From my referrers, I see that João Roque Dias, a technical translator in Portugal (that great footballing nation), has a list of translators all over the world, presumably growing all the time. The whole thing is copyrighted and non-copiable – I only noticed because I was having trouble writing the ã and thought I’d pinch it from the source text (I eventually found it here).

Some of the websites are praised with the words ‘What a great website, Jessica / Jody / Jürgen!’, sometimes varied with ‘What a pleasant website to visit, Donna…’, or the ominous ‘What a minimalistic website, Karin…’

There is more information on the site too, such as how to get good results in search engines and how to spam-proof e-mail addresses on your site.

Süddeutsche Zeitung
The Independent

The Independent reports:

bq. Princess Caroline of Monaco has won a landmark ruling preventing the German press from publishing photographs of her and her children, which could have important implications for privacy cases in Britain.

Matthias Prinz, Princess Caroline’s lawyer, is quoted:

bq. “This is very good for my client and for all people in Europe because the court is raising the standard of protection of private life to a level higher than in Germany – to the level of France,” Princess Caroline’s lawyer, Matthias Prinz, told Reuters.

On Thursday, there were gale force winds all over Germany and a tornado did quite some damage in Saxony. The wind had a visible effect on the water in this Nuremberg fountain.

Udo Vetter in law blog weist auf eine Meldung der Polizeipresse.

According to a report of the Central Franconia police news, on the evening of June 22nd a Danish couple driving north from Austria arrived in the city of Nuremberg after following a diversion. The 68-year-old husband park on Leipziger Platz, took the car key with him (!) and went into an underground public lavatory, whence he failed to find his car. Three hours of wandering later, he arrived at a police station, but as he spoke neither German nor English, communication was difficult – despite the help of an interpreter who offered her services free of charge by phone (who might this interpreter be, I wonder). The Danish woman locked in the car had a mobile phone with her but hadn’t switched it on. The couple were not reunited until 1 a.m., at which time they decided to sleep the rest of the night in the car.

Die Süddeutsche berichtet etwas einseitig über amerikanische Schadensersatzurteile. Die Geschworenen sprechen oft Summen zu, die später vom Richter korrigiert werden. Hinzu kommt, dass in den USA Strafschadensersatz ein Teil des Systems ist. Der Artikel beschreibt auch Professor Lester Brickman von Cardozo Law School als Professor Lester Brickman-Cardozo.

An article in the Süddeutsche about damages awards and class actions in the USA warms up all the old chestnuts. It also refers to Professor Lester Brickman of Cardozo Law School as Professor Lester Brickman-Cardozo.

Asbestos claims are obviously Professor Brickman’s speciality and I have not investigated the subject further. Here is a transcript of him on the topic. It looks, though, as if a particular argument against class actions has been padded with the usual suspects:

bq. Schadenersatzprozesse basieren auf angelsächsischen Rechtsprinzipien. Der Ausgang der Prozesse ist für die Beklagten häufig ein Glücksspiel. Laienrichter, die von den komplizierten Sachverhalten häufig nur wenig verstehen, sind an der Urteilsfindung beteiligt.
Kein Zufall, dass sogar abstrus erscheinenden Klagen stattgegeben wurde, die aus europäischem Rechtsverständnis kaum eine Chance oder viel bescheidenere Schadensersatzsummen zur Folge gehabt hätten.

This is followed by a reference to a Florida case where a waitress spilled hot coffee on a man, injuring him, the jury awarded a huge sum of damages, and it appears from a web search that the award was later reduced. Is this an ‘abstrus erscheinende Klage’?

bq. Punitive Damages — Like most Floridians, I have heard the outrageous story where millions of dollars were awarded as punitive damages against a restaurant whose hot coffee spilled and injured someone. For the most part, we hear about these extreme cases when juries award excessive punitive damages, but not when trial judges or appellate courts later reduce the awards to reasonable levels, as happened in the coffee-spill case.

(Via Juristisches und Sonstiges)

One of the most bizarre cultural experiences on German TV is the German-dubbed version of Jamie Oliver’s Naked Chef. Repeats of the first series are nearly over, on Saturday mornings on RTLII. Maybe they’ll repeat the later series next.

So bizarre is the German dubbing that I was obliged to get a DVD so I could compare the English and German versions.

Jamie Oliver is quite a media curiosity in the original, and here he is shown on German TV to viewers who have not gradually been prepared by watching Gary Rhodes, Nigella Lawson, The Two Fat Ladies and Nigel Slater, and for whom one of the most exciting TV food programmes is the avuncular Alfred Biolek with guests. It must be a shock.

Presumably to outdo the competition, he is shown outside the kitchen only in action, sliding down the banisters, dashing out on his scooter (blurred images) to small shops where everyone knows him. In most episodes he has met up with friends to engage in activities new to him (going to dog races, go-karting). How far is he, or was he in this first programme, a product of the media?

This must have been made with an international market in mind, and conveniently most of the recipes need no quantities or adaptation, although things like double cream or the coriander leaves you can get on every corner (but not in Franconia) are glossed over. The idea is good ingredients, half a pound of fresh herbs on everything, and quick simple dishes, often very good. (The recipes can often be found on the Internet, including on the RTLII site linked above and on the BBC site).

The main problem for the translator seems to be Jamie’s Mockney (mock Cockney) speech. He comes from North Essex and his sister sounds much more normal. I don’t think it’s quite estuary English that he speaks – perhaps he started with estuary and then played up the Cockney element. An example:
JO: I’m gonna lightly flour the old surface (‘the old’)
DE: Als erstes etwas Mehl.

For more examples, continue reading. Continue reading →