Poet Mary Jo Bang, a Washington University professor, has translated Inferno with a contemporary audience in mind. She kept the story and meaning the same, but updated Dante’s medieval references and sassiness with some modern pop culture.

What Makes a Great Translation

To avoid critizism, and being the fantastic poet and translator she is, Bang footnoted every canto so no historical, mythical or biblical references are missed.  She also makes sure that all of her pop culture references, which help her target audience understand what Dante was saying, are explained. Part of these modern references include Emily Dickinson, Mickey Mouse, Muammar Qaddafi, among others. So unless it is required for you to read the original translation of this famous book, this translation proves to be so much more fun.

In an interview with the MinnPost, Mary Jo Bang said, “This translation might also appeal to readers who do read poetry but haven’t read the “Inferno” because they assumed it would be too difficult. It’s true that some older translations are difficult because the translator was faithful to the original Italian word order. That word order doesn’t match English word order, so the reader is forced to keep unpackin”.

If you are a translator, what do you think about this approach in translating such a famous book? If you are not a translator, do you think you would want to read this translation of Inferno, even if it was not required?

1. California (9,859,027)

2. New York (4,236,768)

3. Texas (3,887,224)

4. Florida  (3,391,511)

5. Illinois (1,782,423)

Although, we have mostly heard of Arizona passing controversial laws against illegal immigrats, this state’s position is #8. So, what influences people to immigrate to those specific states, above all others? The article suggests that it is a combination of geographical proximity to their own country (example, China-California), economic opportunities, people they know and historical trends.

Janne Batalova, an immigration policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, told Life’s Little Mysteries “Immigration is greatly facilitated by networks that connect immigrants with jobs, help them integrate, and move on with their lives in the United States. And of course, they come for jobs”

Although the trends are changing, as immigrants are moving to states where there is less competition for work, it is a fact that businesses in the top 5 states (and the rest of the country as well) who provide information in other languages, attract more customers and have more revenue than businesses who don’t.

Is your business located in an area where there are many immigrants? I can guarantee you that it is. Consider translating all of your marketing materials and website to other target languages, and see your numbers skyrocket!

Even though the need for professionals has increased, many don’t understand that the work that translators go through to become certified professionals is hard work. The American Translators Association offers exams, but only 20% of the translators that take it pass. This is because translators are much more than simply bilingual or multilingual individuals, they have to have excellent document analysis skills, attention to detail and be up to date with the latest trends and terminology in their field of expertise. It is just like any other career.

At City Gate, we only consider freelancers who have a professional degree, specialized training in a formal program and years of proven experience. It is always hard to explain to many freelancers why we are not going to contract with them, but we are striving to make sure translators get recognized for what they are worth and we can’t take risks hiring someone that has potential, but then would only affect the rest of the translators by not delivering quality and value.

You Want to Pay What?

The one problem translators are constantly being faced with is clients wanting to pay them peanuts for their work. Literally, we have had calls saying “but this is so easy, I don’t think it’s worth to pay more than $10 for the document”.  This specific person was referring to a 4 page document. In my head I think “If it’s so easy, do it yourself”, but I refrain and politely turn down their work. Not only would we be losing as an agency, but we are telling our contractors that we think they are worth nothing.

Do Doctors Give Discounts?

When was the last time  you went to your doctor and said “I am sorry, my budget is 25% of what you are charging and that is all I am willing to give you”? You would not do that would you? So why do we treat language service agencies, translators and interpreters any less than doctors. Translators and Interpreters are professionals, who went through years of training, studying, passing stressful tests and work around the clock.

Affordable Translation Services

If you don’t know what is a good price for a translation, or the hourly rate for an interpreter, your best bet is to shop around for language services agencies. Agencies already have negotiated rates with translators. A good agency should have a fair price, which should not cost you an arm and a leg, and you can trust that your translation will be delivered within a time frame, and will be quality, or that your interpreter will actually be qualified because they have gone through a screening process.

If you speak a foreign language and you were to travel to London to see a competition, there is a good chance you might come across bad translations. We have posted in this blog about bad translations  as humorous circumstances, but when it comes to the Olympics, not everyone thinks it is very funny. After all, it is the responsibility of the nation that is hosting to ensure that everyone understands what is going on.

As B.J. Epstein, from the Huffington Post in the UK, said beautifully, “A good translation not only helps with that goal but also suggests that people’s needs are taken seriously into consideration… And considering the amount of money spent on the Olympics in London, it wouldn’t have added much to the budget to hire translators. Translation is not a task that can be completed by relying on Google translation software or on a friend of a friend who happens to know a bit of Spanish or Chinese. Translation is a profession and must be treated as such.”

Poor Translation

Here are three examples on bad translations and uncomfortable situations, which could have been avoided by hiring professional linguists:

1. British commentators keep mispronouncing names, making awkward jokes after not being able to say the names clearly and also saying how they would be glad  if they never have to pronounce those names again. If there would have been interpreters or linguists hired to give a short training (maybe add a cultural sensitive workshop in there), or to write a pronunciation guide, this could have been avoided.
2.  On the first day, the South Korea flag was depicted instead of the North Korean one (who were actually competing). This is an awful mistake to make, as they are two different countries. It goes without saying that North Koreans were very offended. Again, linguists could have helped with this.
3. Then there were the Arabic signs that made the news, because they were supposed to be welcoming Arabic readers to the games, but the spelling was backwards. This could have been an error at the printer, but a translator could have gone through all the documents to ensure accuracy.

CORI and FBI Background Check

In Massachusetts, a CORI (Criminal Offender Record Information) is a state report that describes if you have criminal records. It is only for cases in the state of MA, so if you have had some offenses in other states, it won’t show up on it. This is the reason why many consulates prefer to obtain an FBI Criminal Background Check, which states all of your personal information and if there are any criminal records related to you.  Here are some instructions and details on how to obtain one.

Translation and Submission of Your Background Check

Different institutions have different rules when it comes to receiving translations. If you are not able to get in touch with the consulate or official institution requesting your background check, here are some basic rules to follow:

1. Get a Certified Translation. This means that the agency you are obtaining the translation from, will provide some sort of certificate stating that they are capable of providing such document. It should also have the information to be contacted, as well as the information of the translator.
2. Get it Notarized. There are many companies offering fast translations, but no notarization. This is because it is not required by all institutions, but if you are not 100% certain, I strongly recommend that you ask for it to be notarized.
3. Get an electronic version of the translation as well as a hard-copy in a sealed envelope, so they know that you have not tampered with the translation and changed it for your benefit.

Now do you see why you MUST hire a professional agency to take care of your business translations, when expanding to foreign markets? Not only will the words be translated accurately, to what you really want to communicate, but they will also make sure that it is culturally relevant and accurate.

In fact, 1 out of every 13 people on the planet are now on Facebook.

We all know that Facebook has a lot of users, but did you know that more than 80% of those users live outside of the United States and Canada?

Facebook Apps Go Global

Recently, Facebook announced that they are rolling out their new app center to additional non-English speaking countries. These new countries include: Brazil, France, Germany, Russia, Spain, Taiwan, and Turkey.

Without a doubt, Facebook app developers are drooling over the opportunity to reach more users. In their world, more users = more revenue each month. Facebook app monetization can be highly lucrative!

With the opportunity to reach an additional 720 MILLION international active users, app developers are scrambling to be among the first to get exposure overseas.

Facebook App Localization Options

Facebook recommends starting by offering a translation of your app detail page:

Obviously, to maximize user engagement, you will want to make sure that your app content is also translated. However, this first step will get installs from a non-English audience so that you can have some useful data to work with.

Then you will be able to use the insights feature to see which languages are most popular among your users.

That’s the best part. You don’t have to guess at which languages to choose.

Just make sure that you don’t use an automated translation. You don’t want your Facebook app to become popular for the wrong reasons! Avoid becoming the laughing stock of Russia by getting your app detail page and app content localized by a professional.

The same rule applies when you are studying in a foreign country, or you are native to a non-English speaking country and are coming to the United States. Either way, an official translation must accompany the transcripts. You can send the transcripts to an agency that provides certified translations, and ask them if they provide notarized, hardcopies of the translation. If they do, then you can simply ask for them to send the transcripts and the notarized, certified translation in a sealed envelope. Do not open the envelope, because it will void the verification.

Forward the documents directly to your new school, and voilá, you are on your way to obtaining that degree you always dreamed of!

Are You Smarter Than a Dolphin?

1. Dolphins are very intelligent mammals, and have the ability to understand our language.
2. According to George Dvorsky, from iO9, “A recent analysis of the bottlenose dolphin’s genome has shown that, like humans, a good portion of its genetic makeup is devoted to the development of its nervous system” This study was done at Baylor College in Houston.
3. Those same researchers also found similarities between the decline in the rate of change shown in the DNA sequences of humans and dolphins. This similarities can be found in characteristics such as body size, longevity and generation time, which shows that dolphins, like us, share similar evolutionary pressures.

Based on those, and many more facts, marine biologists believe that dolphins have a language of their own that they use to communicate and the scientists are starting to make sense of it! If you want to read more on this very interesting topic, and see if there is a future for translators and interpreters in the dolphin world, read this fascinating article by iO9.

If this bill would to become a law in Ukraine, it would mean that minority languages such as Tatar, Romanian, Hungarian and off course Russian, would be accepted as an official language;  natives to these languages would be able to study, receive information, watch movies and file documents in their mother tongue.

The idea for this bill was conceived in 1990, and it is making international headlines now because it was not until 2012 that it became a reality. Over the past two days, dangerous riots erupted in Ukraine, where hundreds of people protested the bill forcing the police to get involved and dozens of people were injured. Eventhough passing this bill would not change the status of Ukrainian as the only official, state language, patiotric Ukranians fear for their language and identity as a culture in general.

Russian Translation of All Documents

Deputy Kolesnichenko,  the person behind the creation of this bill, said  “As a person born in a Russian-speaking family, I would certainly have been happy to see the Russian installed as Ukraine’s second state language, but we all understand this is NOT possible in Ukraine. That’s why we created this bill without a condition of changing the constitutional status of Ukraine’s language as the only state language. This bill is meant to respect the rights of minorities in our country, and everyone who stands against it either didn’t read it or uses his stance to gain political points”. 

For the community of translators all over the world, these type of news are received with open arms. Passing a law that would assure all government documents, healthcare information, books and most literature, to be available in Russian and Romanian, among other languages, would mean that translators all over the world would have the opportunity to take on these projects, and have a constant stream of work.