Israel's organization of technical/marcom writers and copy editors
Nostalgia may be wistfully reflective but is not painfully sad the way געגועים can be. Are we ever said to be nostalgic over people anyway? Times and places for sure, but individual people? I don’t know. Maybe public figures.
Read MoreHow can we render ז
Read MoreWhen a person or a movement presents its principles and encourages the government in particular and the nation in general to recognize their validity, what it has written is a manifesto. Unfortunately, readers of English are strongly accustomed to seeing the word manifesto preceded by Communist. And if it isn’t Communist, it’s Unabomber.
Read MoreThe word הזמנה is the one that corresponds better to invitation. It’s a notice saying that you will be welcome at the specified place at the specified time, but unlike זימון it implies you are free to never show up. A זימון may be open to negotiation, but it does not want, and it does not expect, to be disregarded.
Read MoreThere was a spate of commentary explaining that terrorism is a nuisance but not an existential threat to Israel. Before that, I’d heard only about existentialism. So an existential threat to Israel sounded like a streetful of French intellectuals campaigning to cut off our supply of brie.
Read MoreBoth חשיפה and exposure are odd concepts in that they are not necessarily affected much by a reversal of directionality. For example, if a rabbi exposes his sense of humor to his students, he has also exposed his students to his sense of humor and the phrasings differ little in their meaning. I suppose the difference is in a choice of emphasis: on the thing that has previously remained in concealment, or on the people who have previously remained unaware.
Read MoreIn English, the word phenomenon is claimed both by scientists who consider that, as in Greek, it means anything that has come into view, and by circus ringmasters who like to reserve it for things they would call phenomenal, while the rest of us are caught in between. Nachama Kanner wrote in asking about those cases where phenomenon doesn’t quite work as a translation for תופעה.
Read MoreWhat is the general term that would fit a guy whose function involves no hands-on participation, no hiring, firing, budget-making, imposition of schedules, or issuance of commands, and no PowerPoint presentations, but who nonetheless is supposed to be listened to seriously because he knows the stuff?
Read More“I decided to pamper Yuval”? In English it sounds like a bad decision, and it sounds like adopting a practice rather than performing a single action. Maybe a variation would work — “I decided to pamper Yuval a little.”
Read MoreWith the compact abbreviation CEO for מנכ
Read MoreBusinesses perform קליטה all the time, as they bring in new employees, so some businesses adopt the word absorption and it’s got to rub an English-speaking recruit the wrong way. We don’t so much mind being absorbed into the noble Jewish state, but to think of your identity dissolving around the edges as you become part of, say, Srigamish? — It may be a fine company but the concept is disturbing.
Read MoreSince “hamon” is generally considered greater than “harbeh,” either there more oodles in “hamon” than in “harbeh” or each oodle is larger.
Read MoreIf the candy bar I paid for has fallen only halfway down the chute of the vending machine, and I bang the machine, that’s a mahalakh. When I eat the candy bar, that’s not a mahalakh. Not every action is.
Read MoreIâve decided, for example, that anafim are divisions only to find myself facing a problem later: if anaf is a division, whatâs agaf? Whatâs mador?Â
Read MoreWhat about the person whose task involves the הפעלה of other people? You can run a department, but you can’t run a person, or someone else’s department, although in the spy movies you can run a secret agent in someone else’s country.
Read MoreIn Hebrew, במסגרת functions rather like an everyday preposition that has nothing to do with a picture frame, a rim, or a visible border of any kind, whereas in English the word framework, being less common, does summon the image of a physical structure and the metaphor becomes irritating with repetition.
Read More“Meteors frequently fall to this earth during earthquakes,” remarked Charles Fort the great compiler of oddities, “but that may be only by coincidence, just as offsprings so often appear after marriage...” Hebrew provides a wondrously noncommittal word, זיקה, that Fort might have liked...
Read MoreLike the quality of mercy, the quantity of hello isn’t strained. That is, nobody forced the writer to choose the more formal, more expansive “shalom rav” rather than the everyday “shalom” so presumably there is an intentional difference worth translating.
Read MoreThe word דווקא is post-Biblical, from the Aramaic. If it were a Biblical word, it would be on every page of the Bible and King James would have been forced to deal with it. “Hast thou davka eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?”
Read MoreTwenty years ago, calls and letters might have sufficed for פניות, but today the list of media may be longer. The term communications could be useful, but it is a little heavy and vague. A lot could be covered by feedback, but it doesn’t exactly apply, for example, to the fellow who writes in not to comment or inquire about your activities but to offer his services as a feng shui consultant.
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.
