Dec 1st, 2005 | Conferences, Reports, Translation | No Comments
By Tuomas Kostiainen
Convened every three years, the FIT World Congress held its meeting this year in Tampere, Finland. Representing over 60,000 translators worldwide through over 100 member associations, the International Federation of Translators (FIT, www.fit-ift.org) has as its purpose to promote professionalism in the language disciplines it represents, and strives to defend translators’ rights.
Since I often spend my summers in Finland and had never attended an FIT congress, I decided to take advantage of this unique opportunity. The theme for the congress was “Rights On!,” and several of the presentations reflected this in some way by discussing issues such as copyrights and contracts, court interpreting, legal translations, literary translators’rights, and the proposed European translation standard, which seemed to be a very hot topic and was referred to in several presentations (for more info, see http://tinyurl.com/c633m).
Attendance was less than what I had expected from a World Congress. The number of presentations and participants (661 from 61 countries) was about half that of an average ATA conference. On the other hand, this made it easier to choose which presentations to attend since there were usually only about half a dozen simultaneous sessions. The program also revealed a couple of other interesting differences from an ATA conference. Whereas at an ATA event the job exchange, agency reps, and the sheer number of freelancers make for very marketing-oriented events, the FIT congress was more academic, and generally the presentations dealt with larger issues than how to write a nice CV or how to use Trados. Some of these subjects treated ethics, training, translation studies, assessment, intercultural communication, and – my favorite ?“the politics and power of literary translation.” Consequently, while I found the program more interesting because I had not previously been exposed to many of the issues, I came home with fewer practical ideas and tidbits of information than I usually get from an ATA conference.
As with many conferences, the most interesting activities often take place outside the meeting rooms, and this one was no exception. It was very interesting to meet other translators and linguists of various backgrounds truly from around the world. The next Congress will be held in Shanghai in 2008. I recommend it highly if you have an opportunity to go!
Feb 1st, 2005 | Conferences, Localization, NCTA Info, Reports | No Comments
By Michael Metzger
The year 2003 saw a series of conferences, seminars, and workshops in the localization industry and I watched them all carefully to see what they had to offer. One event, the Localization World conference held in Seattle, caught my attention and excitement as the program seemed to round up all of my “pet interests:” terminology roundtable, localization metrics initiative, tools presentations … what more could I ask for?
When I learned in Spring 2004 that the Localization World conference was coming to San Francisco, there was no doubt in my mind that we, the NCTA, needed to be there. Who else but translation professionals could make a positive contribution to such an event with industry insight and experience? Is it not true that no matter how lofty the terms become to describe this industry, it always begins with translation?
The plan was simple: NCTA, representing the translation and interpretation industry, would become our profession’s ambassador through our contributions to the conference’s programs. We would realize the vision, excitedly debated at ATA conferences: a public relations promotion of the trade, an outreach to end clients whom translators usually never meet – in short, a way of putting a human face on this service called translation.
But this was just the idea; what had to follow was contacting the organizers and hoping this idea would fall on receptive ears. And in Donna Parish from Multilingual Computing and Ulrich Hennes from Localization Institute, we found people with the vision to match ours. Over the course of several months we shaped a proposal that could only spell success: NCTA would become an official participating sponsor of the event, contributing with workshops and individual sessions. We would furthermore represent the translation industry with a fully staffed table throughout the event with one clear objective: to engage conference attendees in professional discussion, and to educate and inform them about the work of translators. At the same time, NCTA would participate in the planning of the program with a seat on the advisory committee of the conference.
Our contributions were all extremely well-received, from the workshops, to the “standing room only” session with Christoph Niedermair and Sabine Hathaway, to Frank Dietz’s presentation on game localization and Anna Schlegel’s coordination of round-the-clock volunteers for the NCTA table.
Next year’s conference will be back in Seattle. We hope another local group will step in and represent our trade!
Feb 1st, 2005 | ATA, Conferences, Interpretation, NCTA Info, NCTA Meetings, Reports, Translation | No Comments
By Naomi Baer
It’s been a busy fall for NCTA, and several presentations on various members’ activities were given at the General Meeting in December. Tetu Hirai, Merav Rozenblum, and Celine Detraz all reported on their experiences at the ATA Conference held in Toronto in October, passing along highlights from presentations they attended and describing how they focused their time at the conference.
Tetu found that networking with other translators and agencies was especially useful to him, as was as a talk entitled “Digital Voice Recorder-Assisted Consecutive Interpretation,” in which a new technology was introduced that uses interpreter-controlled recording and playback devices to allow interpreters to free themselves from note-taking, and thus interpret simultaneously from their recording.
Céline had also attended this talk, and told us that she found it helpful to be exposed to new technologies in the industry. As a second-time attendee at the conference, she felt that she was better able to focus on the events that would be specific to her current needs. A highlight for her was being able to connect with colleagues and re-connect with the translation community after having been less involved after the birth of her child. She was particularly happy to have increased contact with NCTA, through other members attending the conference, and found that the conference was motivational for her both in her work and in her desire to be more active in the translation community.
A couple of other sessions as well stood out for Celine: “Internet Privacy for the Small or Home Office Environment,” where resources for addressing spam and spyware were discussed (see http://www.jill-sommer.com/en/presentation2.htm for details), and the session, “Self-Assessment and Quality in Simultaneous Interpreting.”
Merav, as a third-time conference attendee, also found it easier to focus her participation on those sessions of specific interest to her, and particularly enjoyed meeting colleagues and giving her own workshop on the Hebrew language. Other highlights for her were Peter Less’s talk on his experiences as an interpreter at the Nuremberg trials after WWII (read more in the ATA Chronicle’s September issue), the Literary Translation Division Café, and a talk by the first publisher of a Spanglish dictionary.
In local news, Michael Metzger reported on NCTA’s recent participation in the Localization World Conference in San Francisco, where workshops were given by Tuomas Kostiainen and Jost Zetzsche, and a panel presentation included participation by Sabine Hathaway and Christopher Niedermair. An NCTA table was maintained throughout the conference, where potential translation clients could stop by to learn about our organization and referral database, as well as pick up material from the ATA on how to go about getting high quality translations.
One of the biggest changes for NCTA this year has been our new website, and Laura Blijleven-Bergmans showed us how to use some of the site’s main features, including online renewals, updates of translator profiles, workshop registration, translator searches, and accessing the Translorial archive.
The meeting wrapped up with a chance to network as everyone helped with the end-of-year mailing, including ballots and candidate statements for the February 2005 election, along with renewal notices.
Feb 1st, 2005 | Business Tools, Conferences | No Comments
By Yves Avérous, TransMUG Ambassador
One year ago, at Macworldthe annual San Francisco trade show for Apple Macintosh usersChristine Lemor-Drake and I got the idea for TransMUG, a Mac User Group for translators, anchored in NCTA. Today, TransMUG is recognized as an official Apple User Group. At this year’s show and conference, we had the opportunity to mingle with other group leaders, and Christine even volunteered at the MUG booth in the exhibit hall to get to know our colleagues from MUGs of all origins. Besides camaraderie and good deals (free entrance for TransMUG membera $20 value, and access to the many discounts inside), Macworld was a terrific occasion to garner further knowledge on the tools we have, discover tools we should consider using, and marvel at the new Apple offerings.
For us as translators, one of the most important questions regarding the new Apple products was, “will iWork replace Office?” And the answer is no. Although Pages, the word processor that is part of the $79 package, seems to be a very polished big brother of AppleWorkswithout the spreadsheet featureits purpose is, above all, to provide home and small office users with a very elegant and affordable layout solution, somewhere between Word and Quark XPress/InDesign. And it comes with a set of exciting new fonts that, in the professional world, could by itself justify the entire cost of $79. Add the word processor and the new version of the presentation software, Keynotethe same program that Steve Jobs uses (still priced a few weeks ago at $99)and you really have a deal! The only caveat is that, contrary to the iLife suite of multimedia applications, iWork is not bundled with the Mac mini, the other major revelation of the show.The diminutive Mac mini can sit on top of your PC, network with it, connect to your old USB keyboard and mouse and VGA monitor, and provide you with virus-free computing! I will soon be ordering my $1,300 super-duper configuration, but at $574 you can get a very decent machine ($499 Mac mini, with 40GB hard drive, CD writer/DVD player combo drive, and 256MB of RAM, plus $75 for an extra 256MB, recommended). And if you are in the market for a jump drive (Nina Friedman’s little wonder was a boon at the latest Wordfast workshop, see p. 7), you might want to consider an iPod shuffle. It’s practically the same price as a jump drive of the same size, carries both your PC files and your Mac files, as well as all the songs you can fit in the rest of the memory with the help of the platform-indifferent iTunes. One week after its release, 2 million of the little white sticks had been sold and the wait is now up to four weeks!
Of the five Macworlds I have attended over the past nine years, this year’s show was one of the most energized I have witnessed. And, with the release this spring of Tiger, the next major update of the operating system, we translators will benefit from two fantastic new tools: Spotlight—like Google Desktop Search, but ten times more powerful since it’s based right inside the OS—and Safari RSS, the Mac’s web browser, now with an integrated reader for news feeds (see Tool Kit in the December issue of Translorial). Finding your files and your news will never be the same after you start using them. PC users, it’s time to switch; Mac users, it’s time to join TransMUG if you haven’t already. We congregate one hour before every General Meeting at the Three Dollar Café in the lobby of The Center. See you on the 26th!
Dec 1st, 2004 | ATA, Conferences | No Comments
Wth its cosmopolitan atmosphere and lively downtown nightlife, Toronto was a great fit for this year’s ATA Annual Conference. If the inaugural session started with the controversial report from an embedded journalist in the Iraq war, the conference went on smoothly with its traditional morning breakfast (1) and plethorra of workshops where you could find familiar people sharing their knowledge: members Andre Moskowitz (2) and Merav Rozenblum (3) & (4—with author Ilan Stavans signing his essay on Spanglish), and our very own Jost Zetzsche (5 & 6). At the NCTA table, Céline Détraz and Martin Hoffman (7) at my side, helped Tuomas and I promote the association. Special thanks also to Nuria Juhera for her collaboration. For more details on this year’s event, do not miss the next General Meeting on December 11, where a panel of attendees will relate their experiences in Toronto.
—Yves Avérous
What’s a nice gal like me doing in Las Vegas? That’s what I asked myself as I drove down “The Strip” to the Alexis Park Resort. Sin city. Tastelessly garish. But though much of Las Vegas is faux (Caesar’s Palace, the Venetian, et al.), there was nothing faux about the ALTA (www.literarytranslators.org) Conference, whose theme this year was “Art Both Ways: Translation Restoration Re-Creation.”
I began on Thursday with “Translating Dialect Literature,” in which panelists discussed the seemingly irresolvable issues involved in translating embedded or suggested dialect. Possible solutions included retaining the dialect word and contextualizing it; inserting a phrase stating that the character is speaking “x” dialect; inventing a dialect; and listening to how a speaker of the specific dialect speaks English and trying to reproduce how it sounds.
From there I went on to “The World in Language is Half Someone Else’s: the Translator as the ‘Other’ Author in Russian Literature.” Comments included references to the translator as resurrector, creator, and co-author, and the notion of literary ventriloquism in which the original author is presumably the dummy through whom the translator-ventriloquist speaks.
I resisted the post-lunch offering of “Some Sex Please… Eros in Translation” in favor of “Translating Italian Literature,” which explored the idea of translation—identified by one author as the act of molting, shedding the old skin while trying to retain the inner luminosity—into a translator’s second language (English), referred to as a traduzione inversa.
Thursday night’s Keynote address made reference to Jacques Derrida’s presumed deconstruction of the Tower of Babel myth: God didn’t destroy the tower because it was arrogantly trying to touch heaven, but because it represented an attempt at dominance by one language. The question is how to make the dominant language (English) enable without disabling.
On Saturday I participated in Alexis Levitin’s Bilingual Readings, and attended a program called: “Spreading the Word: The Art and Importance of Reviewing Literature in Translation” with Peter Filkins as moderator. This was of particular interest to me since I have been writing an article on the subject for some months now. The day concluded with an early evening program, “Looking Forward: Publishers on Literary Translation,” featuring editors from well-known presses.
No gamble here in Vegas: just a good bet for translators.
—Anne Milano Appel
Dec 1st, 2004 | Conferences, Event Interpretation, Interpretation | No Comments
By Martin Hoffman
As a professional interpreter, you may find yourself working in the finely outfitted booth of a prestigious conference center or in the rough-and-tumble atmosphere of an emergency room. Somewhere in between lies the experience of Babels, the global network of volunteer translators and interpreters for the World Social Forum. In July of this year, it was in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, nestled high in the Andes, that these volunteers congregated to offer their services.
This past summer, an intriguing message was forwarded to the NCTA’s e-mail list. Its header was “Volunteer interpreters needed in Ecuador.” It went on to explain that Babels had been asked to cover the needs in simultaneous interpretation at the ASF (Americas Social Forum) for Spanish, Quechua, Portuguese, English, and French—all official languages of the pan-American Forum. I followed the instructions for signing up as a French-English interpreter. Six weeks later, I was on a plane bound for Quito!
My travel companions were Leda Beck, a Bay Area-based Babels coordinator who is originally from Brazil, and Mateo Rutherford, a freelance Spanish interpreter who lives in Berkeley. They were both veterans of previous WSF events, and during the long plane ride they filled me in on what to expect.
The only events scheduled for our first two days in Quito were an interpreter orientation and the opening ceremonies. We therefore had plenty of opportunities to visit Ecuador’s capital city, which was founded in a high narrow valley on the slopes of Pichincha volcano in the 16th century, and which is today a UNESCO world-heritage site.
There were about 60 interpreters at the orientation, which was held mostly in Spanish, with occasional asides in Portuguese, French, and English. Among the many interesting things I learned was the fact that half the interpreters at this Forum were non-professionals (mostly students). The plan was to pair professionals with non-professionals in the interpreting booths. The philosophy of Babels, an avowedly “non-hierarchical” organization, is that everyone should have the opportunity to participate, share, and learn.
The color of celebration
The next morning, Mateo and I went to the Plaza de San Francisco in the city’s historic quarter for the opening ceremonies. Combining elements of both a carnival and a protest, the event might be best described as “defiantly festive.” There were at least a thousand people in attendance, and two stages. On the main stage participants gave speeches, alternating with musical performances, including Quechuan drummers, a local hard rock band featuring Andean pan-pipe players, and an African-American civil-rights activist who sang “¡El pueblo UNIDO jamás sera VENCIDO!” (“The people UNITED will never be DIVIDED!”) to a gospel melody, with an endearingly thick American accent. On the other stage, a small group of Indian women in traditional garb were chanting and burning sage.
The crowd itself was quite diverse: a mix of locals and foreigners, ASF activists, hippies, real-life communists bearing red flags and distributing Marxists pamphlets, intellectuals with wire-rimmed glasses debating globalization, little boys looking at my scuffed shoes with avid disapproval and asking me “Shoeshine?,” tattooed punk rockers, banner-waving union members, voluble Brazilians wearing giant multicolored Afro wigs, and some folks wrapped in rainbow flags who were either gay-rights activists or indigenous-rights activists (in the Andes, both groups have laid claim to the same flag).
A new perspective
The next morning I went to the Babels office to get my interpreting schedule. I was bemused to discover that I had been assigned only to Spanish-English booths for the duration of the Forum. I reminded the coordinator (an otherwise charming volunteer from Argentina) that I only interpret between French and English, and have never interpreted Spanish (I only translate it) and she said, “Oh, don’t worry about that. We’ve already assigned all the events that have French presenters, but since you understand Spanish, I’m sure you’ll do just fine.”
Not being quite as confident as she was, I nonetheless went off to my first assignment. The panel topic was “Human Rights: Pathways and New Perspectives,” with speakers from Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, and Suriname. I was as nervous as I was the first time I had interpreted French, some eight years earlier. But it could have been worse. For example, some poor interpreter got stuck with “The Democratization of New Technology: Laser Odontology as a Tool for Improving People’s Quality of Life.” I figured that in a worst-case scenario, if I didn’t understand what the speaker was saying, I could just tune my FM radio to catch interpreting from one of my French colleagues and work with that. Or, maybe I’d get lucky and one of the local radio stations would up the wattage and drown us all out with the latest Ricky Martin single.
Somehow I managed to stay afloat in the Spanish-to-English booth. That is, when there was a booth. At the first event where I interpreted, there was no equipment, so my interpreting partner and I had to do whisper interpreting, sitting at the back of the hall with a crowd of English speakers sitting around us, leaning in to hear. Whisper interpreting leaves much to be desired, because without a direct feed into headphones, when you are speaking you can hardly hear what the presenter is saying. It didn’t help that a woman with a chatty, squirming little boy decided to sit right next to me!
Of war stories and peace
In spite of these distractions, when I was done, one of the people for whom I was interpreting told me I did an excellent job, which felt good, even if that particular morning it wasn’t true! But during the following days I also got positive feedback from my colleagues, most of whom were very talented and accomplished interpreters and who were sympathetic to the fact that I was a novice in the Spanish booth. It turns out that they had “war stories” of their own!
A number of other social, political and economic themes were discussed during the conference (see http://www.forosocialamericas.org/ejes_en.php). The other seminars and panels at which I interpreted were entitled “Demilitarization and Peace Proposals,” “The FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas) and FTAs (Free Trade Agreements): The Crucial Moment for the Peoples of the Americas,” “Integration Alternatives for the Peoples of the Americas,” and “Free Trade: Resistance and Proposals.” I also had the honor of being among those chosen to interpret at the closing ceremonies, which featured some inspiring speeches and dazzling performances by local musicians and dance troupes.
Despite the organizational problems that I’ve mentioned, I was nonetheless impressed by the hard work of the Babels team (or “Babelit@s” as we call ourselves), who are all volunteers and are primarily involved with the World Social Forum through a desire to further social justice in the world. There was a real sense of esprit de corps among the interpreters, all of whom were warm, friendly, good-natured people.
A growing experience
Volunteering for Babels is an excellent way for beginning interpreters to gain experience in a supportive and non-judgmental environment, where skills certainly do count, but so does the fact that you’re simply trying your best. It is also a wonderful way for seasoned interpreters to participate in a worthy cause, while providing guidance to interpreters-in-training. I was inspired by the examples of the people around me, and by my own unexpected ability to perform adequately as a Spanish-to-English interpreter. Although I have been working towards being able to interpret Spanish for a number of years, had I not been given this opportunity, I think I would have waited another year or two before even attempting it. Granted, I still have a tremendous amount of progress to make, but for the first time I feel confident enough to volunteer my services locally, doing community interpreting between Spanish and English.
In the end, my Quito experience was a valuable one, and I made some real friends while I was there. I’m looking forward to meeting up with them in January 2005 for the next WSF, in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Volunteer interpreters (and translators as well) are still being recruited for this event, as well as for the Mediterranean Social Forum, to be held next summer in Barcelona (see below).
Building Bridges
Babels is the non-profit global network that provides volunteer translation and interpreting services for the World Social Forum. The WSF is an open meeting place where groups and movements engaged in building a civil, global society centered on the human person, come together to pursue their thinking, debate ideas democratically, formulate proposals, share experiences freely, and network for effective action. For more information about the WSF, visit www. worldsocialforum.org. If you think you might be interested in volunteering to be a Babels translator, interpreter, or coordinator, visit the Babels website at www.babels.org, where you can find more information on the group, and on registering for upcoming events.
Feb 1st, 2000 | ATA, Conferences, NCTA Meetings, Reports | No Comments
by Amy Russell
The General Meeting held on December 4 featured presentations by NCTA members who attended the annual ATA conference in St. Louis. Three NCTA members gave short talks on a session they found especially useful or intriguing. They also provided handouts from the session so that members could use the material for reference or find out more information.
Alan Gleason described “National Geographic’s International Editions: Around the World in (At Least) Nine Languages Every Month.” He explained the procedures National Geographic uses to ensure consistency and accuracy in translations that occur simultaneously around the world for every monthly issue.
Michele Morainvilllers attended a session titled “Stumped? The Answer May be on the Net ,.. Somewhere,” which she found very helpful for doing research to find terminology on the Internet. Michele provided handouts showing sample search engine results and how to contact the presenters of this session.
Juliet Viola reported on a session that combined the extremely practical topic of SI units with the symbol of St. Louis, the Gateway Arch. [SI is the international standard for metric system units. -ed.] The seminar “Units of Weight and Measurement in Translation” included authoritative information on how to present SI units correctly. The detailed handouts included an exercise called “Converting the Gateway Arch to SI Units,” which showed how the English and American units used by the engineers to construct the arch would be converted to SI units.
If you are interested in obtaining a copy of the handouts for the December meeting, please contact the NCTIA administrator at 510/845-8712. Audio cassette tapes of the 1999 ATA conference are also available for purchase from Network Communications. Contact the NCTA administrator for an order form.
