Link: 139 (Mostly) Free Tools for Translators

Today marked the publishing of a blog post by our dear colleague Alina Cincan over at Inbox Translation, and it sure is an exciting day for those of us who want to discover new software tools. This is, as far as we know, one of the best and most comprehensive lists of free (or almost free) tools for translators. In total, 72 translators, including Judy, contributed to this list, and we want to try them all out right away! We hadn't heard of some 60% of these tools, so this list has already benefited us immensely. As you might imagine, compiling this information and getting the submissions from 72 translators is a ton of work, so we'd like to thank Alina very much for undertaking this project that benefits translators around the globe. 

Here's the link to Alina's blog. 

Quick Translation Tip

Today's quick translation tip is simple and easy in theory, but not always that easy to do in practice.

After you have finished the second draft of your translation, try the following. Read each and every sentence in isolation without consulting the source document and ask yourself these questions: 

• Does this sentence sound idiomatic in the target language? 
• Would I have written this if it weren't a translation?
•  If the answer is no, go back to the drawing board.

After all, the goal of translation is to produce natural-sounding texts in the target language that don't sound like translations. We know that it's a lofty goal, but it is possible to get there, especially if you use this approach and have ample time to think about it. That's just another reason we don't enjoy rush projects. It's always better to have more time to ponder each sentence, and we definitely think there's a direct correlation between the time allowed and the quality of the translations. What do you think, dear fellow linguists? We would love to hear your thoughts.

Language Lovers Blog: Voting Phase

Once again we are absolutely delighted to have been nominated in the Top Language Lovers 2016 competition! This humble blog has received several awards in the Languages Professionals category in 2011, 2013 and 2014, and it's an honor to be nominated alongside so many fantastic blogs written by our friends and colleagues.

All of them are equally worthy of your vote, but we would be thrilled if you considered voting for ours! As you know, blogging is a labor of love and it's our goal to share what we know with linguists around the world on this form. Judging from the traffic we get, it's a useful forum and we very much plan to continue doing it. We are going strong after 7+ years and more than 500 posts!

You can vote here as of right now. Many thanks for reading and for considering voting for us. And we feel like we are running for office here...but we promise we won't quit our day jobs.

Final note: Judy's Twitter account was also nominated in the well, Twitter category. What an honor! You can vote for her (@language_news; Judy Jenner) here.