THE IDEA…

Back in September 2012, Trad Online’s team started this exciting writing project about the world with the help of a community of linguists worldwide. One of our team members had a great idea and we decided to turn this idea into reality – what if we created a crowd-written book like no other and showed the world cultural facts that cannot be found on Wikipedia or in any standard book? We could share unique insights, features and new perspectives on countries, provided directly from the people living there. We sometimes only get a very shallow image of other countries, so we wanted to make sure that the project went beyond conventional cultural boundaries.

For translators, even though this is a volunteer project, it is a unique opportunity to take part in creating a book with many others linguists from all over the world. Linguists, in their daily work on localization (translation with transformation into a local culture), are at the very heart of this issue. They understand, collect and list cultural differences in order to be good at their jobs and find the best translation solution. And now they can do their part in helping the planet, as all profits from sales of this ”crowd-sourced” book will be donated to Planète Urgence, an NGO committed to fighting climate change through reforestation projects in developing countries.

A word from the main editor, Aurelia Popescu

When I set out on my journey to research and prepare this book, I had no idea it would take three months to complete it. The list of translators participating was always changing as many of them were already involved in huge localization projects. The ones who agreed to contribute to this collaborative book needed time and documentation, and sometimes topics were difficult to understand. What you see in this book is essentially what I collected from the start – names, stories, experiences, final versions of the templates and many other interesting things. It is an honor to share the stories of these remarkable people, and the untold part of their country’s history. You will see different registers and varieties of English throughout; this we left intact, to better show the diversity out there in the world!

Places featured in the book

North America and Canada

Canada, U.S.A., Mexico, Dominican Republic

Central America

Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua

South America

Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela

Northern and Eastern Africa

Algeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda

Central and Southern and Western Africa

Cameroon, South Africa, Mali, Senegal

Europe

Armenia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, France, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, United Kingdom

Asia/Pacific

China, Indonesia, Japan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Pakistan, Thailand, South Korea, Vietnam, Yemen, Russia, Turkey, New Zealand

The Authors

Katherine Parks – United States

Johanne Tremblay – Canada

Osvaldo Rocha – Mexico

Gabriela Castro – Costa Rica

Maria A. Benzo – Dominican Republic

Gabriela Leverón – Honduras

Angeles Bermudez – Nicaragua

Rolando Ernesto Tellez – Nicaragua

Mariela Cacurri – Argentina

Gonzalo Palacios Tarqui – Bolivia

Tatiana Perry – Brazil

Marcos Monteiro – Brazil

Andrée Goreux Boyens – Chile

Luis Javier Otoya – Colombia

Evelyn Tinajero – Ecuador

Erika Pacheco – Peru

Emiliano Bentancur – Uruguay

Mónica Algazi – Uruguay

Mary Olsen – Venezuela

Gert Geysels – Belgium

Karla Bronselaer – Belgium 

Evelina Sharapanova – Bulgaria

Lisa Hersild – Denmark

Steen Johnsen – Denmark

Eva Estrany – Spain

Nora Berasategui – Spain

Kersti Skovgaard – Estonia

Eva Seris – France

Stephanie Taif – France

Claudia Salamone – Italy

Marina Tavares – Portugal

Aurelia Popescu – Romania

Flavia Ivașcu – Romania

Emma Halberg – Sweden

Nataliya Yena – Ukraine

Christina Hewitt – United Kingdom

Shirley Finkel-Hall – South Africa

Thabani Ngwane – South Africa

Carlos T. Djomo – Cameroon

Clementine Agbor – Cameroon

Eyob Fitwi – Ethiopia

Bonface Andenga – Kenya

Brahima Ouologuem – Mali

Eric Lamine – Senegal

Shushan Adamyan – Armenia

Albert Deng – China

Celia Shen – China

Pamela Fouad Ammoury Maalouf – Lebanon

Bernadette Choueiry – Lebanon 

Maisarah Ariffin – Malaysia

Salman Riaz – Pakistan

Maya Sandomirova – Russia

Worapot Sattapunkeeree – Thailand

Eunjung Picard – South Korea

Buket Yilmaz – Turkey

Nuray Yürek – Turkey

Hoa Bui Van – Vietnam

Ratna Wusono – Indonesia

Ikhsan Feri Saputro – Indonesia

Kathryn Malan – New Zealand