Style Manuals: Manual de Estilo de la Corporacion RTVE

"Toros en la dehesa" by: Fernando Cuenca

We have looked into Style Manuals and personal translator's style sheets during our course.Here is an interesting development that has taken place in Spain following the launch of the new Style Manual for RTVE (Spanish Radio and Television).
Point 6 focuses on language matters. It provides examples of different language uses, like ellipsis and hyperbaton.
Check point 5.9 Violence involving animals. Their decision about not broadcasting bullfights has created a great deal of responses, both for and against.  Read this article and the comments generated by it: "RTVE incluye a los toros como violencia con animales..."

What do you think? It'd be great to write a piece on it in English. Any volunteers?

Amazing Tool: The Book

Spanish interpreting/translating students, check out this video from leerestademoda.com. You can minimize it, take notes and interpret, cover the subtitles an dstop it to interpret, translate it, use it for pronunciation practice, etc.
Everyone else, just enjoy it and start reading!


This reminded me of a very funny video about the same topic that adid the rounds a few years ago. This time is from Norway, so if you speak Norwegian, you can practise as above. Otherwise enjoy the subtitles!

Telephone Interpreting

An example of telephone interpreting.

Telephone interpreting at work from Voltaire on Vimeo.

The video below will give you an idea of the type of test candidates to European Institutions must undertake.


Finally a video on video interpreting.

Sustainability: Transcripts

For those of you who keep an eye on the blog, even during the holidays, here are some videos on sustainability.

The one above is a mockumentary about the plastic bag. It is narrated by Academy Award-winner Jeremy Irons, and shows California's plastic bag pollution situation.


The next collection of clips is from the movie Tapped, an award winning documentary. You can watch/download separate short segments and try to write the script and then translate it into your Target Language. It is very good practice and you may find some courses of interpreting/translating with subjects about translating multimedia materials. So get ready and learn more about our environment at the same time.

End of course

School's finished by rosao

Hi all. This week is the last week of our courses, Interpreting & Translating for international and local students. It's been a busy year but  most of us feel we could do with a few more weeks, in terms of learning. Nevertheless, we all need a break!

Enjoy the holiday, celebrate it with family and friends and find time to do some reading and listening not to go rusty!

Here are some links you may find useful:

• Thanks to Simon, this link tells us about the use of the apostrophe for plurals
• Sustainability is a big topic. Here is a great post that links sustainability and creativity
• On the topic of creativity, watch some of these videos and practise your listening,  note taking and translation skills
• You can start Keeping in Contact with colleagues
• 
  Go to Rolan's wiki and check his environment page. Look at the footprint calculator, dust storms' effect on health, and explore the rest of his pages
• Finally, translation students may want to explore Translator's CAT Tools. Wordfast has a free version. Why don't you download it and start learning how to use it? You'll be acquiring transferable skills useful for when you decide to upgrade and get a more professional CAT program.

Thanks for your course evaluations. They really help us teachers to get feedback on our delivery and how to improve it. It's been a pleasure teaching you all. Till next year. Have a great break and come back invigorated and ready for the challenge!

TED Translations & Style Manuals

Have you heard of TED? You may have had consecutive practice from one of its lectures. TED, a non-profit organisation, was originally started with people form the Technology, Education and Design world. Their aim was, and still is, to ideas worth spreading. You can read more about it here.


TED Open Translation Project is an attempt to try to have as many of its talks translated (subtitled) in as many languages as possible. To achieve this they use volunteer translators. Check their website for instructions on how they do it and the measures put in place to ensure quality. They encourage collaboration between translations, so it would be an ideal experience for those of you who are finishing the Translation Skills course or the Diploma of Interpreting and Translation.Why not try it? Give it a go!

In class we have been talking about style manuals and style sheets. Read TED's style guidelines. Notice how for each section there is a reason given to the particular style, tone and register chosen.

Sculpture by the Sea 3rd November 2010

Last week we went to see the outdoor exhibition Sculpture by the Sea. While we were there some of our students did a bit of interpreting practice. We also spoke to one of the locals who gave us an insight into what happens on the weeks proceeding the exhibition.

Listen to it on this video with photos from the day.