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Christmas wouldn’t be the same without us!

Have you ever thought about what Christmas would be like without translators? Many of the ancient Christmas traditions would never have reached your country were it not for the intervention of translators.

Bible translations
Let’s start with the Biblical account of Christmas. The traditional Christmas readings from the New Testament were written in Greek, penned by the gospel writers who translated the words of Joseph, Mary et al. from Aramaic. Though modern versions of the Bible are translated directly from the Greek text, early translations into European languages were translations of the Latin Vulgate Bible. So the Biblical account of the first Christmas went from Aramaic to Greek to Latin to English.

Traditional carol services also include readings of Old Testament prophecies. Although modern translations were translated directly from the original Hebrew, some early translations into European languages were translated from the Latin Vulgate, which itself was strongly influenced by the Greek translation known as the Septuagint.

Roman decrees
You could argue that the first Christmas wouldn’t have happened in Bethlehem without the intervention of translators. The Gospels recount that Caesar Augustus issued a decree that everybody had to return to their home town for a census. Assuming that Joseph didn’t speak Latin, he wouldn’t have known that he had to return to Bethlehem if the Roman decree had not been translated. Perhaps the antepenultimate line of verse 1 of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing would have been “Christ is born in Nazareth”.

Christmas carols
Speaking of carols, the traditional repertoire of English Christmas carols comes from a heavenly host of languages. O Come All Ye Faithful comes from the Latin carol Adeste Fidelis and Silent Night from the German Stille Nacht. Even Good King Wenceslas, though not a translation, is known to English speakers because the tale of the Bohemian duke (he wasn’t actually a king) spread across borders, from language to language, before reaching the shores of England.

The carols O Holy Night and O Christmas Tree are not, strictly speaking, translations, but they are adaptations of the French carol Minuits Chrétiens and the German carol O Tannenbaum, respectively.

Messiah
And then, of course, there’s the opus magnum of Christmas music: Händel’s Messiah. You might assume the original was written in German, since Frideric Händel was German-speaking. But he actually wrote it in English. If I were writing a carol in another language, I’d probably get someone to proofread it first. But Händel didn’t need a that. He composed the entire libretto by taking words verbatim from the King James Version of the Bible (another translation!) and the Coverdale Psalter.

The opus magnum of this opus magnum, the Hallelujah chorus, is so revered that in the United Kingdom and some other countries, audiences traditionally stand up while it is performed.

Other Christmas translations
One of the most heart-warming Christmas stories is that of the Christmas Day truce in World War I. Could it have happened without the involvement of some makeshift German, English and French interpreters?

Cheesy and classic Christmas movies are subtitled, dubbed and voiced over into a myriad of languages.

Annual Christmas speeches by presidents and monarchs of bilingual and multilingual countries are simultaneously interpreted or subtitled into other languages spoken by their respective citizens and subjects. The Pope’s speech is probably the most widely translated. It appears on the Holy See’s website in nine languages, but is broadcast in many others by media around the world.

If you’re celebrating Christmas, remember the vital role translators have played over the centuries in making Christmas what it is. Christmas wouldn’t be the same without us!

Did I forget anything?

In the comments, let me know any other ways that translators have shaped Christmas.

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Review of PerfectIt 6

In this video, I’ve reviewed what I think of the latest update of PerfectIt.

I’ve also created a video about the update to the United Nations style sheet provided by PerfectIt.

In summary, I’m disappointed at the lack of development of PerfectIt for Word for Professional users.

Since recording the video, I heard that PerfectIt are moving towards a new interface that will be similar to the one in Powerpoint, which I haven’t yet tested. I look forward to seeing what they have in store.

For more information about my upcoming PerfectIt Masterclass and Advanced Word for Editors, see the Magistrad website and follow #PerfectItMasterclass and #AdvancedWord4Editors on social media.

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L’entrée des enfants en Namibie

Certains documents sont requis pour que les enfants puissent entrer en Namibie

Les documents requis pour l’entrée des enfants en Namibie dépendent de si l’enfant voyage avec les deux parents, un seul parent, un autre adulte ou tout(e) seul(e).

Pour réduire le coût des traductions, vous pourrez éventuellement obtenir les documents suivants directement en anglais:

  • Si l’enfant voyage avec un adulte qui n’est pas son parent biologique: l’attestation des deux parents autorisant le mineur à voyager avec l’adulte accompagnant.
  • Si l’enfant voyage avec un de ses parents (mais pas l’autre): l’attestation du parent qui ne voyage pas avec l’enfant, en anglais, ou, si le parent est décédé, l’extrait plurilingue du certificat de décès (ou un certificat en anglais si la personne est décédée dans un pays anglophone).

Toutefois, si vous ne pouvez pas obtenir ces documents en anglais, vous pouvez en obtenir une copie du document traduit par un traducteur assermenté.

En cas d’impossibilité d’obtenir une autorisation de l’autre parent ou un certificat de décès, vous pouvez présenter l’un des documents suivants, traduit en anglais par un traducteur assermenté:

  • Jugement de divorce
  • Tout autre document officiel attestant de l’attribution de la garde de l’enfant

Toutes ces informations sont données à titre indicatif, basées sur les recommandations de la page de France Diplomatie pour la Namibie.

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Implementing Chicago Manual of Style changes with PerfectIt

Scores of changes have been introduced in the 18th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS). You can find a list of all the changes here.

***Update: I wrote this blog post before PerfectIt released version 6, which includes an updated style sheet that the developers say has been brought in line with the 18th edition of CMOS. I have left this post on my blog because the tips I’ve provided could be useful for other updates to your style sheets.***

PerfectIt includes a style sheet for the Chicago Manual of Style, but it has not been updated for the 18th edition, so I decided to give a few examples of how we can get PerfectIt to apply some of the new rules. (For more examples of advanced methods to enforce style rules, don’t miss my PerfectIt masterclass, which you can sign up for here.)

Written instructions are provided below the video.

Before adding these rules, I recommend you create a copy of the CMOS style sheet. You might want to call it something like “Chicago plus my edits”.

1
New CMOS rule 7.96: “The word ebook is now closed rather than hyphenated.”

PerfectIt’s existing CMOS style sheet included a rule to ensure a hyphen was used. Under “Always Find”, go to the “Search” box (bottom-left) and enter “e-book” (without the quotation marks.

Notice that the old checks were incorrectly added as “Preferred spelling” checks. They should have been entered as “Hyphenation of words” checks. In any case, we need to delete them, as they are now obsolete.

Click on the first line containing “e-book”, so that the row is highlighted in blue, then click on “Delete” four times, to delete the four entries.

Next, add the following simple rules to replace them (basic rules like these are covered in my “Introduction to PerfectIt” course):

When PerfectIt is running the check for: Hyphenation of words
PerfectIt should warn if it finds the phrase: e-book
If it finds the phrase, it should suggest: ebook
Instructions: The word ebook is now closed rather than hyphenated.

When PerfectIt is running the check for: Hyphenation of words
PerfectIt should warn if it finds the phrase: e-books
If it finds the phrase, it should suggest: ebooks
Instructions: The word ebook is now closed rather than hyphenated.

You can also add the capitalization rules to ensure that the initial e is not capitalized (unless it’s at the start of a sentence):
When PerfectIt is running the check for: Capitalization of phrases
If it finds the phrase, it should suggest: Ebook
Instructions: The word “ebook” does not take an initial cap.

You can also add the capitalization rules to ensure that the initial e is not capitalized (unless it’s at the start of a sentence):
When PerfectIt is running the check for: Capitalization of phrases
If it finds the phrase, it should suggest: Ebooks
Instructions: The word “ebook” does not take an initial cap.

2
New CMOS rule 6.85: “An en dash rather than a hyphen should be used between the names of two or more people used as a compound modifier before a noun (e.g., “Ali–Frazier match”; “Epstein–Barr virus”).”

PerfectIt’s existing CMOS style sheet did not include such a check for the old rule (with a hyphen), so there is no check to replace.

Simply add the following check in Wildcards:

When PerfectIt is running the check for: Wildcard Find and Replace
PerfectIt should warn if it finds the phrase: (<[A-Z][a-z]@)-([A-Z][a-z]@>)
If it finds the phrase, it should suggest: \1–\2
Instructions: Use an en dash, not a hyphen, between the names of two or more people used as a compound modifier before a noun (e.g., “Ali–Frazier match”; “Epstein–Barr virus”).

3
New CMOS rule 7.86: “An apostrophe is now used before the “s” to form the plural of a capital letter.”

Again, PerfectIt’s existing CMOS style sheet did not include such a check for the old rule (with a hyphen), so there is no check to replace.

Simply add the following check in Wildcards:

When PerfectIt is running the check for: Wildcard Find and Replace
PerfectIt should warn if it finds the phrase: <([A-Z])s>
If it finds the phrase, it should suggest: \1’s
Instructions: Use an apostrophe before the “s” to form the plural of a capital letter.

Note the “Except after” rules, designed to prevent, for example, the words “As” and “They” from being flagged when they appear at the beginning of a sentence.

If you want to test the above rules, you can use the dummy text at the bottom of this post. With rule number 3, notice the false positives if you don’t include the “Except after” rule.

If you found this post useful, please like and share it.

Is there something you’d like to have checked in your documents but you don’t know how? Leave a comment below, and I’ll do my best to help.

Dummy text for testing the above rules (paste this dummy text into Word then run PerfectIt with the style sheet you edited):

This is a dummy text for testing the rules described above. First, I’m going to mention an e-book. Then I’m going to write about the Duckworth-Lewis method. As Messieurs Duckworth and Lewis are so smart, they must have got straight As at school. Is that not true?

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Don’t send me your pdf files for translation! See how I translated five booklets for a UN agency

Need a book or booklet translating? If you’re tempted to send your translator the pdf files, think again.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) asked me to translate five handbooks related to African countries from French to English: one on pastoral land tenure in the Niger, and four on free, prior and informed consent in Mali, Mauritania, Senegal and Tunisia. (Click on the country names to see my work. A good translator should be willing to share some of their work, unless they only ever translate confidential documents.)

Old version of the Niger document

Old version of the Niger document

Don’t send me pdfs!

The first text I worked on was the one about pastoral land in the Niger. For this document, I only had access to the pdf file, so I used a pdf editing tool to insert my translations. Not ideal, since there are many design issues when you work directly on a pdf, but the client hadn’t managed to get the original file, so I had to make do.

Among the many issues I faced, I had to use a substitute font, and some of the texts didn’t fit the boxes that had been designed specifically for the French text and the original font.

Published version of the Niger document

Published version of the Niger document

In the end, the client inserted my translations manually into the original document, much to my relief, because my version looked like the first of the two snippets on the right, whereas the final version was like the second snippet, with much more elegant fonts and boxes that matched the length of the text (compare the two versions of “MANAGEMENT OF PASTORAL RESOURCES”).

Because I had I alerted the client to the problems likely to arise, by the time I started work on the four other documents they had found the originals, which had been made using InDesign. You might assume translators won’t want to work with InDesign files, but that’s exactly what a good translator wants, as it makes our life much easier if we can work on the original document.

Armed with the originals, I extracted the text using my professional software, translated it, then generated new files with the same layout. Using the InDesign file, the client generated proofs, which I then checked through.

At this stage, there is always some work that still needs to be done, mainly because many portions of text will be longer or shorter in the target text than in the source text. But the work needed to fix such issues is minimal, and the client would have needed to do them anyway, even if my translations had been copy-pasted in by the graphic designer.

By working with the InDesign files, I saved my client time and money.

Find a translator who will work with your InDesign files

Like many of my previous clients, the project manager at FAO was delighted at how much I reduced their workload.

Many clients are reluctant to share InDesign files. Perhaps graphic designers warn them that the translator might mess up the format. But when clients do allow me to work with the originals, they never regret it.

Here’s the feedback I received from another client who was initially reluctant to allow me to work on the InDesign files:

InDesign feedback

Feedback from a previous client

The graphic designer’s fear is understandable but misguided. My software leaves the formatting exactly how it is. I work on a file containing the text extracted from the InDesign file, and my translation is then inserted back into the original, without any formatting adjustments being made.

Send me your InDesign files for translation
If you need to translate some InDesign files, don’t hesitate to contact me. You’ll find my contact details on my website.

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Writing special characters in Khoekhoegowab

Writing in Namibia’s indigenous languages can be difficult, since the keyboards we use in Namibia are not designed for typing the special characters used in our country’s languages.

That’s why I created tools to make these special characters more accessible: one for Khoekhoegowab (also known as Nama/Damara) and one for Otjiherero.

Download the Khoekhoegowab tool.

How to use the tool

Continue reading

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Why you probably need a VAT number if you’re based in France

Most freelancers in France seem to believe that, like in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland (and possibly other states), small business with income below a certain threshold are not required to acquire an intra-EU VAT number. However, a government website makes it very clear that any French business or auto-entrepreneur that purchases or supplies services across EU borders needs to obtain a number. The €10,000 threshold that applies to goods does not apply to services. Here’s what the French authorities say:

En revanche, le numéro devient obligatoire … lorsqu’elle vend ou achète des prestations de services à des sociétés établies dans l’UE.

This rule is so unknown that many freelance translators have reported that they have struggled to convince the tax office to give them a VAT number. I therefore recommend that when you request the number, you provide the tax authorities with a print-out of the webpage that states that you require it.

To request the number, you must use the messaging service of your professional account.

See also Invalid Swedish VAT numbers – how to correct them.

If you found this article useful, why not translate it into French so that more people will find it? I will add a sentence stating who translated it and a link to your website. You may use the article on your own blog too, provided that you state the source. Send me an e-mail if you are interested.

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