Atlas Newsletter – June 2009
Ireland’s getaway driver, happy to be lost in translation!
Irish police have solved the mystery of ‘Prawo Jazdy’ who clocked up 50 traffic offences but was never caught. He cunningly provided the police with different addresses each time he was stopped. The truth was finally revealed after an officer spotted the translation of the name ‘Prawo Jazdy’ from Polish. It was reported that officers taking details of Polish traffic offenders had been mistakenly using ‘Prawo Jazdy’, printed in the top right-hand corner of the driving licence, as the holder's name. ‘Prawo Jazdy’ is actually the Polish for driving licence and not the first and surname of the licence holder, yet the Police system created Prawo Jazdy as a person with over 50 identities.
Question of the month! Test yourself with our June question:
The following English words come from other languages. Can you guess which languages they are borrowed from? a) Tea b) Coffee c) Casserole d) Potato e) Shampoo (answer can be found at the bottom of the newsletter).
The online world speaks many languages
The internet continues to spread across the world with incredible fervour. Nowadays, you can access the internet from even the most remote corners of the world and you can purchase just about anything. So what does all this mean for your business? It means that having an English-only website is no longer sufficient. For those of you under the illusion that your potential customers are all surfing the web in English, it is time to realise that the language of the web is multilingual.
People prefer to search and interact online in their own language as it’s natural and more comfortable for them and the more relaxed a potential customer is when they’re browsing an online store, the more likely they will make a purchase! By consulting translation experts like Atlas, able to provide your website in your target market’s native language and localised, your business will now have the opportunity to tap into markets you never before dreamed possible and in today’s economic crisis, many businesses are realising that spreading themselves across a variety of markets is a much more economically-sound option than putting all their eggs in one basket.
Anna jogs 5k for Race for Life
For the fourth year in a row, Atlas Translations’ Manager, Anna Davies, jogged 5k for Cancer Research UK’s Race for Life. The event brings together thousands of women each year to walk, jog or run 5k and raise money to beat cancer. The event takes place all over the country throughout June and July and on Sunday 14th June, more than 3,700 women and girls (including Anna!) braved the sun and took part in the event in Cambridge. The Race for Life is set to raise £235,000 for Cancer Research UK.
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Anna is proud to announce that she beat her record of last year, finishing the race in just 33 minutes! “This was my 4th year doing the Race for Life, and my fastest yet! The first lady to cross the line did it in about 17 minutes so I’ve got some way to go to beat that but the whole day was such an enjoyable experience I’m sure I’ll be back to give it another go next year! I ran with two of my friends and between us we raised approximately £500. If you would like to find out more about the race and how the money raised is spent here is the link to the website http://www.raceforlife.org/”
Anna Davies, Manager
The one millionth word of the English language!
The English language, which has more words than any other language in the history of the world, this month added its one millionth word or phrase, according to the site Global Language Monitor, based in Texas. Several phrases were in the running, including “Jai Ho” and “Slumdog”, popularised by the Oscar-winning movie “Slumdog Millionaire”. However, the winner was “Web 2.0,” a phrase usually applied to social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. The Global Language Monitor, defines “Web 2.0” as a technical term, meaning the next generation of World Wide Web products and services. It has crossed from technical jargon into far wider circulation in the last six months.
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According to the site, a new English word or phrase is created about every 98 minutes, for an average of 14.7 per day. The proliferation of blogs and social networks has no doubt increased the frequency of new words and many journalists and linguists are critical. “By what authority does the Global Language Monitor say a new coinage is a genuine new word?” said The Economist asked last year. Some countries, such as France and Spain, have academies that claim the right to regulate their national languages, and to repel invasive terms, usually from English. However, neither England nor the United States of America attempts to do this and so English becomes a mongrel language that keeps its vitality by absorbing new words, uses and expressions!
Other News…
Atlas would like to say farewell to work placement Jia, whose next stop is Japan, where she plans to continue her studies and further her career. Atlas wishes her all the best! Atlas would like to welcome new work placement Elisabetta. Elisabetta was born in Venice but now lives in Trieste, in the North East of Italy, near the border with Slovenia. She is currently doing her MA in Conference Interpreting at the University of Trieste. Her languages are Italian, English and Russian and she would like to become a professional interpreter one day!
Answer to June question:
a) China (from the AMOY dialect) b) Turkey c) Greek d) Spain e) India
Thank you for your interest in the Atlas monthly newsletters. We welcome your feedback and ideas for future articles.
Compiled by Sara Roden-Scott
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Anna Davies or Clare Suttie
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