Wednesday, March 15, 2006

First "Translation Summit"

From yahoo! Finance:

This apparently has to do with providing translation to the government in the post 9/11 world.

If the press release is any indication, it should prove a bonanza for anybody who enjoys cliché-ridden content-free jargon, for example:

"...augment existing government translation capabilities" "...acting as a clearinghouse for facilitating interagency use of translators..."
"...mission..." "...think out of the Beltway box..."
That's on a par with the business claptrap we used to have to suffer through during the obligatory frequent meetings at the business software company I used to work for.

After reading that stuff I think I'll need a dose of Orwell's "Politics and the English Language" as an antidote.

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1 comment:

  1. Hi, in Italy we refer to this kind of corporate jargon as "Modern Milanese" ;-) as it seems that in Milan-based multinationals everybody speaks like that. No more Italian terms for anything... everybody in English-ehr, in Modern Milanese! Actually, it's quite difficult to translate these kind of texts, as you never know if they are to be translated or not ;-)
    The definition was created some time ago by journalist Beppe Severgnini in one of his articles for Corriere della Sera's Magazine.

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