Patenttranslator's Blog

That’s “back garden”. A yard, be it back or front, is a large paved, tarmacced or otherwise compacted area. And anyway, it’s your own fault for not moving house.

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That’s a jungle, not a backyard!

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Commenting is easy after delivering a patent…Incidentally, I am going through all of your archives. Your blog on synchronicity was particularly interesting since I have noticed the phenomenon around me.

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Dear Patenttranslator (I’m sorry I didn’t want to call you by your first name, but you don’t seem to appreciate this when you don’t actually know the people, I didn’t want you to get annoyed)

I’m also a silent reader of your blog, but primarily because english isn’t my mother-tongue and I’d probably need hours before I get to order my thoughts the way I’d do in french. I like my statements being accurate and truly reflecting my thoughts. But I can’t. So I read your posts with delight but I don’t write at all.

Anyway, as a translator myself, I have to deal with “Google Translation is the future” matters almost everyday. You made it clear that this is also one the themes which can make you very busy thinking about. So I GOD had to think about you today when I discovered this video on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu-nlQqFCKg&feature=player_embedded
Scoble, presenting the new Microsoft Speech Recognition Breakthrough Whatever…

For now, I’m perplex and since I’ve also got some experience with software developing (i.e. = I’m a big geek in informatics :)), too many questions are floating in my head. Obviously that thing was received as THE sensation of the century, among non-language professionals at least (I’m much more critical about that but wouldn’t be most of translators that?). For now I’m having too many technical questions about the “backstage” of that tool, so I’d be very interested to hear your opinion on the matter.

Thank you for reading my awful prose and have a nice day! 🙂

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I think you’ll love this: I couldn’t resist and copied it from the website of an agency that offered me work (probably for peanuts – I didn’t try replying to them after seeing this):
“How to Cut Your Translation Cost by 60% or More without Sacrificing Quality
Cutting your translation cost by 60% is cool. If you save $1000, the profit of your company increases $1000 accordingly. It’s definitely possible to cut your translation cost by 60%. Many of our clients have cut their translation cost by 50%, 60% or even more by using our services. This is how you can save the same.

Important: You can save on translation only if you choose a service level right for your needs.

Choosing xxxx
. We charge 10 to 30% less than other translation companies for the same level of service.
Simply choosing the right service level for your translation can even save you up to 50%.*
Using our FREE translation memory may save you up to 70% or more.*
* Depending on the nature of contents
Pay no rush fees. We will not charge you for a rush fee even for a turnaround within 20 hours.
Pay no minimum fees. We accept orders starting from $1. This means you don’t have to pay any minimum fees.
Use discounts. We offer volume discounts and a new client discount for your first order.”

Especially interesting the bit about translations for $1!!

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http://www.translia.com/user/register – do you want to work for them?

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Your short post about Trados and so much comments on it have really entertained me. I like the post.

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I only really just discovered your blog two or three days ago. I think I’d probably read one or two entries in the past that had been linked to from other sites but never really explored it in its entirety. This is just to say I’m very much enjoying it and I take my hat off to you for managing to do something I have always meant to do but never got round to. Several colleagues have told me I should write, but just as I formulate an idea and plan to put it to paper, I lose confidence and end up moving on to the next “issue” I want to write about. It becomes a never-ending list of thoughts, none of which ever get committed to paper or cyber-space. You will see from my website that my “blog” consists of one entry only, a platform for venting but mainly to myself — nobody has read it. This is simply to congratulate you for actually getting it done and managing to produce a regular flow of interesting topics, which are clearly being absorbed and disseminated by large numbers in our translation community. Well done 🙂

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Yes, I think I mention that in my FAQs. I commented the other day on translating into non-native languages in an early thread of yours (October 2010 from memory).

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Is there a way to search your blog for certain articles, which i am not finding?
Your article mentioned on “Translators Dementia” sounds like a must read!

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I’d like to be a translator, I’m already experienced, but I worked for free projects. How to start?

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