In 2015 someone contacted me from Radiolab asking for help with research for the episode “Nazi Summer Camp“. This was quite a thrill because I’ve long been grateful to this fun and informative show for preventing my children from bickering on long car trips. What they wanted was a summary of one chapter of a German… Continue reading Nazi Summer Camp
Category: Translations
My own hobby translations
The Unbelievable Ride in a Crazy Airplane (and other films)
Sometimes translation is straightforward. Sometimes, especially in the arts and entertainment sector, translators make significant modifications to their source material. Compare the English and German versions of these titles of popular films from the eighties and nineties (back translations in italics). The funniest German film titles are those that take a simple English title and… Continue reading The Unbelievable Ride in a Crazy Airplane (and other films)
Trump: translation and back-translation
Reading this interview with Trump’s French translator got me thinking about how Trump’s German translators are dealing with…um, yeah…all the things Trump’s translators have to deal with. They may be enjoying it – someone definitely had fun writing the headline: Trump erklärt im Bild-Interview, warum er weiter Twitter verwendet: “Ich kann bing, bing, bing machen.” (Trump… Continue reading Trump: translation and back-translation