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Translation Party with the Beatles – Hey Jude (Funny)

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Machine translation usually produces funny results. But machine back-translation[*] is absolutely hilarious!

Translation Party is a website that uses machine translation to «translate» a phrase repeatedly until it reaches its ‘equilibrium’. It means that a phrase is machine-translated from English into Japanese, back into English, back into Japanese, repeatedly, until the result is the same English machine-translation, and that is equilibrium. Not all phrases reach that pure, disastrous level of machine-translation equilibrium, but they all are horrendous.

I decided to put Translation Party to the test with ‘Hey Jude’ by The Beatles. The sad, sad result is after the break:

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El gerundio en español: 3 reglas simples para usarlo correctamente

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Uno de los errores más comunes en las traducciones al español es el gerundio mal usado. Como ya se ha dicho bastante sobre la teoría, y hay muchísima información en todas partes, me voy a dedicar solo a la parte práctica: 3 reglas simples para determinar si el gerundio en español es correcto o no.[…]

Brief tip for translators: SDL Trados Studio – Shortcuts and laptop keyboards

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Don’t forget that with Studio, shortcuts can be modified. Using a laptop is great and really convenient but missing the numeric pad is not so great. Having the option to customize every shortcut is particularly useful for those of us with laptops. So I keep changing my shortcuts, particularly the always-used ‘Confirm and Move to[…]

Tip for translators: Using TO3000 to keep all databases in one single place

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One of my favorite applications for translators is Translation Office 3000. It’s much more than just an invoice tool or a project management application, the built-in browser can keep all the relevant translation files just one-click away.

For instance, using TO3000 and shortcuts, I keep all my databases (glossaries, TMs, termbases, project references, etc) in one single place, regardless of their physical location. I just add shortcuts of their folders in a Client-specific folder automatically created by TO3000 at the moment the client is added. The next time I want to access any of those files, I just go to the Project>Folders tab and find it in the Clients Folder, right by the Project Folder.

This is particularly useful for those translators who use a separate Translation Memory or Glossary for each client or topic. There’s no need to spend any time trying to find the client’s files, they’re all available from one single location.

For a detailed explanation, click on the link: […]

Software: ‘Direct Folders’ to boost productivity and organization

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I wanted to use this blog to share some of the applications that I personally find very useful in my job as a translator.

One of those applications is called Direct Folders, a very discreet (and free!) application, yet an invaluable time-saver. DF keeps track of all the recent and favorite folders, and displays them in a context menu available from pretty much any Explorer window, even inside applications.

Double-clicking (mouse left button) on an empty area in an Explorer window brings up the DF Menu that shows the Recent folders expandable menu and the saved Favorite folders. Since I use one parent folder to keep all my translation-related files, I saved it as a favorite and named it ‘TRANS’. So no matter where I am, I can always access that folder in two clicks.

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