Do you know SpongeBob SquarePants? The main character from that children’s TV-show about the sea sponge that lives beneath the ocean surface with his best friend Patrick the starfish. Did you know that the English name is used even in the Italian version?

Idag kom det fram att en arbetskollega till mig är ett stort fan av Svampbob Fyrkant. Ni vet huvudpersonen i barnprogrammet om svampen som bor under havsytan med sin bästa kompis sjöstjärnan Patrik. Då min arbetskollega är italienska kom det även fram att det engelska namnet ”Spongebob Squarepants” används även i den italienska versionen. Detta [...]

A few weeks ago, we published two articles related to machine translation and they seemed to have inspired some of our readers who seized the opportunity to write about this topic. You will definitely want to think twice before using automatic translation.

Watching films is a good and pleasant way to learn languages. Sometimes, however, besides getting intrigued by the plots, I am always intrigued by film title translations.. Have you ever thought about what hides behind films’ translated titles? Do you know any?

Adoro filmes! Não chego a ser uma cinéfila, pessoa que realmente entende do assunto, de diretores e roteiristas, mas ainda assim gosto de apreciar um bom filme. Considero-os ótimas ferramentas para aprender um novo idioma. Se você também aprecia filmes, assisti-los com áudio e legenda na língua que você está aprendendo é um bom exercício [...]

Let us now get to know our winners better, starting with the Professionals Blogs category. Here is our interview with Judy Jenner, the author – together with her twin sister Dagmar – of Translation Times.

The old adage about never really knowing a language until you’ve spent some time in the country itself is undeniably, irritatingly true. When I arrived in Spain for a year of study, I was immediately struck by the contrast between the Spanish I’d been learning from my grammar textbooks back in the UK, and the Spanish my taxi driver was shouting at everyone who got in his way as we careened through the streets of Madrid.

Apparently it is common to boil eggs in hot springs in Thailand.