Archive for April, 2007

Prizewinners’ trip to New York

April 28th, 2007

Jasmin Schneider, Branch Manager, Birmingham

Jasmin Schneider was the deserving recipient of Roevin’s “Translation Manager of the Year” award and a trip to New York as her prize. Jasmin has been with the company just over two years and in that time has proved to be an exceptional translation account and project manager. SR Technics describe Jasmin as “highly professional and friendly” and Steris describe her project management as “expert”. Jasmin has written an account of her trip in her own words.

newyork 

New York’s famous skyline

As the winner of the Roevin “Translation Manager of the Year” prize, I was recently treated to a long weekend abroad with other prizewinning colleagues. This year’s destination: NEW YORK! So eleven of us ventured out on a cold morning in March to claim our prize and to find out whether New York really was the most exciting city in the world.

newyork2 

Jasmin, pictured front left with her prize-winning colleagues

Our hotel, the Library Hotel on Madison Avenue, turned out to be a fantastic choice, well placed in the heart of Manhattan. During the first two days we braved the freezing wind on top of one of those open-top buses and followed the standard tourist programme: Empire State Building, Fifth Avenue, China Town, Battery Park with Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, Ground Zero, Central Park, etc…

With the dollar exchange rate being so advantageous we thought it only fair to spend a whole day shopping. Obviously we also tested the NY nightlife. Our highlight was the Jazz Club on our final evening. Some swing dancing lessons at first and then we were ready to go!

Sadly we had to pack our belongings on the fourth day (not without some of us having to buy an extra bag because the suitcase didn’t hold all the new shoes, handbags…) and come back to good old England. However, we all had a really good time and this trip won’t be forgotten quickly!

Posted in Company news | Comments Off

Martine Nieman achieves Sworn Translator Status

April 26th, 2007

We are pleased to announce that Martine Nieman, Account Manager in our Amsterdam office, has recently been sworn in as a qualified Russian to Dutch translator. Martine, a native Dutch speaker, started working towards her translation qualification in September 2003. In May 2006 she completed her state exams, which required her to translate from both Russian to Dutch and Dutch to Russian. After obtaining the necessary grades she graduated in September 2006 and received her Bachelor of Communication as a Russian translator.

Martine’s success has been fuelled by her passion for the Russian language, in her opinion: “The Russian language is the most beautiful language of all. I was captivated by the shape of the Cyrillic alphabet and the books of the great Russian writers. Studying the language has only made me fonder of it.”

sworntranslator 

Martine (right) sworn in, in Amsterdam

In February this year, Martine attended the necessary court and was sworn in as a Russian Translator. In Holland most legal documents have to be translated by sworn translators, in particular birth, marriage, divorce and educational certificates. The documents produced by sworn translators become legal documents; the translator becomes legally liable for any mistakes or mistranslations. Currently, there is no such equivalent to sworn translators in the UK. Should you require a translation as a legal document Roevin can arrange for an Affidavit or Notarisation, please contact us for further information.

Posted in Employees | Comments Off

A Japanese Comedy of Errors

April 23rd, 2007

Gail Owen

On a recent trip to Japan, Gail Owen, Account Manager in our Birmingham office, spotted some interesting translations on public signs. Whilst these are light-hearted amusement, they also illustrate the importance of using a professional, qualified, native tongue translator. We hope these make you smile!

japan

This sign warns of the dangers of crossing a small pond via some stepping stones.

japan2

This lucky charm wards off disaster… well perhaps in Japanese it does!

japan3

Gail is currently arranging all her sentences in this wonderful notebook.

japan4

There was no sign of any life in this particular pond.

japan5

This sign was on a toilet tissue dispenser, outside a public toilet. Fortunately the tissues Gail purchased had not been used…

Posted in Language focus | Comments Off

Language Spotlight: Finnish

April 18th, 2007

Gail Owen

finnishflag

Finnish or Suomi, spoken by 5- 6 million people in the world, belongs to the Finno-Ugric family of languages. 92% of native speakers live in Finland; however, there are small parts of Sweden, Russia and the USA where Finnish is also spoken. Finnish is closely related to and occasionally mutually intelligible to speakers of Estonian, Ingan, Karelian, Livonian, Veps and Votic.

Finnish was solely a spoken language until the sixteenth century when Mikael Agricola, a priest, produced the first book in 1543; he also later translated the New Testament into Finnish and is regarded by many as the creator of the Finnish literary language. Mikael believed that worship and teaching in Finnish were very important for religion within Finland and also translated various hymns and prayers; this undoubtedly bought literary Finnish into the public eye and its use increased.

In spite of the significant effect Agricola had on the Finnish language, for a considerable period of time Swedish was the most important language in Finland. Swedish was the main language used in administration and official political documents. After six centuries of Swedish denomination Finland entered the Russian Empire in 1809; however it wasn’t until 1892 that Finnish gained status as the official language of Finland, Swedish had a significant presence in Finland up until this point.

Today, Finnish is prevalent throughout Finland and although only a small number of people speak Finnish, it is important to never underestimate the power of speaking your client’s language.

Roevin provides high quality translations into and from Finnish. For a free quotation please contact us.

Posted in Language focus | Comments Off

Employee Profile: Dave Williams, DTP Operator, Manchester

April 16th, 2007

davewilliamsDave initially joined Roevin’s publications division on a one week contract in 1995. He returned in 1996 for a three month contract converting Volvo workshop manuals into an electronic format. Twelve years later, with a substantial amount of experience and knowledge in multilanguage publishing, Dave is still working with the company!

“It doesn’t seem five minutes since I started; DTP enables me to work on a broad range of projects in a variety of software packages,making my time at Roevin pass with ease. I have built up a strong skills base covering a lot of software to cope with any job. I find I can adapt to new software very well.”

Since joining the Translation Division over 7 years ago, Dave has become an integral member of the team with expert knowledge of a whole range of DTP packages and translation tools such as TRADOS and SDLX. His excellent eye for detail is vital in ensuring that translations are correctly reproduced within clients’ artwork. A former Computer Studies student, Dave was inspired by working with foreign languages, and decided to study French in his own time, gaining an “A” grade in his GCSE last summer.

Dave got married on Easter Sunday and the whole team wish him and his wife Karen a long and happy future together.

Posted in Employees | Comments Off

Client Focus: Linn Products

April 7th, 2007

linn

Linn Products Ltd is an independent precision-engineering company specialising in top performance sound reproduction. Founded in 1972 by Ivor Tiefenbrun, the company grew out of Ivor’s belief that he could vastly improve the sound quality of his own hi-fi system. Today, Linn is recognised as the world-leader in pitch-accurate sound reproduction and is renowned for the exceptional quality of its products which are manufactured entirely at Linn’s landmark purpose-built factory building just outside Glasgow.

linn2

Linn Products Ltd approached Roevin many years ago for assistance in the translation of instruction manuals for their entertainment systems. Since then, Roevin has worked closely with Linn to provide translations into many of the major European languages as well as Japanese. A particular challenge of translating consumer instruction manuals is that the “user-friendly” descriptions in the original English text must be faithfully and clearly rendered in the foreign language; this often requires close collaboration between translator and client to resolve any difficulties which may arise from the translator not having the entertainment system in front of them as they translate! Roevin’s Account Managers work closely with both Linn and the translator to ensure that the translation process is as problem-free as possible, thus freeing up valuable staff time and resources for the client.

We asked Philip Barnes, Technical Writer at Linn Products Ltd, why Roevin is Linn’s translation provider of choice:

“Roevin provide us with all the qualities we look for in a translation service provider: accurate translations and fast turnaround at a reasonable cost. In addition, we’ve developed a level of dialogue between both companies which results in any problems being resolved quickly and efficiently”.

Posted in Client News | Comments Off