London’s skyline is transforming into a fine collection of striking skyscrapers with bread-and-butter aliases: The Gherkin, Helter Skelter, Cloud, Boomerang, Three Sisters, Walkie-Talkie, Cheese Grater, Shard… what’s next, the Toilet Brush? In addition to titillating nicknames, what these projects have in common is the necessity to use the latest construction[…]
I met Dagi on a long-distance bus on our way to Exeter University in 1988. Or maybe it was the summer of 1989. Quite a long time ago, anyway. We’ve been friends ever since, meeting every couple of years in different places around Europe and doing a bit of traveling[…]
Ever think of redundancy or stacking when writing a text or revising or editing somebody else’s text? Or the subjects, characters, and actions in your sentences? I do now, after attending a lovely brain-stretching English workshop in the Language Centre of Helsinki University under the theme Let it Flow.
Visiting the city of volatile weather with 16 sweet-sixteens is intense and hurts in the feet. We’re an art-oriented group with an ambitious program to travel blog London and see at least some of the important works available here from the Middle Ages to Modernism. Museums are not enough when[…]
I visited the high-and-mighty Finnish Literature Society (SKS) for the first time to witness the annual translation awards ceremony. The Finnish Association of Translators and Interpreters (SKTL) grants two awards for translations into Finnish: the Mikael Agricola Award in recognition of an outstanding literature translation and the J.A. Hollo Award[…]
A product by any other name could sell as sweet… I wanted to blog about product naming because I was once given the task to come up with a stellar product name on a very brief notice. Within 24 hours or so. Tell me about it. I had to do[…]
Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he/she is the author, says the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 27.2. Believe it or not, this includes translators. After centuries of ignorance and poverty, it’s[…]
Romantiikkaa ja tyttökirjoja kirjoittavat tytöt, toimittavat tytöt, kääntävät tytöt ja lukevat tytöt. Isot ja pienet. Jos mies lukee tai kirjoittaa tyttökirjan, hän ei myönnä sitä. Muutama rohkelikko, joka on tyttökirjan tai rompsun lukenut ja uskaltaa myöntää, sanoo oppineensa naisista tyttöjen välisestä kirjallisuudesta enemmän kuin oli uskonut mahdolliseksi.
Why is it so challenging to produce a good translation from English to Finnish? Usually translators do better translating from a foreign language to their native language. Their wonderful, utterly loved Mother tongue. That’s only logical. Translating from English to Finnish, however, is an exception, and I’ve pondered a theory[…]
So I finally have my own blog. I’m so excited. Blogsited or “blogs(c)ited”, actually. This site is mostly for professional use, of course, to show what I do as a writer, translator, editor, communicator… but also for fun. To share whatever I am currently interested in or inspired by and[…]