If I don’t know a lot about a subject, I prefer to leave the talking to the experts. It’s our basic policy here at MultiLingual: we collect articles from people who have more experience with what they’re writing about than a reporter or business writer. More than even a writer covering the localization beat. We look for articles written by people with firsthand experience, in ways similar to how courtrooms approach the idea of who is qualified to testify.
And right now, the more I read about Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), and particularly the situation with Russia and Ukraine, the less expert I feel.
In our columns, Kate Edwards addresses this particular situation from the neutral standpoint of a cartographer. From there our focus expands to less controversial and less-discussed parts of the region. Although CEE has had more than its fair share of controversy and breaking news over the years, from Poland to Kosovo, the region as a whole appears to be stabilizing and offering practical, solid business opportunities. As proof of this, Daria Karapetkova addresses the state of Bulgarian translation, and Marek Makosiej offers his take on whether or not to become a CEE-based regional language vendor. Vitaliy Vorobyov and Igor Shvydkoy offer their thoughts on why localization for the CEE region in general is important.
We are additionally covering some topics we’ve never looked at before, including methods of paying freelance translators and the work-related motivations of Generation Y in various regions around the world. We have two articles about using language to make the world a better place, one from Tim Brookes on how he is turning his endangered alphabets project into art and activism, and another from Richard Kühnel on what permaculture is and how to interpret for it.
If you’re into further reading from the experts, we offer two book reviews to give you some ideas. One discusses Translation and Localisation in Video Games: Making Entertainment Software Global by Miguel Á. Bernal-Merino; the other looks at The Book of Standing Out: Travels through the Inner Life of Freelance Translation by Andrew Morris.
