News

Warm greetings to all our peers: translators, editors and everyone for whom the language and the fostering thereof is daily work, and all Lithuanian people on the day of the reinstatement of the language, the press and the book, commemorated in Lithuania on May 7th.
On 7 May 1904, a ban of forty years imposed by Tsarist Russia to Lithuania for using the Latin script in the Lithuanian press was lifted. The Tsarist government failed to achieve its objectives, and its efforts to foist government-issued books printed in Russian characters was futile. Ethnic and educational movements forced Tsarists to lift the ban. According to specialists, publishing of Lithuanian books in the nineteenth century has evolved quite rapidly: this is allegedly some of the proof that this prohibition had not only negative but also positive consequences. Since the beginning of the Lithuanian script in 1457 until 1864, i.e. over 300 years, the total number of Lithuanian books printed was as little as 750; from the beginning of the ban until 1903, apart from newspapers, a total 1856 books were published.

Is there a difference between the Baltic languages and the languages of the Baltic States? Is Estonian a Baltic language? What are the peculiarities of Lithuanian translation?…

If you are curious about these questions, or want to learn more about the development of the regional identity of the Baltic States, about the Baltic languages and their standardisation process, and about the impact of this standardisation on the translation and localisation, please read our article ‘Translating the Baltic Languages’ in the March 2012 issue of MultiLingual magazine.

MultiLingual is the leading industry magazine for website globalization, translation, international software development and language technology.

A wonderful show, an outstanding company, lovely weather that allowed us, northerners, to sense the upcoming spring or even the summer fun – this is how we describe the GALA 2012 Conference Language of Business, held on March 26-28 in Monaco. It was the fourth conference held by Globalization and Localization Association, and it attracted even more attention from the members of the association and industry players this year, with about 300 participants from around the world gathering together in Monte Carlo to expand their knowledge, share experience, meet colleagues and old friends, and make new ones… and, of course, to celebrate the 10th GALA anniversary. The birthday party was fun and loud indeed! Fortunately it was not limited to greeting speeches and memories of the past, which, incidentally, were also very interesting and allowed the majority of association members to find out for the first time what the founders of the association are and what the road they have covered, while the association has grown from several members to close to 300. Speeches and congratulations were complemented by a huge birthday cake. Well, we had no opportunity to taste it and it remained a decoration of the evening, but it was substituted by a wonderful dinner dessert. And what birthday party without dancing … Yes, yes, dancing! No one was indifferent – we had fun

The second film festival GALA Film Fest also took place during the event. Very insightfully, the organisers planned this event on the morning of the second conference day – it was an incentive for everyone who has danced their night away, and then continued their party in the hotel lobby, to wake up on time and not to miss the event that was particularly welcome after its tremendous success last year. It was a little unfortunate that the videos were confined to the strict time limitation of 45 seconds and therefore it may have been difficult for participants to convey their ideas, and the festival itself could have been longer, nevertheless, the day began with a smile and a good mood was set.

The conference attendees also willingly participated in the lottery held by the Translators Without Borders organization, by purchasing lottery tickets and supporting the organization. The second day of the conference was dedicated to drawing lots, and distributing sponsor prizes. This left no one indifferent, and everyone who had purchased lottery tickets were involved in a passionate participation and even checked their ticket numbers out loudly. Well, the prize winners were few, but almost everyone felt himself a winner by contributing and supporting the noble aspirations of Translators Without Borders.

On the second day of the conference they announced a new venue for the Language of Business conference – Miami. This will be the fifth GALA conference and the first one in the United States of America. After a year, the conference will again return to Europe and in the future they should be organised in the U.S. and in Europe alternately.

You will find more photos from GALA 2012 Conference on our Facebook page!

For eight years the largest Lithuanian business newspaper Verslo Žinios organizes the elections of the fastest growing Lithuanian small businesses. This award is called Gazelė (eng. gazelle). Of the 2,000 companies that, in the opinion of Verslo Žinios, met the financial criteria of Gazelė 2011, 279 companies met all criteria which include transparency, among others. We are proud to be among these companies. Therefore, our manager was invited to Gazelė 2011 award ceremony on January 20, 2011. The event was attended by over 400 entrepreneurs who were welcomed by Dalia Grybauskaitė, President of the Republic of Lithuania. Gazelės of individual counties have been awarded at the event, and the main Gazelė 2011 award was presented. Although we did not receive this honourable award, we are happy to be among the companies who succeeded in staying in action and growing even in difficult times. Such events incentivise us to pursue our goals, and keep going.

At the Christmas party, our charming feminine staff embodied our old dream of DIY creams. First, we attended a brief workshop about natural cosmetics and their ingredients in the Perfume House, and sampled a variety of flavours and aromas. Then, the work began – very much like a sorcery in the pharmacy. Armed with aprons, scales, and test-mixers, we began mixing and blending our magic potions. Ahhh, a perfect refreshment for the body and soul.

From the oasis of flavours we proceeded to the enjoyment of the food. Our team waved farewell to the old year in high spirits. We are now ready for new challenges in the New Year!

Please visit our Facebook to see the pictures.

We are happy to have opportunity to participate in the Nordic Translation Industry Forum, which took place in Malmo, Sweden on the 24-25th of November. It was the first event of our industry focused on the languages of our region – the Nordic and Baltic languages. The Forum welcomed about 110 participants from around 19 countries: the representatives of Language Services Providers, Associations, Translation Management Technology providers, and freelance translators.

During the event we could enjoy interesting presentations about issues and opportunities of minor languages, about improvement of machine translation for the Latvian and Lithuanian languages, about vendor management, and LSPs’ experience in participation in EU tenders.
A Country Manager of Microsoft Iceland was sharing the Microsoft‘ideas how language localization enables the global community.
We especially enjoyed the panel discussion between the representatives of translation companies and major buyers of translation services (Microsoft Iceland, FLSmidth, Tieto Lietuva Ltd, SAS Institute). The results of the interesting ‘Survey on how Nordic and Baltic LSPs relate to ISO 9001 and EN 15038 and other quality standards’ have been presented the second day of the Forum.

And of course the networking with the colleagues from different countries and the sharing of the ideas and experience is the most interesting part of such events. It inspires us to move forward and set new goals.

We are grateful to the Forum organizers for opportunity to discuss industry problems specific for our region and hope that this event will become regular. More information about the forum http://www.ntif.se/index.php

Today we are celebrating the 18th anniversary of our company.

These 18 years have been very significant for us: we have grown together with our clients, we have expanded the range of our services, improved their quality, built a professional team, implemented technological developments… and we are not going to stop there! We are going to continue to grow and to make every effort to keep abreast of developments in the translation industry so that we are able to meet the needs of even the most challenging clients.

We are very grateful to all those who have contributed to our success and helped us to become who we are today. We want you to celebrate this with us.

Tekom Trade Fair will take place this year on October 18-20 in Wiesbaden, Germany. It is the largest industry exhibition within the field of technical communication and information development.

Tool presentations, industrial lectures and technology panels provide ample opportunities for fair visitors to learn more about the latest products and to see their practical application. It is also a good place to meet the peers working in the same industry, to make new contacts, to share knowledge and ideas.

A representative of our company will attend this event. In case you would like to meet her, you are welcome to contact us and agree on the meeting time and place.

September 30th is the day of St. Jerome, the patron saint of translators. In 1991, the International Federation of Translators declared this day the International Day of translators to demonstrate global solidarity and raise awareness and value of this profession (for more details, please read here).

We are happy being in this profession and we welcome all our colleagues with this beautiful festival. Nobody knows better than us how stressful and complicated a translator’s work is, requiring deep knowledge, patience and concentration, yet it is dear to all of us. And what can a holiday be without fun and humour? What can be a better object of joke than yourself, your colleagues or the tool of your trade – language?
So we have compiled a few funny stories and invite you to laugh along with us. You will find our funny stories by joining us on Facebook. Let’s celebrate the day of translators and have a laugh together!

We are very proud to present our new and fully operational website. We hope that it will provide visitors with the necessary information and be attractive to our clients and other visitors.

If you have any remarks about its contents, please contact us: diskusija@diskusija.lt.