Inverssuche jetzt über das Örtliche möglich, berichtet Udo Vetter (über E-Business-Weblog).

What is this?

To say nothing of this.

In Baden-Württemberg heißt es, “Wir können alles, nur kein Hochdeutsch”. Aber Englisch können sie auch nicht alle, und manche von ihnen haben vielleicht Schwierigkeiten, eine gute Übersetzung zu finden – da muss man sich aber nicht schämen, sondern bereit sein, Korrekturen zu machen.

In September, I reported on the Landesmedienzentrum Baden-Württemberg and the quality of the English on its website. From the Impressum:

bq. All rights lie with the Landesmedienzentrum Baden-Württemberg. As far as in the individual case in a different way regulated and untill foreign laws are not concerned, the spreading of the documents lying on this server is desired as a whole or in parts of it in electronic and printed form under the condition that the source (Landesmedienzentrum Baden-Württemberg) and the URL are named. Without previous written approval by the LMZ a commercial spreading of the documents lying on this server is strictly prohibited.

This now reads:

bq. All rights are owned by the Baden-Württemberg State Media Center. Unless otherwise agreed in individual cases, and provided that the rights of third parties are not affected, the distribution of the documents on this server is desired, in whole or in part, in electronic and printed form under the condition that the source (Baden-Württemberg State Media Center) and the URL are specified. Commercial distribution of the documents on this server is expressly prohibited without prior permission from the State Media Center.

How did this change come about? Well, for one thing, Sabine Lockner-Schadek, a professional translator on the pt mailing list at Yahoo groups, wrote an email to the Landesmedienzentrum pointing out the poor quality. She received a rather unfriendly email reply ans was asked not to bother the Director with this information. The site remained unchanged. Then Sabine wrote to the minister Frau Dr. Schavan, who was in charge of a ministry that provided some funding for the project. She was then informed that after her first approach, the LMZ had engaged an expert translation dcompany to do the corrections. The quality was described as being the result of text passages from drafts being wrongly put online. And the LMZ told the ministry it had informed Sabine of this change, which is apparently not true.

There has recently been a meeting of the European Broadcasting Union in Basle, and the LMZ would have made quite a fool of itself without Sabine Lockner-Schadek’s helpful comments. So let’s thank her here on behalf of the taxpayers of Baden-Württemberg at least.

Some days ago, Isabella Massardo posted some links to articles in Italian about legal translation. I haven’t had time to look at them closely, and as I have only rudimentary Italian I would need a lot of time. So here is one anyway: Paola Apuzzo did not want to do legal translation, but that’s what she finished up doing, and she enjoys it. I must remember to glance into the De Franchis dictionary when I next pass it.

bq. All’inizio della “carriera” di traduttore giuridico, alle prese con vari dubbi esistenziali (“Cosa c’entro io con la traduzione giuridica?!?” e “Chi me l’ha fatto fare?”), ho naturalmente cercato conforto nell’aiuto per eccellenza di tutti i traduttori: il dizionario, nella specie il “Dizionario giuridico” di Francesco de Franchis, edito da Giuffrè. Anche il traduttore alle prime armi sa che il dizionario, per quanto ben fatto e completo (il che, data la velocità con cui si evolve ogni lingua, latino a parte, è pura utopia), non è che un accessorio, fondamentale ma non sempre risolutivo, e che quindi non vi troverà mai tutte le risposte. Ma chi, come me allora, quasi completamente digiuno di diritto, prende per la prima volta in mano il Dizionario del de Franchis, potrebbe perdere ogni speranza: è tutto un fiorire di “grosso modo”, “non esiste un equivalente” e simili locuzioni poco rassicuranti… Al secondo tentativo, si strappa i capelli; al terzo strappa direttamente i fogli del tomo. Da queste considerazioni si potrebbe dedurre che il Dizionario in questione non vale niente: nulla di più falso, è un’opera estremamente curata e dettagliata e, per quanto ne so, la più completa nel suo genere.

Francesca Oddone writes about training (I think), and on top of this, the University of Genoa is offering, or is about to offer, a master’s degree in legal translation.

The January 2005 edition of the free online Translation Journal has appeared.

I note in particular a translator’s profile of the unforgettable Alexander Feht, and a number of articles in Spanish and one in Italian – it’s a good idea to represent other languages, I think. Also the regular agony aunts, Fire Ant and Worker Bee, and Danilo Nogueira on From Shoebox to SQL (he doesn’t really get to SQL, though).

Many thanks to f/k/a…. for giving me my own haiku.

bq. for Margaret Marks von Transblawg

bq. new year’s fog
she washes
all the windows
– Pamela Miller Ness Haiku Troubadours 2000

If any of my neighbours are watching this, I’d like to point out that there was no way David Giacalone could have known this was a sensitive topic, and that I intend to have cleaned them all by 31 December 2005.