{"id":1326,"date":"2021-02-16T16:41:59","date_gmt":"2021-02-16T15:41:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.kleinwolfpeters.com\/?p=1326"},"modified":"2021-02-16T16:41:59","modified_gmt":"2021-02-16T15:41:59","slug":"we-are-wordsmiths-jess-crutchley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.kleinwolfpeters.com\/?p=1326&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"We are wordsmiths: Jess Crutchley"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In this issue: Jess Crutchley, Senior Editor and Translator<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>What is your goal for 2021?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I\u2019d like to run another marathon, ideally in under four hours.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Over the course of your career, have you noticed specific changes in language usage?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I can\u2019t help but notice the ever-increasing and blatant use of English terms and phrases in German \u2013 especially in casual, spoken language but also in the written communications we translate.<\/p>\n<p>Every text we translate is different, of course, and has different requirements depending on the customer, purpose and target audience. But the liberal use of English terms in written German can be a headache in, say, journalistic translations into English. I\u2019ve seen countless examples of German text using a German word first, closely followed by the English equivalent as a synonym (or vice versa).<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s an example. <em>Wir bieten Ihnen ein breites Spektrum an Dienstleistungen. <\/em><em>Zu unserem Serviceangebot geh\u00f6rt unser vielfach preisgekr\u00f6nter Kundendienst, <\/em>which, translated literally, means: We offer a wide range of services. The services we offer include our multiple prizewinning customer services.<\/p>\n<p>When we translate these kinds of texts into English, we try to avoid repeating the same word twice in close succession because often it doesn\u2019t read well. This need for stylistic polishing is also a compelling argument for why machine translation (which would happily use the same word twice or even thrice) can\u2019t replace human translators. To get around the issue, we either have to find a different synonym to use in our translation (which isn\u2019t always possible) or come up with a clever way to get the same meaning across that avoids regurgitating the same word: Our multiple prizewinning customer support is just one part of the diversified portfolio of services we offer.<\/p>\n<p>In other cases, the use of English in German can sometimes make our life easier. Once we\u2019ve established that the word or phrase is legit and not Denglish, we can take it and use it in our target texts as it is. This is often the case in high-tech contexts with new concepts that originate in the English-speaking world.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>What animal are you tempted to translate literally?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>My choice is a bit of a silly one, but to an English-speaking audience the literal translation of the German word for skunk would certainly raise a few chuckles: <em>Stinktier<\/em> literally translates as \u201cstink animal\u201d, a rather good description given the foul smell the creature gives off. German is such a beautifully literal and illustrative language!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Is the glass half full or half empty?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That reminds me of a clever joke I saw on the back of a German beer mat once: the glass is half full \u2013 but not for much longer! I\u2019d say I am a glass-full kind of person \u2013 at least I try to be. In my experience, negativity can be incredibly draining, so I try very hard to keep a balanced view on things and look for the positives in every situation. And if I do feel negatively or pessimistic about something, I give myself a choice: either do something to change it, or change my attitude.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Working from home: yes or no?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Working from home has some great advantages, but in an ideal world I\u2019d like a mixture of both home and office. After working from home for almost a year now, there are definitely some things I miss about office life!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Lake or ocean?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Don\u2019t get me wrong, I love the fact that Munich has so many beautiful lakes just a stone\u2019s throw away, but if I had to make a choice, I\u2019d have to say ocean. I find the crash of the waves and the sea air incredibly relaxing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s been a good 18 months since we last conducted short interviews with our team at Klein Wolf Peters. Quite a lot has happened since then (understatement of the year), so we thought we\u2019d ask ourselves some more questions now in an attempt to return to some semblance of normality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":1339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[97,559,98,557,99,558,6],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kleinwolfpeters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1326"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kleinwolfpeters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kleinwolfpeters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kleinwolfpeters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kleinwolfpeters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1326"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kleinwolfpeters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1343,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kleinwolfpeters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1326\/revisions\/1343"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kleinwolfpeters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kleinwolfpeters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kleinwolfpeters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kleinwolfpeters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}