Sep 1st, 2011 | Reports, Translation | No Comments
Despite a long history of oppression, the ancient and beautiful Ukrainian language lives on. BY NINA BOGDAN
My recent travels to Ukraine and Russia gave me reason to reflect on the turbulent history of the Ukrainian language. It is a language that has survived despite years of oppression and attempts throughout history to negate and eradicate it. My father was born in a tiny village in the eastern part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in the 1920′s. By the time he arrived in the United States, he had become accustomed to speaking Russian as he lived in a Displaced Persons Camp in Germany for several years, where the primary language was Russian. I had always assumed that he had grown up speaking Russian but, when I first visited the place where he was born, I realized that this was not necessarily so. → continue reading
Sep 1st, 2011 | Business, Getting Started, NCTA Meetings, Translation | 1 Comment
Jacolyn Harmer, presenter at the May General Meeting.
While technology skills are increasing among the young, critical thinking is taking a hit. BY NAOMI NORBERG
On a Saturday afternoon so beautiful it didn’t bode well for high turnout, NCTA members showed their dedication by showing up in significant numbers for the May 7 general meeting in downtown San Francisco. The meeting began as usual with a welcome session for new members (six or seven this time) and networking among the rest. Our new president Paula Dieli then began the meeting by introducing the new “refreshment queens” Connie Archea and Rita McGaughy, and thanking ION Translations, LLC of Berkeley for sponsoring the refreshments.
Kristen Corridan then announced the upcoming events and workshops, including the summer picnic (June 26th), the Legal Translation for Court Interpreters and Translators workshop (June 18th), and a workshop (no date given) by Tuomas Kostianen on preparing for the ATA certification exam (next San Francisco sitting on July 31st, just before the FIT conference). Paula then announced the arrival of the latest Translorial, and Yves Avérous asked for volunteers to replace Nina Bogdan, who will step down in September after three years as Translorial editor. Roles will be split so that those who want to deal with the writing aspect can do that while others take on administrative and logistic tasks. Kristen then introduced Jacolyn Harmer, who spoke to us about Shifting Trends in Translator and Interpreter Training. → continue reading
Sep 1st, 2011 | Business Tools, Essays, Getting Started, Translation | 2 Comments
To avoid mental laziness brought on by new tech tools, make a point of watching yourself and your mind at work. BY JULIET E. JOHNSON
Technological changes over the past decades have revolutionized how we translators work as well as the very nature of translation. More subtly, the tools we use have altered our cognitive processes. The purpose of this article is to highlight the connections between how we work, how we think, and what it means to be a translator. Seeing those connections more clearly can help us mindfully choose how we work, how we think, and what kind of translation work we personally undertake and pursue. → continue reading
Sep 1st, 2011 | Announcements | No Comments
Lydia Davis captivates her audience with musings about her translation of Flaubert’s Madame Bovary. A REPORT BY VERA HAMADY
On the night of April 20th, 150 people waited patiently to hear acclaimed author and translator Lydia Davis talk about her latest translation of Madame Bovary. The event organized by the Center for the Art of Translation took place at the Verdi Club, where attendees were sipping wine in anticipation. When Davis went on stage, she told the crowd that she was happy to be among people interested in translation. Her hour-long reading, punctuated with silences and a sense of humor, captivated the audience, bringing back glamour and excitement to the translation profession. → continue reading
Sep 1st, 2011 | Agencies, ATA, Essays, Translation | No Comments
Are language service providers limited in their ability to address downward price pressures due to now irrelevant anti-trust legislation? BY STAFFORD HEMMER
In February 2011, fellow NCTA Jonathan Goldberg member posted a message to the NCTA groups list about a Hebrew-English job offer he had recently received. He was willing to investigate the option of taking on the assignment from a client who expressed dismay at the quality of the existing translation products they had been receiving. However, when Goldberg learned that the compensation for his work would be “$0.05/word – no match,” naturally the conversation was terminated. Hebrew<>English is a language pair that, according to the ATA’s 2007 Translation and Interpreting Survey of Compensation, generally commands about $0.22/word by the average ATA language service provider (LSP). Mr. Goldberg noted that, “the fact that they have had a translator until now working at that rate, irrespective of the quality of the translations, is cause for concern. Some translators should be reminded that there is no need to agree to such a low rate or even to agree to double that rate―particularly if the translation is from English and more particularly if it requires a non-Latin font.” → continue reading
Sep 1st, 2011 | Business, Education | 1 Comment
Andrew Crawford presenting the Selling Yourself workshop.
Distinguishing yourself as a premium language consultant involves more than tricks and gab. BY MICHAEL SCHUBERT
NCTA members had an opportunity to experience what large consulting firms pay the big bucks to hear as Andrew Crawford of Crawford Consulting International, Inc., shared key insights from his decades of experience in this April 16 workshop in San Francisco.
The workshop titled, “Techniques for successful selling – a new approach to selling to direct clients,” attracted a diverse group of participants: corporate members seeking to improve their client relationships and freelancers who already focus or wish to focus on direct client relationships. Andrew provided a lively and interactive atmosphere, listening to us about our needs in the very way he encouraged us to listen to our clients about their needs. → continue reading
Sep 1st, 2011 | Business Tools | No Comments
The latest technology update from the Tool Kit. BY JOST ZETZSCHE
“Sheep syndrome” doesn’t have very positive connotations, but in some cases the result of one following another is a lot more beneficial than its negative image might let on. Take technology, for instance. In a competitive landscape, the innovation of one competitor will inevitably lead to others following suit — if that were not the case, we probably wouldn’t have a competitive landscape to start with.
In the case of translation environment tools, this phenomenon has been repeated over and over with quality assurance features, context matches, concordance searches, and, lately, with AutoComplete features, i.e., the ability of the translation editor to predict or suggest text based on a few typed letters in combination with external data, such as the translation memory or other databases.
The latest tool that has now unveiled this feature is Wordfast Classic, and I have to admit that, somewhat to my own surprise, I like its version of AutoComplete the best so far. More on that later. → continue reading
Sep 1st, 2011 | NCTA Events, NCTA Meetings, NCTA Members | No Comments
- Happy Hour People.
BY ANA DE MORAES
The weather in the Bay Area has been unusually unsettled this year; until recently it seemed that we were all living through a never-ending winter. On May 23rd, however, we were blessed with a beautiful, sunny and warm day, the kind of day we needed to get out of our houses and enjoy the outdoors.
That’s what we did during one more Happy Hour gathering at Mijita’s Restaurant in the Ferry Building in San Francisco. This very casual restaurant has been the chosen spot for a number of meetings now. The Ferry Building itself offers a lot in terms of restaurants and interesting shops, not to mention the wonderful setting, both inside and outside, where the view is spectacular, with the Bay Bridge as background. → continue reading
Sep 1st, 2011 | Business Tools | 1 Comment
BY YVES AVÉROUS
The summer of 2011 was a good season for the Mac. Not only does Apple computers’ market share continue to grow faster than that of Windows PCs’, but the platform received a very nice refresh with the launch of Lion and the addition of the Thunderbolt connectivity across the line.
I had already rounded up the main features of Lion in my previous report, now I have tried them. As a writer, the very first thing I enjoyed using in the text editing features that come with the system was the newly adopted AutoCorrect system akin to the one found on iOS devices (iPhones, iPads, iPod touchs). It’s working in Mail, Safari (and the WordPress Editor takes advantage of it—not Google Docs, alas), TextEdit, and Pages, for the obvious ones. How nice it would be to see it implemented in a native Mac CAT tool… (Wink, wink, nod, nod.) → continue reading
Sep 1st, 2011 | Business, Court Interpretation, Legal Interpretation, Translation | No Comments
Our workshop classroom at the UCSF Downtown Campus.
Professor Holly Mikkelson shares her expertise in legal translation and interpreting. BY INEZ MORAN
Approximately 50 translators and interpreters representing various languages attended the three-hour “Legal Translation for Court Interpreters and Translators” workshop in San Francisco. The Seminar was held on June 18th at the Judicial Council of California —Administrative Office of the Courts. Holly Mikkelson provided excellent insight and expertise on nuances often present in legal document translation. This seminar was replete with pertinent information. As a new member of NCTA, I found this seminar to be informative and full of useful tips for our profession.
Mikkelson, a highly regarded authority on interpretation and translation, currently is Adjunct Professor of Translation and Interpretation at the Graduate School of Translation and Interpretation, Monterey Institute of International Studies, a Graduate School of Middlebury College. She is an ATA-certified translator (Spanish <> English) and a state and federally certified court interpreter who has taught translation and interpreting for over 30 years. She is the author of the Acebo interpreter training manuals as well as numerous articles on translation and interpretation. She is a co-author of Fundamentals of Court Interpretation: Theory, Policy and Practice. Professor Mikkelson has presented lectures and workshops to interpreters and related professionals throughout the world. → continue reading
May 1st, 2011 | Interviews, Localization, Perspective, Translation | No Comments
Translation and interpreting have a fascinating historical role in the development of empire and the postcolonial world. AN INTERVIEW BY THOMAS J. CORBETT
The work of Robert J. C. Young, Julius Silver Professor of English & Comparative Literature at New York University, concerns marginalized peoples and cultures. Postcolonialism: A Very Short Introduction devotes its final chapter to translation. Translation is seen not only as a colonial activity but also as a metaphor: transplanting England to New England, for example, is itself a form of translation. The interview began with an oblique question, a question that provoked a typically original and enlightening response from Professor Young. → continue reading
