(Polski) Zatrudnię tłumacza za darmo

Sorry, this entry is only available in Polski.

Let’s Celebrate reviewed by AppCraver!

Spiny Mouse is happy to inform that one of the top iOS-related websites, AppCraver, has just published a nice review of Let’s Celebrate!

Our calendar app has been called “The iOS App that Gives You an Excuse to Throw a Party“.

What else did they say?

“If you’re one of those people that looks for any reason to have a party, then the Let’s Celebrate app will give you multiple ones.”

“Let’s Celebrate puts a near-endless list of mostly random holidays and observances at your fingertips so you can choose if there’s something worth celebrating.”

They have also given us a hint on what to improve and … 4/5 grade!

To see the entire review, go visit http://www.appcraver.com/lets-celebrate/

To download Let’s Celebrate via iTunes, go: http://itunes.apple.com/hk/app/lets-celebrate/id445281146?mt=8

A Donkey Tale – iPad/iPhone children’s book

A long time ago, in a country called Palestine…

That’s how the story begins. That’s also how our story begins.

…in a country called Palestine there lived a Little Donkey

Spiny Mouse is proud to present a Donkey Tale, a new adaptation of the Nativity Tale, told from the point of view of a little donkey.

This tale, written and illustrated with love, can be a wonderful Christmas gift for every child.

If you’re tired of omnipresent Santa Clauses and reindeer, and the Xmas pop culture makes you cringe – that traditional, warm story might be just perfect for you and your child.

What is more, A Donkey Tale is written both in English and in Polish, which gives you an opportunity to learn a few new phrases in Polish and amaze your friends. You can change the language at any moment.

Download it here:

Halloween

It’s Halloween!

Next to Christmas, Halloween is probably one of the favorite holidays in many countries. It’s a great opportunity to have fun, tricking people without worrying about the consequences and getting a good scare without worry. Due to the process of globalization, Halloween is getting popular in more and more countries, making some people happy and some outraged.

The opponents of this holiday point out that even though the origins of Halloween can be found in Celtic Samhain rituals, they are not to be found in other cultural, religious and language groups.

However, the idea of dead entering the world of living is well known to every tradition or religion. What is more interesting, many of the rituals had been held on the night of October 31, marking today’s Halloween.

Such an example is Dziady (lit. the Grandfathers), a Slavic ritual held to commemorate the dead ones and to help them find their way on the other side. Celebrations included food offering for the souls as well as lighting fires.

Is 31 October special in any way in any other cultures? How do you celebrate Halloween in your country? Do you do it at all?

Let’s Celebrate features a Halloween card (clicking in the picture takes you to Spiny Mouse page)

Let’s Celebrate – Face Your Fears Day

What are you afraid of?

Whether you fear spiders or public speaking today (October 13) is a day to finally face your fears. Don’t let them prevent you from doing the things you want to do. Yes, it will be scary and awful but nothing beats the feeling of accomplishment you’ll get after.

Try with one minor thing today. And don’t forget to share

______

Spiny Mouse features National Face Your Fears Day in Let’s Celebrate App, with an ecard to send to your friends – enjoy!

http://agnieszkaengel.pl/spinymouse/

Let’s Celebrate

I am proud to announce that my first iOS app is now available in AppStore.

To see what the app is about, please visit Spiny Mouse tab

Comparing Files with MS Word 2010

Some time ago I was translating two chapters of a book. The project was suspended as the book hasn’t been finished yet. As the project has been reneved, the two chapters came back to me, edited.

Browsing though 30 pages of text looking for every single change didn’t seem to be the greatest idea. I started looking for the perfect program to make my life easier.

It took me a while and some Internet browsing to realize that I have the comparing files tool included in Microsoft Word.

Here’s how to compare two text documents using MS Office 2010:

(unfortunately I work on Polish version. Please let me know if I got any of the names wrong).

1. Choose review -> compare. Let’s choose “compare two documents”

2. Choose the original document in the left window and the new, edited version in the right. You can also choose from the recent opened documents.

3. Here’s how it looks like. I chose “welcome” post from this site and edited it a bit to present different kind of changes:

If you click compare button again, you may choose whether or not you want to see compared documents.

You can also change the way of diplaying the changes and, obviously, accept or deny them.

I think of it as quick, easy and clean way to do file comparison.

Again, I am using MS Office 2010. Here I found out that it’s working on every MS Office since 2000 edition… and here I found out that there is such tool.

http://www.linglom.com/2008/02/06/compare-two-text-files-using-microsoft-word/

How to become a King

If we were to reverse the traslation process and used the Polish title to distibute the movie “The King’s Speech” in the English speaking countries, that is (more or less) how it would look like. Judging on the Polish title ( and the title only) I would assume that I am about to see another pretty, funny and shallow animated movie with not so subtle moral at the end. Or a comedy, set in one of the American colleges, telling the story about an outcast on his way to gain the throne in one of the most secret and prestigious fraternities. However, I would not guess that I am about to see a movie about King George VI and his speech problems. A film which is funny, but very different from the aforementioned college comedy.

Nevertheless, I would like to analyze the Polish title and how I would translate it. The word speech adresses two matters simultaniously – Bertie’s stuttering and the speech he gives. In Polish language there is such a word – “mowa”. It takes the same two meanings and could be easily used in the more direct translation which I would use here, translating the whole as “Królewska mowa”.

For some reason someone decided to come up with a completely different title. As it is not completely clear who are the people responsible for Polish movie titles (most likely they are not translators), I shall  refrain myself from guessing who and why.

The film is definitely worth seeing, without a doubt.

Preface to the first edition

As every journey requires a first step, so does this site.

I was never good with first steps, introductions, prefaces and other beginnings, even though I do recognize the importance of a good, solid entry. And I am in deep envy of those who can create those. At the same time I console myself thinking that it is considerably easier to write and introduction to a book that has already been written than it is to a blank blog. So maybe one day I’ll decide to close this blog and then I will write a solid intro to it. Or not. The beauty of this moment is that neither I, nor you is able to tell what is going to happen.

Obviously, I am not entirely clueless. I know who I am and I know what I do and what I plan to write about.

My name is Agnieszka Engel. I have recently finished studies -  English at Wroclaw University (MA thesis: Balance as the key to the ecological survival – an ecocritical analysis of the importance of balance in A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin). I am interested in translating;mostly in translating literature, movie subtitles and games and in the future I plan, if possible, to focus on those translation types. Recently however, I have acquired Trados and got interested in translating using CAT support.

In the meantime, I take my first steps in creating iPad/iPhone applications. Information on my works in app development as well as on my translating experience and my current projects can be found on my website (coming soon).

I don’t think I need to point out that I love literature, movies and in my free time I enjoy playing computer games?

My goal is to keep this website bilingual, however please note that the two versions are not intended to be direct translations of one another.

Welcome to my site.