C&EN Special Issue – CAS Celebrates 100 Years
June 11, 2007 - Volume 85, Number 24
- Web Exclusive
Translating Is Easier Said Than Done
Béla S. Buslig , Volunteer Abstractor
I was an abstractor for a very short time, translating from Hungarian to English. It was in the late '60s, and at the time, my English wasn't quite fluent enough to just take on any article. I must have heard someplace that people were doing abstracting in various languages. Since I spoke Hungarian, I figured I would be able to do it in Hungarian. But it was easier said than done.
First, you have to know what a word means, and then you have to figure out how to translate it. And some things aren't easily translatable. For example, a hot dog to an American is a little piece of sausage in a bun. A hot dog to most people in foreign languages is a dog that's very hot.
It would take me a couple hours to do one paper. I made sure I read the thing over 10 times before I sent it in, because it had to be as perfect as I could make it. I don't think I did more than a dozen papers over three or four years.
I still have the special typewriter that I used to type the abstracts. It was a portable Hermes typewriter with a keyboard that could type in Hungarian.
Buslig completed high school in Budapest, Hungary. He received a B.A. degree in chemistry and biology from Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario (1962), an M.S. in molecular genetics from Florida State University (1967), and a Ph.D. in citrus biochemistry from the University of Florida (1970). He started his full-time career in 1967 as a chemist for the Florida Citrus Commission and, over the years, rose to senior research scientist. He retired from full-time work in 1998 but kept busy with part-time projects with the Department of Agriculture in Winter Haven, Fla.
View other profiles
BÉla S. Buslig,
Volunteer Abstractor
Translating Is Easier Said Than Done
Raymond A. D'Angelo,
Director, Online Services Development
Computers Made It Possible
Richard Hermens,
Volunteer Abstractor
Abstracting's Unique Payoff
Cathy Hanning,
Human Resources Manager
Meaningful, Long-Lasting Friendships
John Manley,
Senior Financial Adviser, Cost Accounting
At CAS, A Value-Added Career
W. Val Metanomski,
Senior Scientific Information Specialist, Database Operations Department
Happy Historian
Vicki Nichols,
Department Manager, Editorial Systems
Having Fun On The Job
Eli M. Pearce,
Volunteer Abstractor
Abstracting For Lunch Money
Chiori Shimizu,
Assistant Scientific Document Analyst, Editorial Operations
Loyal Employer, Loyal Employee
Divya J. Soares-Khilnani,
Scientific Information Analyst, Department of Molecular Biology & Genetics
Success Is In CAS's DNA
Kathy Springer,
Manager, General Accounting
A Career Built On Opportunity
E. Thomas Strom,
Volunteer Abstractor
Not As Easy As It Looks
Barbara Vieira,
Senior Product Development Manager, New Product Development
The Human Side Of Chemistry
Shan Wei,
International Customer Service Representative
Thinking Globally At CAS
David Weisgerber,
Retiree
People Who Come To CAS Rarely Leave
Pat Wilson,
Retiree
Challenges And Opportunities, Always
Kris Woods,
Manager, Data Center Operations
The Only Constant Is Change
Christian Zeidner,
Projects Manager, Online Services Development
Technological Legacy Of Success