It seems that Tired&Emotional is not the only one to request translation services from me in languages I don’t actually speak. I received 4 e-mails today, admittedly from the same agency, but in different languages, asking me to assist them in the following language combinations:
Spanish to Finnish
Spanish to Norwegian
English to Norwegian
German to Portuguese
I haven’t [...]
Filed under: Community, Translation on January 31st, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Ladies and gentlemen, gentle readers. Please charge your glasses and drink a toast to the Pa-rent. Today is his 80th birthday. There are many things I could say about this modest, highly intelligent, kind, generous, startlingly blue-eyed (and colour-blind), witty, self-deprecating man who was born on 28 January 1928. But being British and [...]
Filed under: Family on January 28th, 2008 | 3 Comments »
TiredandEmotional threw down a gauntlet in responding to my last post. He wanted me to translate “That’s not what it says in the EU regulations, you silly little customs man” into Dutch.
I am pleased to be able to give him, free and gratis, the sentence he requires. I take no responsibility for your health or [...]
Filed under: Community, Translation on January 25th, 2008 | 3 Comments »
I am supposed to be translating some press releases but I really cannot dredge up the energy to be sufficiently enthusiastic right now.
A recent visitor stumbled across this blog in a quest to discover the Norwegian for “my pencil is blue”. I have no idea why my blog was listed in the available hits. Just [...]
Filed under: Language, Translation on January 23rd, 2008 | 2 Comments »
I have just returned from a Folk Evening which a German acquaintance of mine invited me to. I loved it. There were so many songs from different traditions, Country and Western, Scottish, English, Australian, recitations and instrumental pieces. (Someone also sang a Kate Rusby song – info for Jack the Lass.) The barmaid, an Irish [...]
Filed under: Culture, Language on January 23rd, 2008 | Comments Off
Yesterday, I mentioned the difficulty of articulating unfamiliar sounds in Russian. It seems that I am not the only one in the choir finding this a challenge. I overheard some fellow singers discussing the problem in the ladies’ loo after our rehearsal the other day. (I mention the location, gentle reader, not because [...]
Filed under: Language, Words on January 22nd, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Gentle readers interested in the Russian language will not need reminding that the above phrase is the equivalent to “nice to meet you” in English.
This is pretty much the extent of my Russian and happens to be the title of my beginners’ textbook. When I first graduated, back when Shakespeare was a lad, I decided [...]
Filed under: Language, Words on January 21st, 2008 | 3 Comments »
As it’s the time of year that many people start thinking about their summer holidays, I thought I would recommend a bit of advance holiday reading for those of you thinking of visiting Spain this year.
Ghosts of Spain: Travels through a country’s hidden past is by Giles Tremlett. I bought it to read on [...]
Filed under: Books on January 17th, 2008 | Comments Off
You may have noticed a distinct lack of pronouncements concerning my New Year’s Resolutions. It’s not that I don’t make them exactly, it’s just that sometimes the year for a new project does not start on January 1st. An embryonic project began whilst Christmas shopping on December 15. I was in a slightly different [...]
Filed under: Music on January 13th, 2008 | 5 Comments »
It is high time I put ee and other gentle readers out of their agony and finished off my report of my Advent teatimes. The plan of a cuppa a day with some seasonal confectionery did not quite come to fruition as planned. The box of tea was finished shortly after Christmas (excuses may be [...]
Filed under: Food, Seasons on January 11th, 2008 | 2 Comments »