iMac



 

 

Translation Journal
 
Caught in the Web


Web Surfing for Fun and Profit

Miscellaneous Resources

by Cathy Flick, Ph.D.
 
 
 

http://www.sapterm.com
Marie-Louise Desfray found this "SAP multilingual termbase."

http://www.eesc.europa.eu/?i=glossaries.en.home
Marie-Louise Desfray found this link to two EESC (European Economic and Social Committee) glossaries: European Cycling Lexicon (2011 edition, EN/FR/DE) and Let's Speak Sustainable Construction Multilingual Glossary. The Sustainable Construction glossary seems to have something for almost everybody (EN/BG/RO/HU; EN/CS/SK/PL; EN/DA/SV/FI; EN/ET/LV/LT; EN/EL/MT/SL; EN/FR/DE/ES; EN/FR/DE/NL; EN/PT/IT/ES). They all include pictures and are downloadable as pdf's.

http://pelcra.pl/res/parallel
Kirill Sereda found this PELCRA Polish-English and Polish-Russian language parallel corpora.

http://language101.com/learn-any-language
Lots of interesting short articles about language learning from the standpoint of self-study. http://www.coursera.org
Jim Jones says: "Coursera, from Stanford, offers free, no-credit online courses in various subjects. The project is not unlike the OpenCourseWare (OCW) project of MIT. Many of the Coursera offerings are on Computers, Technology, and Science." (English)

http://www.khanacademy.org
Khan Academy is a donor-supported site that "allows you to learn almost anything for free. We cover a massive number of topics, including K-12 math, science topics such as biology, chemistry, and physics, and even the humanities with playlists on finance and history." They have videos and practice exercises. There is also an iOS app (look for Khan Academy) to make it easy to watch all 3500 videos on your iPhone or iPad.

http://unic.or.jp/security_co/
Kirill Sereda: United Nations documentation in Japanese, "speeches, resolutions, declarations, etc." The site says "The uploaded translations are UNIC Tokyo's 'provisional translations' for UN resolutions, major reports and other documents." (Japanese)

http://www.verbix.com/languages/
Kirill Sereda found this Verb Conjugation On-Line site: "They even have a proto-Indoeuropean verb conjugator." Very handy. (multilingual)

http://openlearn.open.ac.uk
Michael Röhrig says: "Find loads of free original learning materials from The Open University (UK): 'Try over 600 free online courses from The Open University. Available from introductory to advanced level, each takes between 1 and 50 hours to study. Complete activities to assess your progress and compare your thoughts with sample answers. Sign up for free to track your progress, connect with other learners in our discussion forums and find the tools to help you learn.'"

http://www.nuancemobilelife.com/applications.html
Nuance, the home of Dragon Dictate, has some free mobile apps if you want to try out dictation or no longer remember how to type with fingers. Three apps for iPhone/iPad/iPod: Dragon Dictation, Dragon Go!, and Dragon Search. Also Dragon for E-Mail for Blackberry and FlexT9 for Android.

http://www.idiomizer.com
Here's a wiki for multilingual idioms passed along by Yves Lanthier. IDIOMIZER is "an idiom comparison site currently incorporating over 40 languages." Fun to browse, also useful for translators.

http://www.btb.gc.ca/btb.php?lang=fra&cont=850
For some Inuit languages: The Canadian government's Translation Bureau provides a collection of English-Inuktutut-French glossaries (from Carolyn Perkes).

http://69.94.137.26/editorialcontrol/index.htm
Nicole Choisi found this searchable United Nations Editorial Manual online. (English)

http://nihonshock.com/2010/02/japanese-cheat-sheet-2/
http://nihonshock.com/
"This is a 'cheat sheet' for the Japanese language. It is an attempt to condense and organize as many of the basic elements of the language onto one sheet of paper as possible." Meant to be downloaded and printed, but can be viewed on the computer as well. Lots of other Japanese language-related and cultural info at the full Nihonshock site, such as how to park your car in Japan, all about Japanese keyboards, a comparative consumer study of Japanese pizza joints, etc. Nihonshock is a blog by Lloyd Vincent, "a translator living in Nagoya, Japan" that "offers useful and enjoyable content for Japanese language learners, foreigners living in Japan, and anyone else with an active interest in the country." Well worth a look even if like me, the only Japanese you know is "arigato" (learned from a Japanese tile set in the Shanghai computer game), "konichiwa" (learned from a Kim Possible cartoon), "sayonara," "pokémon," and "Godzilla" (also learned from too much time watching tv).

http://scripturetext.com
Interesting site with various translations of phrases from different Bibles. You can choose the chapter and verse and compare. Multilingual.

http://garbl.home.comcast.net/~garbl
Interesting English writing resources and style guides, worth a browse.

http://www.synec-doc.be/escrime/dico/dico_escrime.html
http://www.synec-doc.be/escrime/dico/engl.htm
For fencing as in swordplay, not home improvement: The first link is to the Petit Dictionnaire Éclectique des Termes d'Escrime (Fencing Dictionary, French explanations). The second link is to the Fencing glossary, English/French with English explanations.

http://www.unu.edu/HQ/library/resource/UN-correspondence-manual.pdf
United Nations Correspondence Manual: A guide to the drafting, processing and dispatch of official United Nations communications. English, plus some French equivalents for standard phrases.

http://german.about.com/library/blvoc_educ.htm
Nice glossary with cultural notes for navigating the perilous seas of the German educational system at all levels. (German, English)

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html
Carolyn Perkes suggested this useful World Clock to figure out when your client half way around the world is asleep or awake.

http://www.filosoficas.unam.mx/~gth/gthii.htm
Christian-Martin Diebold found this "Glossary-Guide for Translating Husserl", for all philosophical folk. (German, English, Spanish, French, Italian)

http://www.vef.hr/org/hig/nastavni_materijali/njari/rasijecanje_mesa_I_foto.pdf
Paul Merriam says: "This URL has diagrams on cutting up beef and lamb with the Croatian names and the Australian English names. Might be useful if you have menus to translate." (Croatian, English)

http://linguistics.online.uni-marburg.de/free/information/faq/grading.html
Héctor Gayón found this one for those of us struggling to translate school transcripts and CVs: Grading Systems Table.

http://www.waynesthisandthat.com
Eclectic collection of information and experiences by Wayne Schmidt "covering everything from kaleidoscopes to electric rocket engines." Pages on different types of writing, chocolate, movies, music, gardening, astronomy, photography, medical problems, sports, science. Easy to read, lots of detail. Translators might be interested the Dragon Naturally Speaking page. Want to make your own books? Check out the bookbinding pages. Warning: This site may be addictive. (English)

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm
OpenCourseware: MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) course materials are available for free to anybody, "spanning MIT's entire curriculum": Architecture and Planning, Engineering, Health Sciences and Technology, Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, Management, Science, etc. (English)

http://rmhh.co.uk/occup/index.html
http://www.vieuxmetiers.org
Carolyn Perkes found these two sites with names of old occupations (first one is in English, the second one is in French).

http://www.gartenakademie.rlp.de/
Michael Röhrig found this site for hungry translators: "Pictorial dictionary [of] 145 vegetables and herbs for the kitchen, in 9 languages (de, es, fr, en, it, nl, pl, ru, la)." Downloadable pdf file.

http://www.scottishhandwriting.com/tutorials.asp
Carolyn Perkes "just came across this site, which gives free tutorials in deciphering old Scottish handwriting (Secretary Hand) (1500-1750). Not sure if some of it could apply to handwriting in other English-speaking areas; in any case, it might be handy."

http://www.fouineux.com/leger.php#pop99
Michelle Asselin says about this list of references: "Mostly geared to the French-speaking crowd, but links for others too."

http://www.gg-art.com/dictionary/index_b.php?bookid=33&columns=2
Paul Frank found this resource for historical Chinese place names.

http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/index.jsp
http://www.gbhgis.org
Carolyn Perkes found these sites for "historical locations and administrative units by place name in Britain."

http://www.pc.gc.ca/docs/pc/guide/nldclpc-sgchpc/sec5/page5a_e.asp
Steven DeWitt found this glossary for historical architecture in the "New World". For you youngsters: No, that's not Mars. Just North and South America plus everybody in the middle. (French/English)

http://www.ontarioarchitecture.com
http://freenet.buffalo.edu/bah/a/DCTNRY/vocab.html
Christopher Carrie found two more sites about historical architecture, with building terms and illustrations of styles. (English)

http://www.archivists.org/glossary/term_details.asp?DefinitionKey=2339
Michael Burns found this "Glossary of Archival and Records Terminology."

http://accent.gmu.edu/browse_atlas.php
The Speech Accent Archive. Mirella Soffio warns that procrastinators had better abstain from this site... Native and non-native speakers of English from various areas of the world read the same English text. Gives phonetic transcriptions for most of them.

http://web.ku.edu/idea
If you liked the Speech Accent Archive, here is another one: International Dialects of English Archive (international). Interesting biographical information for the speakers. Some people read a text, others talk about their backgrounds.

http://www.worldcoins.org/gallery
In case you ever need to know what real money looks like.

http://www.hnk.ffzg.hr/jthj/tools.htm
From Paul Makinen: Croatian language technologies/tools. Includes information on various spell checkers available.

http://www.shopoon.fr/guide/guide-pratique_coupe_forme.aspx
Sonia Murray found this resource for textiles and fashion for both men and women.

http://www.newsinchinese.com
From Amy Taylor: "The site gathers news stories from various sources, in Chinese, and provides mouse-over pop-ups with the hanzi, pinyin, and English translation of each word."

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu
A growing classical database. Michael Osmann pointed out this url to someone trying to track down a Cato quote.

http://www.camaralicante.com/cexterior/do?documento=diccionarioCalzadoIngles
Downloadable (pdf) dictionary of footwear terms. (Spanish-English)

http://www.tc.gc.ca/AviationCivile/ServReg/terminologie/glossaire/a.htm
Glossary for Pilots and Air Traffic Services Personnel

http://www.tc.gc.ca/AviationCivile/ServReg/terminologie/glossaire/a.htm
Glossaire à l'intention des pilotes et du personnel des services de la circulation aérienne
Michelle Asselin found this Transport Canada site. Look for links on each page to switch between French and English

Franc Smrke suggests this handy tip for determining whether a person is male or female from their first names: "Enter the name in Google and search Images."

http://www.pristine.com.tw/lexicon.php
Paul Frank found this one: "The Pristine Lexicon is a free, online Chinese-English, English-Chinese lexicon and dictionary for language learning, technical research and general use. "With over 390,000 entries to date, it is an expanding Chinese-English-Pinyin terminology and language-learning resource, compiled from both public domain sources and our industry-specific glossaries.... primarily focuses on specialized terminology and proper nouns from a broad range of professional knowledge and academic areas."

http://www.convertworld.com
Susan Larsson recommends this site for "converting between currencies, weight, volume, mass, time, distance and more.... available in six different languages and is updated daily with the latest exchange rates."

http://www.acmhainn.ie/tearmai/eolaiocht.htm
English>Irish technical glossary.

http://us.imdb.com/Glossary/
Claire Parker found this film glossary (English). "Here, you will find definitions of terms and phrases frequently used in the world of movies, film, acting, and cinemagoing."

http://dept.kent.edu/museum/costume/
Michael Molin pointed out this "Visual Dictionary of Fashion." Can search by geography, time period, and subject.

http://www.sevenonemedia.de/unternehmen/bibliothek/mediaabc/ (German)

http://medialine.focus.de/PM1D/PM1DB/PM1DBF/pm1dbf.htm?snr=177
(German/English)

http://www.nielsenmedia.com/ratings101.htm (English)

http://www.agb.ro/IndicatoriTM.htm (Romanian) Tony Crawford found the above links on ratings, affinity and audience share in the media context.

http://www.buurman.de/B_vorauswahl.html
Michael Roehr found this Lexikon der textilen Raumausstattung, a "treasure chest" of detailed explanations of words used in describing textiles and other items used in interior decorating and design. Useful for technical work as well as more general work (pictures and drawings included). All in German.

http://www.verbix.com/webverbix/
Michael Molin found this useful site that conjugates verbs in more than 100 languages.

http://www.pitt.edu/~medart/menuglossary/INDEX.HTM
Suzanne Bernard, also found this Glossary of Medieval Art and Architecture.

http://www.gksoft.com/govt/
Steven DeWitt says this site "Lists internal government agency links for many countries."

http://de.geocities.com/metroplanet_barcelona/catalan.htm
"Catalan for Metro Users" Some basic Catalan (with pronunciation hints) for tourists in eastern Spain.

http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/compass/
Susan Larsson found the British Museum online, with extensive pictures and written information about items in its collection. Take a tour.

www.islamic-art.org
Omar Johnson points out this "web site, developed by Noha Abou-Khatwa, that gives complete access to all of the Bulletins of the Comité de Conservation des Monuments de l'Art Arabe.... It also has a searchable archive of 724 contemporary photos of Cairene Islamic architecture."

http://www.dreamghar.com/adic.html
Amy Taylor found this Architectural Dictionary (in English).

http://www.professionalpasta.it/Dir_1/GO_1(1).HTM
Margaret Schroeder found this Directory of Pasta Shapes and Names, which has to come in handy someday. Pictures! Loads of synonyms also.

http://geraldika.ru/registr.php
Paul Gallagher found this site for "Russian crests, emblems, logos, etc. ... In some cases, this site will lead you to large electronic images of the logos in color and/or black and white."

http://www.foreignword.com/glossary/plongeon/spn/defd.htm
Multilingual Dictionary of Recreational Diving and Underwater Activities. English, Spanish, French, German, Dutch, Italian.

http://iquebec.ifrance.com/10genie/LIENS.HTML
Diane Di Biasio says this page on military ranks of the world has links to other sites on the subject.

http://www.furniturequest.com/Furniture_R.htm
Karin Zimmer "ran across this furniture glossary. And since no one ever knows when they need these things..."

http://www.paris-law.com/articles/Fench_comercial_litigation-en.htm
Iris Heres found this interesting site on French-American Commercial Litigation: "How to avoid being forced to litigate in France, How to understand French Commercial Litigation Practices." Very detailed, has French and English resources.


http://canada.justice.gc.ca/fr/ps/bj/harm/Index.html
Michelle Asselin suggests this French/English site for explanations of legal terms.

http://www.stepfour.com/jobs/index.htm
Carol Shaw says this site is "for anyone who's been dying to know what a "booking prizer" and "jammer operator" The downloadable program they are selling is not required for searching.

http://www.defusco.ch/lexikon_a.html
Michael Osmann passes on this Italian wine lexicon link.

http://www.usskiteam.com/snowboard/sbterms.htm
http://www.k-line.li/d/glossar/glossar.html
http://www.terminal-b.com/frontdoor/html/index.php
http://alpinesurfer.free.fr/glossaire/glossaire.htm
http://www.club-dynastar.com/versionfr/notresprit/glossary.htm
Iris Heres gives us this collection of snowboard glossaries (English, German, French).

http://www.hobgoblin-usa.com/info/glossary.htm
Eugene Lepa says this glossary of folk musical instruments has "good explanations."

http://www.gesmine.com/dict.html
Marie Gouin suggests this French English Lexique pour l'industrie minérale/Lexicon for the Mineral Industry. Also some Spanish resources.

http://webworld.unesco.org/water/ihp/db/glossary/glu/aglo.htm
Alan Johnson found this International Glossary of Hydrology. "It's from the UNESCO, it's really good, and it's in 11 languages (you can translate terms from one language into any of the other 10)."

http://www.education.gouv.fr/syst/orgs.htm
Need to explain the French educational system? Guilherme Basilio found this site: "The URL explains what is studied, when it is studied, and the educational objectives....Great help when one needs to find equivalencies in other countries/languages."

http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/genderneutral.html
Susan Larsson found "an interesting article on gender neutral tech writing."

Mirella Soffio provides this large list of useful links for videogame/computer game terminology (or help getting to the next level....):

http://spazioweb.inwind.it/igc/glossario/g1.htm
Italian explanations of English gaming terms. Bunny-hopping, anyone? Links to other Italian game resources also (e.g., articles).

http://www2.nonsologiochi.com/Static/Glossary.asp?
Another Italian gaming glossary, plus other Italian resources (forum, game database of cheats/hints/faqs, etc.).

http://www.multiplayer.it/glossario
Glossary and other resources in Italian about multiplayer (online) games.

http://giochi.supereva.it
Italian glossary and resources for both computer and console games.

http://www.makegames.com/glossary.html
An English game glossary and other resources for potential game developers.
 

http://www.jump.net/~fdietz/softgloss.htm
Frank Dietz's English Software Localization Glossary (with a special emphasis on computer games)

http://www.egide.asso.fr/index.uk.html
Sharon Grevet pointed out this site that explains the details of various French academic degrees for beleaguered translators trying to come up with English equivalents.

http://www.uia.org/uialists/ndx/orgindex.htm
Paul Gallagher suggests this listing of "International Organizations, Associations, NGOs".

http://www.euro-know.org/dictionary/index.html
Michael Molin points out this "Concise Encyclopedia of the European Union".

http://haynese.winthrop.edu/iepe.html
Good place to look if you are trying to figure out how to translate medals and awards. "It is the modest intent of this International Electronic Phaleristic Encyclopedia (IEPE) to begin to link country-specific sites to accumulate and focus what knowledge we have. The goal, as the name suggests, is to "grow" a virtual encyclopedia on orders, decorations, and medals, worldwide and across time.

http://www.quoteland.com/
Veronica Lambert Hall found this source for quotations.

http://datadump.icaap.org/cgi-bin/glossary/SocialDict/SocialDict
Iris Heres suggests this online dictionary of the social sciences.

http://www.usinspect.com/Glossary/glossary.asp
Veronica Lambert points out this English glossary for home inspection terms. Big picture of a house and you can click on the dots to find the name and explanation of individual items.

http://www.navsoft.com.br/maritimos/terminav/terminavptg/enav.htm
Veronica Lambert also found this Naval glossary, Portuguese/Spanish/English.

http://eleaston.com/vocabulary.html#hobby
Michael Roehrig found a glossary for knitting terminology here. Click on the Games/Hobbies link or take a look at the other options.

http://underglobe.com/nitrato/6dizion.htm
Italian-English dictionary for photography.

http://firstgov.gov
Paul Frank suggests this FirstGov portal, providing "one-stop shopping for services from 20,000 federal Web sites in the United States."

http://www.pokemon.com/news/burgerkinglist.html
Well, the claim is "Pokémon Namen Weltweit" (Pokémon Names Worldwide), but actually the list just shows four languages: English, German, French, Japanese.

http://www.nintendo.ca/fr/pokemon
"Attrapez-les tous!" Nintendo of Canada's new French Pokémon site.

http://www.nintendo.com/world/index.html
Has links to regional Nintendo sites. Useful for comparing gaming jargon in various languages.

http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/ET650_online/MAPPS/Glossary.html
Tony Crawford points out this Glossary of Design Terms for print media.

http://www.emphasisonline.com/glossary01.htm
Tony Crawford also found this Glossary of Modeling Industry Terms ("as in fashion and photos").

http://www.emphasisonline.com/glossary01.htm
Michael Molin points out this source of info on fine art.

http://www.uv.es/~audiovis/glossario/glossario.html
Veronica Lambert found this gem: Catalan audiovisual terminology, with descriptions and translations in Spanish and English.

http://www.labibliaonline.com.ar/
Daniel Casanova found this helpful link: the Bible (Old and New Testaments) online in Spanish. Also Spanish version of the Catholic catechism and other useful resources.

http://www.macguffin.net/
Manon Bergeron points out this "work in progress": a searchable database of authors, pseudonyms, definitions, award names, organizations, characters, etc. for detective fiction.

http://www.iii.org/home.html
Margaret Doney suggests this Insurance Information Institute site for information on business, home, and auto insurance.

For all things woody, check out Woods of the World.
It has an excellent glossary at: http://www.woodweb.com/~treetalk/wow_glossary.html

Here is a searchable web site for the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission:
http://www.nrc.gov/
You can search and retrieve online any of their public files currently available by keyword. Files include descriptions of specific nuclear power plants, including pictures and indexes of links to info on specific parts of plants.

The US Department of Energy has a searchable web site at:
http://apollo.osti.gov/

The Thomas Register of American Manufacturers is online! (No more risking carpal tunnel syndrome by juggling those huge books...) Free registration gets you into their searchable database. Click Other Resources button on the home page to see other stuff available:
http://www.thomasregister.com

http://www.oanda.com/cgi-bin/ncc
Just what we need to figure out our rates in different currencies! Here is a simple currency converter, updated daily.

http://www.gagg.mcmail.com/flora.htm
Active gardener Dave Craig says that for anybody trying to track down plant names, “Andrew Gaggs Latin-English photo flora is a good place to start.” Gives both English and Latin names.

http://www.kodak.com
Excellent search routine for articles related to photography.

http://www.usps.gov/business/calcs.htm
Here is the US Post Office’s handy rate calculator for domestic and international mail.