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Recent Blog Posts
Jumbled letters
There is a fascinating paragraph with jumbled letters on the internet that you may have run across:
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
(According to a researcher (sic) at Cambridge University, it doesn’t matter in what order the letters in a word are, the only important thing is that the first and last letter be at the right place. The rest can be a total mess and you can still read it without problem. This is because the human mind does not read every letter by itself but the word as a whole.)
Father’s Day
Father’s Day has been officially celebrated all over the world for at least the last century and in Catholic Europe since the Middle Ages. There are rumors that it may have been started by a Babylon boy named Elmesu over 4,000 years ago. According to another theory, Father’s Day originated from sun worship by the Pagans.
In the US, the first observance of a Father’s Day was July 5, 1908, in Fairmont, West Virginia, in the Williams Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church South, which is now known as Central United Methodist Church. However, it was not until 1966 until President Lyndon B. Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation honoring fathers, designating the third Sunday in June as Father’s Day. Six years later, the day was made a permanent national holiday when President Richard Nixon signed it into law. The majority of countries celebrate on the third Sunday in June, but many other countries celebrate March 19th (the feast day of Saint Joseph).
Syncing Videos
Translation and recording of videos from English into other languages can become challenging as English uses fewer words than most other languages. The translated text must be short so that recordings can match the length of the English language video. That process often requires rephrasing or paraphrasing to get it just right.
Happy Hump Day
We were recently asked to translate a commercial into Spanish. Part of the text said ‘Happy Hump Day’. Translating that greeting into Spanish caused many headaches. The Spanish language does not use such a greeting at all, and to translate the meaning of it would have made the text too long. We scratched our heads, used all kinds of dictionaries and the help of Google to come up with a solution that would work.
What does ‘Hump Day’ even mean?
The Urban Dictionary’s definition: The middle of a work week (Wednesday); used in the context of climbing a proverbial hill to get through a tough week.
First Nations
Canada’s, as well as America’s, first inhabitants didn’t know how to write. The many different languages were only spoken languages. When schools were introduced and children ordered to attend classes, the language of the teachers was English only. While children spoke their native languages at home, they quickly adapted to English and soon interpreted for their parents and elders. Their command of their native spoken language became less and less.
The primary source of information for historians is traditionally written documents, but there were none. It soon became apparent that these languages and cultures needed to be preserved. Linguists started to interview elders most familiar with their native language and recorded these interviews. If they spoke no English, pictures were used to learn the words, the proper pronunciation recorded and written down as best as possible. These indigenous languages have sounds very unfamiliar to us. To preserve these languages, special alphabets were created to identify such sounds and create a glossary/dictionary.
Earth Day 2017
Earth Day was founded on April 22, 1970. It wasn’t until 20 years later that Earth Day went global. It is now observed by nearly 200 countries and has over one billion participants each year.
The Earth Day Network has brought to light environmental issues around the world. It has been acknowledged as a catalyst for many important laws such as the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, as well as others.
A March for Science will take place this Earth Day, April 22, 2017 in Washington, D.C., with satellite marches in 425 other locations around the globe. Other Earth Day activities include Earth Day United in Copenhagen, Denmark; Earth Expo in Johannesburg, South Africa; Earth Day Tokyo; Empower Earth Day Celebration in London, and several other parades and celebrations throughout the world.
The police got what?
We all dream of owning a high-performance car or at least driving one every now and then or just being able to drive fast enough that we could outrun the police and avoid that speeding ticket (not that we would ever drive that fast). If you have no chance of driving a super car or a muscle car, maybe you should sign up to become a police officer.
In Italy, the police force has been presented with a new Lamborghini Huracan. Its top speed is 200 mph and it goes from 0 to 62 in 3.4 seconds. This is the latest model and second Lambo car that was given to the police. The first one, a 2009 Lamborghini Gallardo, was often used to transport organs to patients or blood supplies to accident sites, and, of course, to chase anybody who tried to outrun the police. That Gallardo, which was driven for 150,000 kms will now go to the police car museum in Rome.
Happy Passover, Happy Easter!
This year, Passover will begin in the evening of Monday, April 10 and ends in the evening of Tuesday, April 18 and Easter is on Sunday, April 16.
Wishing all our clients and friends a peaceful, happy and meaningful Passover or Easter with family and friends!
During this holiday season, we will remain connected so that we can assist you with your translation and recording needs in any language. Please contact us at info@worldtranslationcenter.com or call us at 1.800.270.7674
Happy Passover!
Chag sameach!
Happy Easter!
Chinese Fonts
The most popular fonts in Mainland China include:
The most popular font in Mainland China is Songti which is characterized by thin, straight horizontals, thick verticals and flourishes/serifs. Look at this songti character:
The Songti font has a long history and is the most classic font of all Chinese fonts. Another popular font is MS Yahei. All other fonts are considered more decorative in nature and are most commonly used for a headlines, greeting cards, brochures and marketing materials and more.
Korean Font
We were recently asked to proof a Korean formatted layout file in PDF against a Word file and were questioned about several Korean characters that looked different on the PDF than on the translated Word file. Our Korean team then explained in detail the differences in appearance of a character depending on the font used and also depending on their position within a sentence.
