Anglicity's 2015 Top 10 Blogs

Anglicity's Top Ten

An increase in blogging was Anglicity's New Year's Resolution for 2015. November seems a good time to have a recap. Below is Anglicity's top ten as selected by On the Bridge readers in 2015.

1.  Visible translators: A new business model
A very popular blog with freelance translators about working with direct clients.
(See February 2015)

2.  A pan-European agreement on translation working practices?
Summary of presentation at French CNET Conference.
(April 2015)

3.  A Rosy Review
Something a little bit different - a book review with horticulture, history and the role of women in society intertwined.
(See January 2015)

4.  Hitting your Target Audience with Blogging
A blog about blogging animated with a ten pin bowling image.
(See January 2015)

5.  A long open letter to SDL
Write-up of SDL's London Roadshow with a well-received, possibly controversial discussion of a long-overdue change in translation pricing.
(See November 2015)

6.  Is the British Linguist endangered?
What happens to the British linguist and understanding of other cultures in Britain if we rely on the rest of the world speaking English?
(See April 2015)

7.  Sales at the French CNET Conference
A summary of the French translation companies' March conference in Paris with a focus on sales. 
(See April 2015)

8.  Japanese Tea Ceremony
A reflective cultural blog for the 70th Anniversary of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
(See August 2015)

9.  Overcoming the "Curse" of  Technical Knowledge
Like origami, simplicity isn't as simple as it looks. Technical experts need help to adapt copy for non-technical audiences. 
(See March 2015)

10.  On Round Tables
A blog on the equality of negotiating power in international relations inspired by a visit to the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.
(See April 2015)

If you missed any of the above posts, go to the Popular Posts or the Archive section in the right-hand column. Enjoy! Please come back to read future blogs.


For further information on Anglicity's copywriting, editing and transcreation services, please email karen@anglicity.com.
 

1984 in 2015

Back in the early 1980s, my Latin teacher urged our class to hurry up and read George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. Half jesting, half warning. Orwell's nightmare was a matter of years away. I got on and read the book pdq*.

Fast forward 30+ years: my reading of 1984 is a dim memory. A Time Out Magazine promotion brought me to the Playhouse Theatre for the new adaptation by Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan. The ticket price was an appropriate £19.84. 

In retrospect, I wish I hadn't gone. This was a bewildering, unnerving and harrowing production. And yet, as Dr Paolo Gerbaudo of King's College London wrote in the play's programme:

"We have become the consenting surveilled, people who by accepting the system of Internet communication and its "free" economy have ended up unwittingly accepting the surveillance of state security agencies."

The time sequence becomes increasingly confusing. What is a real time event? What is a portrayal of Winston's memory or madness? 

The events are more unsettling than my teenage memories of the novel. Was that due to the adaptation? My youthful understanding? Or simply that drama is more vivid than my own imagined world in reading? Could it be because 2015 more closely resembles Orwell's 1984 than my memory of that time?

1984 turned out to be one of the best years of my life. It included the second half of my year abroad - a year at Nancy University in the East of France. A year that informed and shaped my thinking far more than I realised at the time. It intrigued me to contrast news reports from both sides of the Channel.

In 1984, Winston rewrites history according to the state's current allies. People become "unpersons" under his direction - as later happens to him. It turns out that he and Julia are under surveillance even in bed. No privacy at all.

During the torture scene, I was glad that I was perched high up in the gods**, unable to see the full stage. I couldn't bear to look. And yet, I remember how just before Christmas 2014, the US Senate report confirmed torture.

And I remember my old Latin teacher's warning about the need to be aware before the unthinkable happens...

*pdq = pretty dammed quick
** the gods

Climate change: seeking an impossible solution?

As the old year draws to a close and a new one fast approaches, it is a good time for reflection on the past and hopes for the future. Elections and climate change discussions will feature strongly in 2015.

In November 2013, I attended an event at the British Library aimed at inspiring new entrepreneurs. My lasting takeaway was that even the most tumultuous start can lead to spectacular success. Lord Young emphasised the attraction of being in charge of your own destiny. Today, he appears in the New Year's Honours' list for his 50 year contribution to British public life. Margaret Thatcher famously said of him that "other people bring me problems; David brings me solutions". Solutions are just what every client wants to their business problems. Translators and interpreters are often key players in working towards such solutions.

There is a tendency in the world to think that we cannot change things. The advantage of getting older is that you can remember any number of times in the past when people said something couldn’t, shouldn’t, wouldn’t ever be changed… when the world seemed on the brink of disaster … and then something or someone budged.  The collapse of the Berlin Wall was just such an example... and yet we celebrated its 25th anniversary this year.

Let me share my somewhat ambitious wishes for change in 2015:

1. Greater world peace has to be high on the 2015 agenda. (I am no Miss World). I would like greater harmony to be won with recognition for the value and role of professional translators and interpreters.

2. As a mother with an interest in the world after I am long gone, I would like to see a little less focus from our politicians on short-term economic gains and the next elections. We need some true statesmen and stateswomen with more selfless ambitions and greater solutions in the run-up to the UN's climate talks in Paris at COP21

To quote Nelson Mandela: It always seems impossible until it is done.

Let's believe we can change our planet's destiny and come up with the long-term solutions.

Karen Andrews runs
Anglicity Ltd. She is an
entrepreneurial French
to English translator,
content writer,
marketer and Mum.
Her home city of
Bristol will be
inspiring change
as 2015's
European Green Capital.
Contact: karen@anglicity.com


What are your wishes and resolutions for the world 2015?