch, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Gail Hipgrave, Prince Charles and a High Court judge have in common? They all get a mention on Media Beak, a new blog, recommended by the IPKat, which bills itself as “the new hot-off-the-press top topic discussion forum for media law”. The IPKat wishes the Media Beak well, and looks forward to reading his views and news.

The Herald reports that many Scottish lawyers think a new UK supreme court would be unconstitutional in Scotland. (via An Oasis)

The 1707 Act of Union provides that no Scottish case can be heard in an English court. It also removed Scotland’s parliament, but left it its judicial independence. The Faculty of Advocates, the equivalent of the Bar Council in England and Wales, says the supreme court would be unlawful and unconstitutional.

Apparently the Act of Union is entrenched, so it should not be possible for it to be amended (but it must have been an amendment when Scotland was given a parliament). That is one question. Another is, why would the supreme court be an ‘English’ court? It would be for the whole of the UK. And another: how is it that some Scottish appeals (in civil matters) go to the House of Lords?

In fact, the Herald article suggests that the main difficulty is with the proposals for a supreme court in their present form. There have always been one or two Scottish law lords, and similar provisions need to be made for a UK supreme court (if there ever is one). And perhaps the court is too closely integrated into the system of English and Welsh courts for the Scots to accept.