I wish that I were twins

So goes the title of a jazzy and carefree tune. I was just translating a Honduran birth certificate, and it has a spot for the registrant's order in a multiple birth. Not to split hairs here, but if you are a twin, are you not born in a certain order without being a party to a multiple birth? I take multiple to mean three or more. I guess I was born to contemplate these issues.

CAT meets PDF

MemoQ is one CAT that makes a tasty meal out of PDF files. It is the only CAT that I know and trust that will successfully import PDF files* without a hitch. You may have to do some post-processing once you export the translated file, but you save yourself the hassle of doing any conversion before translation.

*Any document that was converted to PDF, not as scanned images.

If you can teach it, then you must know it.

Are any of you teachers as well as translators? If you have done any language teaching to any extent, you will know that in order to teach a concept, however complex or simple, you must "know what you are talking about". Otherwise, how can you expect some one else to learn what you are teaching?

This reminds me of a college German course I took several years ago. The professor made groups of students teach grammar points to the rest of the class. I then realized how much I needed to know in order to teach.

An ideal situation for a budding legal translator would be to teach or perhaps coach an attorney in the translator's target language. By correcting the student's mistakes and helping him or her to express him or herself with legal terminology, the translator would get closer to his or her role as a legal specialist.

No es descabellada

¿Están cansados de descifrar esos documentos escaneados y en estado regular y tener que preocuparse de no saltar ninguna línea? ¿Preferirían el ronroneo de una aplicación CAT a sus gruñidos y quizás otros ruidos de insatisfacción?

¿Alguna vez han intentado tipear un documento PDF en un archivo Word (al no ser posible pasarlo por una aplicación OCR) para luego ingresar el documento a una herramienta CAT? Yo, al principio de mi vida de traductor lo hacía a modo de ejercicio.

Sin embargo, siento que tipear el documento origen entero antes de traducirlo en una aplicación CAT es como hacer el trabajo dos veces. Seguramente hay una mejor forma de lograrlo.

Y bueno, la hay... Supe hace poco que hay servicios de secretariado en distintos rincones del planeta que ofrecen tipear tus documentos, ya sean en español o inglés. Esto obiveamente significa gastar parte de sus ganancias en este servicio. Pero por otro lado, tendrán más tiempo para estar con la familia o para esas queridas tareas administrativas que, por alguna razón, siempre se postergan.

Si deciden contratar este servicio, procuren borrar cualquier número de fax del cliente y averiguar los términos de confidencialidad con la empresa que recibe este tipo de trabajos.

U.S. citizens living in Mexico

When speaking of U.S.-Mexican immigration, the migratory direction is predominantly from South to North. I for one, have always heard of and talked to Mexican immigrants in the United States. I had never heard of or even thought about U.S. citizens emigrating to Mexico. But it does happen!

I translated a DIF (Desarrollo Integral de la Familia)document in which an American woman and her child were living in Tijuana and the mother wanted to take her child back to San Diego. However, as her American husband in San Diego was abusive, it was necessary for DIF to step in and visit her and write a report (which is what I translated).

Some years back, I was talking to a Mormon who said that there are Mexican Mormons - English speaking U.S. citizens who lived in Mexico many years ago and are allowed to move freely across the border. Upon further reading, I learned that they moved there to escape prosecution for being polygamists.

Of course in Northern Mexico there are people of Mexican parentage who were born in the United States and therefore have dual citizenship, as there are many Mexican citizens living in the Southwestern United States.