is a technical translator and conference interpreter based in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Her obsessions are languages, translation, web searching, technology, astrology
and weird stuff. She is 36 years old, her ulnar nerve has been doing
its thing just fine and she has been feeling quite happy for the past
48 hours. She has a 3 old daughther, the adorable Mermchild or Mermaid
Jr. The Mermaid Sr. has lived in Santa Cruz, CA and Brussels. She loves to travel. Her Keirsey type is ENTP
(Myers Briggs: Extroverted, Intuitive, Thinking, Perceiving). She
doesn't really have a tail, you know. None of the above qualifications
takes any precedence in her makeup. Impromptu e-mails from strangers and friends are always welcome.
Wikiwords is a collaborative project to create a dictionary of all terms in all languages with definitions and example sentences. It is maintained and sponsored by the professional translators of ProZ.com.
The Wikiwords schema is built around concepts. For example, a dog is a concept. It can be conveyed in the English language with more than one term (such as dog, doggie, etc.). In Wikiwords, these terms are linked to the concept of a dog, as well as other terms in other languages that convey this same concept. Similarly, definitions and fields are also related to concepts. The diagram below summarizes the Wikiwords schema.
Translators have been helping each other translate difficult terms on ProZ.com using the KudoZ network since 1999. Many of these translations have been entered into a browsable glossary of terms called the KudoZ Open Glossary (KOG). Created in 2003, the KOG now has term translations in over 900 language pairs. Wikiwords aims to be an extension of the KOG by making it available to a wider group, making it easier to grow.
Wikiwords started off with imports from KudoZ, the KOG and Wordnet.
They also publish the following caveat:
Our focus now is on the mechanisms, and we are not concerning ourselves with content--or quality--yet. So contributions you make now are likely to get wiped at the end of the beta period.
Leave that booth door open.
Here's a very interesting report on interpreter workload commisioned by
AIIC. It evaluates psychological, physiological, physical and
performance aspects and the relationship between them. It turns out
that stress eats us up on the long run but it doesn't seem to affect
performance much. And that the booth is an asfixiation-inducing device,
with unnaceptable CO2 humidity and temperature levels. As if we hadn't
noticed that.
And
I have a little anecdote about Marcelo Ferraz. When I was living in
Pira, a friend sent me a text written by Marcelo for translation. It
was a presentation to be given in Holland, a bit trickier to translate
than the usual stuff. I translated and e-mailed it just in time to go
to the public meeting where the revitalization projects undertaken by
Mayor Machado were being discussed. Of course, one of the speakers was
Marcelo Ferraz, the man whose words I had just spent the afternoon
translating.
:: Posted by Enig :: 9:26 AM
Contrapor2006. First Portuguese Translation Conference. Held under the auspices of FIT and organized by the Associação de Tradução em Língua Portuguesa. Lisbon, Sept 11 and 12, 2006. Great tip from the great João Roque Dias.
:: Posted by Enig :: 8:29 PM
is a 
