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Literary Translation Revolution
It’s been a national holiday in France, so I had a chance to catch up on some reading. I have to admit, it wasn’t as much fun as I’d anticipated.This has been a growing feeling, of late, where I’m...
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VRI (Video Remote Interpreting): Taking steps to reduce the legwork
A switched-on chap called Jon Potter of Remote Interpreting came to my office recently. He was there to talk about VRI (Video Remote Interpreting). He showed me a website that was selling what appeared...
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Success and Happiness
I was given a grilling once by Margaret Thatcher. It lasted the time it took to get from the ground floor in Selfridges to the 4th floor – say, 6 minutes, tops – but it was ample time to make me a)...
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The 4 Cycles of Translation
Thinking about it, translation now seems to be a cycle, rather than just a linear process of going from Language A to Language B.This is a good thing, as it shows the market is becoming more...
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Brexit and the Future of the Translation Industry
There is probably not a translator on the planet who did not feel dismayed at the Brexit decision. We are programmed for cultural inclusiveness and this felt like a decision to turn our backs on all...
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The Language of the Internet
Have you ever wondered about the spread of languages amongst internet users?No, me neither.Well, not really, that is, until I came across some statistics frominternetworldstats.com.At first glance, I...
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Je suis un Cow: Where will English go?
We (meaning the children and I) like to listen to SkyRock on French radio in the morning - it’s the audio equivalent of eating Frazzles: the latter for not being real bacon, the former not ‘proper’...
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I’ve been on a plane
We arrived back from our travels to find our perfectly flat wooden flooring in France had gone rogue: it now undulated like waves in a small harbour.After previous incidents that I would call ‘learning...
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How to get the most from your translation agency
I hate starting anything with a caveat, but here I am doing just that: this article is really just for people who do not buy a lot of translation and would like an overview of the process.As a...
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Going Global 2016
I went to this 2-day event in Olympia, partly because I had been asked to give a talk about ways to maximise your investment in translation (namely, turn it into a profit-making exercise, not a cost to...
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10 Things I still don’t know (even after Quarter of a Century running a...
So, The Bennett Group turned 25 on Sunday and I find myself at the helm of an operation that has members of staff younger than the company itself. I think this fact, more than turning 50 in 18 months,...
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There's no such thing as a rational decision
I love making decisions: they are PROGRESS + HOPE = EXPECTATION and I’ve always suspected they come with their own safety net: make enough and they tend to cancel each other out eventually – just like...
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The Quarto Translations Diversity Awards
The Quarto Diversity Awards for Children’s Writers got into second gear last week with a first press release and now we’ve got a logo by the talented Toma Checov (see above).This year’s sponsorship is...
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X, Y and Z Entrepreneurial Progression through the Generations
Shortly after I started school, the head teacher called in my mother to inform her I was hyperactive and therefore required special measures to stop me bouncing off the ceiling if I was asked to sit...
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Translating Motives
There are a lot of double standards being run up political flagpoles these days and I think it is high time the perpetrators were called out.The most current are those relating to the future of the UK:...
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NordicIPR 2017 Copenhagen
So, Nordic IPR 2017 …PTI (Patent Translations International) has been translating patents for over 18 years; prior to that we were translating patents (and all manner of patent-related material) as...
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Monster Books Literary Translation Award (in association with Quarto...
Send us your undiscovered classics ...Walking around the spring book fairs, it struck me (and not for the first time) just how many books that aren’t in English are published every year. Piles of...
View ArticleAn Intern’s Blog
Hello! My name is Virginia and I am the new Italian intern here at Aktuel. I am writing this blog to share my experience with all those who, like me, have just graduated and are in search of the right...
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5 Key Questions to Ask Before Starting a Translation Project
You’ve had translations done before, you know how the system works – more or less – so you are aware translation is charged by volume (number of words, most commonly) and prices vary according to...
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My week: Brexit and building a villain’s lair
I went to see Dunkirk at the weekend, which got me thinking about Brexit (obviously).A combination of bucket cola and spitfires meant I left the cinema feeling ready to fight the federalists on the...
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My Week: Death and putting the fun into fundamentalism
We (family, dog, ancient Landrover, me) drove up to Edinburgh from Norfolk yesterday evening and have 24 hours at the Festival. It’s a stunning morning, the air feels scoured. From our apartment on the...
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My week: Monster Books, for stories you will not find anywhere else
Did you know the UK enjoys the world’s best global export performance for books, with export revenues in 2013 exceeding €1.5bn, compared with €1bn for the US or €331m for Spain?As expected, we...
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My week: The best languages to learn for work
There’s a mouse in our kitchen, and every time it makes an appearance we get a cartoon response: Hortense (aged 9) screams and stands on a chair and the boys whip out a selection of knives, hammers and...
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My Week: Cover art, Space Dragons
Monster Books is getting its Spring 2018 catalogue ready, so I’ve been grappling with front covers over the last few days. Like ice skating, eating porridge and shopping for new trousers, it’s an...
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Give us the word ...
Happy International Translation Day (for yesterday). I know I’m probably biased, but language is our crowning achievement as a species. Language is the basis of understanding, we use it for...
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Best Language Learning sites and Apps
Aktuel Translations started simply because a client of ours was trying to get out of Italian lessons his boss had booked for him. In 1992 I had founded a company called London Tutors (home tuition and...
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GDPR and translation
This whole GDPR thing is a bad business, I fear. It’s not just that it’s beginning to look like a bandwagon for consultancy and compliance firms to charge for not a great deal, it’s part of a problem...
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