Kanji Writing Declining Among Youth in Japan
Key Points In the past, students in Japan dedicated countless hours to mastering kanji writing translation as part of the intricate Japanese writing system. Today, the rise of digital devices like laptops and smartphones has contributed to a decline in traditional kanji writing among youth. Historically, writing kanji has been regarded as an art form, […]
Marketing Your Language Services With a Website
Are you a business of one? That’s often the case for freelance translators and interpreters. You are the secretary, the sales team, the billing department, the project manager, the editor, and the proofreader, in addition to your primary role as a translator or interpreter. You play each of these roles every time a new project […]
Breaking it Down in Word
Happy Wednesday and welcome to this week’s Tip of the Week. This week’s post is somewhat of a follow up to last week’s post, Headers and Footers in Word: The Basics. In last week’s post, we looked into creating headers and footers and scraped the surface of having different headers and footers on different pages. […]
How Language Affects Our Perception of the World
Ask someone to describe a smell, and you will often receive an answer that is vague, confused, overly simplified, or uses other odors as a comparison. Studies aiming to determine how well people can identify smells around them have only seen success rates of 50%, even when using common scents such as coffee, bananas, or […]
Interpreting the Affordable Care Act: What it Means For You
As a freelancer, do you ever think about healthcare coverage? How does the new Affordable Care Act impact you? What do you need to know, and where can you find this information? Interestingly, most people won’t have to worry about the new Affordable Care Act. Since about 75% of the population receives health coverage through […]
Valentine’s Day Around the World
There are various traditions of Valentine’s Day around the world, but the holiday has a universal theme of “Love” and for many is a special day to express their feelings. Showing how you feel about others with roses, chocolates, gifts, and cards are pretty standard, but let’s take a look at some interesting customs that […]
Why Should I Learn Italian?
“La bella lingua” is appreciated all over the world as one of the most beautiful spoken languages. It is the 8th most spoken language in the United States largely due to a high rate of immigration of Italians during the late 19th century. It is also the 2nd largest ethnic market in the United States […]
An Introduction to Google Docs
Hey! Welcome to this week’s tip of the week. In these weekly posts we highlight some tips and tricks that we use at Translation Excellence on a daily basis. If you’ve missed some of our previous posts, you can check them out here. This week I’m going to give an introduction to Google Docs, a […]
Can One Language Define a Country? A Look at the New Ukrainian Language Law
As of February 23, Ukraine, a country that has faced four months of protest in bitter winter conditions, has been retaken by the people. The government, initially pushing ties to bring the country closer to Western Europe, raised the citizens’ ire when it cut those ties and showed signs of reopening relations with Russia, a […]
The World’s Ten Most Translated Authors
Have you read the world’s most translated authors? If you think that means catching up on Tolstoy or Proust, think again. Rather than classics, the world favor’s popular fiction, according to data complied by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which compiles translation records in its Index Translationum. Mystery writer Agatha Christie […]