Terrestrial Cities is an initiative aimed at giving urban decisionmakers and city dwellers the tools to create environmentally harmonious and sustainable urban spaces, distinguish between truly transformative policy ideas and greenwashing, and — no small feat — save the world, one city at a time, from an ecological doomsday. To do this, the minds behind Terrestrial Cities have developed an interactive card game to be played between four+ people and one facilitator.

The job here was to translate the website, card game, rules, and facilitator handbook from French to English.

Challenges and particularities of the job included:

–> Researching environmental terminology and movements

–> Hunting down quotations that had been translated into French from English sources.

This can be a time-consuming process, especially for out-of-print resources. A particular challenge was finding quotes from Ivan Illich, who wrote and published works in multiple languages, with variations in each language. Resources were found through extensive Google searches, Scribd, e-books, client queries–and after poring over texts to find the exact citation (the Find feature is helpful here, though not always).

–> Some source formatting inconsistencies

This is a common issue, particularly for texts that are written over time by many authors, as was the case here. Good practice is to flag source formatting inconsistencies in the query process with the client. It helps the client improve their materials, and ensures the translator is following the ideal formatting consistently in the translation.

–> Not falling down interesting rabbit holes!

This project was so fascinating on so many levels, since it covered all kinds of possible solutions to environmentally problematic urban infrastructure. It was a real challenge not to spend copious amounts of time learning about all the ins and outs of transportation, energy, building materials, and more.

Check out the initiative here: https://www.villes-terrestres.org/en