Italian and Spanish translation weblogs report

Luxus linguae
Il lusso di leggere e (tran)scrivere di una filoglotta. Manifesto:

bq. Luxus linguae è proprio il lusso della lingua: è un lusso leggere, un lusso (tran)scrivere, un lusso tenere un blog. Un lusso interessarsi di cultura (v. Luxus 2). E navigando beatamente nel superfluo, chi si accorge più del lusso di potersi dedicare a tutto ciò? (v. Luxus 3)

Related original texts are at Prototesto.

Biblit blog

Translation Notes by Julio Juncal
Translation resources, news, ideas, and tools. Particularly, on translation from English and French into Spanish or vice versa.

Notas Terminologicas, also by Julio Juncal
Terminology Notes of the Spanish Translation Service of the United Nations, New York

Nigeria via Ghana, Munich and Austria/Geldwäsche für Dolmetscher

Has anyone else got one of these? Actually I think a similar scam has been reported by others in the past few weeks:

bq. From: “DR. EMMANUEL OWUSU SEKYERE”
Subject: interpreter
To: …

bq. Hello,
i am Dr. Owusu Sekyere,an orthopedic surgean
in a private hospital in Ghana,and i have a patient
whom i have refered to a hospital in munchen (Germany)
for a surgery on his fracture dislocation but will
need a translator to help him since he’s coming with
his family and only speaks English,
This means he will need someone who can
translate German to English,This family will need this
person,5hours per day for 11 days,I will be very
greatful if you can get back to me in time so i can
have good news for this patient of mine and re-assure
him that right from the airport throughout his
endervours in Austria will be assisted with the aid of
your translator,
Please get back to me on the cost of your
services and any other requirements because he would
like to remit the funds to you before his arrival
date,
Thank you,
Dr. Owusu Sekyere

This patient is apparently not satisfied with going to Munich: he wants to make a trip to Austria too – climbing, probably.

I have heard that members of the ITI (like me) are receiving invitations for interpreting jobs like this:

bq. “A 10-day interpreting job for my daughters who will be going out for
shopping and visiting some beautiful places…”
Or
“My staffs are coming over to the UK for a 4 days seminar which is
taking place in a hotel hall…”

I heard about in in December 2004 and apparently Scotland Yard confirmed that it is a money laundering scam.

French article on solicitors/Französischer Artikel über Solicitors

The legaltranslators group at Yahoo has yet again received an advertising mail from Translation Directory:

bq. Read more free articles for translators at http://www.TranslationDirectory.com/article_index.htm

with a list of those articles. Most have nothing to do with legal translation, but I had to look at The “Solicitor” – A judicial auxiliary function in the English legal system by A. de Schlichting – Pr. de droit (what is Pr. de droit?). Being a solicitor myself, I was interested to hear I have a judicial function. I love the way they put “Solicitor”, in inverted commas, as if it were dubious. I know those inverted commas are used for emphasis, but that’s not customary in English, is it?

I was slowed down but not stopped when I saw the article was written in French. My headers here may be misleading, but if I wrote an entry in French I would indicate that in the header.

However, I feel I should add some comments to this article.

tous les solicitors ont poursuivi des études universitaires juridiques.

Mais non! I did German at university, not law.

les examens professionnels dans un College of law.

We usually call it le College of Law, not un College of law

peuvent alors être inscrits sur la liste des solicitors (admitted to theRolls).

No, no, no. The Master of the Rolls admits solicitors to the roll (singular). We did have a client once who admitted me to his Rolls, and I must say it was a wonderfully smooth journey.

tout d’abord, le solicitor n’est pas compétent en matière de plaidoirie (advocacy).

This is a common misunderstanding. Solicitors do masses of advocacy, some of them do nothing else, but all in the lower courts (where the greatest number of trials occur). Some solicitors can even appear in the higher courts nowadays, but there aren’t many of them yet. Some people are told that barristers represent people in court and solicitors don’t. Forget that. The real difference is more like that between a general practitioner – a family doctor – and a specialist. But I do the article an injustice – later this statement is corrected:

Toutefois, le solicitor a le droit de plaider devant des juridictions inférieures telles la Magistrates’ Court (juridiction répressive inférieure) ou la County Court (tribunal d’instance).

My legal French is not very good so my suspicions about représsive may be wrong, and those about rédiger des actes for drawing up a will.

Pour terminer citons l’activité notariale des solicitors qui leur permet d’authentifier certains actes en tant que notaire (notary public).

This is a rather complex subject. Solicitors can witness signatures. There are various kinds of notaries in England and Wales, some of whom may do more advanced notarial stuff.

Néanmoins, malgré la réforme, on ne peut pas encore parler d’une fusion des deux professions.

That’s correct!