I just discovered that Collins Dictionaries and Langenscheidt have been collaborating since last autumn and a new edition of the big one-volume Collins dictionary is to be published in the UK on May 4th 2004 and in Germany apparently in April. This will be the fifth edition.

Collins Dictionaries is now part of Harper Collins, but it was a different Mr. Collins who started the dictionaries, in Glasgow in the 19th century. 20,000 new words, price £30 in the UK and €54,00 or €59,00 (with thumb index) in Germany.

Thanks to Susan Siewert for the information. No news as to a CD-ROM version. As mentioned earlier, Pons, with whom Collins Dictionaries used to collaborate, brought out a Großwörterbuch which it developed itself (I believe on the basis of Collins).

Die Übersetzerwebsite GoTranslators hat mehrere Einzelübersetzer, die keine Agenturen sind, als Agenturen in eine Online-Datenbank gestellt. Ich bekam mehrere Bewerbungen, u.a. von Leuten, die meine Adresse zusammen mit 49 anderen anschrieben, egal, ob mein Fachgebiet und Sprachkombination mit ihren eigenen übereinstimmen.

Ohne mich zu registrieren sehe ich die Liste nicht. Ich registriere mich nicht, da ich schon mehrmals unaufgeforderte Werbung von GoTranslators bekam und nicht mehr bekommen will.

Angeblich ist mein Name aus der Liste jetzt entfernt, d.h. meine zwei Adressen wurden entfernt (nicht ohne nochmalige Bitte wegen der zweiten Adresse), aber andere sind noch auf der Liste. Und vor allem haben anscheinend viele die Liste vor Monaten heruntergeladen und benutzen sie noch.

Die Website von GoTranslators ist nicht sehr aufschlussreich. Aber Robin Stocks hat, laut ProZ, mehr erfahren.

bq. Zu “gotranslators.com” – den Hintergrund hatte Robin Stocks auf der PT-Liste erleuchtet:

bq. Laut SWHOIS-Suche ist der “Administrative Contact” für diese Domain Benoit Lhoest; dessen dort hinterlegte Mail-Adresse führt zu www.translatin.com, und auf dieser Site steht unter den FAQ: “TRANSLATIN is a division of the Belgian Web-Refer Consulting group” – und das ist wiederum auch der Betreiber von “gotranslators.com”…

Belgien ist aber in der EU – fehlt hier nicht ein Impressum?

www.gotranslators.com apparently put a number of freelance translators on a list of agencies some months ago. I think both my addresses have been removed, but I can’t look at the list without registering. I don’t want to register because I have already received unrequested advertising from GoTranslators, often both in private and via mailing lists. GoTranslators never enquired whether I was an agency.

The amazing thing is that some translators download the list of agencies and paste 50 addresses into an email address field. They don’t check the ‘agencies” websites to see if they cover the same fields of specialization or language combinations as the applicant. Sometimes they download the list and only use it many months later. Good grief, the applicant could have told from my website that I am not an agency.

I wonder what GoTranslators is – where it’s located (I find the website very uninformative). One of the emails they sent me said it was the ‘5rd month of our web life’, which suggests they aren’t native speakers of English. But I must have missed a posting on the pt group at Yahoogroups by Robin Stocks, who traced them as the creation of Benoit Lhoest in Belgium. For the information (in German) from Robin, see the German quote above.

I put off posting this for a while, but this week I heard that another translator in Fürth gets almost daily mails from a Japanese translation agency. She asked them to remove her from their mailing list, and they told her they had her email address from GoTranslators.

GoTranslators is one of a number of websites for translators – see earlier entry.

Links für Aldibaran (Liste der Produzenten) und Aldiblog(wird anscheinend nicht weitergeführt).

Aldibaran (German) is a private site about Aldi, the supermarket chain(s) (Aldi Nord and Aldi Süd). It contains the FAQ of the UseNet group de.alt.fan.aldi, including a list of the producers. The list of branches indicates which Aldis you go round clockwise (rechtsdrehend) and which anti-clockwise (linksdrehend).

Aldiblog (German) seems to have given up the ghost.

Aldi’s own site is available in other languages than German.

Trevor of Kaleboel has discovered a beta Spanish/Basque/English blogger who has ten rules on real bilingual blogging that make my hair, if not Trevor’s, stand on end.

Trevor also has a link to a Thomas Sowell political glossary I am very taken with:

|Crisis|Any situation you want to change|
|Bilingual|Unable to speak English|
|Equal opportunity|Preferential treatment |
|Non-judgmental|Blaming society|

I admit bilingual blogging is a problem. I am not consistent with this blog. I have come round to writing mainly English but occasionally with a brief German summary at the beginning. Sometimes there is more German if I think the topic is more interesting to Germans. A bilingual header ought to be followed by a bilingual entry.

In my Fürth blog, I do half English and half German. The two halves are not identical. I hope that anyone who wants to read just German will see where the German is.

Luistxo’s blog, The English Cemetery, proposes a truly bilingual blog where you could click on a link to get it in either English or German. Continue reading →

On March 21st 2004, the French Code Civil had its 200th birthday. On the occasion, a website has been published, and on that site the Code may be found in French, English and Spanish. On the site with the actual translations, there is a link for German too, but it leads nowhere.

It is ‘translated by Georges ROUHETTE, Professor of the University of Clermont-Ferrand I, with the co-operation of Anne BERTON, Professor of the University of Clermont-Ferrand II’. It looked good, but slightly odd in places, probably as a result of keeping very close to the original, a good idea in this case.

(The raising of a party wall; terms like beneficiary heir and testamentary executor)

(via JIPS and Handakte WebLAWg)

(In the wall of a house in Wolframs Eschenbach)

Not convincing.

(I am made of earth. If someone breaks me, the tiler will be laughing. 1991)