The Sunday Review, 01/05/2011

What a wet day it is here in Kraków! Still, rainy days are a great excuse to stay at home and relax, and if you're in-between jobs at the time, so much the better. Today, being both wet and work-free, means that I can sit down and write the weekly review at leisure.

There are a couple of things I wanted to discuss with you about our Bad Article. The first is to review the kind of stuff we're doing here. As we enter our fourth month together, regular readers will know that most of the entries so far have been our little translating 'issues' - mis-use of words, correct use of punctuation, formatting stuff, all that kind of thing. These are the meat and potatoes of the blog, and the articles and other more abstract posts are the vegetables and gravy. I'm not sure where the wine is, I ordered it ages ago but it still hasn't appeared. Anyway.

The thing about our 'issue' posts is that, from my point of view, they're equally applicable to all translators, regardless of age, rank or experience. But I'm also aware that we need to do some more 'hardcore' stuff too, because some of you will not be affected by the simpler stuff. So, in future, I'm going to try and be a bit more proactive and take the time to prepare some heavier stuff. From what I've heard from you all so far, good article usage is of key interest, so as of next week we're going to start a regular series on this topic. Don't expect fireworks all at once; I'm thinking this will be more of  a slow romance, albeit with lots of flowers and nights out at the opera.

On the same note, I had always envisaged doing more of the abstract vegetables too, and although I geed you all up for some interviews and guest columnists, so far we've only heard from our media translator, Dotty. Well, I'm also planning on introducing some opinion pieces, where we take a more 'behind the scenes' look at the translating world. These will be based on my own experience, and I'd encourage you to agree or disagree on those pieces. With a very gruby work commitment now clearing up, I'll have more time to sort all this lovely stuff for you too.

Finally, I'd just like to reiterate that if you have a gmail address, or a Google account of any sort, you can use that to 'sign in' here and leave comments, which are always welcome. Remember, this is your blog too, so don't be shy about telling me what you want doing with it! :) 

So, let's proceed through wiosna to letnia with a spring in our step, and look forward to some variation in our diet at Chez Article. For now though, it's time to relax a little before Monday arrives to clobber us all once again...

TTFN,

Jim :)