Meet our new intern: Anje-Mari le Roux
Like many others in this line of work, my love and appreciation for language started at an early age. As a child, I was an avid reader and the highlight of my days was going to the library with my mother. I would write short stories for my friends to read, and this inspired me to pursue a career working with words. My younger self assumed the only way to do this was to become a journalist.
RoboRose rises to the ranks
Kaylin Rose Ahnie
The two most memorable gifts I’ve ever received were an alphabet picture book for my 4th birthday and a South African Oxford School Dictionary when I turned 8. Both were given to me by my father, who sought to instill both my brother and me with an appreciation for words from an early age. For my brother that manifested as a love for novels and poetry, whereas my literary love took shape through writing and translation.
Our new intern: Jenny from Germany
Listening to my grandparents’ stories about all the crazy adventures they’d experienced in all the different countries they’d worked in sparked my interest in travelling and languages when I was a small child. I enrolled at the Gymnasium Marne Europaschule in Northern Germany which specialises in various exchange programmes.
Sign Language: The Silent System
I recently had the opportunity to meet Nombulelo Cekwana, Folio’s experienced South African Sign Language interpreter who shared details of her fascinating job.
Of bots, bräuhauses and AI: GALA conference 2019
GALA conferences are intense. And the GALA Conference in Munich held from 24 to 27 March 2019 was no different.
TWO ROSETTAS, ONE MISSION
On 12 November 2014 a space module bounced gently in the vastness of space before settling down on a comet millions of kilometres from Earth. Philae had hitched a ride on the European Space Agency's Rosetta probe to analyse and photograph 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE LANGUAGE JESUS SPOKE?
9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
10 Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
FROM HEIDELBERG TO TAFELBERG: MEET FIONA STROHM
Finding the right career path may seem scary to a teenager, but everyone has to go through it, and a few years later I’m now finally able to say that I know exactly what I want to do with my life.Sometimes it’s good to take some time off and travel, just to become aware of who you are as a person and what your goals are in life. After graduating high school in Germany in 2016, I was sure that I wanted to study economics.
Why Deaf SASL interpreters
South African Sign Language (SASL) has been included in the Bill of Rights since 1996 as an indigenous language to be protected. In 2015 a brave Deaf learner initiated a court case against the Department of Education, demanding that SASL should be a subject in school.
Childbirth in Silence: Folio's SASL interpreters share their experiences
South African Sign Language Interpreter 1Receiving antenatal bookings is always exciting. From administration, examination and consultation to delivery, you experience everything with the patient. The way we are received and welcomed is totally different from doing other bookings.
Meet Kanja van der Merwe
Studying BA Language and Culture at Stellenbosch University was the best option to unlock my career path since it offers many subjects and a variety of focus areas. Language had crept into my heart early on in my life, originally reflected in my love for creative writing.
Meet Miriam Reuther from Germany
Seeing as much of the world as possible has always been my wish. After graduating high school early, I had plenty of time before university.
Meet Raquel Sánchez Herrero, she speaks whale!
Long ago I was already convinced that the world was so much more than those streets around my home and my high school in Fuenlabrada, and that was what I wanted to explore. In the complete confusion of choosing a future career, I let myself be guided by my passion for languages.
PARAPROSDOKIANS AND OTHER TROGLODYTES
Linguists come up with some very strange terminology in their quest to classify all the different permutations of language. In this blog I give a brief overview of some of these terms. You may find it interesting if these phenomena crop up in everyday language and you may even impress your colleagues with your newly acquired knowledge!
FOLIO ONLINE RANKED AS ONE OF THE TOP THREE LANGUAGE SERVICES PROVIDERS IN AFRICA
Market research firm Common Sense Advisory recognises Folio Online as a leader in the $46.52 billion global translation, localisation, and interpreting services industry.
(Cape Town) – Folio Online (Folio) announced today its official ranking as one of the largest language service providers (LSPs) in the global translation and interpreting industry.
JEROME: THE PATRON SAINT OF TRANSLATORS
St. Jerome is known as many things – scholar, historian, translator, and polemicist. In this blog I give an overview of his life and explain why he came to be known as the Patron Saint of Translators. Born in 347 in Stridon, a province of ancient Rome now situated on the Balkan Peninsula, his scholarly journeys would take him to Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, and finally Bethlehem, where he died on 30 September 420.
Language, Heritage, and Heritage Languages
This Heritage month, Folio takes a look at issues of language, heritage, and heritage languages.
Language is a fundamental part of cultural heritage. That’s a given. Even when overlooking subcategories such as linguistic heritage, the languages we speak are some of the primary building blocks that make us who we are and indicate where we come from, both geographically and socio-culturally.
Insights from AITCO2020
Insights from AITCO2020
I recently had the opportunity to attend the second Africa International Translation Conference in Arusha, Tanzania. According to my African friends in the industry AITCO2019 resulted in valuable connections and insights, so it was with much anticipation that I booked my ticket on Kenya Airlines.
Lize Spies aka Lady Vernacular joins Folio
Nowadays, young adults are pressured to know exactly what they want to do with the rest of their lives. But the reality is they rarely do. I’m the exception.
Meet our new intern: Anneke Luijk
Like lots of teenagers, my future seemed unclear when I was in high school. Yet, since grade three I have developed a passion for writing. It all started with my grade three teacher complementing me on my creative writing.
INTERNATIONAL MOTHER LANGUAGE DAY 2019
To celebrate International Mother Language Day we asked thirty of our trusted translators two related questions:
- Do you speak your mother language at home and;
- Should mother languages be promoted at school, university and in business?
BAG JETS OFF TO JO'BURG!
Despite being a globetrotter of note*, Bag was slightly nervous about the prospect of flying to the SATI Triennial Conference after reading a story in the news about bees nesting in a Mango plane’s engine, but a cursory glance before entering the plane allayed his fears.
FRONTIER INTERPRETERS: KROTOA, MALINTZIN, AND POCAHONTAS
In this blog I compare biographical details of three famous female interpreters of the colonial era. Even though these women found themselves in different corners of the world their lives share striking similarities. In all three cases they were confronted with European colonial powers and had to walk a tight line between two radically different cultures. A common pattern emerges as their personal lives are plotted against the backdrop of colonial conquest.
ARMS, ALGORITHMS, AND QUALIFYING CLAUSES
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
To say this sentence has found itself under the same powerful microscope as some foundational sentences in the Bible ─ “Thou shalt not kill” being the first that springs to mind ─ would not be an example of hyperbole.