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Okay, here are two more questions in relation to my book translation:

The book is set in Scotland.
In one scene, some of the characters of the novel, who live in Edinburgh, take a holiday and go to a place called "Centerlands".
I have not found any real life references to this online. Is this a usual way to refer to center of Scotland?
Or could it be the name of a (fictional) holiday resort? It reminded me of "Centerparks", but the characters are quite posh.

In one scene, the characters visit Leith Docks and notice "a large group of men, many looking like they came from the east".
This is referring to a group of crew members from freighter ships.
Knowing this, what nationalities would a person from the British Isles expect when hearing "from the east"?

Sonjaconjota wrote:Or could it be the name of a (fictional) holiday resort? It reminded me of "Centerparks", but the characters are quite posh.

That sounds likely, I live in S.England though.

In one scene, the characters visit Leith Docks and notice "a large group of men, many looking like they came from the east".
This is referring to a group of crew members from freighter ships.
Knowing this, what nationalities would a person from the British Isles expect when hearing "from the east"?

That could be "far east" > oriental, or Eastern Europe/Baltic/slavic.

DaveAgain wrote:

Sonjaconjota wrote:Or could it be the name of a (fictional) holiday resort? It reminded me of "Centerparks", but the characters are quite posh.

That sounds likely, I live in S.England though.

In one scene, the characters visit Leith Docks and notice "a large group of men, many looking like they came from the east".
This is referring to a group of crew members from freighter ships.
Knowing this, what nationalities would a person from the British Isles expect when hearing "from the east"?

That could be "far east" > oriental, or Eastern Europe/Baltic/slavic.

You really are "DaveAgain"! Again, thank you so much for your help!

Sonjaconjota wrote:So, I've got a problem with a verb I've come across in my translation project.
The context: A young woman didn't go to university and feels kind of inferior to Sofia, her successful older sister.

The scene goes like this:
‘You were never a student.’
‘I wasn’t.’
Even all these years on, it was still a sore point. She had ploughed her exams, staying out all night, laughing her head
off, pretending like she didn’t care. There didn’t seem much point, when Sofia got nothing but As and was studying law,
for goodness’ sake. What was she going to do?

I actually only learned this usage at university, where there was a board called the 'Ploughlist which listed people who had failed the exams. Not an actual list, but a reference to those who hadn't passed being on such a 'list'; i the same sense that a 'waiting list' might not be an actual list. I had no idea about it until then. I think it is not only dated, but also from the upper-reaches of the social strata and so not a widely-recognised vernacular word.