Linguistic anthropologists have always looked at the connection between language and culture. Some cultures can express concepts in a single word that would take other languages a full paragraph to approximate the full meaning. Similarly, exact translation doesn’t necessarily capture the feeling behind the word, or the connotation it carries within the cultural context. That’s […]
Ever since British colonies started springing up in the Americas, we’ve been borrowing and building off their language. Now, there are marked differences between American English and British English, so much so that Facebook even differentiates between American, British, and Australian English when asking users what languages they speak. This, understandably has led to some […]
If you’re seeing a lot of green today, there’s probably good reason. Irish Dancers, Credit:James Jordan Right now there are only about 85,000 native speakers of Gaelic left in Ireland. There are massive efforts to raise this figure to 250,000 speakers, but reintegrating Gaelic into mainstream society will take time. The man in charge […]
Interpreting Case Study: In my experience as an interpreter, I have been a bearer of good news, bad news and I’ve played the role of a cultural broker one too many times. Although I have interpreted for patients with various medical needs in Spanish, my Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian appointments tend to steer me towards […]
I know, I know, we just talked about this last week. But we found a really great graphic of the same sentence translated by a machine into seven different languages, and then back to English. Much like a game of “telephone,” the message gets garbled. Thanks to Erik Hansson for this one. We follow him […]
Devoid of accent, if you were reading a transcription of a conversation and told it happened somewhere in America, you might still be able to figure out where. How? Regionalisms. They’re those seemingly insignificant words that creep into your vocabulary after living in an area for a while. You pick these colloquialisms up to talk with […]
A DesMoines area woman says she was having trouble understanding doctors’ instructions because she’s deaf. Her daughter Addison was at the hospital after being referred to have her tonsils and adenoids removed, and the staff was instructing the mother what to do to prepare the girl for surgery. When the mother asked the hospital staff for […]
New feature coming to the Affordable Language Services blog: a monthly video round-up! Each month we’ll feature 5 videos on our YouTube channel. They’ll range from the funny and inane to the scholarly. Check it out! Here’s what we have in store for you this month. Longest Words in the English Language Happy Birthday (in […]
Why Get Certified – Thomas Johnston’s Story Hello, my name is Thomas Johnston. I am a Certified Healthcare Interpreter™ and the Interpreting Operations Manager at Affordable Language Services. I am very passionate about what I do, and it has been quite an interesting ride for me. Allow me to tell you how I got here. […]
If you’ve ever tried to translate something online, you know how frustrating that can be. Some words translate flawlessly, others translate verbatim but don’t seem to fit in the sentence, and others don’t translate at all. Why is it all so hit or miss? The Washington Post says it’s all in the numbers. Researchers used […]