Steven Capsuto (translation and languages account)
@linguacaps.bsky.social
I post about language geekery and translation. I've been a full-time translator since 2003, providing human translations from Spanish, French, Catalan, Portuguese, and Ladino into English. Web: linguacaps.com. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@linguacap.
What a fantastic conference it was! It always is. 😀
November 10, 2025 at 8:53 PM
What a fantastic conference it was! It always is. 😀
100% of the members of Congress opposing funding and military aid to Israel are Democrats or (in Sanders's case) caucus with Democrats. Do you think the Republicans, whose current POTUS once promised to open a surveillance file on every Muslim in the US, will do anything but worsen the situation?
September 20, 2025 at 12:19 AM
100% of the members of Congress opposing funding and military aid to Israel are Democrats or (in Sanders's case) caucus with Democrats. Do you think the Republicans, whose current POTUS once promised to open a surveillance file on every Muslim in the US, will do anything but worsen the situation?
What a compelling argument.
September 20, 2025 at 12:05 AM
What a compelling argument.
Been meaning to delete that account for years anyway. Done!
September 19, 2025 at 9:52 PM
Been meaning to delete that account for years anyway. Done!
It's more basic than that: If voters wanted the Democrats to do things, they should have voted for them. You can't give someone no power and then complain that they're not exercising power.
September 19, 2025 at 9:43 PM
It's more basic than that: If voters wanted the Democrats to do things, they should have voted for them. You can't give someone no power and then complain that they're not exercising power.
Yeah, it would make sense for EU English to be Irish English, for the same reasons that EU Spanish leans heavily towards the Spanish of Spain.
September 19, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Yeah, it would make sense for EU English to be Irish English, for the same reasons that EU Spanish leans heavily towards the Spanish of Spain.
They approached me about working for them a few times in the 2010s, and I'm pretty sure that's why I said no.
September 19, 2025 at 4:35 PM
They approached me about working for them a few times in the 2010s, and I'm pretty sure that's why I said no.
Didn't they also do a unilateral rate cut about 10 years ago?
September 19, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Didn't they also do a unilateral rate cut about 10 years ago?
In the US, about half of all university graduates end up working in a field other than the one they studied as an undergrad. (When I was a student, the figure was even higher: about 80%).
But why let facts spoil a good story, right?
But why let facts spoil a good story, right?
September 19, 2025 at 3:01 PM
In the US, about half of all university graduates end up working in a field other than the one they studied as an undergrad. (When I was a student, the figure was even higher: about 80%).
But why let facts spoil a good story, right?
But why let facts spoil a good story, right?
And were they even paying well to begin with? I seem to recall choosing not to work with them even a decade ago because of rates.
September 19, 2025 at 2:50 PM
And were they even paying well to begin with? I seem to recall choosing not to work with them even a decade ago because of rates.
At a certain point, if publishers in the future aren't going to do actual editing or promotion, you're better off self-publishing and keeping control of the product and more of the money.
September 18, 2025 at 10:54 PM
At a certain point, if publishers in the future aren't going to do actual editing or promotion, you're better off self-publishing and keeping control of the product and more of the money.
One major challenge is if your ancestors' records are in Ottoman Turkish: pre-1920s Turkish written in the Arabic alphabet. There are people who can read it, but not a whole lot of them.
September 18, 2025 at 10:49 PM
One major challenge is if your ancestors' records are in Ottoman Turkish: pre-1920s Turkish written in the Arabic alphabet. There are people who can read it, but not a whole lot of them.
Exactly. These are the use cases I'll be talking about in my presentations at the Mexican Translators Organization conference.
MTPE speeds me up only if I'm translating from a language I don't work with very often, and even then I don't like it because it biases you towards the computer's solution.
MTPE speeds me up only if I'm translating from a language I don't work with very often, and even then I don't like it because it biases you towards the computer's solution.
September 18, 2025 at 10:10 PM
Exactly. These are the use cases I'll be talking about in my presentations at the Mexican Translators Organization conference.
MTPE speeds me up only if I'm translating from a language I don't work with very often, and even then I don't like it because it biases you towards the computer's solution.
MTPE speeds me up only if I'm translating from a language I don't work with very often, and even then I don't like it because it biases you towards the computer's solution.
It's also helpful for requests like: List 15 humorous terms for "feces" in US English that are less "shocking" than "shit" and that a 37-year-old character might use in conversation while telling a funny, scatological anecdote. (I'd never heard the term "dookie" before but it was a great solution.)
September 18, 2025 at 9:57 PM
It's also helpful for requests like: List 15 humorous terms for "feces" in US English that are less "shocking" than "shit" and that a 37-year-old character might use in conversation while telling a funny, scatological anecdote. (I'd never heard the term "dookie" before but it was a great solution.)
It's useful in literary work if I'm translating dialogue for a character much younger than me and I know that what I put in the draft is not generation appropriate. If I ask AI tools to list options for how someone born in 1998 might say the same thing, I usually find a perfect solution.
September 18, 2025 at 9:54 PM
It's useful in literary work if I'm translating dialogue for a character much younger than me and I know that what I put in the draft is not generation appropriate. If I ask AI tools to list options for how someone born in 1998 might say the same thing, I usually find a perfect solution.
The problem with that theory is that if the original writer does creative, nonstandard things with the source language, then the translator has to do similarly creative nonstandard things with the target language. And then people who don't know any better claim that the translator is incompetent.
September 18, 2025 at 9:47 PM
The problem with that theory is that if the original writer does creative, nonstandard things with the source language, then the translator has to do similarly creative nonstandard things with the target language. And then people who don't know any better claim that the translator is incompetent.
Editing a machine translation slows me down and is, frankly, miserable, soul-numbing work. It's like being an Olympic runner and being told you have to compete in weighted lead sneakers.
I sometimes use AI as a fancy dictionary or for a 2nd opinion during the quality-control phase of a translation.
I sometimes use AI as a fancy dictionary or for a 2nd opinion during the quality-control phase of a translation.
September 18, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Editing a machine translation slows me down and is, frankly, miserable, soul-numbing work. It's like being an Olympic runner and being told you have to compete in weighted lead sneakers.
I sometimes use AI as a fancy dictionary or for a 2nd opinion during the quality-control phase of a translation.
I sometimes use AI as a fancy dictionary or for a 2nd opinion during the quality-control phase of a translation.
And the irony is they want to deploy right-wing violence against liberals and leftists, to punish us for the existence of right-wing violence against right-wingers.
September 17, 2025 at 11:25 PM
And the irony is they want to deploy right-wing violence against liberals and leftists, to punish us for the existence of right-wing violence against right-wingers.
Too many corporations bowing before the dictator. Boycott, boycott, boycott.
September 17, 2025 at 11:15 PM
Too many corporations bowing before the dictator. Boycott, boycott, boycott.
Yup... It's classic shit that right-wing dictators do. When an angry right-wing white Christian man kills someone, the solution is to go after liberals, Jews, leftists, and progressives (and people of color, and trans people, and anyone who doesn't resemble the perp). "Round up the usual suspects!"
September 17, 2025 at 10:10 PM
Yup... It's classic shit that right-wing dictators do. When an angry right-wing white Christian man kills someone, the solution is to go after liberals, Jews, leftists, and progressives (and people of color, and trans people, and anyone who doesn't resemble the perp). "Round up the usual suspects!"
As opposed to the Latin American films and series with a character from Spain who runs around calling everyone a "gilipollas" (that's how you know they're Spaniards).
September 14, 2025 at 11:11 PM
As opposed to the Latin American films and series with a character from Spain who runs around calling everyone a "gilipollas" (that's how you know they're Spaniards).