A question for non-English speaking countries
Living in English speaking countries as I do, i have no issue with language when I read magazines, forums, blogs etc. I would like to know whether each country that does not speak English as a first language has its own printed version of a woodworking magazine. I am thinking of countries like Germany, Belgium, Latvia, Poland, Russia and so on. If you follow my blog here, and live in a non English speaking country, would you mind please taking a minute and dropping e a line or comment letting me know so that we in Britain and the USA, the two countries where I live and spend all of my time, can understad more about woodworking scenes around the world.
I think that woodworking magazines have a great deal to offer in terms of their educating influence, but does, for instance, Belgium, or better still…Belgium, do you have a Belgian woodworking magazine of your own? If so, which language is it in? France, do you have a magazine dedicated to woodworking. I ask this of every Country. If your country does not have a magazine of its own, where do you now get readable and understandable informative material from? Can you please let me know?
The reason for my Questioning is just how do we ensure that what we have goes to other countries in an understandable way and how can we glean from other non-English speaking friends and supporters that have things to offer us?
I will one day be opening a Spanish speaking school in the USA that will enable us to pass our courses to Spanish speaking people and nations around the world also. I begin training my first Spanish speaking co-workers in November in anticipation that our second US school will be equipped to teach with equal empowerment in both languages. This also means that my future work will be in Spanish also and that my books will be translated into Spanish.
Hi Paul,
As far as I know we do not have a Dutch woodworking magazine in the Netherlands.Wouter
Thank you Wouter. What about dutch woodworking blogs?
Indeed we do have some blogs and a quite useful forum in Dutch. Wouter
Hi Paul, I’m originally from Czech Republic and as there is one woodworking magazine called Truhlarske Listy (Joinery News or so) in Czech language, but almost same content as the English/US – technological news about routers and saws, a LOT of adverts and almost nothing about history, hand tools … A few blogs… So all of my sources are from English speaking websites and blogs (for example yours 😉 Thank you for your hard work! Frank
Hi Paul
here in Croatia there are non woodworking magazines in Croatian or any other language. There are a couple of web sites and forums
Sinisa
Hi Paul,
Here in Croatia we do not have woodworking magazines in Croatian or any other language. There are a couple of web sites and forums
Sinisa
Hi Paul;
I’m not familiar with any true handtool-only magazines in either Germany or France, but each country seems to have one home woodworker style magazine in addition to several family handyman style mags:
French language – Le Bouvet (http://www.lebouvet.com)
German language – Holzwerken (http://www.holzwerken.net)
With so many good writers out there, I could see a truly international hand tool mag having real value. All we need is a few translators willing to learn the terms and savvy about woodworking and it could be translated into each language.
Perhaps someone can translate for Spain. Caleb P? Rafael???
Thanks Luke. All of this helps me formulate the needs of others beyond our shores. We are exploring!!!
Hi Paul, I live in Belgium and, as far as I know there is no woodworking magazine. By the way, I have a postal subscription to the W***wor**, which I am about to give up.
Indeed, no woodworking magazine in Belgium.
My favorite way to learn about woodworking is still youtube/DVD though. You can learn so much more by watching 1minute of footage than reading an article, imo. That doesn’t mean articles aren’t helpfull, but I prefer them in a supportive/extra info role, rather than a guide.
Thanks, Filip, I think that this is the direction we seem to be going. Most magazines have gone in the direction of internet, but not too well. We still must see magazines as primarily advertising billboards first and information providers as secondary I think. Bit like forums have become too. When that becomes a hidden factor and we are persuaded that the advertising is there only to support the transfer of information we seem to lose something of the core somehow. I am not sure of all of the dynamics, but it seems always to me that economics play such a huge part in what was once the free impartation of working knowledge and skill.
Belgium has such a rich history of woodworking too. I enjoyed periods there in my childhood and later teen years; my mother is Belgian.
I agree. Let’s see what can happen on international levels.
Hello Paul,
I’m from Germany and I can tell you that there is a german magazine which is called “Holzwerken” (as already mentioned in this thread). It is a sister magazine from Fine Woodworking and often has got articles from it.
Most of the hand tools related stuff I try to find in the internet (from sites like this).
The challenges for me are one the one hand the measurements in inches (which we aren’t familiar with) and on the other hand woodworking is not that popular in Germany, so that you can’t buy lumber everywhere. So if there is an article in a magazine with an interesting project, I personally often have got the problem to get that lumber.
It is pretty ususal to use laminated wood here, which makes it difficult to follow the instructions from the english magazines.
Cheers,
Stefan
Stefan,
Thank you for raising our awareness of this. Pretty much the only reason we give the imperial measurement is for the USA so i will try to give both more =frequently and especially when critical.
I apologise for your comment not being posted earlier. Somehow it went through to spam so in future I will be aware. Please don’t give up. This is all important information to express openly elsewhere so that problems can be addressed and not lost.
Thank you for taking the trouble and once again I apologise.
Paul
I just took a break to look at your blog and felt humbled seeing everyone there. I have travelled and spent time in Monterrey Mexico in poorer communities to give workshops for a few weeks and so enjoyed the receptive way everyone had to my methods and ethos. Seeing you there stirred my heart once again.
Let’s stay in touch. We are planning some things and that includes making my work available in Spanish so we should talk. Please email me your telephone number here: [email protected] and will find time to call you or skype you.
Hi Paul,
I’m from China, as far as I know, we don’t have any woodworking magazines in chinese yet. Youtube is banned, so most of us can’t watch your videos or other woodworking podcast online. But we do have some Chinese websites on which people can learn about woodworking, and your thoughts as well as some other English-speaking craftsmen’s articles can be found on those websites, translated.
We have a slightly different way to do woodworking, like this:
http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_6cd76d5f0102e0uh.html
Young men use Internet to learn while most of the old craftsmen don’t know how to type. Very few people can make one furniture only using our traditional method now.
Hi Paul! I’m a bit late on this, but I recently discovered your blog.
We don’t have any woodworking magazines in Norway, apart from imported ones. Also, I have come across quite few norwegian blogs and web pages on the topic actually. We do have a few magazines on home improvement and DIY though. i’ve never thought about it really, but maybe the general interest for woodworking isn’t that extensive here in Norway. That probably explains why it is so hard to find dealers with a decent range of proper hand tools too…
For my own part I read american and british websites, including watching videos on Youtube, and I think there are several good english pages on the topic. The downside for my part would be the english terms I would have no chance in translating into Norwegian. I guess I’ll even start measuring things in inches one day…
Yes, there are issues with Europe that the US has no knowledge of and may not have interest in when talking about conversion of measuring systems. I face that every day in some measure (pun intended) Conversion from inches to metric is not really as simple as people think because nominal sizes differ too. A 1″ planed board in the UK may be 13/16″, in the US 3/4″. A 2 x 4 in the US is always 1 1/2″ by 3 1/2″. In the UK it can be 1 7/8″ x 4 3/4″.
Re a magazine. I guess Europe will always be divided by language differences as well as other cultural differences too. It would be wonderful to see some of the better magazines invest in a translation software that would interpret terms accurately for woodworking no matter where in Europe. I’m really talking about quality magazines such as Fine Woodworking, Popular Woodworking. That would inspire a wide audience and get a lot of support. But again, the difference between the UK, mainland Europe and the USA is chalk and cheese. You would be hard pressed to find many Americans that don’t have a quality machine set up. In the UK you would be hard pressed to find a woodworker that did. Totally different altogether.
So, keep working towards hand tool methods and use metric. I promise that I will try to offer metric sizes I think will work in the future. We have a very large following in all of the European countries and may I say a special thank you to my friends and supporters in the Netherlands. Pro rated, the Netherlands has been our largest following and we have no reason we know of for that.
Dear Paul,
There is a woodworking magazine in Hungary, it is intended for professionals. As far as I know it sometimes covers traditional stuff as well, a page or two. There are some good websites about carving with good instructions and some cabinetmaking sites but they do not offer training as such. I am lucky to speak English and have access to excellent sites like yours.
Thanks
Norbert
I had a friend in Sweden some years back called Pere Svensen or Swensen. He taught woodworking. I lost track of him I am afraid, but just in case he is looking in. Hi Pere!!
Dear Paul,
following you and your Blog a few months.
To your Question. Here in Austria, as like Germany, we do not have an Austrian Magazin. I read Holzwerken, as Stefan mentioned.
Woodworking in Austria is old fashionabled, as we think of Thonet, you will know. But this TIme hat sadly gone…..
Mr Paul!
I’m reading your older posts. Because i just discovered your videos on YT a few moths ago.
Pheraphs i’m a little late, but here it goes!
I’m from Portugal. Around here, after a long search, a didn’t found any magazine in Portuguese – As far my search, to the other Portuguese speaking countries (Angola, Mozambique, East Timor, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Principe)there ther’s no local magazines either. Although they have it in Brazil.
Woodworking teaching, that’s different.
30 Years ago there were a program at public schools that introduced some crafts to 11 and 12 years kids. Now kids are teached microsoft windows and microsoft office (that’s true) at school.
Alsso there are a few places that teach “machine working” for construction and naval construction and they are connected in someway to the employment bureau.
There is some tradition in building furniture with hand tools only but, the people that did it and their workshops are disappearing.
From time to time there are some reconstitution on making traditional boats like sailing ships from 15th (discovering Brazil) and 20th (codfish catch in Canada) century, “rabelos”(boats that sail through the Douro river caring oporto wine). The last time a boat like that ((15th century) were built from zero the university neded to join very aged people (from the old crafts) and a lot of engineers to achieve it!
From my experience, rediscovering hand woodworking, i had some problems with some translations, because the portuguese names used for tools and technics had some influences from english, spanish, french names and time. Some names use words from 18th century no longer in common use (in portuguese from Portugal, In Brazil is like US english to the UK or NZ english)
But i think you known that already by learning spanish big diference to european spanish to south american one.
Last word, for a laugh I was taught always the metric system in school, but in plumbing tools, hand bits and a lot of other tools ARE in British Imperial system. My 1st tape ruler (from 20 years until now) have the 2 systems! My older step-daughter studies Biology in Lisbon’s Univ. yesterday she conclude a work (a normal one for the end of the semester) and she had to do it in English just in the remote case if it get publish in some science magazine…
Thanks for this Antonio, I feel hungry to hear what’s going on in different regions. In the US and Britain we have it more easy than others. There is such a wealth of tools and equipment and though Britain lags far behind the US when it comes to some woods more readily available in the US, we do have more than some at twice or three times the cost. Whereas we do have several magazines on both continents, not all are helpful really. I think the two best US mags are Popular Woodworking and Fine Woodworking. British Woodworking is a good mag here in the UK even though it’s the newest of all the magazines at just 7 years old.There are dozens of tool suppliers online nowadays. Most of them sell the same stuff so prices are somewhat competitive and so too in the USA. It is easy to think that all the world has the same access to what we have and I wonder if we could do more to help in countries with less accessibility. I’ve been asked to send tool steel to Africa and help with tools themselves to fellow woodworkers elsewhere. Time stops me I am afraid.
Dear mr Paul,
here in Russia we use special forum to share experience in woodcraft. It named “forum.woodtools.ru” and it is rather old (as i know it was founded near 2002).
Also the “Wood-мастер” magasine is published (“мастер” means artisan in russian). You can see woodmastermagazine.ru for more info (but you may have to use Chrome browser because all texts are in russian).
But the most important event is annual meeting “Слёт Мастеровых” – when craftsmen from all over the country, and from some CIS and even Baltic countries come (CIS – Commonwealth of Independent States). It is held in Moscow in the end of the May. Thomas Lie-Nielson was the special guest last years, but usually there are little non-speaking russian foreigners due to language barrier.
There are lot of another meetings, exhibitions, and presentations for/by woodworking specialists all over the year but they are not so crowdy, informative, interesting and fun.
Thanks a lot for your learning art, generosity and easiness in material presentation. They are so good and helpful.
Sergey
I have ideas for more travel this year but my time seems to get more limited the older I get. Perhaps Russia should be on my list.
Are there any woodworking magazines in Spanish? I work for a shop in Oklahoma that makes items from wood. Most of our workers are Spanish speakers. We would love to have some materials for them to peruse and get ideas/explanations from.
No. As far as I know there are very few countries producing language specific woodworking magazines other than English speaking.
Thanks for the quick response!