2014, the Year of the Horse

“Chinese New Year” or the “Lunar New Year” is celebrated on the first day of the first month of the Chinese calendar: the date corresponds to the new moon. It is the beginning of the Spring Festival which lasts for 15 days and ends with the Lantern Festival, on the full moon date. Because the Chinese calendar is lunisolar (ie based on both the annual cycle of the Sun and the regular cycle of phases of the moon), the date of the Chinese New Year in the Gregorian calendar varies from one year to another and usually falls between January 21st and February 20th. This year it falls on January 31st.

Chinese New Year is officially celebrated in China (7 bank holidays), Taiwan (at least 5 days), Hong Kong and Macau (3 days), and a number of Asian countries influenced by the Chinese culture or with significant Chinese populations, such as Singapore, Malaysia, The Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. Every year, two weeks before the celebration, an intense migration period starts. People converge on train stations, bus stations and airports to travel back to their native countries.

It is the most important celebration of the year in China. People gather with their families as we do in Western countries during the Christmas period. A ritual is followed to end the previous year and to prepare the beginning of the new one. The New Year’s dinner symbolises family reunion, prosperity, happiness and good health. It is a true food feast where dishes follow one another and never seem to end. On the menu, you will find the Niangao, a traditional rice cake, fish in many different guises and various types of dumplings. People also usually eat duck, chicken, crab and jellyfish among other things.

During Chinese New Year celebrations people wear red clothes, they decorate their windows and doors with poems on red paper and red strips of paper. They also give children "lucky money" in red envelopes. Red symbolizes fire, which according to legend can drive away bad luck. The Lion and Dragon dances (which are also supposed to drive away evil spirits) are also part of the celebration and offer an extraordinary and colourful show to the public.

The Chinese Zodiac has 12 animal signs and each year is represented by a different animal. 2014 is the Year of the Horse. In Chinese astrology, this animal is spirited and independent. It is also regarded as a worker, which shines with its creativity and constantly needs to move forward.

In the UK, Chinatowns in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle and Sheffield will welcome the Year of the Horse on or near 2nd February. London is said to host the largest Chinese New Year celebrations outside Asia although the festivities only last for two days. Do not miss the parade in central London at 10 am. The dragons and lions will be snaking along the Charing Cross Road and Shaftesbury Avenue. In Trafalgar Square, artists from China will offer impressive performances. Of course, London's Chinatown and its almost eighty restaurants will offer succulent traditional cuisine, delightful decorations and a wide range of performances from local artists. On the Chinese New Year's Eve, the London Eye will be lit red and gold in celebration from 5.30pm. For more information about the celebrations in London, visit the London China Town website: http://www.thelondonchinatown.org.uk/.

The Aplingo team wishes you a happy Chinese New Year! And please feel free to contact us if you need any translation services in Chinese!

The British Passion for Camellia sinensis

I am delighted to write my first ever article for our Aplingo blog. I recently joined the UK team as a Translation Executive and this is my first position as part of a British team. It’s a bit of a cultural shock and I must say, one amusing thing about the UK is its passion for tea. Drinking tea is such a British cliché and yet it is so true. According to the United Kingdom Tea Council, the British drink 165 million cups daily or 60.2 billion per year. We enjoy this delectable drink here at the Aplingo office and I wanted to find out the origin of this tradition and some interesting facts about it.

A little bit of history

Tea was first discovered in China more than 5000 years ago. According to a popular legend, the Chinese emperor Shen Nung was sitting beneath a tree when some of its leaves fell into his hot water. Shen Nung, who was a renowned herbalist, decided to try the infusion that had accidentally been created. The tree was a Camellia sinensis, and the resulting drink was what we now call tea. A variant of this legend tells that the emperor, who had tested all the plants of the universe, ingested by mistake a toxic plant while resting under a tea tree. The emperor chewed a tea leaf and discovered its virtues (stimulating or antidote). No one knows whether those stories are true... But tea drinking certainly became established in China many centuries before it had even been heard of in the west. Tea firstly appeared in Europe in 1560 thanks to Portuguese Jesuit Father Jasper de Cruz. In the 1660s, Catherine of Braganza brought to the English royal court the habit of drinking tea. She was the queen of Charles II and spent her childhood in Portugal, hence her love for tea.

Which tea?

Although there are many different teas (approximately 1,500 different varieties of tea, black, green, white, flavoured or scented teas, etc.), black tea is the most popular in the UK - more specifically English Breakfast, traditionally a blend of Assam and Ceylon teas. Tea bags are far more popular than loose leaves; 96% of all cups of tea drunk daily in the UK are brewed from tea bags. According to the UK Tea Council, 98% of people take their tea with milk, but only 30% take sugar in tea.

Is tea good for you?

Tea contains less than half the amount of caffeine found in coffee. It keeps the dentist away as it is a natural source of fluoride that can help protect against tooth decay and gum disease. Tea helps you to stay hydrated and without milk it has no calories. Four cups of tea with milk provides 21% of daily calcium requirement. Tea has potential health benefits for cardiovascular disease and cancer prevention.

For more information about tea I highly recommend the UK Tea Council website. Enjoy your cuppa!

The good, the bad and the ugly of machine translation

The good, the bad and the ugly of machine translation…..

Machine translation can be great when you just want to get the gist of what something written in another language means, or communicate informally with someone in another country.  But it can be embarrassing if used in professional situations where you end up making a laughable faux pas and even dangerous if used in a situation where lives might be put at risk.

The good……

The remarkable speed of machine translation can offer many benefits in terms of time and cost.  If you are searching for a particular section within a lengthy piece of text then it can help you identify the section to be translated and therefore avoid the cost of translating the entire text to find the relevant passages you need to have professionally translated.

If you’re not sure whether a document is worth translating, it can assist you in making a more informed choice by helping with general comprehension.

It can also be used in much the same way as an online dictionary to look up specific words or phrases (although bear in mind that the same word may have different meanings and the non-human translation tool can struggle when it comes to matching the correct context).

The bad………

Although machine translation technology is advancing at a rapid rate and constantly improving, it will never be an exact science.  It can use statistical ‘guesses’ to match the context, but it cannot take the place of a human translator who can understand the complications of the source language.  A machine will just follow pre-programmed rules and can’t understand all of the vocabulary, grammar, meaning and nuances in the source and target languages.  At best it can produce an overly literal translation that just about makes sense with some informed guesswork.

The ugly…..

Some businesses will decide to use machine translation on company material that will be published, such as marketing brochures and websites.  This may seem like the cheaper alternative at the outset, but will prove costly if product information contains errors, or customers are put off by oddly worded phrases on a brochure littered with mistakes, making the business seem unprofessional and unreliable.

It can even prove downright dangerous.  A business that uses machine translation for translating important Health & Safety notices and instructions could find themselves in hot water if an employee speaking another language is injured due to translated signage that contains errors.

As an example, running the phrase ‘That’s a weight off my mind’ through Google translate into French produces the phrase ‘C’est un poids sur mon esprit’.  Not only is the French translation nonsensical, if you tried to decipher the French phrase this would actually indicate the opposite sentiment.  And if you want to tell a Spanish friend not to drink the milk as it has gone off, expect a strange look when this translates as ‘the milk has run away’!

For all of its technological advances and improved capabilities, the inherent flaws in this type of translation mean that this is one area where humans are not likely to be replaced by machines anytime soon.

Kings' Cake anyone?

Kings’ Cake anyone?

Now, this is definitely one tradition that would be a welcome new addition in the ApLingo office.  Forget New Year diets and health kicks, we think countries such as France and Spain have definitely got it right with this most sociable and delicious custom to brighten up dark, depressing Januarys.

In France, these cakes, or ‘galettes des rois’, are baked for Epiphany on 6 January and then consumed throughout the month –at friends’ houses, in the office, in schools – pretty much everywhere!  And if there is a nice glass of cider or sweet white wine to wash it down with, even better! 

Whoever finds a fève in the ‘galette’ becomes a king for the day.  This tradition dates back to Roman times, when a real bean would be baked into the cake, similar to our traditional coin in the Christmas pudding.  Nowadays, the fève is generally a small figurine and the person who finds it in his or her slice receives it as a keepsake.

Spain, Portugal and Latin American countries all have a similar Epiphany tradition, with several variations of the ‘fève’ theme and in Italy carnival cakes are shared around neighbourhoods. 

We can’t think of a nicer way to add a bit of warmth and cheer to these dark winter evenings, so next year we’ll be making our own Kings’ cakes too.  Here’s the recipe in case you want to join us :)

puff pastry

2 round sheets of puff pastry

almond mixture (you can double the quantities if you have a sweet tooth!)

1 egg

75g caster sugar

50g good quality unsalted butter

100g ground almonds

A few drops of almond extract

Glaze

1 egg yolk

Inside

1 fève (lucky charm)

Method

1.                   Place one sheet of puff pastry on a greased baking sheet.

2.                   •Prepare the almond mixture: soften the butter and add the sugar. Beat strongly to obtain a smooth texture. Add the ground almonds, then the egg and the almond extract.

3.                   •Place the almond mixture in the centre of the round-shaped pastry and spread it evenly up to 2cm away from the edge. Add the fève near the edge (if you add it near the centre, it might be easily discovered when cutting the cake!).

4.                   •Cover the base with the second round-shaped pastry and make sure the two pastry sheets are stuck down together, otherwise the almond mix may slip away from the cake when cooking. You may use a little water to join the two sheets along the edges.

5.                   •Make an egg wash with the egg yolk and a little water and using a pastry brush, brush all over the top.

6.                   •With a knife, carefully trace decorative shapes (diamonds, flowers or any other creative designs). Make sure you don’t press too hard in order to avoid piercing the pastry.

7.             •Cook in a pre-heated oven at 170 degrees C for about 40 minutes. Our advice is to check on it regularly as we found our oven cooked it a lot quicker (25 mins).

8.             •Cook the galette for a further 5 minutes at 220 degrees C to enable the sugar to cook slightly and create a shiny effect. Take out of the oven.

9.             •Eat the cake lukewarm and enjoy the party!

 

New to Translation? Here are some tips to help you in your first multi-language venture…..

The business of translation can be a little daunting at first glance but a good translation agency should assist you through the process from start to finish.  If you have not used a professional translation service before then please see below for our guide to getting it right.

Deadline: 

If you are working to a deadline then let the agency know in advance.  As a rough guide, you can expect a translator to carry out between 1,500 – 2,500 words per day, dependant on the complexity of the subject and source file format. 

File Formats:

Agencies can translate from a variety of source file formats and generally provide your completed translations in Word / Excel or PDF files as standard.  If you are able to provide your source document as a Word or Excel file the translator can overtype the document to retain the original layout features.  If you only have a non-editable version of the source document available, such as PDF, but require design work to make the translated version look as close to the original as possible, then ask your agency for details of their typesetting services as well.

Apart from choosing the right agency to carry out your work, there are also some simple steps you can take as well to ensure that  the end product fully meets your expectations:

Reference material:  Any previous translations, website links, or glossaries can help the translator to contextualise your project and use specific terminology to ensure consistency. 

Publication = Proofreading:

If your translation is going to be published, whether it is a website, marketing brochure or a technical manual, it is essential to ensure that an in house colleague speaking the translated  language looks over the translation prior to publication.  A good translator will carry out extensive research and proofread their translations thoroughly before finalisation to ensure accuracy.  They will follow any glossaries or reference materials provided to reflect your corporate terminology and style.  However, they do not have the benefit, or freedom, of insider knowledge to ‘tweak’ a few phrases for the specific target market, or to emphasise your brand image and style.  A final proofread within your company ensures that not only is the translation accurate, but it perfectly reflects your company’s ethos and values.

Automatic = Problematic.... 

When you have gone to the trouble of securing a professional, expert translation service, don’t be tempted to cut corners and use machine translation for those odd bits and pieces that were forgotten or added on at the last minute.  Even if it is just a few words, it can be almost guaranteed that the serious errors of meaning that can occur from the use of these tools will be the first thing that your client sees.

At first glance, machine translation can seem like an inexpensive option for your translation needs, but it can end up costing you your clients and even your reputation!  It is useful to an extent, if you quickly need to get the gist of correspondence or information written in another language.  But only a human, experienced and professional translator can give you peace of mind that you are not instructing your client to click on the ‘hammer’ menu when you want them to click on ‘tools’, or ‘propose to first gear’, instead of ‘engaging first gear’!

And finally....

We hope that you will choose ApLingo for your translation projects and find our expert translation service friendly, efficient and intuitive.  We like to go the extra mile for our customers and if you have any queries at all, before, during or after your translation project we will be more than happy to assist you.  Please don’t be afraid to ask us any question at all, even if you think it might be ‘stupid’, it more than likely is not! 

Email:  translation@aplin.co.uk  Telephone: 0800 389 6571

REMEMBER REMEMBER THE 5TH OF NOVEMBER

Each year on 5^th November, we celebrate Guy Fawkes Day and remember the aborted bomb attack against the Houses of Parliament. But did you know that Fawkes was also a well-seasoned traveller who spoke fluent French and Spanish?

We know him more as the guy that’s stuffed with old Newspapers, a mask for a face and is thrown on a huge bonfire, beneath a sky of fireworks!

We wish you a great Guy Fawkes Day, hope it goes with a ‘BANG’ and don’t forget to get in touch for some ‘SPARKLING’ November rates.

Movember's back!

Why says nothing happens between Halloween and Christmas but frantic shopping? Well, actually November has become one of our favorite months of the year here at ApLingo. Thank you Movember!

Did you know that the word "moustache" is French, and is derived from the Italian mostaccio (14th century), from Medieval Latin mustacium (8th century) which ultimately originates as a diminutive of Hellenistic Greek μύσταξ (mustax, mustak-), meaning "upper lip" or "facial hair".

Our ancestors from the Neolithic times were technologically able to shave with sharpened stones, but the oldest portrait showing a shaved man with a moustache is an ancient Scythian horseman from 300 BCE.

Various cultures have developed different associations with moustaches. Most of them are linked to virility, power or religious traditionalism.

Having learned a few facts about facial hair, the team would like to support and thank our generous colleagues who support the event. Can’t wait to see how they turn out!