Katie Botkin
Katie Botkin is a freelance writer with a master’s degree in linguistics. She has worked in the localization industry since 2008. Additionally, she is the executive director of a land-use nonprofit specializing in planning for a more resilient future.
Women, culture and language
In our just-released December 2012 issue of MultiLingual, Hannah Berthelot dives into the realms of language, women and culture, and how these intersect in...
Teach them grammar at a young age
For future generations of translators, the youthful period of linguistic "plasticity" may be crucial. Apparently, the old adage that you can’t teach an old...
(not) localizing happy hour
I popped over the local brewery across the street from MultiLingual just now for the reduced-price appetizers and a greasy jolt of pub food...
language in person
Lingomatch promotes Language Swap in select cities worldwide.
There are any number of sites where one can go to find a language partner (you’re learning...
Mental Acculturation
The world flattens by means of technology, brand names, and apparently even psychology, according to the New York Times:
"Behind the promotion of Western ideas...
It’s all relative
What is wrong with the following sentence (other than the obvious heartbreak): “The thing is, is John just doesn’t love me anymore” ?
It’s the...
Making up language
Vanity Fair, that bastion of linguistic knowledge, recently published an article on the creation of Na’vi, a constructed “alien” language used in the upcoming...
Love by any other name
A rose by any other name would be as sweet, Shakespeare tells us, but not everyone agrees. An NY Times article sent in by...
Microsoft Word 2010 Translation
"Learn how you can translate entire documents easily with Microsoft Word 2010 Translation features by watching this quick tutorial,” claims a recently-posted video on...
Facebook and Google: new translation tools free to the masses
Facebook’s recent announcement that it is releasing a new translation tool free of charge to other websites has caught the attention of such media...
Striking a blow for idioms
A book on “novel"-sounding idioms in ten languages will save you the trouble of learning the languages yourself, according to Jag Bhalla, the author...
For language learning and … other learning
Two interesting resources for those interested in learning language or expanding their grasp of a particular area of language:
1. My Language Notebook, allowing users...
Moving pictures: new tool claims to help build correct picto-translations
Edongba facilitates modern hieroglyph use.
Zmnsoft has released a Windows application allowing users to create documents and messages using Dongba hieroglyphs, the only hieroglyphic writing...
Now Oracle has a new Sun
Update: Oracle buys Sun. Oracle is positive about the acquisition, which, I suppose, makes sense. Nobody would shell out $7.4 billion for something that...
Spring drama with Sun and the big Blue yonder
There has been much speculation on the talks that IBM and Sun Microsystems aren’t officially having, ever since word leaked out that they weren’t...
Localizing team spirit and other impossibilities
Rugby is not that popular in America, the land of college sports. Like soccer, it’s sort of relegated to the shadows, played by club...
The non-localizable language
Watching a documentary on the practice of rumspringa (“running around,” sometimes also referring to the whole period of adolescence), when 16-year-old Amish kids release...
Crowdsourced translation via cell phone
”...distributing questions to participants in such developing countries via text messages or audio clips could make certain tasks more economical, such as the translation...
Next time on “the Tudors”?
An alert reader (as Dave Barry calls them) has just sent in a December article appearing in the Economist on one of the first...
Newsflash: English Not Only Language In World
The New York Times and CMS wire most recently have been reporting on Quillpad as an inventive new technology allowing users to type Asian...
War, language and the tower of Babel
Previous to Russia re-asserting herself over the Georgia provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, I can’t say I knew much about Georgia. When I...
Aberdeen group contrasts Best-in-Class with “Laggards”
If you’re interested in getting a copy of the Aberdeen group’s recent “Documentation Goes Global” report (at the price of an e-mail address), click...