Friday, February 19, 2010

Unidades decimales


We were talking about how to write different numerical expression in numbers. Check the side bar of our wiki for several links that show how it's done different countries.

The Spanish Bulletin, Boletin Oficial del Estado (BOE) has published today a royal decree regulating the writing and naming of symbols for legal measurement units.

Below is an summary in Spanish:

Este texto está en el CAPÍTULO III “Reglas de escritura de los símbolos y nombres de las unidades, de expresión de los valores de las magnitudes y para la formación de los múltiplos y submúltiplos decimales de las unidades del SI” del anexo del Real Decreto 2032/2009, de 30 de diciembre, por el que se establecen las unidades legales de medida. El annexo es la corrección de errores y erratas.

Los decimales son con coma, normalmente se usa el punto para las unidades de millar y la coma para los decimales. Ejemplo: 3.987,56

Cuando expresas porcentajes conviene dejar un espacio entre el número y el símbolo %.

Así 3,5 % expresa el 3,5 por ciento, o lo que es lo mismo el 0,035 en tanto por uno.

Pero como se ve en el texto que sigue parece que lo correcto es no usar puntos:

“ El símbolo utilizado para separar la parte entera de su parte decimal se denomina «separador decimal». El símbolo del separador decimal es la coma, en la propia línea de escritura. Si el número está comprendido entre +1 y −1, el separador decimal va siempre precedido de un cero.

Los números con muchas cifras pueden repartirse en grupos de tres cifras separadas por un espacio, a fin de facilitar la lectura. Estos grupos no se separan nunca por puntos ni por comas. En los números de una tabla, el formato no debe variar en una misma columna.”

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Translation Theory Class


Korean & Spanish Translation Skills students will be having joined sessions every Thursday. Some of the sessions will be run by Luciano other by Rosa, with Luciano's invaluable input!
  • Today we would like you to look at the NAATI website (permanent link on the right sidebar). Explore some of its links to become familiar with it, which you may have done already, and complete the activity sheet your teacher will hand out.
  • Have look at the NAATI Translator Test and start thinking of questions for Luciano's presentation on it at a later stage.
  • Go to Luciano's SCE wiki (sidebar link) and explore it. Then have a look at the first post of this blog and try to answer the question about the picture in it.
  • Check the T&I link in Luciano's wiki. Have a look at the resources already there.
  • Visit our forum and write your answer to our first topic.
  • Visit our new wiki, bridginggap, and ask me to invite you to join it. There is already some work for you to do.
  • Write any suggestions for the forum or this blog in comments below

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Text Types








Knowing how texts work in English is a useful skill for translators and interpreters doing sight translations. If you want to explore the differences between the most common text types (genres) in written English, visit the module Text Evaluation and genre Writing, prepared by the Department of Education NSW.


Oral Presentations

Soon you have to give an oral presentation in class. You can practice at home by visiting this Department of Education NSW materials: Deliver a Formal Presentation. It has many useful hits, video clips, listening excersices and more. You can print all the worksheets, and you can download the media files.

Topics Needs Analysis 2010

Monday, February 8, 2010

Koreans in Australia

"Lost In Translation" by tochis
Many of you have come from Korea to study Interpreting and Translating at Petersham College. It will be useful for you to get an idea of the history of Korean migration in Australia.

Check this text, Migrant experiences in Australia: sample reading in Korean and its English translation.


Another very interesting text, this time in English only, is Health and Medicine under Capitalism. Read it for information and practise translating some of it.



Friday, February 5, 2010

Translating from Spanish


Translators in Australia are often asked to translate informative brochures for government bodies and/or community institutions. The majority will be translations from English into Spanish. Nevertheless, you will also be required to translate documents from Spanish into English.

You can practise by searching the Internet, especially visiting governmental websites that have already been translated into community languages. For example:

Keeping in Contact with colleagues


There are many ways of keeping up with your profession. One of them is by using Internet social networks. there are many and it is a very personal choice which ones to use of using any at all.

I find twitter is a great way of sharing information with colleagues. You can follow professionals who twitters and check the links they post regularly. A wide variety of issues are dealt with: questions on terminology, reviews of new CAT programs, conference announcements, cultural discussions, etc.

I have found many interesting articles from the twitterers I follow. For example, Translation_, Spanish translating in the USA, posted links on these issues: