Wolfestone Translation Blog

My three-month internship as a translator is unfortunately coming to an end. First of all, I would like to thank all of the Wolfestone team for giving me the opportunity of doing an internship here and for all their help and advice. It was a very good and rewarding experience. I enjoyed working in a multicultural office with young colleagues and in a relaxed atmosphere.

At the beginning of my work placement, I was given some documents to practice, which were documents which had already been translated such as Birth Certificates. It was interesting to discover new kinds of translations, different to the ones we do at university. I feel that my translation skills improved a lot during my time here.

The translations or proofreading I carried out were varied, so I could learn and discover a broad range of new terms. When I had any questions, I could ask my colleagues or the other interns who were always happy to help me. I also had to deal with some projects in a team with another intern, which was good to share our opinions and justify our translation choices etc.

I took part in several projects, including a voice-over one. I liked being given the opportunity of discovering something else other than translation and participating in the voice-over, from proofreading the target text and recording it, to editing the video.

Marion

What are the world’s most widely spoken languages?

This question is a very interesting one that has a rather complicated answer.  Estimates of how many people speak a language are quite general and can vary considerably.  For example, estimates for English vary from 275 to 450 million, Spanish from 150 to over 300 million, Hindi from 150 to 350 million, and Russian from 150 to 180 million.

To further complicate matters, the definition of “speaker” can be vague.  Some surveys of languages give information on native speakers only.  Others count both native speakers and secondary speakers (those who use the language regularly or primarily even though it is not their native language).

Lastly, it is important to consider not only the population (number) of language speakers, but also the geographic distribution of these languages.  Some languages have relatively large populations of native speakers but are used almost exclusively in a few countries.  On the other hand, other languages have relatively small populations of native speakers but are used in many different countries as an official or national language.

The Summer Institute for Linguistics (SIL) Ethnologue Survey lists the following as the top languages by population:

1. Chinese
2. Spanish
3. English
4. Hindi/Urdu
5. Arabic
6. Bengali
7. Portuguese
8. Russian
9. Japanese
10. German

World languages and the World Cup

Unless you’ve been in hiding for the past few weeks you will be well aware that the World Cup is currently taking place. The World Cup is a global event. Every nation on earth watches it and talks about it. Even if your nation isn’t one of the lucky 32 that gets to compete, you’re still oddly involved Non-football fans watch as well, which is curious when you think about it.

But not everyone speaks English, so not everyone calls this tournament the World Cup. In French it’s the “Coupe du Monde”, in German the “Weltmeisterschaft”, in Spanish the “Copa Mundial” and in Italian Il Mondiale.

Below is a list of translations, from Afrikaans to Hebrew to Welsh…

Afrikaans: Wêreldbeker
Arabic: كأس العالم
Belarusian: Кубак свету
Bulgarian: Световно първенство
Catalan: Copa del Món
Chinese: 世界杯
Czech: Světový pohár
Danish: Verdenmesterskab (or VM for short)
Dutch: Wereldkampioenschap voetbal
Finnish: Maailmancup
Flemish: Weireldkampioenschap sjotten
French: Coupe du Monde
Galician: Campionato do Mundo
German: Weltmeisterschaft (or WM for short)
Greek: Παγκόσμιο Κύπελλο
Hebrew: גביע העולם
Hungarian: Világ Kupa
Icelandic: Heimsmeistarakeppnin
Indonesian: Piala Dunia
Irish: Corn an Domhain
Italian: Il Mondiale
Japanese: W杯
Korean: 세계 축구
Lithuanian: Pasaulio čempionatas
Macedonian: Светско првенство
Malay: Piala Dunia
Maltese: Tazza tad-Dinja
Persian: جام جهانی
Portuguese: Copa do Mundo
Romanian: Cupa Mondială
Russian: Кубок мира
Serbian: Светско првенство
Slovakian: Svetový pohár
Slovenian: Svetovni pokal
Spanish: La Copa Mundial
Swedish: Världscupen (aka VM)
Thai: ฟุตบอลโลก
Turkish: Dünya Kupası
Ukrainian: Кубок світу
Vietnamese: Cúp bóng đá thế giới
Welsh: Cwpan y Byd

Information sources:

http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/languages.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers

http://www.worldcupblog.org/world-football/how-to-say-world-cup-in-36-languages.html

Here are some amusing examples of when language barriers cause problems!
“A friend of mine went to France armed with a basic grasp of the French language. He needed some household goods but was stumped as to the correct word for pillows. Trying (as we Brits do) to cross the language barrier by speaking slowly in English with an attempt at a French accent he proceeded to repeatedly ask a store assistant “je voudrais un ‘cushion’ pour mon lit”. The store assistant was not at all impressed, and it was only upon consulting his dictionary at home did he realise that the English word ‘cushion’ sounds awfully like the French word for ‘pig’, cochon. Needless to say, we soon understood the store assistants’ disgruntlement at his repeated requests for a pig for his bed!”
“I spent a few weeks on work experience in France, and at the end I was expected to type up the inevitable report. I knew that French for to type was ‘taper’, so I couldn’t understand the red faces when I announced I was going to spend the weekend doing ‘tapinage’. It took a very embarassed colleague to explain afterwards that this was in fact prostitution!”
“When I was trying to explain to a rather grim Cuban customs official why I was setting off the airport metal detector, I didn’t do myself any favours by telling him it was the metal on my Mexican revolutionaries (zapatistas) rather than on my shoes (zapatos). Another time I was slightly confused why my hosts were not more impressed by my rapturous tales of my lovely afternoon horse-riding. Perhaps it would have helped if I had told them we were riding horses (caballos) rather than gentlemen (caballeros).”
“I was working in Spain for a while and after about a year, I developed a very painful sty in my eye. I looked up the word for ’sty’, and went off down to the pharmacy. I walked up to the counter and said the phrase I had pulled from the dictionary. The staff in the Spanish pharmacy were almost clutching their sides with laughter. It was only until I had just walked out and met up with a work friend when I realised I had told the pharmacy nurses that I had una pocilga, a pig sty, in my eye. Oh the shame…”
“I was purchasing a schnapps flask, and told the salesman it was a gift for my son. The man looked horrified; I didn’t know Gift in German meant poison”.
“I emailed my German penpal telling her in German what my dream job would be. I told her I wanted to join the RAF, thinking she knew it was the Royal Air Force, but in Germany RAF stands for Rote Armee Fraktion, the Red Army Faction, which was a German left-wing terrorist group in the 70s, 80s and 90s”.
“Staying in Rimini for the first time I asked to use the shower at a relative’s home. I was shown the way to the flat where we were to stay, next to the main house. Here I commenced to prepare for my shower and started to run the hot tap. After a few minutes no hot water appeared so I returned to the main house and inform them there was no hot water. One of the boys went to check and returned with a smile on his face announcing there was plenty of hot water. Sono inglese, sono stupido, I had mistaken caldo for cold and freddo for hot. Never again”.
“Five years ago, I was staying with my stepmum’s friend in Italy. The friend is English but she has lived there over half her life. Me and her older Italian husband got on okay so one night when we were all having tea I decided to tease him a bit by telling him he was ‘old’. I didn’t know how to say it in Italian so I looked in my dictionary which gave me about 20 different words for ‘old’. Most of them were unpronounceable (to me), so I decided to go for the easiest one to pronounce. I chose “antico”. I wondered why everyone around the table burst into laughter. Later I found out I called him an ‘antique’!”
“I was visiting a Polish friend who had offered to cook me lunch. As I was still learning Polish and she English our conversations used to be ‘duo-lingual’. When she told me she was cooking one of my favourite dishes, I said “Wow! Super dooper” – and got a slap! ‘Super’ in Polish is the same as in English but dupa, which sounds similar to ‘dooper’ means ‘bottom’!”
Unfortunately these situations are often unavoidable, but for those that want to be saved from embarrassment be sure to give Wolfestone a call to help break down language barriers!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/yoursay/false_friends.shtml