Following the entries on notaries, I should repeat and slightly enlarge what I wrote about commissioners for oaths, the nearest equivalent in England and Wales to a notary public in the U.S.A. Solicitors automatically become commissioners for oaths when they qualify. In the firm where I was articled, the newest solicitors were allowed to do the witnessing of oaths. I think the charge may have been £5 per document plus £1 for each extra page – all had to be stamped and initialled.

Here is a brief note on commissioners for oaths by a firm of Solicitors and Notaries. Continue reading →

On the partnertrans mailing list, a Yahoo group, there was mention of a site at Erlangen University where suggestions for translating Abitur certificates into English, and to a lesser extent into French, can be downloaded. As this is my nearest university, I am curious as to who prepared these materials.
There is scarcely anything I would change in the Abiturzeugnis itself. One problem is the grades: sehr gut, gut, befriedigend, ausreichend, mangelhaft, ungenügend are rendered as very good, good, satisfactory, sufficient, deficient, insufficientFor the last three, I usually use adequate, poor (fail) and very poor (fail). I think at least the last two need to be distinguished more clearly, but insufficient and very insufficient would be a bit wordy. Continue reading →

On the partnertrans mailing list, a Yahoo group, there was mention of a site at Erlangen University where suggestions for translating Abitur certificates into English, and to a lesser extent into French, can be downloaded. As this is my nearest university, I am curious as to who prepared these materials.
There is scarcely anything I would change in the Abiturzeugnis itself. One problem is the grades: sehr gut, gut, befriedigend, ausreichend, mangelhaft, ungenügend are rendered as very good, good, satisfactory, sufficient, deficient, insufficientFor the last three, I usually use adequate, poor (fail) and very poor (fail). I think at least the last two need to be distinguished more clearly, but insufficient and very insufficient would be a bit wordy. Continue reading →

On May 14th I mentioned an online shop for translators, mainly selling calendars. Today they sent me a spam email:

bq. Damit das Gesamtziel der Förderung unseres Images erreicht und eine ganz andere Art eines Übersetzerportals geschaffen werden kann, braucht es unserer aller Mithilfe. Indem wir das Projekt bekannt machen, es selbst nutzen und unsere KollegInnen dazu anzuregen, sich zu beteiligen und einzubringen. Mit neuen Ideen oder Themen, eigenen Beiträgen, Wünschen oder Produkten. Helfen Sie mit.

The general line is: we must all help so we can create a translator portal for all of us. This is the third such mail I’ve received in recent months, all from different translator companies or groupings emphasizing what we need to do for all of us.

This entry looks better, as I am using two Movable Type plugins, Textile by Brad Choate, and SmartyPants by John Gruber. However, if I tidy up older entries too, the difference will cease to be noticeable. Textile lets me do block quotes easily, and SmartyPants gives me typographic punctuation.

On May 14th I mentioned an online shop for translators, mainly selling calendars. Today they sent me a spam email:

bq. Damit das Gesamtziel der Förderung unseres Images erreicht und eine ganz andere Art eines Übersetzerportals geschaffen werden kann, braucht es unserer aller Mithilfe. Indem wir das Projekt bekannt machen, es selbst nutzen und unsere KollegInnen dazu anzuregen, sich zu beteiligen und einzubringen. Mit neuen Ideen oder Themen, eigenen Beiträgen, Wünschen oder Produkten. Helfen Sie mit.

The general line is: we must all help so we can create a translator portal for all of us. This is the third such mail I’ve received in recent months, all from different translator companies or groupings emphasizing what we need to do for all of us.

This entry looks better, as I am using two Movable Type plugins, Textile by Brad Choate, and SmartyPants by John Gruber. However, if I tidy up older entries too, the difference will cease to be noticeable. Textile lets me do block quotes easily, and SmartyPants gives me typographic punctuation.

By request of 1/30th of my average daily readers, here is another Minolta photo from the Bronx Zoo taken on April 30th. That’s a prairie dog in the background.