Posted by Alex on March 19, 2010 under Language Study | 
“My pen is in my hand.”
Understanding Afrikaans is not terribly hard for a native English speaker (the above example is in Afrikaans). Lowland Scots does not prove much of a challenge to an English speaker, either: “D’ye see yon hoose ower yonder?” English is said to have a high degree of mutual intelligibility with these two languages. 
Mutual intelligibility describes the degree to which speakers of two different languages could understand one another without previous knowledge of the other language. For example, Norwegian has a high degree of mutual intelligibility with Swedish and Danish, as does Bosnian with Croatian and Serbian. However, intelligibility is not always the same for both speakers – sometimes, the conversation can be rather one-sided.
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Posted by Alex on March 17, 2010 under Language Study |
As China has begun to allow more Western culture to flow in, senior government officials are struggling to keep English words out of Chinese vocabulary, reported the London Telegraph. On Monday, Huang Youyi, chairman of the International Federation of Translators, stated: “If we do not pay attention and we do not take measures to stop Chinese mingling with English, Chinese will no longer be a pure language in a couple of years.” 
English words have recently become popular in China, especially slang and words related to technology and pop culture, such as “DVD,” “bye-bye,” and “guitar.” The rise in popularity of English words is mirrored in the increasing popularity of Western movies, television shows, and music. More students are opting to study English, because, according to Mr. Huang, of a desire to seem more international and cosmopolitan.
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Posted by Alex on March 16, 2010 under Translation |
Even when they’re expressing similar sentiments, the wording and images of idioms vary widely between languages, rendering a literal translation exceedingly unhelpful. So for your education and amusement, take a look at the following English idioms and their corresponding phrases in other languages: 
English – What does that have to do with the price of eggs in China?
Spanish – I have an aunt who plays the guitar.
[Yo tengo una tía que toca la guitarra.]
English – He’s not the sharpest tool in the shed.
Spanish – He doesn’t have two fingers of forehead.
[No tiene dos dedos de frente.]
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Posted by Alex on March 11, 2010 under History, Language Study |
Spoiler Alert! In our prolonged Oscar fever, this post is inspired by another 2009 Best Picture Nominee, Inglorious Bastards. If you haven’t seen the film, and would like to, please be advised that plot elements are contained below. 
In Quentin Tarantino’s 2009 WWII hit Inglorious Bastards, one of Lt. Aldo Raine’s soldiers is impersonating a German soldier successfully at a bar with his excellent command of the language, that is, until he raises his hand to order glasses. His words are perfect German; his hand gesture, however, is not, and gives away his cover to a German officer.
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Posted by Alex on March 9, 2010 under Language Study |
In James Cameron’s blockbuster Avatar, the planet Pandora may just be special effects, and the story just an updated version of Pocahontas, but the Na’vi language spoken is a complex and original language developed for the film by a University of Southern California linguist, reported ABC News on Friday.
The language, four years in the making, boasts a 1000-plus word vocabulary, conjugated verbs, and specific pronunciation. It was designed by Dr. Paul Frommer to be easily pronounced by the film’s actors and to fit the aesthetic of the film, but to sound like no other recognizable language. It has been growing in popularity among Avatar fans since the release of the movie, with the emergence of Na’vi Skype chat rooms and YouTube videos. The site Learnnavi.org provides an extensive overview of the language for those who would want to fit in on Pandora.
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Posted by Alex on March 5, 2010 under Translation, Translation News |
Every parent believes their child to be special, and what better way to display this uniqueness than by giving the child a name to make him stand out in a classroom of Sarahs and Micheals? 
In a trend that has been popularized by celebrities in recent years, expectant parents are looking far and wide for an exotic name their child will not have to share. For example, the daughter of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes will probably not have to be identified as “Suri C.” on her kindergarten name tag.
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Posted by Alex on March 4, 2010 under Technology |
In January of 2008, Facebook enlisted its almost two hundred million users to help translate the popular social networking site into over seventy languages. About three hundred thousand users answered the call, and made Facebook more accessible for those who live outside of the States (by Facebook estimates, about 70% of current users live overseas).
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Posted by Alex on March 2, 2010 under Blog News |
Translation Services USA has updated our successful translation app for Android cell phones. New version of ConveyThis.com app has support for over 50 languages and has ability to use TTS (text to speech) plug-in which allows to pronounce what you enter. Our app is very successful and has over 50,000 downloads! It’s still free to use. If you have G1 phone, Motorola Droid or any other Android powered cell phone, feel free to try it!
Here is the link: http://www.conveythis.com/downloads/
