I thought it was Ascension Day tomorrow; some people seem to think it’s Father’s Day; but I found out this afternoon it is the first Nuremberg sausage day.
There’s a website too. There seem to be four separate walks, a fair amount of music, Bratwurst haikus, and some street theatre.
One fears the worst. Alison Penfold on FLEFO pointed out that Google is looking for volunteer translators to localize its site(s).
Translation guidelines include:
bq. It is very important to us that all translations maintain the appropriate Google tone. Our site in English is written in a tech- and web-savvy, upbeat and friendly style. We want all our non-English content to reflect this style; however, we recognize that what is considered polite and appropriate varies by culture. Therefore, we want the translator to understand the English content and style first, and then rewrite it such that the tone is maintained within the framework of the particular language/culture.
bq. Do not translate proper names or product names. Examples of these include “Google” and “SafeSearch”.
Discussion group for Google translators
I gather from an answer on that forum that Google has paid translators for the higher-volume languages.
Sind die Wörter “in der jeweiligen Fassung” bei einem Gesetz notwendig (auf Englisch)?
Corp Law Blog has another interesting entry on language. The question is: If you quote a statute ‘as amended’, what do the words ‘as amended’ add?
And how do you interpret Section 1 of the Securities Act of 1933, which tells us that the short title of the Securities Act of 1933 is the “Securities Act of 1933” (no reference to “as amended”)?
The comments are interesting too – and even Sydney Carton contributed.
The question is whether a short title means the statute at the date of a contract, for example, or the statute in all its subsequent amendments.
Robert Schwartz’s comment ends:
Clients just hate hearing lawyers argue about shit like that at $500 @ hr. Another reason I have forbiden my children from going to law school.
Have you noticed that secretaries often corect the title of the Act to The Securities Act of 1993?
And Gary comments, inter alia:
It is interesting to note that most “sophisticated” transaction documents have a lengthy section of defined terms but they often give short shrift to rules of construction. In particularly complex transactions, I include the following within a section containing rules of construction:
“Any reference to any federal, state, local, or foreign statute or law includes (1) all rules and regulations promulgated thereunder and (2) such statute or law as amended, modified or supplemented from time to time (including any successor statute or law).”
Yet another blog with a translation connection is Blogos, subtitled ‘News and views on languages and technology’. It seems to have a connection to Multilingual Computing. It is run by Andrew Joscelyne.
Interestingly, the blog is run on ExpressionEngine. It unfortunately has no newsfeed (or none yet – ?), although it has a mailing list. Interesting entries since April 5th.
Thanks to Robin Bonthrone for the tip-off.
It remains to be seen this blog soon overtakes its namesake , a religious blog, in Google. And here’s another. But they will not be read by the same people (although I have taken note of the Bible one for future research purposes).
Alan Johnson (siehe vor allem Ressourcen-seite), ein Übersetzer und staatlich geprüfter Geologietechniker, hat ein Weblog angefangen.
New weblog by Alan Johnson (see in particular his Resources page), who does translations mainly in earth sciences and techology.
(Click to enlarge/Klicken, um zu vergrößern)
This is another picture, like the bonsai pictures taken from the Friedrichstraße multistorey car park in Fürth. If this is a Virginia creeper, I can look forward to taking many more pictures when it turns red!