Israel's organization of technical/marcom writers and copy editors
I saw a rather bold translation on the Internet the other day. Someone translated מצא לנכון (matsa l’nakhon) as “decided.” Generally the dictionary definitions of that phrase are less blunt. Babylon says “thought it right.” Alkalay says “see fit, choose.”
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It seems that in order to be munach somewhere, you have to have come from somewhere else. It would be strange to say that the Shalom Meir Tower is munach in Tel Aviv, although you might say so for effect if you wanted to emphasize that it looks foreign to its neighborhood.
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Once when I was a kid watching a TV courtroom drama, a plot twist put one of the lawyers on the witness stand. When he didn’t want to answer a question, he said “I remain silent.” I was impressed on the one hand that he obliged even the humble, unsung court reporter by not requiring everyone to wait through an actual silence. On the other hand, I was impressed by the paradox whereby the words “I remain silent” are acceptable at face value while obviously false.
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I don’t know who decided that over here we’re Israelis, rather than Israelians or Israelese, or Israelites like our ancestors, but I’m happy with the decision. I like the brevity and the distinctiveness, and I’m glad that the English-speaking community has spared us in its tilt toward standardization. The word “Bosniak” had scarcely flickered on the news pages, back in the nineties, before a sweeping consensus settled on “Bosnian” instead. The people who can be called Chadi, fellow bearers with us of the “i” suffix, are more often termed “Chadian.”
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The word “trend” has recently reproduced itself in Hebrew, but with a mutation. In Hebrew, “trend” (טרנד) means “fad.”
Read MoreTake for example this well-known sentence:וכל המרבה לספר ביציאת מצרים, הרי זה משובח The Hagaddah at chabad.org translates it \"and everyone who discusses the exodus from Egypt at length is praiseworthy.\" The הרי doesn\'t survive translation. And a case could be made that it’s a mere expletive in the sentence, nothing to worry about. But I think that it helps balance the short ending of the sentence against the long subject.
Read MoreSite for Israel's professional tech writing and marcom community. Originally based in what has become Israel's 2nd largest R&D center (Yokneam), Elephant brings together technical and marcom writers from all over Israel. Behind the scenes and between meetings, members stay in contact with job offers and leads, joint projects, and professional assistance.
Using the wrong technical writer is like using a wrench to open a door, it works, but a door knob is better and cheaper. Elephant was started to help match writers and copy editors with companies where their skills match company needs.
