The Translation E-Buzz

Corrie Palm

Corrie is the Business Development Manager at RMTC and she is proudly 100% Texan. She was born and raised in Dallas and came to Austin to attend The University of Texas. She graduated with honors and received a  Communications degree, majoring in Public Relations. 

Before joining RMTC, Corrie worked for several years as a computer based corporate trainer. At RMTC Corrie helps existing clients plan new projects and implement improved systems for placing translation orders. She is available whenever clients require extra assistance with complex project planning.

Corrie is a staunch supporter of the Texas Special Olympics. She has traveled throughout Texas working on a state-wide fundraising campaign called "Jammin in the Streets" raising money for this worthy cause which provides year-round sports training and competition to children and adults with mental retardation and other closely related developmental disabilities.

Corrie enjoys devoting most of her extra time to family.  Besides her husband, she also spends a lot time with her identical twin, her older sister, their husbands and  three adorable nephews, all in Austin! She enjoys exercise and lake life. She and her husband live on beautiful Lake Travis where they are renovating their home and enjoy raising a very large Rhodesian Ridgeback dog name "Tex". (Told you she was 100% Texan!) 

Contact Corrie with any suggestions about how RMTC can better serve your translation needs.

Machine Translation Update

Curious as to whether machine translation can meet your needs? At Ralph McElroy, we monitor advances in translation-related technology constantly. A recent "test drive" of translation software transformed "experts agree that machine translation is right around the corner" into "the connoisseurs agree that the translation of machine is right around sings it" after a round-trip translation. Our stance on this? Computers are great at many things, but understanding human language isn't one of them.

Giving Back to the   Community

Globalization Seminar

In February an RMTC team traveled to Dallas to lead a globalization seminar for a large computer company that had recently completed a round of translations with RMTC. In preparation for the development of new online help files for their system, they asked that RMTC lead a seminar on optimal globalization for effective localization.

Globalization is the development of product for ease of localization. It involves the following:

1. What should be considered by content developers and layout designers as publications, online help files, and software are created for English and non-English markets?

2. How does cultural nuance affect the process?

3. What technical issues must be considered as code underlying content is devised?

Feedback from the seminar host stated that the 1/2 day session "was an educational and entertaining afternoon that we all enjoyed."  If your organization might be interested in a globalization seminar contact Corrie Palm.

Harry Potter Selling in Russia, but Boris Yeltsin's Memoir is Selling Faster

© Canadian Press
December 27, 2000

Harry Potter's wizardry has happened so often it almost seems old hat: A book goes on sale in another country to much hype, drawing dedicated fans and selling like magic. The books have vanished fast in Russia as well. But it's still early to talk of Pottermania — former president Boris Yeltsin's memoir is disappearing twice as fast.

An official translated edition of the first book in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, finally hit bookstores Dec. 7. The release was none too soon for 11-year-old Harry's hard-core Russian fans. Thirsting for a Russian translation of the J.K. Rowling books that have topped western best seller lists, they started a Russian Web site dedicated to the boy and his magic powers, and translated fragments themselves. "There's something about the books that makes people a little crazy," said Natalya Chuprova, research director for the Moscow-based Moskva bookstore chain. "It's quite popular, especially for a foreign book."

Critics differ on why Russians like Harry, who fights evil with spells and flying brooms. Some say his popularity reflects a fascination with western culture, though Russia's obsession with all things western has waned considerably since the early 1990s. Others say Rowling's books echo Russia's rich tradition of fantasy literature, but with a lighter, more wholesome theme.

The books have been published and released in nearly 40 countries and in nearly as many languages. More than 1,000 copies sold in Moskva's biggest store in its first 12 days of sales, Chuprova said. That's well above the 50 sales a month considered a decent run, but half the rate of Yeltsin's Presidential Marathon.

Some critics complain that translator I.V. Oransky failed to capture the whimsy and double meaning of Rowling's names. Instead, he transliterated them directly, confronting Russian readers with a jumble of foreign-sounding letters. "The problem is the terrifying poverty of Oransky's language," Lev Danilkin wrote in the Vedomosti newspaper Tuesday. "Instead of a very good fairy tale it ended up an amusing, implausible story from the life of British teenagers."

Many clients do not realize that requests for orders and estimates can now be placed easily through the RMTC website.