Author: Kristen
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Takeaways from Translator Made Corporeal
This photo is what got me to theTranslator Made Corporeal event at the British Library in the first place. It was taken at the London Book Fair by photographer Julia Schoenstaedt as part of a portrait series revealing the rarely-seen faces behind literary translation. The project set the tone for the event, which aimed to…
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Urology under the Swastika
Did you know that hormonal treatments for certain andrological conditions were available in Nazi Germany, or that long before Viagra, erectile dysfunction was treated with something called ‘Testifortan’? Neither did I until I translated “The Suppression of Sexual Science: effects on the professional development of andrology and sexual medicine” by Dirk Schultheiss from German for the European Association…
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Residency at the Vertalershuis Amsterdam
As a translator, you constantly have to make decisions on what to do about these little things. Do you just translate them as they are and preserve the Belgian-ness of the book? Or do you convert them into something more familiar for your target readership? If you translate “hostie” to “satellite wafer”, are you then…
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Translating The Chronicles
“Language is my way of getting a grip on things, of maintaining control in certain situations. Your body is bombarded with zillions of sensory impressions, and by giving them a name, you make them one-dimensional again, manageable,” wrote best-selling Belgian author Lize Spit in her second blog post for The Chronicles. Actually, this is my…
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10 Common English Mistakes made by speakers of Dutch
The Dutch can be quite handy at “Englishifying” Dutch words. Sometimes it works, but sometimes it just doesn’t. I’ve been teaching and editing English in the Netherlands for a little while now, and here are 10 curious mistakes I’ve noticed.
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Bookish Places in AmsterdamBookish Places AmsterdamBookish Places Amsterdam
Back in 2010, before I knew anybody who lived in Amsterdam, I came here with my friend Michelle. She was on exchange at the University of Groningen and I was studying in Switzerland. It was an icy January, much icier than any winter the city has seen since. We skated across ice patches in the…
