Nice Trumps Nasty

Man with a Panama hat, in a light suit, dark shirt, playing the trumpet. The instrument covers the player's face. The instrument is seen frontally.

Most of us have learned to see politeness as wimpy and meek. We contemplate meanness as a shield worth wearing, despite the long-lasting harm it does to others and ourselves once the excitement of immediate gains fades away.

Henry: The Interpreter Who Beat Magellan

Most people think of Ferdinand Magellan as the Portuguese explorer who first sailed around the planet on a quest to prove that the Earth was round. Now, consider this. While Magellan did sail from Spain on an expedition that eventually went full circle, he never completed the tour. Also, Magellan never set out to sail […]

The CAT is Out of the Bag. Now, is it Alive?

I am old enough to remember the days when translators relied solely on paper dictionaries and when a CAT was just a home pet.  And being the dinosaur I am earns me the right to be stubborn, too. So, when the innovation called Computer Aided Tools (CAT) started to get traction in the professional translation circles, in the mid-1990s, I […]

The Accidental Translator

This book tells the story of how I accidentally became a translator — and soon thereafter an interpreter — 30 years ago. It also testifies to how winding anybody’s professional route is and it drives home an idea best summarized in this quote by John Lennon: “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans” The book was […]