July 30, 2010

Go forth and xl8

During the Internet boom of the 1990s, writes Jost Zetzche in the ATA Chronicle this month, the term "translation" no longer seemed adequate to the movers and shakers of the translation industry. So new terms were coined—localization, globalization, and internationalization (aka l10n, g13n, and i18n). Now times have changed again, and the term transcreation is gaining traction as translators try to look "aware" rather than just technically savvy.

Translation has always come in different flavours, and inventing euphemisms probably doesn't help translation users in choosing the right combination of skills that different parts of our industry have to offer. "Let's embrace who we are!" Jost concludes. "I am proud to say that I'm a translator."


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I'm a British national with close ties to France and a fascination with America. Working as a translator and editor in Paris, I developed a specialisation in corporate and marketing communications for the defence, aerospace and high-tech industries. For ten years I have managed E-Files, Inc., an international network of business and technical communicators who share my background in multilingual marketing and corporate communications. We believe that teamwork between specialised translators and editors, marketing professionals and subject matter experts is the key to developing compelling multilingual content for print, web and multimedia. Corporate responsibility reporting has been my particular area of focus for several years, with clients in both the defence sector and the regulated lottery and gaming industry.