Vol/51 No/1 2012FEBRUARY/MARCHTheLinguist29REVIEWSWhat a refreshing and entertaining book. It has something for everyoneinterested in translating and interpreting, whether they want ahumorous read or are focused on learning something serious and newabout a subject they know well. Author David Bellos is Professor andDirector of the Program in Translation and Intercultural Communicationat Princeton University. He is also the prizewinning translator of theFrench experimental writer Georges Perec and of the Albanian IsmailKadare. His new publication combines the lessons of his considerableexperience in translating with a witty eye for detail, bolstered by somecareful research into the history, present and future of translation.The aim of the book, as Bellos tells us in the prologue, is'understanding what translation does'. This he manages to do byreferring to more or less every mode and a wide range of languages:the origins of translation in the ancient world, the translation of theBible, translation in China, Japan and India, the dragomans of theOttoman Empire, interpreting at Nuremberg, the challenges ofdubbing,the workings of the editing room of international news desks,inside information on legal translating and conference interpreting atthe UN, the advances in machine translation, etc, etc. He alsotouches on some key questions of language and translation: theorigins of language, literal translation, equivalence in meaning,features of translated language, recognising idiolect and dialect, whatis a native speaker, the effect of asymmetrical power relations betweenlanguages and cultures (translating UP and DOWN as he puts it).The playfulness of the book is emphasised by some of the funnyexamples -thus, in his discussion on code-switching, Bellos remembersan acquaintance in France who would greet him in English with thewords 'Peace and Love', pronounced 'pissanlerv'. Visually playful isthe manipulation of fonts in the chapter headings, such as 'AFish inYour Ear: The Short History of Simultaneous interpreting', the chapterthat lends its name (borrowed from the Babel fish of Douglas Adams'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)to the title of the book. Thedeliberate hyperbole of the book's subtitle, 'Translation and themeaning of everything', might have been avoided since it doesn't givedue credit to the wealth of information discussed, in an accessibleway, between its covers. But the potential reader should not bedissuaded. This is a book that values and celebrates translation.Prof Jeremy Munday MCILParticular Books, 2011, ISBN 9781846144646 Hardback £20Is That a Fish in Your Ear? David Bellos1234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829This puzzle celebrates someonewho worked to relieve theproblems of internationalcommunication. Hidden in thegrid in a top R to bottom L andtop L to bottom R direction arehis name and a version of thepseudonym under which hisbrainchild was originally published.Across9Alternatively all summon guest tomeet old boy. (7) 10Areas of Kenya, Congo or Brazilhave little latitude. (7) 11According to Ms Hathaway, oneof the great impressionist painters. (7) 12Mediterranean sailing ships inciteBasque group to look back in Frenchtown. (7) 13Deem each short man to betortured, like a soul in the works ofSartre. (3,6) 15Sounds like this scavenger isgreeting a girl. (5) 16Formerly acted as a model and sorevealed all. (7)19Most of 12 ac gets time beforeadulthood. (7)20Sticky Italian meals? (5) 21Under decrees of old king, saladsoften contain one of these. (9)25Likewise eastern prey swaps rightfor left. (7)26Nightclub employee posesproblem to batsman. (7)28 Germanic location where non-drinker is set in local stone. (7)29A foe, raw, angry, holds back inthe picture. (5,2)Down1Italian motor manufacturer suggestsspy agency follows endless plans. (6)2Signs of drowsiness occupy astubborn character. It's one way toshut him up. (6)3But will the author's identity berevealed soon? (4) 4Pakistan deserts Russian author atrear of ship. (6)5Healthily maintained source,perhaps. (4-4)6Arrange for these studs to keepyour furniture clean. (10)7And this French epoque for all theothers. (8) 8Does this equine event precedethe heyday of trousers? (8)14Parisian site of a terminal battle. (10)16Quick, black, strong one in Italy. (8)17German trombones confuse anew spouse. (8)18Shy one restrained by formerChinese leader for laying a falsetrail. (8)22Lippy Latvian bites almonds forstarters. (6) 23German city restricts longing to anorthern border. (6)24Employees have right to rake withmachine-gun fire. (6)27Primarily upland Russian arealandscape in river (4)Solutions page 31.

Mind all yourSie's and du's'Mind Your sie's and Du's' (TL50,6) was afascinating article (not to mention a greatheadline) and has inspired me to read moreof the articles cited. it also, though, helpedme to articulate something i've noticed onenglish-language translator forums. although the translator members workinto and out of French and german, mostposts are in english, and i've noticed veryheavy use of inclusivity markers and firstnames. i suspect that this not only reflectsgeneral collegiality but also functions as acompensatory mechanism for not having a t form in english to signal peer status andfor the fact that english cannot easily mark'you' for plurality. a scan of just a handful of posts revealsinclusivity being marked in formulations suchas 'good morning, all' and 'Hi everyone' and'What do you all think about.?'. Commentsand thanks, meanwhile, are very commonlypersonalised, as in 'thanks for your help,susan', 'Paul, that's very helpful' and 'thankyou, emily'. it seems that english forumusers, far from being smug about being ableto avoid the t/V pitfalls, are in fact subtlycreating an indirect way of marking t/V!Janet Fraser FCIL30 TheLinguistFEBRUARY/MARCH www.iol.org.ukOPINION & COMMENTEmail with your viewsa letter of mine relating to Rosetta stonelanguage courses was published in TheLinguista few years back and a version isavailable online (www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B000077DCY). Despite afew inconsistencies, i found the modules tobe well-designed and a superb method ofacquiring a new language. Yet, i had onemajor criticism: localisation seems to betotally absent from the program-makers'vocabulary. the images used representamerican suburbia throughout, and while itmay appear reasonable to re-use them forWest european languages due to the closeproximity of cultures, they seem strangelyout of place when learning a language fromfurther afield. Language immersion should also immersethe learner in a foreign culture, and in thisrespect the courses fail abysmally. on oneoccasion a picture shows an open book andasks whether this is the beginning or the endof the book, missing entirely the fact thatbooks in arabic open from the other end.in this respect i found the productstrangely stuck in the past for a progressivemethod of language delivery. since then, ihave purchased and looked at otherlanguages, and i still believe that themethod is suitable for learning a languagefrom scratch up to about intermediate level. i do not find it sufficient, however, tobecome fully proficient beyond, let's say, a-level standard. the reason for this is thatas a learner you will only ever encounterbite-size snippets of the language, neverwhole paragraphs, articles, essays etc incontext. in that respect, Linguaphone tookthe learner much further, but it wasn't aseasy to work with as an entry-level module. i have one further comment: although youbuy Rosetta stone software at a rather inflatedprice, you don't ever own it. instead youpurchase a single-user licence which cannotbe transferred or sold. When i tried to sellsome of my disks on eBay, the companyintervened and cancelled the listing. My comments relate to version 2 ofRosetta stone language courses, but fromwhat i have seen of version 3, the culturalprejudice has not been fixed.Sahib Bleher MCILMore Rosettaelaine guy (TL50,6) was surprised to findthat the level of difficulty presented byMandarin a-level was much greater thanthat presented by the Russian, French andLatin a-levels she had taken previously. if a-levels in different languages are to represent similar levels of attainment, surelythis was only to be expected. as membersof the great indo-european family, herearlier a-levels share many features ofstructure and lexicon. to attain the samelevel of competence in a language asremote from this group as Mandarin, it willclearly be necessary to put in a great dealmore work. if, on the other hand, a-levels are to beawarded for equivalence of work input,then it must be accepted that an a-level inone language does not represent the samelevel of competence as an a-level inanother language.Perhaps a reader with more intimateunderstanding of the current a-level system would be able to explain thesituation to this former Further educationlanguage teacher, who years agodelightedly substituted the ioL exams fora-levels whenever it seemed to thestudents' advantage. David Leighton MCILAre all A-levels equal? © RoutesintoLanguages