If you love something… (Time for a little fun!)

Post per gli umoristi della traduzione, per chi ha qualche minuto da dedicare al mio blog e per chi è casualmente passato di qua ed ha voglia di farsi due risate.

Nei momenti di pura follia, che accompagnano una giornata-tipo del traduttore, c’è anche la ricerca di risposte a domande che oserei definire “esistenziali”.
Ogni traduttore ha le proprie, più o meno profonde che siano, e si racchiudono in grandi macrogruppi (diversi anch’essi da traduttore a traduttore).
Quella che vi propongo oggi fa parte dei miei “DUBBI da ANNI”.

Tutto inizia nel 1999 con la canzone di questo video

What a Girl Wants (Christina Aguilera) [1999]

in cui al minuto 1.55 Xtina canta “They say, if you love somethin’, let it go / If it comes back, it’s yours and that’s how you know / It’s for keeps, yeah, it’s for sure“.
Mi sono sempre domandata il senso di questa frase, che è poi diventata un tormentone assoluto e vittima di stalking da parte di molte adolescenti-blogger-tumbleraddicted etc (come mostrato nella foto qui sotto).

Per quale assurdo motivo se ami qualcosa (qualcuno), dovresti lasciarla andare per avere la certezza che sia tua per sempre nel momento in cui ritorna?
E poi… Perché è stato aggiunto – a mo’ di corollario – che se non torna, non era destino che andasse diversamente?
Ma che cosa? Di cosa stiamo parlando?
Carissimo tu che hai inventato per primo questo concetto assurdo, *imho* hai detto una delle più grandi cavolate mai sentite.

1. Se ami veramente qualcosa, non dovresti MAI, e ripeto MAI, abbandonarla. Un amico, un animale, un sogno, un lavoro, una qualsiasicosavivengainmente;
2. Se ti lascio andare, un motivo ci sarà e, probabilmente, non spero assolutamente di rivedere mai più quella cosa/persona sulla mia strada;
3. Se non era destino andasse così… CI MANCHEREBBE PURE! Perché mai sognare di veder tornare un qualcosa che mi sono “amabilmente” lasciata alle spalle?!

Per questo, ad oggi, in mio aiuto arrivano altre immagini dalla rete.

Per esempio questa recita: “Se ami qualcosa, non puoi lasciarla andare mai, nemmeno per un secondo, altrimenti è persa per sempre”.
Si avvicina abbastanza alla mia idea di ‘cavolata’, però mi sembra un pochino (tantissimo) estremista. Non esaspererei la cosa al punto da lanciare un’anatema o ergermi sul malcapitato in stile Gandalf.

“You shall not pass” -Gandalf [from The Lord of the Rings]

Personalmente, preferisco una più modesta regola di un gentiluomo. In questo caso la n. 163:

In tempi recenti lo stesso tema è stato trattato anche nelle stupende E-cards.
A. Una versione “autocelebrativa”

B. Una versione “restrittiva”

C. Una versione “vendicativa”

D. Una versione “punitiva” (con tanto di caccia!)

E. Una versione “definitiva” (ndt: non ha neanche bisogno di inseguire la ‘cosa’!)

Un po’ di Damon Salvatore ci sta sempre bene.
[Ian Somerhalder]

#perlediunatraduttrice
#translatorsgonnatranslate

Per chi volesse lanciarsi in qualche riflessione filosofica, consiglio questo link sull’argomento: http://philosiblog.com/2011/08/16/if-you-love-something-let-it-go-if-it-comes-back-to-you-its-yours-forever-if-it-dosent-then-it-was-never-meant-to-be/

Per chi invece “sa di amare la sua donna solo quando la lascia andare”, propongo un po’ di Passenger e la sua Let her go.

Well, You only need the light when it’s burning low,
Only miss the sun when it starts to snow,
Only know you love her when you let her go.

Only know you’ve been high when you’re feeling low
Only hate the road when you’re missing home.
Only know you love her when you let her go,
And you let her go.

Staring at the bottom of your glass
Hoping one day you’ll make a dream last
But dreams come slow and they go so fast
You see her when you close your eyes
Maybe one day you’ll understand why
Everything you touch surely dies

But you only need the light when it’s burning low
Only miss the sun when it starts to snow
Only know you love her when you let her go

Only know you’ve been high when you’re feeling low
Only hate the road when you’re missing home
Only know you love her when you let her go

Staring at the ceiling in the dark
Same old empty feeling in your heart
‘Cause Love comes slow and it goes so fast

Well you see her when you fall asleep
But never to touch and never to keep
Cause you loved her too much and you dived too deep

Well you only need the light when it’s burning low
Only miss the sun when it starts to snow
Only know you love her when you let her go

Only know you’ve been high when you’re feeling low
Only hate the road when you’re missing home
Only know you love her when you let her go
And you let her go ooooh ooooh oh no

And you let her go
ooooh ooooh oh no

Well you let her go

ooooh ooooh oh no

Cause you only need the light when it’s burning low
Only miss the sun when it starts to snow
Only know you love her when you let her go

Only know you’ve been high when you’re feeling low
Only hate the road when you’re missing home
Only know you love her when you let her go

Cause you only need the light when it’s burning low
Only miss the sun when it starts to snow
Only know you love her when you let her go

Only know you’ve been high when you’re feeling low
Only hate the road when you’re missing home
Only know you love her when you let her go

And you let her go

BrE vs AmE

Source: Muro de los Idiomas

BrE vs AmE

Source: Grammar.net

UK vs US spelling

 

[Repost] 10 things you should NEVER say during presentations

10 things you should NEVER say during presentations

October 24, 2012 on LinkedIn by Boris V

At our TNW Conferences we see a lot of presentations and I have given a fair share of presentations myself. I often see people making the same mistakes and cringe when I hear the same excuses or basic mistakes when people get on stage. The easiest way to lose an audience is to make a mistake in the first minute, and that is exactly where most mistakes are made. Here is my list of 10 things you shouldn’t say during presentations:

1: I’m very jet-lagged, tired, hungover
Not sure where this comes from but one in 5 presentations at any conference will start with an excuse. ‘They only invited me yesterday’, ‘I’m really tired from my trip’ or another lame excuse that the audience really doesn’t want to hear. We, the audience, just want to see you give it your best. If you feel like shit and can’t give it your best than maybe you should’ve cancelled. Take a pill, drink an espresso and kill it!

2: I’ll get back to that later
If you happen to stumble upon an audience that is eager to learn and interact you should always grab that chance and enjoy it. If someone has a question that you will address in a later slide just skip to it right away! If someone is brave enough to raise their hand and ask you a question you should compliment them and invite the rest of the audience to do the same. Don’t delay anything.

3: Can you hear me? Yes you can!

This is how a lot of people start their talk. They will tap a microphone three times, shout ‘can you all hear me in the back’ and then smile apologetic when it becomes clear that, yes, everybody can hear you but nobody raises their hands. It isn’t your responsibility to check the audio. There will be people for that. If you speak into the microphone and you get the impression just relax, count to three, and try again. If you still think the sound isn’t working just calmly walk to the edge of the stage and discreetly ask the moderator to check for you. Smile at the audience and look confident. Assume it all works until the opposite has been proven, then stay calm and wait for a fix.

4: I can’t see you because the lights are too bright

Yes, when you are on stage the lights are bright and hot and it will be difficult to see the audience. But they don’t have to know about all that. Just stare into the dark, smile often and act like you feel right at home on there. Feel free to walk into the audience if you want to see them up close. Don’t cover your eyes to see people but politely ask the lights people to turn on the lights in the room if you plan to count hands or ask the audience a question. Even better, talk to the lights people in advance so they are prepared when you are going to ask them.

5: Can you read this?

The common rule is to make the font size on your slides twice the size of the medium age of the audience. Yes, that means that if you expect the audience to be 40 on average you are stuck with a font size of 80 points. You won’t be able to fit a lot of text on the slide that way, which is a good thing, and brings us to the next point.

6: Let me read this out loud for you

Never ever ever ever in a million years add so much text on a slide that people will spend time reading it. And if you do, make damn sure you don’t read it out loud for them! The best way to lose your audiences attention is to add text to a slide. Here’s what will happen when you have more than 4 words on a slide; people will start reading it. And what happens when they read it? They will stop listening to you! Only use short titles on your presentations and memorize the texts you want them to read. Or, if you MUST include an awesome three sentences quote, announce that everybody should read the quote, then shut up for 6 seconds so they can actually read it.

7: Shut off your phone/laptop/tablet

Once upon a time you could ask an audience to shut off devices. That was a long time ago. Now people tweet the awesome quotes you produce or take notes on their iPads. Or they play solitaire or check Facebook. Times change. You can ask if people turn their phones to silent mode but apart from that you just have to make sure that your talk is so incredibly inspiring people will close their laptops because they don’t want to miss a second of it. Demanding their attention is just not going to work.

8: No need to write anything down or take photos, the presentation will be online later
It is really cool that you will upload your presentation later. But if it’s a good presentation it won’t contain too many words (see point 4) it won’t be of much use to them. For a lot of people writing something down is just an easy way to memorize something you’ve said. The act of writing down a sentence also embeds it in your brain and who knows, they might be really inspired and come up with something they’ve heard in between your lines that might change their business. Allow people to do whatever they want during your presentations.

9: Let me answer that question right away

Of course it is awesome if you answer a question right away, but you need to do something else first! Very often the question an audience member will be very clear to you but not to the rest of the audience. So please say “I’ll repeat that question first so everybody hears it and THEN I will answer it”. Make it a habit to repeat questions also because the extra time it takes to repeat it gives you extra time to think about an awesome answer.

10: I’ll keep it short

This is a promise nobody ever keeps. But a lot of presentations are started that way! The audience really doesn’t care if you keep it short or not. They’ve invested their time and just want to be informed and inspired. Tell them ’This presentation is going to change your life’ or ’This presentation is scheduled to take 30 minutes, but I’ll do it in 25 minutes so you can go out and have a coffee earlier than expected”. Now all you have to do is keep that promise, which brings me to the last point.

Bonus tip: What, I’m out of time? But I have 23 more slides!

If you come unprepared and need more time than you are allowed you’ve screwed up. You need to practice your presentation and make it fit within the allotted time-slot. Even better, end 5 minutes early and ask if anyone has questions, and if they don’t invite them for a coffee to talk one-on-one. Giving an audience 5 minutes back will earn their respect and gratitude. Taking an extra 5 will annoy and alienate them.

Conclusion: come prepared, be yourself and be professional. The audience will love you for being clear, serious and not wasting their time.

[Repost from a sharing by Rainylondon on fb]

[Repost] 10 Ways to become a better proofreader (by Daphne Gray-Grant)

10 ways to become a better proofreader

by Daphne Gray-Grant

Cf. original: http://www.publicationcoach.com/become-a-better-proofreader/

If you can afford to outsource your proofreading, do it. If you can’t here are some tips that will help…

Do you clean your own gutters?Change the oil in your own car? Bake every birthday cake from scratch? I’m guessing you don’t do many — if any — of these things. And you shouldn’t proofread, either.

Proofreading is a specialized job requiring someone with talent and training. I’m not a natural proofreader myself, but I know how to hire excellent ones. They should cost about $40/hour.

But if I must proofread, I can do it using the following tricks. You can use them, too:

(1) Allow some time to pass after you finish writing/editing and before you start proofreading. We all make unconscious mistakes and they are hard to spot because our brains “fill in” the correct word. You may have meant to write trickier but somehow it came out as tricker. The trouble is, if you’re familiar with the story, you eye will glide right by the error. If you take a break, however, you’re far more likely to catch the problem.

(2) Print out your text and proofread on paper. In part, because using a computer shines a light in our eyes, we all read material onscreen much more quickly and less carefully than we do in print. Try to print out your work before proofing it.

(3) If there is some reason that prevents you from printing, use a distinctive typeface and dramatically increase the point size before proofing. When I am forced to proof onscreen, I like to use Papyrus or Candara18 point – this makes it easier to spot errors.

(4) Pay particular attention to names (people, books, movies, songs), addresses, titles and dates. Be aware the single most common mistake is to mismatch days with dates. (For example: saying Monday, Feb 12, when in fact it is Tuesday, Feb 12.)

(5) Check what I call the “ big, obvious yet somehow invisible” stuff.By this I mean logos, company names, and extra-large headlines. Ironically, the bigger the type, the more likely you are to miss a typo.

(6) Start at the end. Professional proofreaders often read at least once backwards. No, I don’t mean they read the words backwards. I mean, they read the last sentence first. Then the second last sentence, then the third last sentence…until they work their way back to the beginning. This forces them to read each sentence in isolation – breaking the familiarity with the piece that might cause them to miss errors.

(7) Put a ruler under each line as you read the text. This forces you to work much more slowly and stops your eye from jumping ahead to the next line.

(8) Consider what you might have left out. For instance, if the piece requires an RSVP, it needs a phone number or e-mail address to which someone can respond. It should also have the date of the event and an address.

(9) Make a list of your own common spelling or grammar errors and check for those specifically (do you mix “affect” and “effect” for example?)

(10) Read your work aloud at least once. You’ll catch a lot more errors this way.