After uploading the post immediately below, I sent the following email to FT columnist Gillian Tett:
I'm a regular reader and great admirer. I enjoy reading your analyses and admire your writing style.
Today I posted an article on my blog entitled
FT columnist Gillian Tett discusses an idea that has crossed the mind of many a translator
(I hope the quotations won't be considered an abuse of copyright.)
Back in the 1990s I worked with a colleague on a number of annual reports for a top French engineering group.
As the clarity of the text declined and the proportion of self-congratulatory garbage rose, we spent time:
- thinking, as we read between the lines, that the company was earning much of its income from the short- and medium-term placement of engineers as a means of helping French technology companies to bypass restrictive employment laws and dressing these placements up as technical cooperation and partnerships
- wondering, if this sort of information was being misrepresented, whether the comapny's senior executives might be hiding other important information.
Shortly afterwards, the company that had been the Paris Bourse's top performer for several years was rocked by scandal and its shares plummeted.
There's no way of knowing if our insights were valid, but the events are certainly stuck firmly in my memory.
Keep up the excellent work.
Eight hours later, Gillian replied:
Many thanks - fascinating!
Gillian
