Second-hand English bookshop in Munich

LongSign2.jpg

Opening on February 1st: The Munich Readery is a second-hand bookshop for English books in Munich. This sounds like a godsend. I am always hesitant to throw out English books, and I buy more than I should, for lack of people with the same tastes I can borrow from or lend to.

The location is Augustenstr. 104, 80798 Munich (at intersection with Schellingstraße, home of two Words’Worth bookshops). Hours are Monday to Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

The bookshop is being opened by John and Lisa Browner, who say:

We offer the largest selection of secondhand English-language books in Germany at 30 – 70% off current list prices … browse through our website, which serves as an introduction to our store.

(Thanks to Mandy von Sivers)

Weblogs etc.

I have now added to my front page: Legalesed (law, language and leftovers) and Working Languages (legal translation and interpreting), which now permits comments without registration.

TranslationMaven by Matt Elsworth (profile here) is one I have missed (thanks, Trevor).

Carlos lists more new Spanish-language weblogs on literature and language on Las palabras son pistolas cargadas (this mentions TranslationMaven too).

Playing to the jury

In Dedham, Massachusetts, a dominatrix has been acquitted of manslaughter in connection with the death of a client following a heart attack experienced under her services. The charge was for failing to help him rather than for causing the heart attack. Report from CNN.com:

During his closing argument to the jury, prosecutor Robert Nelson put on a black leather mask with a zippered mouth opening and re-enacted the bondage session.
With both hands, he reached back and clutched the top of a blackboard as if strapped to the rack. Then he hung his head as if dead.
Asher’s lawyer objected, and the judge agreed.

“That’s enough Mr. Nelson,” Judge Charles Grabau said. “Thank you for your demonstration.”

Via Boing Boing

ES>EN trade mark translator sought

I take the liberty of reposting an entry from IPKAT, the trademark blog:

bq. Translations into English

IPKat co-blogmeister Jeremy is looking for a bit of assistance from someone who can translate trade mark cases from Spanish to English with a view to reporting them in the European Trade Mark Reports. Ideally the translator should be a native English-speaker. There is some remuneration, but it is not at all generous. Some occasional help is also needed with German trade mark and copyright cases, also for a relative pittance.

The real rewards are (i) the satisfaction of seeing one’s work in print and (ii) being able to put on your CV the fact that you’ve translated cases for the ETMR and its sister publication the European Copyright and Design Reports. If you’re interested in having a go, email Jeremy here.

The authors of IPKAT are always anxious to obtain the latest decisions in English and often comment on the time it takes to get hold of a translation.

Contracts in English/FAZ.NET über Verträge auf Englisch

Artikel von Sergey Frank in der Reihe “Internationales Geschäft” – “Verträge auf Englisch“, in FAZ.NET.

An article on the dangers of drafting international contracts in English, the problems of taking over boilerplate expressions uncritically.

I could imagine a large number of problems, but the article doesn’t go into great detail.

bq. Aus Angst vor Vertragsfallen durch falsche eigene Formulierungen übernehmen Juristen oft die traditionellen Vorgaben aus früheren Fällen. Diese sind häufig nicht eindeutig verständlich und/oder passen nicht hundertprozentig auf den gegebenen Sachverhalt.

Mangelhafte Vertragsentwürfe auf nationaler Ebene sind genauso peinlich und schädlich auf internationaler Ebene. Das Risiko erhöht sich durch mehrfache Übersetzungen.
Juristische Texte aus verschiedenen Länden variieren sehr in Länge, Komplexität, Bedeutung und Konsequenz.

(From Handakte WebLAWg)

Suing in England / South-Park-Folge in England nicht gezeigt

Popbitch reports (20 January) that an episode of South Park featuring Tom Cruise is not to be shown in the United Kingdom. The episode can be seen here. It had Tom Cruise locking himself in Stan’s closet and used the punchline ‘Tom Cruise won’t come out of the closet’ twenty-eight times.

bq. The final line of the show is
Tom telling the “South Park” kids “I’m gonna
sue you! I’m gonna sue you in England!”

According to The Sun, Cruise is litigious and doesn’t like the episode, and the channel Paramount didn’t want to take the risk.

Eine Folge von South Park, in der Tom Cruise sich in einen Schrank einschließt und durch ein Wortspiel als Homosexueller beschrieben wird, wird in England nicht gezeigt, da der Sender Paramount Angst vor einer Klage hat.

Many thanks to Trevor (link may be temporarily down).

Court interpreter weblog

I seem to have missed this one, but Céline quotes from it.

The blog started on December 11:

bq. In my opinion, the public doesn´t really understand what an interpreter does. There are all kinds of interpreters: U.N. interpreters, conference interpreters, escort interpreters, seminar interpreters, court interpreters … sign-language interpreters. Nicole Kidman played an interpreter in The Interpreter, but the film didn´t do a great job of describing that branch of interpreting, let alone the kind performed inside a courtroom.