Language is a phenomenon that reflects various social and cultural changes and it progresses and adapts naturally over time. That is why it is no surprise that with the development of the Internet, our language is enriched with numerous newly coined words, phrases and abbreviations. Such words and phrases tend to spread very quickly and are used by many speakers. The users draw inspiration for the creation of new words from different sources, predominantly from pop culture. The development of the Internet has led to a rapid exchange of new words – a process that took years or even decades to occur in the past. The use can sometimes become so frequent that they even enter dictionaries.
As you might have already assumed, English is the language that still takes the crown when it comes to prominence and impact regarding slang. Many Internet users from non-English speaking areas often adopt English phrases (which are sometimes non-translatable) and use them naturally in discourse. However, every language has its own set of slang words that native speakers invent on a daily basis. On the other hand, sometimes they translate English phrases into their native language. For example, LOL has its French counterpart MDR (mort de rire), meaning “dying of laughter”. Another interesting example comes from the Thai language, where the digit 5 denotes the letter “h”. Therefore, 555 means “hahaha”.
The Internet is a source of many new words or ordinary words that have been attributed with new meanings.
The shortest instances of Internet slang are abbreviations and acronyms. They both shorten the words and phrases and enable a quicker exchange of opinions, thoughts and ideas.
BTW – by the way
cya – see you
TBH – to be honest
fam – family
deets – details
sus – suspicious
Internet slang can also be the source of new words and phrases. They often stem from viral tweets, memes, famous TikToks, pop-culture references and other trends that spread instantly on the Internet. Some of them are well known, while others have gone through specific stylistic, semantic or spelling adjustments.
periodt – used to denote “end of conversation” after delivering certain facts
finna – an adapted version of “gonna” or “going to”
rizz – denoting a skill of attracting a potential partner; the word originates from “charisma”
bop – used when describing a really good song
slap (v.) – when something slaps, it is amazing and you can’t get enough of it
slay – to achieve outstanding success and make a powerful impression
pressed – the state of being very angry, sad or upset
cringe – the uncomfortable feeling triggered by awkward or embarrassing situations or content
yassify – to make something substantially better, more glamorous
the ick – used as an expression of disgust for someone or something
nepo baby – someone who attains success in the entertainment industry mainly because of their family connections, often associated with nepotism
bombastic side eye – a judgmental, disapproving look
menty b – short for “mental breakdown“
It’s giving (sth.) – another way to point out the general vibe of something
hits different – used to denote that something is better than the usual
live rent-free – to live rent-free in one’s mind means that they can’t get something out of their mind
low-key – to keep something discreet, low-profile, or understated without drawing much attention or making it widely known
Read more about it here.
Internet slang is not all just about the textual format. Internet users often use a number of emojis and symbols that successfully replace certain words and convey their intended message. Ever since the emergence of social media, the visual aspect of communication has become more and more important. Various types of social media enable their users to create visual (as well as video and audio) content and memes, which later become widely known and used.
Internet slang is a regular part of our everyday lives. Hearing certain words and phrases online can often be entertaining, humorous and fun. Most of them are temporary trends in language and just like any other trend in fashion, music or technology – they come and go. However, some of them become so deeply embedded in our language that they become a part of dictionaries.
Read more interesting blog posts on our page.
Author: Dora Nikić
The title may be confusing since it is assumed that after completing university (especially faculty of humanities) one does not have a future in their own field, but bear with me and let me explain my career path.
I studied English and Croatian language and literature at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Osijek and then we come to the fun (stressful) part when in the first year of the graduate university study program you have to choose an orientation in your future profession – will I be a teacher, translator or philologist?
There were no choices when it comes to the Croatian language study program because the lack of students interested in studying literature as a scientific discipline led to everyone in my generation going towards the orientation to become a teacher. Now we come to the most fun (the most stressful) part since in the English language study program there was a choice between the orientation to become a teacher or a translator.
So, the first conclusion is – I don't wish to be a teacher, I don't fit in that profession, and working with young minds is something that would bring too much stress for me. The second conclusion is – if I do enroll in the study program oriented towards becoming a translator how will I ever get a job (Google Translate, this one is on you), especially due to the fact that I don't have a combination of exotic, rare languages in addition to English and Croatian. Arguing with my mum, listening to the comments of society, indecisiveness, crying and all the other dramas of being a young intellectual led me on the path to my final decision. Finally, I decided to become a translator and then attend numerous additional courses after university just to find any kind of job. Those were my thoughts backed up by comments of a small town's society.
"Arguing with my mum, listening to the comments of society, indecisiveness, crying and all the other dramas of being a young intellectual led me on the path to my final decision."
Dora Nikić
This is when we come to a turn in this pessimistic outlook because something important happened. Dora (myself, not the cartoon character) started to really enjoy the translation studies. Everything else became irrelevant, I envisioned my success in the field that I studied. Let's jump to the next conclusions. First, I have to try harder during university and prove to my professors that I have what it takes to make it in the translation industry (yes, it is its own industry). Second, I have to take every opportunity to gain practical experience the sooner the better. It can be a volunteering activity offered by professors or something every young translator starts with – usually Translators without Borders and TED Translators. The third conclusion is that I have to connect with as many colleagues as I can who are looking for a job in the same field, every conversation with them can lead to a potential job offer.
After putting those conclusions into practice, here we are in the company I work for today. When the day came to select if we want to attend student practice as part of translation studies my answer was obvious. In my opinion, everyone who enrolls in translation studies should attend professional student practice if offered, because every opportunity to show one's skills is important. When deciding where to attend student practice, students have many options to choose from, but it takes a bit of luck to get to the place you want based on the number of students.
Then Dora took her mobile phone and embarked on an adventure of searching all translation agencies and trades in the area of Osijek. One blue name popped up, Sinonim. What I first liked about Sinonim is the fact that the agency works with all sorts of clients and thus all kinds of texts from different fields. It was also important to me that Sinonim offers copyediting, localization and certified translation services (as one day I wish to become a certified translator). Sinonim checked all my boxes, and I told my professor about it being my ideal choice for student practice. My wishes came true and I got the opportunity to work in the place of my preference. After that everything came into place, when you work in a field you love and at the place of your choice led by people who are easy to work with, success is guaranteed.
It didn't take long until the student practice became a student job, and the student job a real employment. The process itself was very easy-going. A few weeks after student practice I got an e-mail saying I could come to an interview for a student job, and after hard work and getting along with my work colleagues I immediately got an offer to continue our cooperation after graduating from university. There is so much more I could say, but the most important thing is not to give up and invest yourself in what really interests you (I know, I know, boring inspirational speeches), because then you'll get a chance to meet talented, young people, like the ones working in Sinonim, who will give you a chance and a starting point for professional development.
It’s common knowledge that foreign language proficiency has been improving rapidly over the past few years. However, there are still plenty of reasons why translators are here to stay.
If you’re tempted to use Google Translate for your translation tasks, stick around!
In this article, we’ll give you 4 reasons businesses will always need translators.
Although there are plenty of translation tools available, they’re still a long way from being applicable for demanding translation tasks.
For starters, the quality of translation tools is nowhere near as high as a human translator. Even though Google’s translation algorithm is improving, it fails to fully capture things like language culture and context. Because of that, the translation you’ll get can be inaccurate.
Take the French phrase Se taper le cul par terre, which means to laugh loudly. According to Google translate, the phrase means Banging your ass on the floor.
It’s safe to assume that relying solely on tools like Google Translate can spell disaster.
Whether you’re working with a document or a text spanning across several, dozens, or even hundreds of pages, your translation must be consistent.
The more pages you have to translate, the harder it is to deliver an equally accurate translation. When you don’t have a professional translator doing the work, mistakes are more likely to happen.
Think about this example.
Imagine you have multiple people working on the same project that are not professional translators. It’s not a stretch to say that the translation won’t be equally consistent across the entire text.
A successfully translated piece of text must be consistently accurate.
One of the hardest things to do is to successfully translate a text that has a lot of specialized terms.
Unlike typical phrases and words, specialized and technical terminology requires more understanding and effort. This is because the phrases used in the text relate only to a specific industry or field. If the person translating a text doesn’t have training in that particular field, they can’t translate the phrase accurately and make it fit with the rest of the document.
The problem mostly happens when teams use free translation tools to translate specialized terminology. Unfortunately, the translation ends up being inaccurate.
Take medical terminology as an example.
A 2020 study about translating medical instructions for people who don’t speak English found that when using Google Translate, users retain 82.5% of meaning from the original text. This means that almost 20% of the text’s meaning becomes lost or misinterpreted during the translation process.
The best way to keep this from happening is to hire a professional translator who is trained to work with specialized terminology.
What about the cultural background of the language you’re translating?
Language is not just about syntax.
Sure, you can learn how to arrange words to form sentences correctly, but you can’t deny that a certain language has a cultural spirit that a translation must capture to be fully accurate. Phrases are particularly tricky because their translation depends on the cultural context; if you translate them literally, you’re doing a poor job.
For instance, the English language is ripe with phrases like the second bite of the apple, which means a second chance. Here, the literal translation of the phrase is inaccurate.
There are countless examples like this one.
To deliver a culturally sensitive and accurate translation, you need cultural background training and plenty of practice. That’s why businesses rely on professional translators.
For businesses, inaccurate translations are often a deal-breaker.
Reflect on the points you just read; no matter how sharp your language skills are, you can always have a few blind spots that get in the way of a perfect translation.
If you want to deliver flawlessly translated texts or documents, you’ll hire a professional translator.
Lots of local companies have dedicated SEO professionals who understand the value of content. Since the demand for onsite and social media content is so great, repurposing old content into new is standard practice.
However, things can get tricky when content repurposing projects include translation activities.
Translating niche-specific in a foreign language is more difficult than it seems. If you don’t deliver a consistently accurate and culturally-sensitive translation, you’ll hurt the quality of your content.
That’s why in this article, you’ll read about 3 different approaches for content translation.
Let’s dig in!
Translate Content Yourself
The first thing that usually comes to mind is to translate content yourself, especially if you’re translating from your native language to English.
It’s no secret that the global English level proficiency is at an all-time high. This notion was confirmed in a 2021 report from EF Education First.
Source: Statista
English proficiency is rapidly improving across all continents, with European countries on top of the list. This hardly comes as a surprise, given that millennials will represent 75% of the global workforce.
In-house content creators are tempted to save the marketing budget. However, you are going to need 3 key things to get the job done:
A superior command of the English language. If you want to translate large amounts of text, your grammar, vocabulary, and syntax must be at the very least on a C1 level. To get an objective feel of your English skills, test your skills.
Often, marketers have misleading confidence in their grammar skills with several blind spots to things like tone of voice and communication style. These can prove to be fatal errors that harm the quality of your translated content.
Keep in mind that a C1 level of English proficiency is not a guarantee you’ll do a terrific job.
Writing Aid tools. It doesn’t matter if you’re writing a post for your company’s LinkedIn or onsite content, you’re going to need to rely on writing aid tools. They are incredibly useful because they highlight your grammar mistakes and recommend different phrases.
Some tools, like Grammarly, have advanced features that track the clarity and focus of your text. Even if you have excellent English proficiency, you’ll benefit from writing aid tools.
Translation software. As you’re translating your content, you’re going to encounter lots of atypical phrases and words. The quickest way to do it is to use Google Translate.
Word to the wise - relying on Google Translate to translate large chunks of text can be disastrous. While it works decently well, the translation quality of Google Translate (and other translation software) can vary. So before posting any content, triple-check to see if the translation is accurate.
This statement doubles down if you’re working with niche-specific content with lots of technical terms.
Hire a Freelancer for Translations
When repurposing native language content into English posts and articles, many companies hire freelancers on a project-to-project basis.
If you don’t have absolute confidence in your staff’s grammar skills, this move makes perfect sense at first. After all, it’s better to hire a freelancer than deliver a flawed translation.
When it comes to translation tasks, there are many different platforms for outsourcing professionals.
Here are the leading sites for hiring translators and writers:
Upwork is an established freelancer platform with professionals offering a wide range of services. Translating is one of the more popular assignment requests. Like many freelancer platforms, before hiring a freelancer, you’ll be able to see their rating and what kind of specific projects are they best suited for.
Fiverr is another popular platform for outsourcing freelancers, with one important distinction. Unlike Upwork, Fiverr allows professionals to provide a wide range of services, instead of one specific. If your translation project requires additional writing or repurposing for multiple formats, you’re more likely to find a freelancer with a wider range of skills.
Gengo is a rising star in the freelance translator industry. Some of their clients include Buzzfeed, YouTube, and The Huffington Post. Their line of expertise is customer-help articles and email templates.
Even though hiring freelancers is considered to be a compromise between quality and saving money, it’s not a foolproof translation strategy.
When you work with freelancers, you have limited correction requests, meaning that there’s a risk of a freelancer doing a mediocre job and not delivering the full results.
Let’s face it, a 4.5-star rating does not guarantee an excellent translation, especially if the assignment is difficult.
In case you’re dissatisfied with the results and want your money back, you’ll often going to have to work things out through customer support. That can take days, if not weeks, which is bad when you’re on a tight schedule.
Hire a Translation Agency for Content Translations
Hiring a translation agency is about as sure as you can get when translating content.
An agency has trained professionals that guarantee consistency, accurate translation, and understanding of the cultural sensitivities of the English language. More importantly, they have a logistical structure in place that ensures the translations are delivered on time.
For that reason, translators will never run out of business; even in a world where English proficiency is at an all-time high.
The obvious setback of working with a translation agency is the increased costs of translating. However, that’s often not the case.
If you’re hiring a freelance translator that does a poor job, you already lost money. In addition, the quality of the repurposed content will drop. You’re less likely to make a return on your content.
Finally, if you’re on a tight schedule to translate lots of text, the probability of you missing the deadline is more likely when you’re not working with a certified translation agency.
You can imagine how easily the expenses can add up. Oftentimes, it’s much smarter to hire trusted professionals than spend days researching freelancers, or take up a translation project that you’re not equipped to deal with.
Conclusion
As we said, there are 3 ways to translate your content:
Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide which option works best for the type of content you want to repurpose and translate. However, keep in mind that your users have high expectations for content.
If you underestimate the complexity of the translation task, you introduce other risks that can cost more than what you planned on saving. Think about what you read today and hire our agency for your translation assignments.
Literary translation from Croatian is certainly made more difficult by the complexity of the Croatian language and certain words that tend to become obsolete in time, as they are less and less used in everyday communication. One of such works is Priče iz Davnine (Croatian Tales of Long Ago), which has been translated into twenty languages. We will attempt to discuss and rate the quality of the English translation in this blog post.
Priče iz davnine → Croatian Tales of Long Ago
Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić is one of Croatia's most successful writers, who elevated the use of certain linguistic expressions and through her fairy tales helped preserve certain words in the Croatian language, rendering them less known rather than obsolete. The translation of the collection's title is literal, with the addition of the adjective Croatian, to refer the reader to the spatial and cultural context of the work.
The English audience did not receive the fairy tales as published in their first English edition in 1924 with the expected enthusiasm, but this edition allowed for the Croatian Tales of Long Ago to be translated into other languages: Swedish in 1928 and Danish in 1929. A step toward better sales was the publishing of the US edition, where Ivana's fairy tales were received more warmly.
Gizdavi paunovi → haughty peacocks
One of the words that is rarely used in Croatian today is gizdav, meaning richly decorated, lavish. In the fairy tale Regoč, Kosjenka (Curlylocks) created haughty peacocks by discarding a magical pearl. The translation “haughty” here denotes proud, arrogant peacocks, which doesn't match the context of this expression.
Ivana entrusted her youngest brother Želimir with the care of the first English translation of Croatian Tales of Long Ago. He ventured into an international collaboration with the English, completing a massive task, as well as taking upon himself the financial burden of it. Seeing the daunting and time-consuming process of creating an English edition finally complete, Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić was delighted with the end-product.
loboda (a poor people's plant, similar to spinach) → wild spinach
It is considered that the manuscript of the fairy tales was completed in 1915, and they were first published in 1916 by Matica hrvatska. In the first edition, Ivana decided to publish six fairy tales, and here are their titles with English translations: Kako je Potjeh tražio istinu (How Quest Sought the Truth), Ribar Palunko i njegova žena (Fisherman Plunk and his Wife), Regoč (Reygoch), Šuma Striborova (Stribor's Forest), Bratac Jaglenac i sestrica Rutvica (Little Brother Primrose and Sister Lavender), Sunce djever i Neva Nevičica (Bridesman Sun and Bride Bridekins).
In the fairy tale Fisherman Plunk and his Wife, there is mention of loboda: a leafy plant that grows in mountainous areas, and the seeds, leaves and flowery tips of this plant used to feed both the rich and the poor. Loboda is also often called wild spinach in Croatian, so the literal translation is quite fitting to describe this plant.
Ubogo djevojče (bad off, poor child) → poor girl
Eight years after the Croatian original, the English translation was published in London, and was soon after followed by the Swedish, Czech, Russian and German translations. Croatian Stories of Long Ago is the most published and most translated Croatian collection of prose, but this doesn't make the translators' work any easier. Some of the translations are literal, some were left out, probably because finding a suitable translation was too difficult, and some are mistranslated. Poor girl is a good solution for the English translation, as it conveys the defining feature of the character.
Gvozden (željezan) kljun → iron beak
In this text we used the first editions of Croatian Tales of Long Ago in Croatian and English. In her writings, the author used the motifs and names of characters from ancient Slavic mythology, which certainly further increases the challenge of translation into non-Slavic languages in such a way to preserve the true original meaning and convey the proper sense of what was written. The translation iron beak doesn't correspond to the original meaning.
…tako strahovito velik bijaše orijaš Regoč → …so terribly big was Reygoch
The core action of translation is to convey a message from the source language into the target language. However, languages differ, and the transfer must be done in a way that the meaning of the message is accurately carried over. Linguistic barriers are why some words were not translated, as is the case in this example.
Potjeh → Quest
The names of three brothers in the fairy tale How Quest Sought the Truth, Marun, Ljutiša and Potjeh, were translated as Bluster, Careful and Quest. The translations of the names Jaglenac and Rutvica are Lavender and Primrose, respectively. Bjesomar is Rampogusto, Malik Tintilinić Wee Tintilinkie, vile Zatočnice Votaress Fairies, Neva Nevičica Bride Bridekins, and Mokoš is Mother Muggish. Translating the characters and locations from Slavic mythology is an extra obstacle because this mythology is unknown in non-Slavic languages, and special annotations interpreting less known and unknown words would make the job much easier. The older editions of the fairy tales had no such annotations, whereas the latter have them.
Skut (the hem of a dress) → the hem of her garment
Before the collection was published in Croatian, there were certain linguistic modifications by the publisher, reviewer or the author herself where common ground needed to be found. We believe that this was the starting point in the English translation process as well, especially because Ivana herself participated in it. The translation the hem of her garment suits the context, and the word skut is very rarely used in the Croatian language today.
Guja-djevojka → snake-woman
Šuma Striborova (Stribor's Forest) is Ivana's most famous fairy tale, both in Croatia and beyond its borders. It has been deservedly translated in a host of languages and stands as a pearl of Croatian literature on the international stage. It is one of those rare works in which every line represents the common treasure of Slavic peoples, and its language a true narrative art. Snake-woman is thus one of Ivana's most popular characters, and the literal translation corresponds with the source.
…a žena nijema → …and his wife had gone dumb
The collection was written in the early 20th century and the contemporary linguistic standards had a major impact on it, looking from the standpoint of the present-day standard. Regardless, Ivana's language skill makes her even more special and an even better writer.
The first translation became a representative specimen, used to present the work to prospective foreign publishers. In this way, the book became a model for certain editions even before it was printed.
This example also shows that the translation fully conveys the meaning of the original.
Many Croatian literary works have been translated into numerous languages. Sinonim Translation Agency provides high-quality translation services for all types of texts: scientific, professional, literary, business and marketing etc. We know how difficult and challenging translation work can be, as we have often pointed out in our blog posts, including Five Reasons to Hire a Professional for Your Translation, Differences in Translating Literary and Legal Texts and Translating for EU.
Did you ever wonder about the pricing of translation projects? Why are translation services so expensive? How hard can it be to translate several pages into another language? It's not rocket science. Also, Google Translate is a thing.
First and foremost, we DO NOT use Google Translate for translating in any language pair. Professional translations are done with the help of CAT (Computer-assisted Translation) software. CAT tools, with their translation memories and term bases, shorten and streamline the translation process. Additionally, they facilitate consistency in translations. Even though machine translation software is getting better, the complexity of certain texts, the variability of terms and key language nuances remain in the human domain. And this is exactly what makes a quality translation.
According to ISO 9000, quality is the “degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfills requirements.”
Inherent characteristics mean the qualities of products important to buyers, and requirements are expressed, unexpressed or implied needs and expectations of buyers regarding the product.
Unlike the marketing era that featured “price wars” with the main task of creating a new market for new products, the current period of focus on quality is characterized by a large diversity of products, market saturation and prices on the edge of cost-effectiveness, with quality becoming the most important aspect for customers. There are currently around 400 translation agencies in Croatia. Clients have a wide choice, and considering that almost everything can be done via e-mail, even the location is not an issue. After all, we also work on the global market with clients from various parts of the world.
Even though you probably expect for the price of a translation to be similar at every agency, the price difference can sometimes be up to 100%. This is largely affected by the fact that the price of translations at translation agencies that are not in the VAT system can immediately be 25% lower. Furthermore, there are agencies that operate only online and therefore have significantly lower costs compared to traditional agencies. On top of that, there are agencies working for peanuts, that is, offering translations at extremely low prices. Such translations are known in the industry as extremely low-quality translations since they are done by underpaid, underqualified and/or inexperienced translators not taking paying attention to the quality, style and even basic accuracy of translations.
Let's take a simple example (even though, if we would ask a translator, it would be one of the most complicated ones) – translation of menus. Imagine finally getting several vacation days and using your annual leave. You sit down in a gorgeous small Italian restaurant overlooking the sea and start reading the menu. You're craving for something with an appetizing flavor that goes with the local wine. And you find –gnocchi in angry sauce. Hmm... A translation done for peanuts.
Somebody translated that menu from Italian to English. It doesn't matter whether the job was done by a freelancer or an agency. A little bit of literal translation, a little bit of inexperience/carelessness and the sauce can become angry instead of spicy.
Practice has shown that it is better to ask the client for a description/recipe/photograph of the meal than it is to literally translate a certain meal. Cuisine is a part of the culture of a nation, and often there are no equivalents for certain dishes in another language. But it is the translator's job to invest their time, to research the dish in question, and to find the best solution or to present the meal using a description. And someone who invested time end effort into finding the best possible solution will also want to be paid fairly for their work.
“Price is what you pay. Value is what you get,” said investor Warren Buffett. Finally, poor translation services can cost you a lot more than money. Whether it is a translation of a professional paper, brochure, menu, website or advertisement – your communication with consumers shows how much you care about their satisfaction and how much they can rely on you and your product or service.
Translation price does not always reflect the quality, but the level of service must justify the price paid by the client. We all need to stay competitive on the market in order to keep doing business at all. But on the other hand, translators need to set their "value". You would not want somebody to underestimate your work, invested time and effort, right? Translators are the same. Not every translation is equally demanding, but research, knowledge and experience go into every translation, so that the client can get the best possible result in the end. Actually, we can only speak for ourselves here.
Specifically, the translation price mostly depends on the quantity of text and the language pair. For example, the translation of a text from Croatian to English will be cheaper than the translation from Croatian to Dutch. Why?
There is a very small number of translators working in the Croatian-Dutch language pair. Their number decreases even more if you consider their reliability. If you entrust your translation to an agency, then that translation agency must vouch for the quality and accuracy of the translation, as well as meeting a deadline. When entrusting your translation to an agency, you should be confident that your translation will be done professionally and to a high standard. That is why the translation price in translation agencies can be somewhat higher than it is with freelancers. At the same time, this gives you some certainty. Working with an agency will ensure consistent terminology and style in your translations since they are likely to use glossaries and translation memories (databases) dedicated to your industry or even custom-made for your company.
Besides, if you don't know the ins and outs of the translation industry, you don't know whether you'll get only a basic translation or an edited/proofread translation. Maybe you need a translation, editing, proofreading and industry-specific revision? To ensure the quality of translations for our clients, every translated document produced by Sinonim undergoes the process of editing and proofreading, as well as quality assurance, regardless of the language in question. Mistakes can happen to everyone. That is why you should do everything you can to minimize or eliminate them.
When selecting a translator or an agency, you should take into account everything offered as part of that service, the time required for translating the text, the reliability of the translator and his or her expertise. The translator's job requires learning and improvement on a daily basis. That is the person/agency you entrust with your work, documents, financial reports... Find someone to build a partnership with and help you achieve your goals. At the end of the day, this is what we do at Sinonim. We look forward to every new success story to which we have contributed.
For any additional questions and information, feel free to contact us at info@sinonim.hr.
Don’t let the title fool you. ‘Untranslatable words’ is just an easier way of saying ‘words that don’t have a direct equivalent in another language’. But that doesn’t roll of your tongue as much.
This could be translated as unwanted kindness. Specifically, it describes a situation in which someone tries to do you a favor, despite you not wanting it, and consequently causing you additional trouble or just not helping you at all, but you are expected to express gratitude nevertheless due to social conventions. A truly Japanese word in every sense.
Untranslatable Words: Sobremesa – Spanish
This word literally means ‘over the table’, but it signifies the period after a meal when the people sitting at the table continue to talk and enjoy each other’s company. Not an important word if you have no friends.
Sobremesa can also mean tablecloth.
Untranslatable Words: Zapoi – Russian
This Russian word is used to express continuous drinking for several days, so much so that the person withdraws from their normal social life. Sounds fun.
Used metaphorically to describe a person who acts like a coward by criticizing and attacking only from a safe distance. Literally, it means a person throwing snowballs while wearing their gloves. In both cases – a pansy.
Everything feels much better when you have a word for what you're doing. Since utepils means enjoying a cold beer outside on a sunny day, our non-working weekends during the bright and warm days can feel much more meaningful.
Untranslatable Words: Trepverter – Yiddish
Another one of those words we absolutely need in our language. This one, particularly, signifies a witty comeback that you think of when it’s already too late. It literally means ‘staircase words’.
Untranslatable Words: Gökotta – Swedish
One of those words we didn’t know we need in our lives. Gökotta is used in Swedish to express the action of rising at dawn to listen to the birds sing. I don’t like to wake up early for anything, but you go Swedes.
Untranslatable Words: Gattara – Italian
We would translate it as ‘(crazy) cat lady’, that is, a woman who owns many cats or devotedly feeds stray cats.
Untranslatable Words: Gigil – Filipino
You know that feeling you get when you see a puppy or a baby so cute you want to pinch it? Well, that’s gigil. Now you know. It can be anything adorable, not just those two things. You’re welcome.
Untranslatable Words: Mencolek – Indonesian
Practically everyone tried to pull this trick on their friends when they were kids, we just didn’t have a name for it. The trick when you tap someone in front of you on the opposite shoulder than the one you intend to approach them from. A simple, yet effective way to humiliate your buddy.
This one is my favorite. It means to continuously borrow stuff from a friend without returning it, until the friend is left with nothing. The fascinating thing about it is that it obviously happens so often there that they need a word for it.
You know what’s awful? Having to spend your money on things you want. Why not just find a friend and take their belongings? Profit.
There you go. A bunch of untranslatable words you will never use, apart from maybe saying ‘do you know there is a word in ___ meaning____’ in order to sound smarter. +100 Intelligence.
In every line of work, there are periods of time when there is too much work to do and little time to do it in. Stress levels tend to soar at such times, and they become much higher than those of everyday work-related stress. Here are a few tips that will help you avoid such situations if possible and, in case such situations come up anyway, manage stress levels to keep yourself from burning out.
In many cases, work overload does not come up due to inability to get the work done, but due to inability to organize the work in a way that it can be done efficiently. This is why it is important to make a schedule. If you are a freelance translator, evaluate the approximate time you believe will be necessary to complete a project, enter this project into a time slot of your schedule and then accept it. It is important to plan your work, otherwise it will make plans for you.
If you do not determine deadlines for yourself, you will most likely unnecessarily stretch out the task at hand to the deadline determined by the client, even though you could have completed the task sooner. Maybe you’ll work slower, double check terminology you had already researched, proofread several times, etc. All of this is fine if you have time, but it usually yields very little results.
The first terminology check was sufficient, the first proofreading removed all the errors and you just lost an additional hour or two correcting your own style. Make your own deadline, complete the translation and move on.
Translators tend to accept all the work they can get, mostly due to fear of not finding work in the upcoming period. This can make translators work from dawn ‘till dusk, and from dusk ‘till dawn again. It may have financial benefits, but it can be detrimental to your health in the long run. A good method for handling this is determining a maximum daily word count that will be your daily limit. Most translators set a number of 2000 to 3000 words a day, but you can decide on whatever you’re most comfortable with.
Modern technology is a double-edged sword. Having a small device that allows you to always keep in touch with other people is both a curse and a blessing. It makes you available at all times, and this is usually not a good thing, especially if you’re a freelancer.
Getting emails on new tasks can cause stress even though it’s obvious there’s more than enough time to meet your deadline. That’s why it’s good to complete your work and unplug. Plan your deadlines and arrange other activities later on; that way you’ll work efficiently, finish your work within the deadline you’ve set for yourself and engage in other activities you enjoy later on.
I’ve briefly touched on this already, however it seems important to emphasize it. Rechecking and checking your translation again often yields very little or no benefits. It is also a very strenuous activity that requires high levels of concentration and can occasionally be time consuming. If you’ve got a decent amount of experience, check as you translate, proofread your text once and move on. That being said, you’re bound to make mistakes at some point; decide to be humble at such times, apologize and fix the issue.
Although the work of a translator is stressful at times, it’s also quite rewarding. It encourages you to read, learn and adapt, enriches your vocabulary and expands your general knowledge. It teaches you to read between the lines and get at the heart of any matter.
When it comes to managing your workload, we recommend that you make your own schedule, work efficiently and refuse job offers when you are overwhelmed. When it comes to managing stress it’s best to work effectively, stop constantly doubting yourself and unplug after you complete your work.
If you enjoyed this blog, click here and find more interesting content.
Happy European Day of Languages! Thanks to the initiative of the European Council, this commemorative day has been celebrated since 2001. There are more than 200 languages in Europe alone, and today is meant to celebrate their diversity. Besides, knowing an additional language contributes to a better understanding of another's culture and, consequently, better intercultural communication.
We'll acknowledge the European Day of Languages with an interesting blog and get to know some of the strangest languages in the world.
Esperanto is a constructed international language created for easier communication. It originated in 1887, has a short and highly regular grammar, and is quite easy to learn. According to some sources, Esperanto is ten times easier to learn than some of the great European languages. It was created by Ludwik Lejzer Zmenhof, and with 2 million speakers it's the biggest international auxiliary language in today's world.
Yupik is used by less than 15,000 people, yet there are five different dialects within Yupik differing so much that the speakers cannot understand each other. These Eskimo languages are spoken in the space between Siberia and Alaska and are polysynthetic, meaning their words consist of a large number of morphemes. One word can be an entire sentence. For example: Sikursuarsiurpugu. = We sail through the thick ice.
The language used by American natives of the eponymous tribe, with about 3,000 of them living in Oklahoma. The Pawnee alphabet consist of only nine consonants and eight vowels. This language is slowly dying as there are fewer speakers each day. The reason behind it is that more and more young people learn English as their mother tongue. Pawnee can even be heard in the movie The Revenant.
A language isolate - cannot be related to any other known living language. It's spoken by Basques, people from parts of northern Spain and southwestern France. It has a vigesimal, or base-20, counting system also used by ancient Mayas. For example 40 = 2 x 20, 60 = 3 x 20, 80 = 4 x 20, 90 = 4 x 20 + 10.
Laal is quite unknown and unexplored language. It's spoken by around 750 people in two villages on the banks of river Shari in Chad, Africa. A number of scientists places Laal in a small group of African isolates. It is also in danger of extinction because younger generations leave the villages in order to find a better life in the nearby cities.
Pitjantjatjara is a dialect traditionally spoken in the central Australia and taught in schools, so it has young speakers. It's the best known by its fantastic name. One of the interesting facts about this language is that numbers look like this: 1, 2, 3, 2+2, 2+3, a lot. So, everything above number 5 is marked as a lot because if you can't count it using a single hand, there's no need to be precise.
It's never too late to learn a new language. Maybe not so exotic or unusual as the ones from our list, but the choice is yours! ?
Scroll through our blog posts and check out how knowing another language can change the way you see the world and/or what are some of the fictional languages from the world of books and movies.
Which language would you love to learn? How many foreign languages do you speak?
Not every translation can be approached in the same manner. Every topic has its own rules, and sometimes even the client has alternative instructions that must be complied with. The good thing about translating EU texts is that there are established rules for almost everything. There is an abundance of sources filled with instructions regarding language and style, making our job easier. Or maybe just the opposite.
The more rules there are, the more likely it is that you are going to make a mistake.
This is why today we will teach you some of the most basic instructions for translating EU texts and, hopefully, help you in creating the basic knowledge that you can then upgrade.
If you have received reference documents for the translation, you must use them. Also, if there is a provision, regulation, act or something similar mentioned in your text, make sure to find and open them, because there is a reason why they are mentioned. You will surely find something of use, and you cannot make up translations if there is an official translation to be found. EUR-Lex and Ctrl+F are your allies.
Your duty as a translator is to translate everything that is written. In legal texts there is no artistic freedom like there is in, for example, tourism or literature texts. Follow what is written in the original text, even if you encounter a mistake. You can possibly write a comment in the translation in which you explain the existing mistake in the original.
It is unacceptable to interpret the text in any way, invent new attitudes or insert additional explanations within the text. If the sentence in the original sounds ambiguous, try to keep that ambiguity in your translation. But this does not mean that you will translate everything literally. You will translate so that your text sounds as clear as possible in the target language, while simultaneously being as close to the original as possible.
Regardless of whether you are translating an act, regulation or a contract, try to find several similar acts/regulations/contracts so that you can see their format and the established expressions that must be used in the target language. As we said, such things are prescribed, and they must be followed.
In order for you to get used to the style and manner of writing, you need to find as many reliable sources as possible. Translating texts for the EU is actually quite different from translating other types of texts. The majority can’t be improvised, and you will surely make mistakes in the beginning. This is why you firstly need to prepare well, and EU websites have got you covered! Read the Interinstitutional Style Guide, English Style Guide and every other piece of official literature you can find, write down the most important points and have them at hand in case you need to check something. That way you will learn something, or at the very least know where to find what you need.
After you have translated your text, go through it once again. Read everything you’ve written with understanding and additionally form the sentence so that it is clearer, if necessary. Be focused and aware of what you have translated. It is very easy to get lost in the verbiage that you don’t understand. But how can you expect anyone to understand what you have translated if you don’t understand it yourself? Therefore, study the relevant acts and try to understand individual terms, which will lead to a high-quality translation.
As everything in life, you need practice if you want to create high-quality translations for the EU. You won’t know everything at once, nor should you expect it. Regardless of the experience you have in other types of translation, you will need additional preparation for this. Having in mind the fact that such translations will become a part of the law of a certain state, it is very important to pay attention to their quality.
Good luck!
Have you ever wondered how do places get their names? Who named them? What's the reason behind it? What do those city names mean? If you are as curious as we are, this is a blog post for you!
We bring you legends about the names of different cities around the world and interesting stories that will hopefully inspire you to do some more research or maybe even consider an impromptu trip to one of these places.
The capital of France was established in the 3rd century BC. It was founded by a Celtic tribe Parisii on a small island in the middle of the river Seine. The tribe named their new city Civitas Parisiorum or shortened - Paris. The first time Paris was ever mentioned in any written document was in 52 BC. Julius Caesar then wrote about the settlement Lutetia Parisiorum (meaning midwater dwelling) in his "Commentaries on the Gallic War".
Apart from being the City of Love, Paris is also known as the City of Light. That nickname comes from its leading role during the Age of Enlightenment and a great number of intellectuals living there, but also because Paris was one of the first large European cities to use gas street lighting on a grand scale.
If you would like to go to Paris and visit all its landmarks, including the Eiffel tower, consider doing some fitness preparations first. Why, you ask?
Because to climb to the top of the symbol of Paris, you'll need to take 1665 stairs! Of course, you can take the elevator but opting for the stairs would definitely contribute to the full Parisienne experience. ?
Spanish conquistadors named this city by the Virgin Mary's sanctuary Santa María del Buen Aire in Sardinia (which was also colonized by Spain at the time). In English, Buenos Aires means “good airs” or “fair winds”.
And how did the sanctuary get its name?
There are a few different stories. One of the most common ones states that the reason behind it is the position of the sanctuary. It was on a hill from where the stench of the swampland in Cagliari (the capital of Sardinia) could not be smelled and therefore "on good air".
The other theory says the Virgin Mary helped sailors by assuaging a storm in the Mediterranean, earning it the fame of the “fair winds”.
Today, across Argentina, the people of Buenos Aires are largely called „porteños” (people from the port, port people) because of the enormous importance of the port not only for the city, but for the whole of Argentina as well.
The city situated on the banks of river Vistula has a very interesting legend about its name origin. Once upon a time while King Kazimierz the Restorer was coming from Krakow, he got hungry and smelled some freshly cooked fish. He and his entourage followed the smell of the food and came across a poor fisherman’s hut. The fisherman and his wife hosted the king but wouldn't accept payment for their hospitality. So, the king promised to organize the ceremony of baptism and asked for the honor of being godfather to their newborn twins - a boy named Wars and a little girl named Sawa.
After the ceremony, the king told them to build a settlement and name it after the twins - Warszawa.
According to another legend, the mermaid Sawa is actually one of the two sisters who came from the Baltic Sea by the river Vistula. Unfortunately, she was stuck in a fishnet, but was saved by the fisherman Wars. As you can imagine, they fell in love and together founded the city of Warsaw. The mermaid promised she'll protect the city and that's why she's featured on Warsaw's coat of arms since the 14th century. Her sister is stationed at the Copenhagen's port entrance.
Tokyo, whose original name is Edo, is Japan's economic, cultural and political capital. In order to explain the meaning behind the name Tokyo, you should know that before it, the capital of the Land of the Rising Sun was Kyoto. In Japanese, Kyoto is written 京都, and the official name of Tokyo (which is extremely rarely used) is actually Tôkyôto or 東京都 in Japanese. Kyôto means Imperial Capital and tôkyôto means East (Imperial) Capital.
There are around 36 million people living in the metropolitan area of Tokyo today. Because of such a great number of people, Tokyo's rail network had to employ pushers (押し屋 - oshiya), people who literally push the citizens in trains during rush hour.
Saving the best for last! Believe it or not, the official name of Thailand's capital is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit. Yes. Our thoughts exactly.
It translates to: “The city of angels, the great city, the residence of the Emerald Buddha, the impregnable city (of Ayutthaya) of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukarn.” Uh, that was a mouthful.
Locals mostly call their metropolis Krung Thep, which is a shortened version of the full official name. The name Bangkok is commonly used by Westerners, meaning "village of wild plums".
You thought we were done? Not yet! ? We have found some more interesting facts we'd like to share with you.
Did you know there's a city in Alaska named Chicken? The legend says that miners who lived and worked there wanted to name their city Ptarmigan by a bird inhabiting that area. But the problem was they didn't know how to spell the word ptarmigan so they decided to go with a bird whose name is much easier to spell - a chicken.
Batman fans probably already know about a village called Gotham, situated in Nottinghamshire, England. Unfortunately, its name has nothing to do with Kane's superhero. The name of this small place with around 1500 inhabitants derives from Old English gāt "goat" and hām "home".
Names of numerous African cities were influenced by the natural characteristics of their surroundings. So, for your next trip you can visit Hotazhel, a place whose name means exactly what you think - that it's hot as hell. The population of this town is less than 600 households and often falls victim to blistering heatwaves.
That would be it for today! Do you know any more captivating stories about names of cities, states, rivers or some other geographic locations? Which one of our stories did you like the most?
We all know how much technology improved during the last decade. We can see any part of the world via Internet, talk with anyone, anywhere, anyhow. But is learning a foreign language without paying expensive classes or going to language schools also that simple? Today we bring you an overview of the five best rated apps for foreign language learning. We have tried to refresh our Italian, and you can tell us which languages you tried and if you were successful in them.
Whenever we talk about learning a foreign language, Duolingo is probably the first app everyone mentions, which isn’t surprising as it is highly rated on Google Play Store. It provides the option of a Placement test and places you at a level based on your score. The number of skipped lessons depends on the level you have been placed.
Before you start, you can choose how much time you want to spend learning a language on a daily basis (5, 10, 15 or 20 minutes). The app contains ads and purchase offers (both are short enough not to interfere with your learning process, and it is also pointed out that the ads help to keep the education free).
To use this app, proficiency in English is key, because knowledge of spelling and grammar is highly important during the learning process, but also during the translation process from the language you are learning to English.
There is no daily limit of lessons you can complete. Also, all those questions you answered incorrectly will appear again at the end of the lesson. The lessons unlock gradually, in order to ensure you don’t skip too many lessons until you really learn the previous ones.
Every lesson has its levels arranged by their difficulty. Let’s take the FOOD lesson as an example. The first level contains the basics, the second is a bit harder and includes recognition, matching, identifying gender, etc., while the third level includes independent translation from Italian to English and writing of certain words, as well as use of the correct article (l/l'/le/i/gli in Italian). Also, the harder the levels, the more tasks they contain.
You can look up the meanings of underlined words in the sentence while you are in the middle of the task. Also, words appearing in Italian always contain the appropriate article, which is very important in the Italian language. You won’t see the word “la ragazza” written as only “ragazza”. The app also offers the option of pronouncing words on a microphone. The microphone can be turned off if you find yourself in an environment where you are unable to speak.
There are also some bonus levels unlocked with gems, which you get after completing lessons.
DUOLINGO PLUS is a feature that activates for a week if you invite one of your friends to Duolingo (they can choose any language, they are not obliged to learn the same language you are learning). If you invite two friends, the option will be active for two weeks. The feature works only if that person doesn’t have the app installed on their phone but installs it upon your invitation. This feature offers the option to download lessons for offline language learning, and automatic download when you are connected to Wi-Fi. While DUOLINGO PLUS is active, you get additional prizes without having to watch ads and you have the option to open two chests in order to get gems.
Another cool feature Duolingo offers is Discussion during learning, in case a certain task or answer is not clear enough. You can enter the Discussion by pressing the speech balloon icon, right next to the flag icon. The users can comment on a certain lesson in that Discussion so you can get additional explanations, which is extremely useful in less familiar languages, Japanese for example. The following screenshots show you how that looks like in the app itself.
Tinycards by Duolingo is an app with a rating of 4.1 on Google Play Store. Knowing the English language is necessary for this app as well. It is designed in the form of flashcards containing an expression (and sometimes a picture) in English on the one side, and an expression in the language you are learning on the other side. You have the option to hear the foreign language expression on the side that contains it. You can see the example below.
After a certain number of pictures appear, a picture that needs to be matched with the correct expression comes up, while by the end of the lesson you have to independently translate expressions from English to the language you are learning and vice versa. So, the app doesn’t contain only flashcards, it also tests what you have learned right away.
The lessons are, just like in Duolingo, unlocked gradually. Additionally, they can be added into collections or shared via social networks.
Mondly is an app rated 4.7 on Google Play Store. It doesn’t contain ads like the previous ones, but it encourages users to purchase it. This is the only app for which the knowledge of English is not important.
As you are learning, new words are underlined, and you can see the translation. There is also the option to assemble a certain word with offered letters, which is extremely useful because it contributes to learning new words. If the unknown word is a verb, its whole conjugation will pop out in the past, the present, and the future.
The articles before foreign words are not shown, even though the articles in Italian are almost as important as those in German.
While translating, it’s necessary to connect the offered words into a meaningful sentence. Since the first word in a sentence is always written with a capital letter, and there is always a period after the last word, it is questionable how much you can learn using this method and if that kind of translation process is even demanding enough.
Mondly is the only app we tried that requires 15 minutes to pass between lessons. If you allow app notifications, it will remind you daily. This app offers Weekly and Monthly Challenges. You cannot participate in the Weekly Challenge if you don’t finish all seven Daily Lessons, and you cannot participate in the Monthly Challenge if you don’t complete all Weekly Challenges.
Except for Hi, Daily Lesson and Chatbox bubbles, all subsequent lessons are locked behind a Premium membership. Chatbox requires the use of a microphone, which should definitively be pointed out as a good feature.
Busuu is an app rated 4.5 on Google Play Store. It also encourages users to purchase it and it is essential to know English in order to use it.
Before you start learning, you have to complete the obligatory Placement test. The results said we belong on the A2 level and all previous lessons were unlocked.
As in other apps, all the questions you answer incorrectly are repeated at the end of the lesson.
The app doesn’t offer the option of speaking into a microphone, only the option of listening.
It is organized with flashcards, meaning that the first thing that appears are two or three pictures with audio recording and written text in Italian and English. After that, two out of those three expressions in Italian appear, and you need to decide whether the offered translation is correct or not. That cycle is repeated four times. Everything is followed by a short revision where you should choose the correct phrase, complete the sentence with a word that is missing or the one you hear on audio recording.
In the very next lesson, there is dialogue that requires listening and contains a lot of unknown words for which the translation is not offered. After that, the same dialogue appears, this time with empty lines for the expressions that are offered. You are learning the phrases, while the rest of the text is a bit too difficult for beginners.
In the entire fourth lesson of the A2 level, only five exercises were unlocked, while the other six remained locked because we don’t have Premium membership. So, we have managed to complete only 45% of that lesson.
Also, the lesson that is completely locked is the one concerning grammar, which deals with irregular nouns. Not even the lessons that were automatically completed because the A1 level was skipped are available. A Quiz after the lesson is not available without Premium membership.
Memrise is an app with a 4.7 rating on Google Play Store. It also contains ads and purchase offers. This app also requires the knowledge of the English language.
Firstly, the app doesn’t provide a Placement test at the beginning of the course. Just like Duolingo, it repeats the questions you answer incorrectly at the end of the lesson. The introduction of grammar rules after the vocabulary practice is a nice novelty. Also, after you complete a grammar lesson, you are shown its summary.
As you solve your tasks, a small lamp in the bottom left corner shows the rule required to solve the current task.
Just like the previous ones, this app was listed in the top 10 best free apps. It is not clear why, since you cannot continue your learning process after lesson number two. The price of a membership is HRK 385 a year.
Have you tried some of these apps or any other apps for learning foreign languages? Were they useful and interesting? What features did they have? Is there an app that has everything you need to learn a foreign language?
