Google Translate
The first thing I always do when starting a translation is fire up Google Translate and enter the source text into it. It always catches something that I've missed, or throws up something good that I haven't thought of.
Fixing an iPod
Firstly, just to let everyone know, this post isn't related to language or translation. I just hope someone who had the same problem as me comes across this post and finds the solution.
The Accident
Once I was walking down the street near Central listening to my 3rd Generation iPod. It fell out of my hand and hit the ground. It stopped playing, and wouldn't load up. In short, it froze. I had previously taken off the metal cover to change the battery (incidentally I broke the screen and made a YouTube video about how I did it so that you don't do it too), so whipped the cover off again. I disconnected the battery and then reconnected it again, assuming that it would be like turning it off then on again. Unfortunately it didn't restart, again.
The Symptoms
Instead of turning on, the iPod just showed a sick graphic. It wouldn't play, plugging it into my computer wouldn't do anything, it was totally unresponsive.
The Cure
For a while I was resigned to the fact that it was broken, never to be used again. I kept it around because I couldn't bring myself to throw it out. It was my first iPod, and I must have listened to it for thousands of hours... most of my Japanese and Korean vocab first entered my brain via my ears from it.
I don't know why, but I had a look around on Google on ways of fixing sick iPods. One site suggested I just open the thing, disconnect the battery, and then connect it to my computer again. That didn't work, so I pulled out the hard drive, put it back, connected the battery again, and hey presto! It was working again!
So give it a go if your iPod is broken. I'm not sure what I did to fix it, if it was disconnecting the battery, pulling out the hard drive, or a combination, but it's working again and I'm happy. It's not quite like having a new iPod (it's quite old and battered up) but it's the next best thing.
Selling Cars.
THe hard thing about translating is that your main aim isn't to take something from one language and put it into another. - It's to tell a story, sell a car, introduce an artwork, get a job...... if u get the words right but the story becomes boring, you can't sell the car or the job.... then it's pointless.
World Expo
I've been a busy little bee at ChinaSMACK, I've translated part of a guide to the World Expo in Shanghai.
Read it here!
I have to say that reading about all those places in Shanghai I know so well makes me nostalgic for the place and all the friends I made there. Miss you guys!
Dr Karl on Triple J
There's nothing I like better than going for a walk while listening to an interesting podcast. If you didn't know, a podcast is like a radio show except on mp3.
One of my favourites is Dr Karl on Triple J. Every week on Thursday morning, Dr Karl has a show where he answers scientific questions from ordinary Australians. It's available for download every week here: http://www.abc.net.au/science/drkarl/default.htm . They have simple but interesting questions: "Why do my ears ring after listening to loud music?" "How can you know the sex of a baby before it's born"... etc.
It's a great educational resource for people learning English, learning about science, or people learning about English and science, or just curious people like me. The language is pretty hard though. Conversation is about science (so sometimes some difficult words come up), is at natural speed (quite fast) and is in conversational Australian English (so people with thick country accents often call). But if you're up for a challenge and find EAP or Upper Intermediate too easy you should definitely have a listen.
And as always feel free to ask me questions in real life, Facebook, Twitter or wherever you find me if you have any problems.