Sunday, December 30, 2007

Greetings from Toronto / Bon souvenir de Toronto




The year 2007 has been a good year and I wish to thank all my clients for their business. Je profite de l’occasion pour remercier tous mes clients de m’avoir fait confiance en 2007.



Happy New Year!

Bonne nouvelle année!

Šťastný Nový Rok!

'С Новым Годом!

Alles Gute im neuen Jahr!

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Winter is back / L'hiver est de retour



That was the other day. Now we have another storm coming from Texas.

La jolie neige fraîche de l'autre jour va être remplacée par une tempête de neige qui nous arrive du Texas.

Adventures in Blogland /1900 – 105 /L’univers des blogues

I started writing posts in April 2006 and implemented the counter in November of last year. One hundred and five posts later, there have been 1900 visits to my blog.

La majorité de mes lecteurs provient du Canada et des États-Unis. Il est intéressant de remarquer les autres pays : France, Royaume-Uni, Portugal, Australie, Pologne, Philippines, etc.

Il est intéressant de noter que le blogue a modifié mes habitudes. Je me sens plus attentif à l’actualité et aux sujets qui touchent la traduction, la communication et la culture dans un pays multiculturel. This exercise has made me more aware of language and communications issues and the challenges we all face when we speak to someone from another culture who uses another language.




Saturday, December 08, 2007

Advertising in Quebec / La publicité au Québec

The advertisers motto : “ Use what works. “ makes a lot of sense to me. The Globe and Mail’s Report on Business article on advertising in Quebec should remind us that one cannot apply the same rules everywhere.

Cela me rappelle l’histoire d’un fabricant automobile dont le siège social était aux États-Unis. Dans le cadre d’une revue destinée à ses employés de l’Amérique du Nord, un article avait été préparé sur une usine sise au Québec. L’auteur américain avait été particulièrement frappé (??) par la présence de pancartes en français dans l’usine. La situation est passée de mauvais au pire lorsqu’on nous avait demandé de traduire l’article pour la version française de la revue. Heureusement, une intervention accompagnée d’une explication en long et en large leur a fait changer d’idée. Un article sur un autre sujet apparut dans la revue.

Use of French expressions or coinages can also present problems. For example, the portable toilet bearing the name Pot-pourri was to be sold in Québec. While in English the expression can convey a bunch of sweet smelling herbs or flowers (to mask the odours in a bathroom, for example), and the expression pastille de pot-pourri exists (meaning a pot-pourri tart), applying the expression to a toilet is ludicrous. A recent Internet search for “Potpourri portable toilet” went unanswered. Maybe somebody got a better idea.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Winners again – AIC & Andrea Moses – les deux gagnants


Enduring benefits, that is how I would qualify my 5 years of membership in AIC . I was a green independent when I discovered AIC and must say that I have learned a great deal about the world of independent workers.

Les quelque 80 membres de cette association constituent un organisme vivant, en pleine évolution et qui rassemblent entre eux deux à trois milles ans d’expérience dans le domaine du travail indépendant. J’y ai trouvé conseil sur la façon de rédiger un contrat, les différentes approches de vente, les relations interpersonnelles et beaucoup d’autres domaines.

It was not surprising therefore to enjoy a dynamic and perceptive presentation by Andrea Moses on the Taking One’s Career to the Next Steps to Success. Her common sense approach to explaining human behaviour and tips for self-realignment were clear and inpactful.

Le travailleur indépendant est quelque fois victime de son indépendance; il est donc salutaire de se ressourcer, de réfléchir sur son passé, et de prendre des décisions hardies pour améliorer l’avenir.


Tuesday, November 20, 2007

New Age Volunteering / Le bénévolat réinventé

I am lucky to have my medical needs met by a nearby teaching hospital, the Sunnybrook Health Centre . In the last few years, I have noticed a number of postings on bulletin boards asking for volunteers to participate in medical studies. Intrigued, I tried one, a second one and find that I am hooked.

La plupart des recherches semblent axées sur les citoyens du troisième âge, ou âge d’or. Ainsi, une des études portait sur l’équilibre et la façon de le conserver si l’on trébuche. Le patient est installé sur une plateforme mobile qui s’arrête brusquement. On apprend alors à ne pas tomber ou à tomber avec le moins de dégâts possibles.

Another study dealt with spatial memory- fitted with goggles, the patient is taken on a video trip through an unfamiliar city . Again, the trick is to learn to navigate in unknown places.

Yet another study used MRI to evaluate memory. An upcoming one will use a driving simulator so that reflexes of “senior people” can be studied.

Participer à telles recherches m’intéresse beaucoup car je peux juger sur mon propre comportement les difficultés ou problèmes que peuvent rencontrer les personnes âgées.

Certaines de ces études sont tout à fait bénévoles alors que certaines autres prévoient un paiement modeste versé au participant.

Je conseille vivement cette activité aux personnes intéressées dans les progrès de la médecine et qui demeurent près d’un important centre hospitalier.


Tuesday, October 23, 2007

A translator in heaven / Le paradis des traducteurs

Dans le cadre d’un important travail, j’ai eu l’occasion d’assister à une réunion d’une journée entière sur la fabrication des contenants en verre. Notre groupe avait précédemment étudié d’autres formes d’emballages – plastiques flexible et rigide et les emballages en carton ondulé, mais c’était mon premier contact avec le verre.

Basing my recommendations on my previous work, I was able to convince my employer to allow me to attend these meetings during which experts explained the various facets of their operations and processes. A translation well done is based upon the translator’s knowledge of the language but also on his familiarity with the subject matter.

Avoir l’occasion d’écouter les présentations et poser des questions représente une ambiance idéale pour un traducteur. Plus tard, il y aura également la possibilité de faire valider ma traduction par les gens sur place, les utilisateurs des processus et auxquels est destiné mon travail.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

My international readers/ mes lecteurs du monde


My Sitemeter statistics never cease to amaze me. The number of visitors has reached 1600 today and here is a picture of the nationalities involved:

Il est extrêmement intéressant de remarquer la variété de mes lecteurs et les rubriques qui les attirent à mon blogue:

La musique, la médicine, les expressions idiomatiques et les articles sur la traduction semblent venir en tête.


Thursday, October 11, 2007

Museum of Immigration – Paris – Musée de l’histoire de l’immigration

Reading the on-line issue of the October 11, 2007 Globe & Mail, my eye caught an intriguing headline “French Revolution, II”.

The French did something unusual – they criticized themselves. Yearning to learn more, I went on the Internet and found on the Le Monde website a series of videos of the artists that had been involved in putting together the various elements of the museum.

C’est là que je me rends compte de l’énorme avantage de pouvoir comprendre et lire les deux langues. Les unilingues sont désavantagés au départ et la connaissance des deux cultures rend la compréhension beaucoup plus complète.

Mon lecteur aura remarqué la façon dont les différents réalisateurs s’expriment dans les videos – il s’agit d’un constat visuel de l’expérience d’émigré, sans parti pris. Je trouve cette approche admirable et presque non française. Le temps passe, le monde grandit et les points de vue changent.

C’est loin de mes expériences d’émigré lycéen à Paris dans les années cinquante.


Thursday, September 27, 2007

27 September: International Translation Day/27 septembre : Journée mondiale de la traduction

Just came back form a very interesting and mind expanding evening celebrating the above event. As in previous years, it was held at Glendon College from where I graduated in 1972. It did not have a translation school then, just a comparative translation course, but judging by the some 100 attendees of tonight’s meeting, the school is successful and doing well.

Le thème de la réunion était “Ne tirez pas sur le traducteur! “– qu’on développé trois collègue interprètes: Hazel Cole-Egan, Lida Nosrati et Lyse Hébert. It was nice seeing Hazel whom I had worked with for many years while I was at GM. She and her colleagues did a tremendous job interpreting PowerPoint presentations for Marketing. She tells me that she still does it too.

La nouvelle présidente de l’ATIO, Nancy McInnis, avait présidé les festivités et avait décrit aux aspirants traducteurs les défis que pose la profession de traducteur ou interprète.

Deux autres collègues de vieille date sont venus me parler: Charlez Metz, qui m’avait aidé dans mes premiers pas dans la traduction à Toronto, et Margaret Rousseau, of Toyota, with whom I participated in a number of terminological committees in Montreal developing specialized terms for the automotive industry.

A bit of old, a bit of new and all those eager young faces of aspiring linguists!


Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Getting the technical information/Documentation technique

A recent project presented an interesting challenge: the manufacturing processes resembled those of processes in an allied industry but dealt with a different form of product. I am referring to packaging made from flexible and hard plastic, paper and now metal.

En plus de l’apprentissage que j’ai du faire dans chacun de ces matériaux, j’ai dû en plus “apprivoiser” les techniques particulières aux emballages faits de matériaux différents.

J’ai réussi à faire valoir au client qu’une série de visites dans les usines correspondantes serait d’une grande utilité. J’ai eu donc l’occasion d’observer la fabrication de sachets (pour poudres alimentaires, par exemple), puis de bocaux ou de flacons rigides et finalement d’emballages en carton ondulé.

L’accumulation de ces connaissances a porté ses fruits: ce matin, lors d’une visite d’une conserverie, j’ai pu observer les mêmes éléments et les mêmes étapes qu’avec les autres matériaux. Des expressions qui m’avaient semblé opaques sont devenues claires et nettes. Je pourrais les utiliser en toute confiance avec les destinataires de ma traduction.

Translation requires several pieces of knowledge: the language, of course, but also the field or area of expertise that is being described. Thanks to this understanding client, I will have both.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Networking pays/Le réseautage – ça paie!

I mentioned Michael Hughes on this blog last February, after hearing him talk about Networking at an AIC meeting. His approach is fact based and really has substance. I told him how much I appreciated his presentation.

J’ai pu aujourd’hui constater que Mike ne m’a pas oublié. Il m’a demandé de traduire une de ses présentations, ce qui a été un plaisir immense. En effet, me souvenant de ses paroles et de ses conseils, je n’ai eu aucune difficulté à traduire son message (comme si je venais d’y assister moi-même). J’espère que ses clients saisiront immédiatement l’importance de ses paroles et de ses conseils.

Yes, indeed, one can visit his website and read about his programs and the resources he uses. But in my experience, it is best to listen to him speak in person because no written material can give the tone and feel that Michael does.

As Michael signs his ebulletins:

“Now, go work your network.”

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

French leave revisited/ Filer à l'anglaise

A recent visitor from the town of Tabor, in the Czech Republic, seemed to be looking for the French equivalent of “French leave” (my post of 1Aug07). Unfortunately, he/she did not understand enough of the French to realize that the translation was provided in the second paragraph.

I did a different kind of research, found an English/Czech on-line dictionary and looked for the Czech equivalent which turned out to be "vytratit se", which appears to make sense to me.

The Russian verb equivalent would be "prokradyvatsa".

Overall, it is the idea of leaving silently and without being noticed.

Sunday, September 02, 2007

This week: the celebrity embed/Le Globe se déchaîne!

globeandmail.com: This week: the celebrity embed

Rather surprised by the tone of Ms Christie's article - it almost sounds like a child's whine. I have been following the Quebec press for a while and have never seen a Quebec journalist being envious of the tratment Mr. Peter Mansbridge gets when he comes to Afghanistan.

Cela ressemble à de la pure flagellation : "a filthy anglophone"! Il se pourrait très bien que notre Premier ministre ait donné des ordres à ses militaires (par l'intermédiaire des Officiers des relations publiques) de choyer les soldats d'expression française à leur arrivée à Kandahar. C'est tout à fait dans les cordes de ce parti.

Intéressante réaction d'un autre spectateur .

Une autre surprise pour ce lecteur - le nouveau nom de la chaîne de radio - Rad-Can alors que j'étais tout à fait persuadé que c'était Radio-Canada. Est-ce une habitude américaine qui se développe ici - tout abréger?

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Vivre en français en Amérique/ Live in French in North America

L'actualite » Vivre en français en Amérique

Very interesting and informative articles on French in North America, the famous Bill 101 and the people who were born after it came into effect.

L'Actualité est un excellent magazine qui me permet de garder le pouls sur le Québec et le monde francophone du Canada.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Two solitudes /Nos deux solitudes

Two solitudes on the battlefield

It is interesting to observe what is happening in Kandahar and how the new arrivals from the 22 Regiment integrate with the other Canadian troops.

Selon Don Martin, les deux solitudes continuent d'exister sur le champ de bataille. Il est étonnant que la presse veut toujours trouver une polémique, un problème et attiser les flammes.

To be watched. Affaire à suivre.

Monday, August 13, 2007

A linguist’s mystery solved / Un secret de polichinelle


The news have been full of articles on the new contingent of Canadian troops being sent to Afghanistan. Selon sa langue, la presse semble avoir des avis partagés sur ces troupes.

The press seems to be making a fuss about the fact that these are troops from Valcartier, Québec. One of the things I could not understand is why they were called Van Doos.

Just today, an article on the L’Actualité website (De l’entraînement à l’Afghanistan) provides a series of pictures of the troops.

The paper article (September 2007 issue) of the same magazine, called “De Valcartier à Kandahar” , finally provides an explanation:

The troops are from the 22nd Royal Regiment, called by their English speaking colleagues the Van Doos (from vingt-deux, with an English accent).

L’Actualité contient en fait plusieurs articles sur les militaires, “La guerre de Rick Hillier” et le second, mentionné ci-dessus. Leur présence me surprend car j’avais pensé que la guerre n’était pas très bien vue au Québec. Il faut préciser que l’Actualité appartient au groupe Rogers Media qui est définitivement anglophone.

Une situation à surveiller. An interesting development to be watched.

Saturday, August 11, 2007

How to Leave a Comment on a Blog

David Finch | media, productivity, technology and ...: How to Leave a Comment on a Blog

Un collègue de la HPCA nous avait fait parvenir un lien au blogue de David Finch qui explique très clairement les avantages d'un commentaire réfléchi. Il s'agit en effet non seulement de laisser quelques mots mais également d'ajouter un peu de soi à la conversation.

As Dave says in his 3rd point, Give something to the Conversation. Our readers will be curious to see another point of view, a twist on the situation or an unusual way of dealing with a challenge.

Challenges in translation occur when two languages and two cultures meet. I am sure that many of my overseas readers have encountered situations where the lack of fluency in a second language created a problem in communication. Sharing their experiences might help our blog readers to communicate better.

Thursday, August 02, 2007

Using my blog as a home page/Mon blogue devient une page d’accueil

I recently wrote of an unexplained increase in hits on my blog page and could not quite explain it. When I shared my concern with a specialist, it was suggested that maybe the reader had set up my blog as his/her home page. This would explain the regular visits, of only one page at a time. The hit count would therefore be affected and erroneously show a large number of visits (instead of repeat visits).

Le nombre de visites recensées par Sitemeter peut représenter soit un élément positif soit une méconnaissance des différents aspects d’un blogue. Il existe un effet une autre façon de recevoir les mises à jour d’un blogue – c’est l’utilisation de la fonction RSS. Dans le cas de mon blogue, cette fonction est remplie par le logiciel Atom (en bas de page- Subscribe to Posts).

It certainly is flattering to know that some of my readers think highly enough of me to set up my blog as their home page but they may find that it is handier to use the RSS function which would notify them each time a new post appears on the blog. In Blogger, this is the Subscribe to Posts caption at the bottom of the page.

It is amazing how much there is to learn out there! Et moi qui pensais avoir tout compris sur les blogues!

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

French leave: Definition

French leave: Definition and Much More from Answers.com

It is always interesting to find out what brings readers to my blog. One of my recent visitors was looking for the equivalent of the expression "French leave". I hope he found it. I just went on to Google and typed"French leave" in the search box. Voilà!

Elle est étonnante la facilité avec laquelle on peut trouver toutes sortes de réponses sur Internet. Dans le passé, il fallait donner toutes sortes de précisions et le processus semblait lourd et compliqué. Pour contrôler les résultats, il suffit de faire des recoupages et chercher les réponses avec des synonymes ou des expressions parallèles.

Researching the expression "Filer à l'anglaise", it appears as though the expression "anglaiser" used to mean to steal, as in slip away. (nothing to do with the English). So the expression really meant "to leave discreetly", as a thief would do, to steal away.

Friday, July 27, 2007

Jump in visits/Augmentation des visiteurs

Back in the spring, during a conversation with Nancy McInnis, the new ATIO president, she suggested that I write an article in Informatio which might be of interest to ATIO members. Nancy avait suggéré que je décrive mes découvertes dans le domaine des blogues.

As I was just in the throes of discovering blogging, I said yes and the article was published on page 8 in the July copy (Volume 36, Number 2) of Informatio

Le lien ci-dessus devrait vous mener directement à mon article, qui a été publié dans les deux langues.

My blog statistics underwent a radical change: in the last three days, instead of the 2,3 or 4 hits and reads of one page or two, I have had page views of 7, 9, 15, 22, and 41 pages, lasting anywhere from 2 minutes to 41 minutes. Obviously, more people are learning about my blog and spending a longer time reading my posts.

Des lecteurs si assidus sont rares et je suis certain que cette activité va augmenter ma présence sur Internet.

I do not know at this time whether the meter can tell me what posts were more popular than others as there are 92 of them all together. I will look into this.

Une chose est certaine, si mes lecteurs (et correspondants) décident de s’exprimer dans la rubrique Comment, ils feront d’une pierre deux coups: ils m’aideront à augmenter ma notoriété sur Internet mais ils augmenteront la leur aussi bien. The readers of my blog who leave a comment would kill two birds with one stone: they will increase my “popularity” on the Web but they will also create links to themselves for other readers to follow. A win-win proposition.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Earthquake - San Francisco - Séisme

Recent Earthquakes for San_Francisco

A few days after our return home, a 4.2 magnitude earthquake shook Oakland, California. Although no injuries occurred, we still felt lucky to not have been there.

Il est difficile d'imaginer un tremblement de terre. Je dois avouer que j'en ai déja ressenti un, en 1988 à Toronto. Sa magnitude était de 5.9. Nous venions de nous assoir à table pour souper quand la table s'est mise à trembler. L'épicentre se trouvait au Québec, à 35 km au sud de Chicoutimi...

Le site web
SFGate a toute une section sur les précédents séismes ainsi que les précautions à prendre en cas de tremblement.

La chanson de Frank Sinatra me vient à l'esprit "I left my heart in San Francisco" , ainsi que le dicton "Voir Naples et mourir". Le malin est de faire l'un sans faire l'autre.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Dining in S.F./Manger à S-F.



We had recently the pleasure to revisit A16, one of our favourite restaurants in San Francisco and enjoy their Neapolitan food. It is a lively place, with no pretenses and no haughty waiters, where one can enjoy a lovely pizza, drink unique wines, and enjoy beautifully crafted desserts.


Nous avons également rencontré, sur la même rue, un abreuvoir pour chiens, qui nous en dit beaucoup sur les animaux domestiques à SF et le soin qu’en prennent leurs propriétaires.








À quelques pâtés de maisons de là, le nom d’un restaurant nous a surpris. Il doit exister également des gens qui mangent pour vivre et la façon dont ils font cela est très bien illustrée par le verbe “gobble”.


Both people and animals are well served in the Marina District. I would recommend A16 to my friends.

Monday, July 23, 2007

What is the use of Terminology?

Whether your company is large or small, its products and services would not be successful if you were not able to describe them. Tell the customer how the products are called, what they do, what makes them superior to competition and what feature is particularly noteworthy. Through their advertisers and merchandisers, companies therefore develop a specialized vocabulary, a jargon that is particular to the industry.

When regular hydraulic brakes were replaced by anti-lock brakes, automotive manufacturers used ABS as an acronym and informed customers started looking for ABS equipped cars. Other expressions appeared and disappeared quickly as this one acronym had staying power and was favoured by the customers.

Whether you are in the construction business or packaging food products, retailing or web design, you all have a jargon that is used daily to communicate with your customers and suppliers.

In bilingual Canada, there is a need for terminology in English and in French and a wise company ensures that it uses the correct terminology in both languages. If a specific device or component is called A by General Motors, B by Ford and C by Toyota, the customer will be confused. Additionally, if the word chosen is of a foreign origin to the reader, he/she will not remember it as well. That is what happened when the Service arm of General Motors used Goodwrench as part of their signage or logo. To the non-English speaker, Goodwrench was not easily understand and was often confused with Goodrich. Is that good?

Words have a life of their own and may change meaning in time and in different settings. It is therefore important when defining a word to provide a context, an example, and give the equivalent expression in the other language. A mechanic can use a lead to connect electrical components of an engine, but he will check on the presence of lead in the gasoline if the malfunctioning engine is run on lead-free gas. Two words, same spelling and two totally different meanings.

Does your translator use a standard, uniform terminology? What are the sources of this information and how reliable is it? If a word needs to be created, how does he go about it? It is not as simple a pulling rabbit out of a hat.

Some concepts are easily created in English but present a challenge in French. In some cases, it is the other way around. An experienced translator will perform the necessary research to find the best equivalent. In some cases, he will tell you that the task is impossible and that it would be better to use another tack. Take his advice; it will save you from problems later.

Monday, July 09, 2007

And the winner is: Paris or San Francisco? Qui est le gagnant?

The Globe reports that the Mayor of Paris is urging locals and tourists alike to enjoy each other. The article ends by stating that there were 15.3 millions visitors in France in 2006.

Interestingly, the San Francisco Convention Bureau (in its stats for 2005) mentions that 15,74 million people came to S.F. in 2005.

Unfair comparison, but that accounts for some 31 million tourists, right?


Happy 650 th! / Joyeux 650e anniversaire!


Charles Bridge, in Prague, is celebrating the 650th year of its existence with pagentry and jousting contests.

L'anniversaire du pont Charles me rappelle des promenades agréables, après la Deuxième Guerre et plus tard, en 1993, lors du Championnat mondial de patinage artistique. Voici comment France 24 décrit les festivités.

Il suffit d'ajouter un air de Ma Vlast de Smetana, pour complèter le tableau. Here is a link to some Smetana free downloads.

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Bilingual tag from the States/Étiquettage bilingue en provenance des É.-U.

Translation can be a tricky thing sometimes. Here is a mandatory textile label that has an extra French message (Nous sommes desoles que notre president soit un idiot. Nous n'avons pas vote pour lui).


Cette photo date de plusieurs années mais on voit que quelqu'un chez les Ricains avait un sens de l'humour pointu.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Rapport mis à la poubelle/Official report thrown out

Canoe – Infos – Québec-Canada: À la poubelle

Il semble qu'il y ait des malentendus entre les différents ministres et que la main droite ne sait pas ce que fait la main gauche.

As "progressive" as it is to drop spelling in language teaching, it may I am afraid just create several levels of knowledge. For a translator, especially one writing text to be read by the general public, absence of proper spelling, accents, etc. would spell disaster.

Here is the article I pulled from the Radio Canada website on 21 November 2005 entitled: "Les futurs profs échouent au test de français" (Future profs fail their French test):

Les étudiants en enseignement ne maîtriseraient pas la plupart des notions de base du français. Selon une tournée du Journal de Montréal dans cinq universités du Québec, entre 40 % et 79 % de ces étudiants ont échoué au test de français qui leur a été soumis.

Les étudiants devaient obtenir une note de 75 % à cet examen, qui mesure des connaissances grammaticales acquises à l'école primaire et au secondaire. Or, à l'Université de Montréal, 76,8 % des candidats à l'enseignement n'ont pas obtenu la note de passage.

Il s'agit d'un recul par rapport à 2004, où 74 % des répondants avaient dû suivre des cours de « mise à niveau » linguistique avant d'obtenir leur diplôme.

Selon le quotidien, la situation est encore plus sombre à l'Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, où 79 % des étudiants inscrits cette année n'ont pas réussi l'examen. À l'Université Laval, près de 7 étudiants sur 10 ont échoué, tandis qu'à l'Université du Québec en Outaouais, ce taux atteint 57,9 %.

Selon les responsables interrogés par le Journal de Montréal, les mêmes lacunes reviennent d'un étudiant à l'autre:

l'accord des noms communs au féminin;
la règle du pluriel de certains noms, comme « hiboux, choux, genoux, bijoux, joujoux et poux »;
la ponctuation;
les modes et temps des verbes;
l'emploi approprié des auxiliaires « avoir » et « être ».

Maybe translators will have to learn a new language?

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Challenge/Powerpoint/De nouveaux sommets

A recent translation of a presentation prompted me to describe some aspects of this type of work, of which a unilingual person may not be aware. A conversation with the client revealed that the presentation might be presented in English but with the French version projected at the same time so that the participants (mostly French-speakers) would be able to follow.

Les diapositives anglaises étaient bien remplies, donc pas question de traduire textu sans rallonger la présentation. Il a donc fallu condenser pour laisser l’essentiel et retirer le bla-bla-bla.

The most effective way to translate such a document is to overwrite the English with French, not disturbing the layout and the fonts. Because French is 15 to 30% longer, some wording became hidden by the clip art illustrations. To make the French visible, I had to either shrink or move the illustrations so that they would not interfere.

Certaines traductions de titres étaient trop longues – j’ai les modifier et dans certains diminuer la police pour les faire entrer dans l’espace prévu.

A lengthy listing of participants included Canadian national organizations which have an official French title. I had to research their official names on the Internet and insert the new names in alphabetical order in the listing.

A chart showing a process used the words Good and Bad as legends – which of course did not allow enough space for the French – Looking outside the box, I decided to use emoticons: :-) and :-(

The spell-checking was carried out twice: first, I displayed the presentation in Outline view and copied the text unto a Word document. I then used my faithful ProLexis to carry out an extensive grammatical and spelling checks. Then I selected the whole PPT text (in Outline view), went into the Tool menu , checked language and chose French and carried out the second spell check.

L’impression finale de la présentation, en format “Handout”, m’a permis de voir la façon dont les diapos se suivent. La projection, en version Slide show, donna une vue d’ensemble.

Dave Paradi, a fellow Canadian has been sending me in the last few years his informative newsletter on ¨PowerPoint”. I have also used his book “Guide to PowerPoint” extensively. I would recommend it to any English PPT writer and to any translator.

Translation of this nature is akin to a pyramid which has to be deconstructed into its component pieces and then reassembled into its French equivalents. That is the reason I often remind my clients of a statement I borrowed from a friend and colleague of mine, Pete Peters, who worked in Quality Control at General Motors:

"Quality is never an accident: it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives."

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

A creative translation/Traduction d’une allitération

Recently encountered the expression "Farm to Fork" referring to the various steps that foods go through. The text was written from the point of view of a packaging manufacturer.

The first thing that struck me was the strong alliteration, i.e. the repetition of a consonant (F) at the beginning of two consecutive words. To find the equivalent French, one has to find words that have the same meaning than the English and start by the same consonant. My muse was inspired: I found

« De la culture à la consommation »

Unfortunately, the problem with "culture" is that is applies to fruits and vegetables but not to meat (beef, pork, poultry, etc.)

J'ai alors fait une recherche sur Internet avec les résultats suivants :

1) De la ferme à l'assiette (du consommateur) - European Food Information Council (EUFIC)

2) De la ferme à la table (European Commission)

La dernière expression est mise à toutes les sauces mais c'est quand même elle qui semble la plus complète, exception faite de l'allitération. Dans le contexte de ma traduction, c'est elle que j'ai utilisée dans mon projet. Autres suggestions?

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Downloadable articles / Articles téléchargeables

A recent HPCA networking session covered the very interesting topic of articles that customers/readers can download. They may be informercial or explanatory types or they may be case studies. I decided to poll you, my readers, to find out whether you would be interested in reading articles on translation such as the one I recently wrote on “Culture in translation”.

L’utilité des articles d’information est évidente mais c’est la façon dont les clients/lecteurs les obtiennent qui m’intéresse. Mes démarches pour trouver la façon de le faire sur mon blogue n’ont rien donné jusqu’à présent. Je demande donc aux intéressés de m’envoyer un courriel au translationbeyondwords@sympatico.ca avec leurs coordonnées et je leur ferai parvenir mon article.

If such an article is of interest, please send me your contact information at the above address and I will gladly e-mail it to you.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Sarkozy & Merkel - kissing cousins

LEXPRESS.fr - Sarkozy et Merkel relancent la coopération franco-allemande - L'Express

From a North-American perspective, seeing pictures of Jacques Chirac kissing the hand of a government dignitary looked gauche and antiquated. Reading that Nicolas Sarkozy and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel kissed each other on the cheek, called each other by their first names and used the familiar "tu" is a bit over the top as well.

Ni Stephen Harper, ni Jean Charest ne se tutoient pas et je ne pense pas qu'il viendrait à l'esprit de M. Harper d'embrasser la Reine d'Angleterre. La presse dit que la France entre dans une nouvelle époque - je me demande quelles autres surprises nous attendent?

Public opinion in France, according to the Nouvel Observateur, is interestingly divided as to where the country is going.

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

La ville de Québec est dans le trou\Quebec City in the hole

This is an instance when knowing English idiomatic expressions helps you to understand a Québecois expression. I chanced upon this item in the Canoe news and was struck by the formulation which was not familiar to me.

Indeed, one of the English meanings of “to be in the hole” is to be in debt and that is exactly the situation the city of Québec is in, its deficit has increased instead of being reduced.

The author of the piece (notre journaliste mobile??), has a very French sounding name, so how do we explain this apparent Anglicism? Reading further, one finds the expression

“le conseil municipal .. a soulevé plusieurs préoccupations relativement à la gestion des fonds publics….

Let’s see: “ City Council voiced many concerns relative to the management of the public funds…

Is this just a bad translation which contains not only French words in an English meaning but also uses English syntax (i.e. word order)? The expression “soulever des préoccupations” is not idiomatically French. One could have said:

“Le conseil a exprimé un grand nombre de préoccupations sur la gestion des fonds publics.”

Let us look at another example:

“La ville a fait 82 millions de dollars de revenus et en a dépensé 94 millions.

Does it sound like an English echo: “The city made $82 millions in revenue and spent 94 millions.”

A more idiomatic phrasing would have been: “Les revenus de la ville ont atteint 82 millions alors que ses dépenses - 94 millions.”

It would be interesting to find out whether the readers of Canoe Infos have noticed this piece and how they reacted to the way it is written.

I did a Google search for “faire le trou” and found a completely different meaning in the jargon of the Paris transportation network :

Etre "dans le trou" : Se dit lorsqu'un machiniste a pris beaucoup de retard par rapport au bus qui le précède. Cette situation aura pour conséquence une charge plus importante (donc une prise de retard qui ne cessera d'augmenter). Au métro on parle de tassée (prendre la tassée). A la sncf un train en retard est qualifié de "coulé".



Monday, April 30, 2007

When the translator has the final word (?)/ Traduttore, traditore!

Le sous-titre anti-Sarko - French Morning NY

It appears as though translators had the last word to say when they provided the subtitles for Mr. Sarkozy' speech: "S'unir à moi" transformed into "rally my inflated ego".

Whether this helped this candidate is still to be seen. Reminds me a bit of the alledged origins of the word sabotage, which consisted of throwing clogs (sabots) into machinery to create a breakdown.

For some reason, we have not seen this happen in Canada - too civilized for that sort of thing ? :-).

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Love at first sight in S.F. /Coup de foudre à San Francisco

During a recent jaunt to San Francisco, we decided to try a new restaurant in the Marina, called A16 (name of a Naples highway) and specializing in the cuisine of Campania, the area around Naples that includes Capri and the Amalfi coast.

Nous sommes d’habitude de petits mangeurs, c’est donc avec plaisir que nous avons découvert que les plats que sert A16 sont relativement petits et que l’on peut composer un repas respectable d’hors d’oeuvres, de salades et de desserts.

At our first visit, we were seated at a bar-like table, across from the pizza oven and were able to observe the fine art of pizza making. Watching also other food being lovingly prepared in the immediate area gave us a very good feel for the attitude of the staff toward their craft and their customers.

Un hors-d'œuvre que nous avons fort apprécié était une portion de gourganes en cosses, grillées au four avec menthe et sauce au poivre. Un délice de simplicité.

Les brochettes de lapin grillé dans un four au bois accompagné de carottes et de pois grillés étaient d’un goût exquis. Le vin rouge des environs de Naples suggéré par la serveuse accompagnait très bien la nourriture. Les desserts, dont le parfait au citron, sont offerts avec un choix de vins.

This link to the Fork & Bottle article provides photographs of some of the foods. We literally fell in love with A16 and …. came back for three more meals! It is possible to leave more than one’s heart in San Francisco. Cela confirme que l’on peut vivre pour manger et ne pas s’engraisser.




My own blog translated into Chinese! C'est du vrai chinois!

http://translatorsmusings.blogspot.com/2006/07/atio-preparatory-exam.html 的翻译

While checking my sitemeter for visitors, I found that one of them had had my site translated into Chinese. I forwarded the link to a Chinese translator friend of mine for comments. Here they are:

"It's very obviously a machine translation. The result is: if you don't know English, you can't understand what the translation say. If you can make sense out of the translated text, you must be already fluent in English and don't need the translation in the first place.
A few things in here:
* The Chinese is done totally mechanically, mirroring English syntax. All the necessary recasting of the Chinese text didn't happen here.
* There is no passive voice in Chinese, because this is an isolated language, meaning each character is isolated from others as a single morph. There is no inflection. Each character shows up as it is. If you want to represent tense, voice, number, etc., you have to add some other characters, to mean just that, such as from "play" to "played". In here, this didn't happen. All passive voices were just mechanically switched back, which totally distorted the meaning.
* Selection of words is mechanical too, which I believe is typical of machine translation in all language pairs. No nuances were captured here. And many word selections were simply out of context.
* It's word-for-word translation and the words appear in the target text all in exactly the same places, totally disregarding the target language's grammatical structure.
* As you notice, the translation still comes with a few English word left untouched, obviously because they were not entered in the glossary database yet.

Overall, it's a horrible and totally unreadable translation. Waste of money and waste of time, plus, if used without caution, might cause big damage."

The indiscriminate use of translation software does indeed represent a great danger. That is why I caution my clients about it and will go to great pains to explain what risks they are taking. Buyer beware!

Monday, April 09, 2007

Vimy Ridge was a terrible waste of human potential

In his article from the Victoria Times Colonist , Brad Bird has a very convincing argument that the glorification of war is wrong and that there is a need for balance.

Il est intéressant de noter que dans la lecture des siteweb français et allemands sur les cimetières militaires, je n'ai trouvé ni rancune ni fanfaronnade. On déplore le sacrifice humain, c'est tout.

Sunday, April 08, 2007

History becomes myth/L'histoire devient un mythe

A mention in the French paper La Voix du Nord of New Zealand sappers working on the Vimy tunnels prompted me to research the subject further. On Blogger, Anthony's detailed description adds another dimension to this event. It is like a gigantic puzzle that is falling into place to reveal a fresco worth of a Michaelangelo or Brughel the Elder.

Voici un néo-zélandais que l'histoire passionne et qui nous donne une description détaillée des combats et des tactiques. Il nous rappelle aussi que c'est alors que le Canada a participé au Traité de Versailles à titre de signataire pour la première fois.

Saturday, April 07, 2007

Underground tunnels built by New-Zealanders \ Les tunnels sont néo-zélandais

Article intéressant de la Voix du Nord sur l'arrivée de touristes anglais et canadiens pour célebrer le 90e Anniversaire de la bataille d'Arras.

The locals are expecting some 100, 000 tourists to visit Arras this year: remembrance tours are in vogue, says an English tourist.

What is interesting is a detail about the authors of the famed underground tunnels that are found around the area: they were built by New Zealand sappers to conceal some 25 000 British soldiers who were going to attack the Germans.

La Première Guerre était bel et bien une guerre internationale. Les alliés en font foi. WWI was very much an international war - here is a fine example of the Allies working together.

The real history of Vimy/ Vimy – la vraie histoire

Almost immediately after I learned of my friend’s daughter’s trip to Vimy, I started an Internet search about Vimy and WWI. Because of my fluency in both English and French, I was able to access and study websites in both languages. Very quickly, I realized that stories abounded on the various aspects of WWI and not all agreed. Michael Valpy’s article in the Globe & Mail on the myth of Vimy Ridge confirmed my misgivings.

I grew up in France and was influenced by the perception of WWI (and WWII) which prevailed at that time – that these had been horrible wars, that they had been fought justly, and that the dead should be honoured.

In the early sixties, I was able to visit many a war cemetery in Belgium, Luxembourg and France which drove one point: regardless of the side the combatants were on, war was horrible, senseless and futile.

I will definitely watch the proceedings in Vimy on Canadian television as there are always new things to learn, but as the saying goes – I will take the rhetoric “avec un grain de sel”.

It is rather interesting that there is an organisation in Germany that promotes work camps for young people 14 to 25 to spend their summer holidays while working on the maintenance of French and German cemeteries. Pour mes lecteurs français, voici le lien à la version française du même site. Their aim: to provide an opportunity to live in an international and multicultural setting, to practice languages, to be the witness of French and German history, and to help maintain military cemeteries which represent monuments for peace.

Maybe our young Canadians might be interested in this as well?

Read what they think in Ottawa.


Thursday, April 05, 2007

An angled servant at your service/ Serviteur d’angle à votre service

Shopping in the local Canadian Tire store, I chanced upon the bathroom section, which showed various tub accessories: showerheads, soap caddies, etc. One package caught my eye: It was called Corner Caddy – it was triangular, had suction cups and allowed the user to store soap and shampoo on a little shelf wedged in the corner of the bath wall.

The French side wasn’t as cute. It said: Serviteur d’angle

I guess a golf caddy can be a server, a helper, but it is not human – serviteur is. As for angle – a corner can indeed be an angle, but it usually protrudes. Let us look as specific equivalents:

Un coin de rue - a street corner

Un coin d’une boîte - a corner of a box

Un coin d’une table - a corner of a table

Devices that support something may be described as follows:

Portemanteau - coat hanger

Porte-bouteille - bottle caddy

Porte-clés - key chain

Porte-bagages - luggage rack

Porte-cartes- (business) card holder


So to convey the idea that the item fits in a particular way and performs a specific action, we could say:

Porte-savon en coin (in the shape of a corner)

Why do you think French-speaking customers get upset when they see this kind of communication?

Monument historique - Correction - Historical Monument

I was listening to the 4:30 p.m. Radio-Canada news today where is it was announced that Prime Minister Harper had ordered corrections to be made to the mistakes found on signs at the Vimy Monument in France, before the official ceremonies start on Monday.

Un peu plus tôt dans la journée, le logiciel de visiteurs de mon blogue me signalait qu’un lecteur du gouvernement fédéral avait lu mon blogue – coïncidence? Je suis persuadé que c’est surtout l’article de Radio-Canada qui avait soulevé un tollé.

The important is that the mistakes be corrected so that no one participating be insulted or belittled.

8 p.m. Another link gives the dénouement of the story.


Monument historique : Un français à restaurer | National | Radio-Canada.ca

Monument historique : Un français à restaurer | National | Radio-Canada.ca

Mistakes can be made, but when they happen in a public place, the reaction is much stronger. Proofreading mistakes in "official" utterences is an absolute must.

Les contrôles ordinaires (si ils existent) n'ont pas suffi pour éviter ce genre de bévue. J'espère que le ministère responsable prendra l'initiative immédiatement pour faire corriger les erreurs en cause ou pour au moins signifier aux lecteurs que les fautes seront corrigées.

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Misleading headings/Titres bizzares

I have noticed that newspaper titles are used in many different ways, especially when they serve as a link to the story. I was somewhat taken aback this morning when I found a heading on the Globe & Mail website that said:

Building permits plunge.

A bit intrigued, I clicked the title and lo and behold found:

Building permits plunge

Canadian building permits unexpectedly plunged to their lowest level in a year, paced by declines in Toronto and Vancouver, as the weather turned colder…..

So it was not an animated building that decided to try the waters.

On the French side of things, on the CBC especially, the Google and MSN transcribers have a rough time. French titles are usually preceded by a qualifying statement, for example: Vie sociale – De l’importance de votre cortex. Without the explanation, the title is much harder to understand.

Another one was: Crise politique en Ukraine – Le premier minister tend la main au président. On a referral French page, only the second (main) title is shown: The prime minister reaches out to the president. Could it be Harper and Bush? Without the word Ukraine, any guess is ok with this little context.

Reminds me of the classical heading translation example:

“PROFESSOR BURNS LEAVES ON COMMENCEMENT.” The all-cap approach conceals the fact that Burns is a proper name, not a verb. You can image what a beginner translator might do with this and describe a new ritual of burning leaves at a graduation.

Context is everything in translation. Make sure you provide all of it to the translator you hire – otherwise, he too might take the plunge.