Your professional translator

It's been a while since I published an article with useful resources for translators and language learners/teachers. This summer I did quite a lot of translations for the tourist industry and discovered a whole new phenomenon called " sports tourism ". Not that I haven't heard about it before, but I definitely haven't translated anything like that until I started working with a couple very cool clients. And I've done a great deal of translations about one specific type of sports events, which is motorsport , especially Formula 1 .

Not long ago I finished a translation project related to international trade. At times I had real fun while translating. Why? Because customs seems to be that kind of service where everything, including translations, needs to be brought to some kind of a uniform standard. In reality, it's not always so (especially in the Russian-English non-native translations I came across). But I thought I'd put my discoveries here for future reference. As for those terms that have more than one variant of translation, you can always ask your client which option they prefer. Even if you are not a translator, these links may be very useful if you are learning English or Russian, especially for business. So check them out!

Are you watching European Football championship now? I am enjoying a feast period in my translation business at the moment, but I try my best to watch at least some games. That actually gave me an idea to look for some cool football glossaries and share them with you. Hoping that you will find them useful.

I prepared this list for one of my English classes. And then it dawned on me that I can share it with you, too! So here are 15 facts about the English language that I find very interesting. Hope you do, too ;) Rudyard Kipling was fired as a reporter for the San Francisco Examiner. His dismissal letter said, "I'm sorry, Mr. Kipling, but you just don't know how to use the English language. This isn't a kindergarten for amateur writers." No language has more synonyms than English.

I thought it would be good to share some useful links on  tourism . The links are in English and/or Russian. They can be used for translating or you can use them as a reference when you teach or study this topic in English or Russian. 1) Hotel categories according to world standards (in Russian): Категории гостиниц 2) Wikipedia also gives some info about hotel types: Гостиница . Many terms are given in English and Russian, especially types of rooms.

There's no doubt that Twitter offers a wealth of opportunities. But how can Twitter help us learn a foreign language? I've got some ideas, but I'd be thankful for your input as well! So comments are more than welcome! Twitter offers several advantages for languages learners: 1) Here people usually write what they think in a conversational style. So it's a great tool to master conversational English/Russian/any other language that people use on Twitter.

I am so glad it's Friday and I can have some quiet time to reflect on the past week. It was a fun week - there was a Christian English day camp in our church. The younger kids came in the mornings and the older ones came in the afternoons. My daughter Delia was one of the campers in the morning shift and I was glad to serve as a helper. I love helping other people :) First let me share some pics. You will see one and the same little girl in the pictures. That's my daughter ;) Playing a game to help the kids get acquainted with the American team The youngest group (4-6 year olds) with their favourite American young lady. Playing soccer More soccer :) Watching a cartoon First of all, I'd like to share the benefits of the camp : 1) The kids heard God's word; 2) They heard native English speakers and tried to understand them or at least get used to the rhythm of their speech and the pronunciation. On Wednesday my daughter shared one thing with me. Sh...

It has been a long time since I recommended something useful and interesting here. So I decided to do it now. Hope you don't mind that =) When I started writing I had a plan to divide all links into categories like 'language teaching', 'translation' etc. But as I started looking through those links that I had saved in order to share them later with you, I realized that ALL of them have to deal with language teaching! So here they are: 1) This week I came across a wonderful blog that helps foreigners learn Russian. Here it is . It doesn't just give you new vocab and grammar, but describes some cultural issues that stand behind some phrases and words we use. I find it excellent! 2) I also found a great resource for teaching English to children . It has a real wealth of ideas. 3) I have also started to use a great online resource for those trying to learn French . I really like it. Hope it helps me to improve my French ;-) 4) And finally, I really fell in love with...

As you know, I am also a certified ESL teacher. I love teaching children and adults. It gives me great pleasure to see their progress and to realise that I took part in their growth. And in October 2009 I started something completely new for me - teaching English through Skype. It's a totally new experience as I have to use some totally different methods in order to organize an effective teaching process. Since I started teaching English through Skype I found some excellent links for both adults and kids. So I decided to share those resources with you and if you know of other interesting links I'd appreciate it if you shared them with me ;) So here are the best links: http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-games.htm - site for kids with different ESL games, stories, songs etc. http://www.kiddierecords.com/2006/index.htm - lots of audio-books for children http://www.anglomaniacy.pl/ - another great website for children, mainly with basic level of English http://boggleswor...