Lauren Ray

This is a bi-weekly summary of translation and language justice news and events. What are you reading this week? Feel free to comment & share!

• It’s been a rocky start to the bilingual ASL/English program in the Los Angeles Unified School District. The resolution for the program was considered controversial, and it’s unclear how well or to what extent schools are implementing it so far.
• Read “Grandfather”, a short, penetrating poem by A. Van Jordan. This isn’t a translation but it is a reminder that language is social, all words reflect our social relations and power dynamics, and that the weight words carry can feel quite different depending on one’s lived experience (read: race, gender, sexuality, etc).
• Seth Godin’s tips on how to send a personal email are spot on. All my best interactions this year–from new clients to new collaborations with other translators–have resulted from me taking the extra time to write a thoughtful message that focuses less on self-promotion and more on areas of mutual interest.
• This is an older read but I always dig a post on idioms and the (im)possibility of translating them literally.