May 1st, 2008 | Announcements, Continuing Ed. | No Comments
Translating Poetry: A Primer
SATURDAY MAY 17, 1-4 PM
MECHANICS’ INSTITUTE LIBRARY,
57 POST STREET, SAN FRANCISCO
University of Florida-Gainesville professor of poetry Sidney Wade will present a hands-on workshop in the art of literary translation, designed both for those who are new to the field and interested, as well as those more experienced with the undertaking. There will be an introduction to the most basic elements of the craft, as well as some of the more exasperating issues. Procedures, questions, and conflicts will all be discussed. This workshop will entertain the following sorts of questions: Who is best qualified to translate poetry? How does one start? Why choose one language over another? What is a literal trot? How does a literal trot get translated into a fine poem in English?
Sidney Wade is the guest poetry editor of TWO LINES: World Writing in Translation for 2008. She is currently a professor at the University of Florida in Gainesville, where she teaches poetry and translation workshops. She translates Turkish poetry and wrote Istanbul’dan/From Istanbul. She is a recent president of the Associated Writers and Writing Programs and the author of four other collections of poetry: Stroke, Celestial Bodies, Empty Sleeves, and Green.
Upcoming: ATA Certification Exam workshop, August 23rd.
May 1st, 2008 | Continuing Ed., Court Interpretation, Legal Interpretation, Legal Translation, Reports | No Comments
Our March workshop offered a crowd of enthusiastic NCTA members a hands-on approach to legal translating and interpreting.
BY ANGELA ZAWADSKI
As a practicing interpreter and workshop provider, I was looking forward to attending the Legal Translation and Interpretation workshops to be taught by Corinne Cline, an instructor with the Sonoma State University Certificate Program. Before the event, all participants received via email the workshop handouts, which included the National Association of Judicial Interpreters and Translators (NAJIT) Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibilities, information about consecutive and simultaneous interpreting practices, and useful legal terms and phrases that interpreters and translators often encounter in English <>Spanish legal texts. Attendees were asked to bring a cassette tape recorder, as sample practice tapes were to be provided.
The morning session, which covered legal interpreting, began with a video created for judges and attorneys about working with interpreters in court. The video showed examples of interpreted hearings with both qualified and unqualified interpreters at work. Some important issues covered included the need to use the first person at all times (except in certain very specific circumstances), problems encountered when there are overlapping conversations, the need for a judge’s intervention to avoid confusion, examples of an interpreter correcting his or her mistakes on the record, and the difference between certified and qualified interpreters.
Clarifying the role
In an important scene and one of the best examples I have ever seen of what is expected of a court- certified interpreter, a judge establishes an interpreter’s credentials, asking questions regarding the interpreter’s education, fluency in source and target languages, specialized training, and other pertinent issues. The video also addresses the importance of the interpreter as “clarifier” when he or she is faced with unfamiliar slang and the serious problems arising from changes of meaning when the interpreter edits, omits, or adds material on the record.
Ms. Cline underscored the importance of the code of ethics with a capital E and reminded us that note-taking is part and parcel of our professional duty. I believe in the need to take notes as well, even when we feel confident that our memory will not fail us. The presenter also provided information about topics such as full-time employment, fees paid by the courts, and training opportunities. Afterward, we broke up into small groups and practiced “shadowing” (same-language simultaneous exercises) as well as target-language interpretation. Before the lunch break, the participants had a chance to ask more questions regarding the certification exam, compensation, and the use of monolingual and bilingual dictionaries. Ms. Cline also provided us with an extensive list of print and online resources.
Translation basics
Because the presenter for the afternoon session was unable to attend, Ms. Cline also covered the topic of legal translation. Since this is not her area of expertise, she focused mainly on sight translation, both as an interpreting skill and as a preamble for good translation. Ms. Cline discussed ways to prepare to become a competent translator and interpreter, using both material from her own experiences and resources from the Monterey Institute for International Studies. Most of the workshop attendees were experienced translators, but it was nonetheless refreshing to review term-research techniques.
The workshop ended with a lively Q&A session. Participants discussed strategies for sight translating repetitive English terms and approaching translation when there are no good target-language equivalents. Overall, novice interpreters felt that the workshop had been very helpful, while experienced interpreters were grateful to have had an opportunity to review the legal process and to go over specialized terminology. There is a continuing need for certified interpreters in federal and state courts, and the positive feedback confirmed that this type of workshop is extremely useful for aspiring interpreters.
Dec 1st, 2007 | Business Tools, Continuing Ed., NCTA Events, Reports | No Comments
By Sonia Wichmann
Electronic tools—used correctly—can greatly improve efficiency, saving us time, money, and headaches. The NCTA-sponsored workshop “From Ink to Electrons,” held on October 13th, offered an excellent opportunity for translators to quickly learn a wealth of practical and time-saving techniques.
For some of us, tinkering with programs and gadgets and keeping up with the latest online resources comes naturally. But if you’re like me, you keep thinking that you should learn more (maybe even read the manual?), but rarely find the time or motivation until confronted with some mysterious technological problem—and usually just before a deadline.
Instructor Aaron Ruby, a full-time English>Spanish legal and technical translator and court interpreter, has previously presented on a wide range of legal and technical topics in forums such as ATA, NAJIT (National Association of Judicial Interpreters and Translators), OMT (Organization of Mexican Translators) and HITA (Houston Interpreters and Translators Association). In this well-organized and lively presentation, attended by about 20 participants, he provided an overview of electronic reference materials, Google searching, and common formatting challenges. The first half focused on electronic and online reference tools, while the second half dealt with techniques for Microsoft Word and strategies for effective searching.
Aaron began by introducing a number of useful resources for translators such as electronic, pocket, and online dictionaries. While online dictionaries are becoming more common, they are still mainly limited to general or monolingual dictionaries. Electronic dictionaries, available in many languages and language combinations, allow the user to search in multiple dictionaries and find results in a matter of seconds, rather than flipping through bulky paper dictionaries. Pocket dictionaries, while limited in scope, are extremely portable and instantly ready to use, which can be helpful for interpreting or travel situations. Aaron also reviewed several useful sites such as Dictionary.com, Eurodicautom (the official dictionary of the European Union), and how to use sites like Wikipedia to gain a quick introduction to an unfamiliar topic. Especially impressive was the demonstration of Webster’s Online Dictionary, The Rosetta Edition, which currently covers 90 modern languages. He also shared his evaluation of various English dictionaries available on CD-ROM.
After the break, we turned to formatting issues in Microsoft Word. Increasingly, translators are being asked to provide documents with more complicated formatting, and while it’s reasonable to decline jobs requiring complex desktop publishing tasks (or at least demand more money), it is also important to be able to do common types of formatting with a minimum of stress. We learned about efficient ways to work with tabs and margins, tables, spacing, the Track Changes function, and—an audience favorite—the mysteries of text boxes and how to edit them.
Finally, Aaron gave a quick overview of using Google, “a translators’ best resource.” As he pointed out, researching a topic on Google can help translators create equivalent expressions that are idiomatic for the target language, rather than simply translating from dictionaries. There are different ways to search, whether using the Google Language Tools or country-specific home pages, and it pays to use a variety of approaches. In addition, using Google or other desktop search applications enables you to quickly access vast amounts of information on your hard drive, whether in old files you’ve created or in downloaded webpages.
I came away from the workshop better equipped, and even inspired to invest a bit more time in poking around Word, Google, and my electronic dictionaries. Clearly, this workshop addressed very relevant topics and there was a general consensus by the participants that a Part II would be welcome!
Sep 1st, 2007 | Business Tools, Continuing Ed., NCTA Events, Reports | No Comments
By Nina Bogdan (SF) and Elena McDonnell and Valérie Chataignier (LA)
In addition to the Trados workshops he conducted in the Bay Area this summer, NCTA president Tuomas Kostiainen took his show on the road: to LA, where he spread the Trados (and NCTA!) gospel to our Southern California colleagues.
San Francisco
Prior to the Trados Workshop for Beginners held on April 21, 2007, participants were asked to download a trial version of Trados by the class instructor, Tuomas Kostiainen. Egads! Unfamiliar and suspect software on my pristine new laptop—what evils will it perpetrate? Nevertheless, I proceeded to download the software from the SDL Trados website and was relieved when worlds didn’t collide.
Tuomas methodically followed his written class outline, spending a significant portion of the class on “The Very Basics”: arranging the desktop, preparing Word, opening and creating a translation memory and then, voila, starting to translate. Next, we edited the translated text, cleaned up the translated file, and were given tips on what to do if we damaged the segment markers while translating. Finally, we talked about more advanced subjects, such as changing the color scheme, choosing a minimum match value, translation unit setup, and substitution localization.
Trados is a tool that becomes more useful as it is used. The more translations completed and the more information in the translation memory, the more helpful Trados becomes to the translator. NB
Los Angeles
The atmosphere was very casual at our Trados Workshop for Beginners at the La Quinta hotel in LA on May 5th, and Tuomas’s occasional witty jokes made the workshop even more enjoyable. He started with the basic terms that every translator working with Trados needed to know. Then we proceeded to the hands-on part of the class—this was the only workshop that weekend where we were using our laptops, following the teacher’s examples projected on a large screen.
At the end of the day, not only did I feel more technologically advanced and more confident of my work with Trados, but I was also very impressed with how open for questions, and willing to share knowledge our trainer and his assistants were. As Tuomas jokingly mentioned in the very beginning, he does “not work for Trados, and all [he] ever received from SDL was a couple of lousy t-shirts.” However, his passion for translation and technology, and genuine desire to help his fellow translators to make their job easier, more enjoyable while improving quality, are really “beyond the basics.” ED
Having learned the ease of using the Trados Translator’s Workbench at our Trados Workshop for Beginners in San Francisco, I became curious about what other Trados 7.0 features lay beyond segment-based translation memory in Word. So I jetted down to LA for another Trados workshop masterfully presented to our Southern California peers by Tuomas Kostiainen: The Basics and Beyond: TagEditor and Multiterm, held at La Quinta LAX on May 6, 2007.
After an intensive day of instruction, I can highly recommend attending future meetings and seminars at this venue. It provides a comfortable and entertaining setting for “translorial” discourse at a very reasonable rate and takes no more travel time than public transit to SF from the South Bay. Amidst the pulsing waves of incoming tide and brushed by briny breeze, one can learn still more from our colleagues in the vast LA area. VC
May 1st, 2007 | Continuing Ed., Getting Started, Marketing, Reports | No Comments
By Steven Goldstein and Luis Salvago-Toledo
T&I Marketing
There are many ways to define the term marketing. But perhaps the simplest is the way presenter Jonathan Wells described it at NCTA’s Marketing Workshop for Translators and Interpreters: marketing is connecting buyers and sellers. Some 25 NCTA members attended this well-organized seminar on March 10th in San Francisco in order to find out how to identify those buyers and then sell their services to them. In his presentation, Jonathan, a freelance marketing and technology consultant with Lumera Corporation, covered the basics of marketing principles and their general applicability to T&I businesses.
Marketing 101
In a broader sense, marketing involves many variables in order to make that buyer-seller connection. In addition to the critical elements of price, quality, and timeliness, the discipline also incorporates seemingly peripheral issues such as the way you answer the phone, the look of your stationery, your appearance, and even your demeanor.
Dispelling some common myths about marketing—that it’s advertising (advertising is only one component of marketing), complicated, or the same for everyone—Jonathan explained the differences between product-focused marketing (essentially selling what you have) and market-focused marketing (selling what your customers want). In both cases, you need to identify your target customers, understand their needs and wants—including price, accuracy, turnaround time, project management, and support of subcontractors—and tailor your services to them.
A plan for Getting Work
Jonathan addressed several documents that related to T&I businesses, among them the marketing plan and the resumé. The basics of a traditional marketing plan were discussed, but Jonathan was skeptical of the document’s utility in the T&I realm. He showed great enthusiasm for the resumé, however, whose role is not so much to secure the job, but rather to secure the interview.
In addition to these marketing vehicles, Jonathan also touched on a variety of other means of communication that could support the translator’s or interpreter’s outreach efforts, including websites, email, networking, and contributions to publications, the latter having particular benefit. (Potential contributors to Translorial, take note!).
All in all, the seminar was well presented and well organized. Attendees were mostly favorable. Some, however, felt that the material was not specific enough in addressing the realities of (mostly) freelance translators and interpreters, and that the presenter—although he has connections to the field—did not sufficiently rise above the liability of his not being a translator himself, and thus made general remarks that were only vaguely applicable to member needs. Most attendees, though, communicated an appreciation for the presenter’s obvious competence in his field, and his pleasant demeanor in delivering a thoughtful presentation. SG3
more
Guerilla Marketing for Translation Agencies (and freelancers too!)” http://www.linguistsuccess.com/article_gm.htm
Getting Started in Translation
Timing is everything. Such was the thought that occupied my mind throughout this workshop. That is, I couldn’t help but envy the new NCTA members who attended and got a wealth of information even before learning their way to the restroom. Not that the rest of us didn’t get the same golden package, but the new members were even luckier. Jacki Noh, Michael Schubert, and Karl Kaussen led the session.
Jacki Noh talked of the different aspects of interpreting: modes (consecutive, simultaneous, and sight translation) and types (community and conference). She stressed that since certification is mandatory for many interpreting assignments, it’s important that interpreters become certified.
Michael Schubert presented his view of the accomplished translator as the possessor of three skills—language, computer, and business—and suggested that most candidates who fail the ATA certification exam do so because they take it prematurely.
Karl Kaussen offered his perspective from the hiring side of the equation. Although professionals from abroad accept rates lower than what their U.S. counterparts usually charge, there is a downside to that; namely, their less-than-ideal command of the English language. Therefore, a solid competence in both source and target languages is an advantage that the professional can capitalize on. Alternatively, an able translator charging 10-12 cents a word may consider offering editing services (3 cents a word).
The workshop closed with an active question-and-answer session. As a final thought, a suggestion for the NCTA board of directors: including a printed copy of the materials developed by the presenters of this workshop in the New NCTA Member Package might be a helpful way for our young translators to kick-start their budding careers! LST3
Dec 1st, 2006 | Continuing Ed., NCTA Info | No Comments
Getting Started in Translation and Interpreting
Saturday, January 27, 2007, 1:00-5:00 p.m.
Mechanics’ Institute , 4th Floor, 57 Post Street, San Francisco
Overview
This workshop will give you practical information about preparing for and launching a successful career in translation or interpreting. A wide variety of useful themes will be covered, including concrete tips and resources on topics such as education (T&I schools, professional seminars, continuing-education opportunities, self–study, etc.); certification exams; office equipment and organization; marketing one’s services to agencies and direct clients; evaluating, meeting, and exceeding client’s expectations; the negotiation and drafting of contracts; resources for information on agencies’ reputations and payments practices; quality assurance; professional ethics; compensation; computers and CAT programs; research methodologies; creating and updating glossaries; reading for self-improvement; glossary creation and maintenance; bookkeeping issues; and T&I associations and conferences.
About the Presenters
DR. KARL KAUSSEN is the founder and principal of Biotext, LLC, an interlingual services company, specializing in healthcare, biotech, and pharmaceutical texts and textbooks, as well as associated legal documentation.
JACKI NOH has over 20 years of experience as a Korean-to-English interpreter in a variety of settings—administrative hearings, hospitals, state and federal courts, business meetings, depositions, training seminars, press conferences, and bilateral and multilateral negotiation talks, among others.
MICHAEL SCHUBERT has earned degrees in both Music Performance and German languages and Culture from California State University at Northridge and the Universität Heidelberg. He lived in Germany from 1990 to 2000, working as an orchestral flutist. Since 2000 he has been living in the Bay Area and working full time as a freelance German-to-English translator.
Marketing Workshop
Saturday, March 10, 2007, 1:00-4:00 p.m.
Mechanics’ Institute Library 4th Floor, 57 Post Street, San Francisco
Overview
The term marketing is often thought to be simply the advertising of a product or service. However, in professional usage the term has a far broader meaning. True marketing recognizes that products and services need to be customer-centered, developed specifically to meet the needs of individuals or groups of customers.The term is often thought to be simply the advertising of a product or service. However, in professional usage the term has a far broader meaning. True marketing recognizes that products and services need to be customer-centered, developed specifically to meet the needs of individuals or groups of customers.This workshop will focus on the “Four Ps” of customer centric marketing—product, price, promotion, and place (distribution). Topics covered will include:
- the need for market segmentation
- how to identify and target the appropriate target market
- the need to differentiate your product or service
- different pricing strategies
- the importance of customer retention as well as customer acquisition
- effective promotion of the individual translator/interpreter and his/her business
All the topics will be discussed in the context of the business of translation and interpreting.
About the Presenter
DR. JONATHAN WELLS is Director of Product Marketing for a NASDAQ-listed supplier of high tech communications equipment. He has held similar technical marketing roles at a number of other high-tech companies in the United States and overseas. He is also a strategic adviser to a Bay Area translation business. Jonathan holds Bsc, Ph.D. and MBA degrees and lives in Pleasanton.
NO ONSITE REGISTRATION!
PRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED.
Remember, space is limited. Register now by visiting our website http://www.ncta.org/ and clicking on “Workshops,” the last link on the left-hand side.
Cancellation policy:
Refunds are issued only if notice of cancellation is received no later than a week (7 days) prior to the workshop. A cancellation fee of $10 is charged for all cancellations.
NEED MORE INFO?
E-mail Andrea Wells at: continuing-ed@ncta.org.
Other events:
We are planning to offer a Trados workshop, MS Office workshop, and Italian Literature Translation workshop during the first half of 2007.
NOTE:
Events are subject to change. Please check the most current information at http://www.ncta.org/.
Dec 1st, 2006 | Business Tools, Continuing Ed., Reports | No Comments
By Luis Salvago-Toledo and Maria Amilia
MultiTerm for TRADOS
The MultiTerm workshop was held on Sunday, September 17, 2006, the second day of the ATA/NCTA Translation Seminar held at the Embassy Suites in South San Francisco. Sponsored by NCTA, the Workshop was skillfully presented by NCTA president Tuomas Kostiainen.
MultiTerm is the terminology database creation software that accompanies the Trados translation software. It is basically a way to create and keep glossaries that can then be used with Trados Workbench during the translation process.
For those of us who have been using Trados for a while but have been a bit scared by MultiTerm or confused by it, this was an excellent opportunity to have somebody “digest” the basic—and not so basic—aspects of creating terminology databases and using them with Workbench. For those who were considering purchasing Trados, this was an opportunity to learn more in order to be able to make an informed decision.
This workshop dealt mainly with the most recent versions of MultiTerm, iX and 7.0. There are two ways to start. First, you can create an empty termbase where new entries can be added directly in MultiTerm or from Word during the translation process. Second, you can take those glossaries that you have been collecting for years and convert them to the MultiTerm format to be imported later into a termbase. In order to do this, you need to use MultiTerm Convert, which comes with the program. You can also convert Excel data, MultiTerm 5 data, as well as spreadsheet and database exchange formats (TXT or CSV files). Once you have converted the data, you create a database to which the data is imported.
Next, the databases can be connected to Trados Workbench during translation. This opens a terminology window in Workbench that highlights the terms in the open segment, which may be found in the termbase. These terms can be added directly into the translation window without having to manually enter them. At this point new terms can be added to the database directly from Word.
All this and more was clearly explained by Tuomas, aided by a very clear and organized handout. More information can be found in the MultiTerm iX First Steps Guide, March 2004 edition, available at http://www.translationzone.com/download.asp?menultem=3
So … we now know what we can do during those periods when there is not much work. Lets get our glossaries into MultiTerm and start taking advantage of it! MA
Quality Assurance
Intuitively, the meaning of the expression “Quality Assurance” seems pretty straightforward; namely, to ascertain that jobs or products are developed according to a given set of client-supplied specifications and that they are functional. What’s not so obvious is how to accomplish this. Such was the clarifying aim of the “Quality Assurance Uncovered” workshop, led by Anja Belhazy on October 14th.
Ms. Belhazy, a Project Manager with HighTech Passport, Ltd., focused on the threefold character of the QA process her firm follows: Editing, Proofreading, and Testing. These three steps are separate but closely linked.
Editing, the sequential leader of the above triad, is the only step that impacts both the source and target documents. These documents are read in parallel and checked for language, style, technical soundness, consistency, and completeness. This process establishes the overall quality of a translating job and requires standard software including word processing programs, CAT tools, and dictionaries. An important aspect of editing occurs at the localization level, where cultural sensitivities must be accounted for, such as phone numbers having the same digits displayed differently.
Proofreading deals with the target document and is usually done in the original application. Issues that require careful attention include the complete translation of graphics, and the accuracy of headers, footers, and callouts, as well as that of generated lists, such as tables of contents and indices.
Testing is the final step in the QA process. It has a twofold character: software/website and help. While the former checks the overall quality of the running localized software, the latter does an online check of the overall quality of the localized website and online help (linguistic/functional). Though somewhat equivalent to Proofreading, this step adds functionality testing of table of contents/indexes (if any), and links.
The second part of the workshop was a hands-on section. Divided into three groups, we visually scanned three different jobs containing a variety of errors-many obvious, a number of them subtle. Elizabeth Riley, our volunteer scribe, lent a helping hand. Gifted with the ability to translate our sometimes-tentative suggestions into concrete corrective statements, she added clarity to a process that relies on both art and craft for success. LST
Sep 1st, 2006 | Business Tools, Continuing Ed., Reports | No Comments
By Kathleen Davis
Before I attended the NCTA Workshop on Macros for Microsoft Word and Excel, I had studiously avoided using macros at all. I knew that they could be used for global changes in documents, but since I was not familiar with exactly how they worked, and because I had heard of computer viruses or worms that worked through macros, I had carefully set my security level to high in order to disable any macros. However, I soon became annoyed every time I attempted to open a Word document, as I had to click on three different macro-related pop-up windows, all of which reminded me that the macros were disabled.
When the NCTA Macros Workshop was announced, I thought it would be a good chance to learn more about macros and what they were used for. With this knowledge, I would be more likely to use them. I could also set my security level to medium and thus avoid the “annoying three”—those little macro-related pop-up windows.
From Basic to Expert
The workshop was held on Saturday, April 29th at the Mechanics’ Institute in San Francisco and was presented by two very knowledgeable people, Karl Pfeiffer and Wassim Nassif. The presentation was given in two parts, each section being addressed by one of the two speakers. In the first part, Karl concentrated on general aspects of macros, such as definitions, the history of macros, and examples of how they can be used. In the second part of the program, Wassim gave some detailed examples of using macros to make life easier for the translator and to accomplish tasks faster.
Macros are based on BASIC (Beginner’s All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code), a family of high-level programming languages. Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is a set of event-driven programming languages that utilize macros to automate repetitive processes. The latest version of VBA, which is 6.3, and VBE (Visual Basic Editor) are normally run with host applications such as Word and Excel. VBA macros can be used to prepare glossaries for multiterm import, for repetitive formatting, automate frequently used sequences, and much more.
Macros and CAT tools
Macros can also be used to prepare a Translation Memory Workbench (TMW) export for selective editing. An example of this would be distinguishing between source and target segments to selectively check and update spelling in either the source or target segment. A macro could also be used to clean up a list of terms with multiple identical entries, without having to delete the identical entries one by one. The list could be sorted and the extraneous entries easily eliminated. The interface between VBE and the Microsoft applications is through the Tools tab on the toolbar, leading to Macro and then to Visual Basic Editor (VBE).
The most important example presented by Wassim, in my opinion, was that of counting words in an Excel file. I don’t know how many times this use of a macro would have been helpful to me, if only I had known about it. A macro can be written to sum up the words in a cell and then, applied to a range of cells, to sum up the words on an Excel sheet. This definitely saves time, energy, and eyesight; using a macro for an Excel word count will prevent having to laboriously count words by hand. Never again, thanks to Wassim and this seminar!
Although some in the audience found the information presented in this seminar a little too complex, as I heard at the mid-point break, I felt that the basic concept presented for macro design was useful and fairly easy to understand. The presenters were well prepared and in command of their topic; the essence of their presentation (in 66 pages) is available at http://pages.sbcglobal.net/pfeiffer/NCTA. This handout (actually, I should say, a handbook) gives several case studies, which were also presented in the workshop, as well as VBA concepts and terminology (as applied to both Word and Excel), and a short history of BASIC and Visual Basic.
As in the workshop presentation, the handbook provides examples of problems that macros can solve for you, including setting up a tab-delineated bilingual glossary and its conversion, as well as cleaning up a list with multiple identical entries. Other possible time-saving uses for macros are multiterm find-and-replace operations, more accurate word counts in PowerPoint and other Microsoft applications, and automatic calculation and customization of rates charged based on these word counts. In all, the NCTA Macros Workshop was well worth the afternoon and certainly opened my eyes as to the many benefits of macros.
resources
For further information on how macros operate and what they can do for you as a translator, try the following URL references, which provide more information than could be squeezed into the half-day seminar:
Sep 1st, 2006 | Continuing Ed., Localization, Reports, Translation | No Comments
By Shweta Sathe
The “Northern” in Northern California Translators Association took on a special meaning when the Triple Certification seminar came to Chico in June. Among a few other NCTA members, Shweta Sathe attended these three days of intensive workshops, hands-on practice, videos, and lectures.
I developed an interest in localization after completing a full-fledged French-to-English software localization project as part of my Master’s coursework at Kent State University, and managing linguistic Q&A website translation projects at Peritus Precision Translations. In order to gain a deeper understanding of localization and internationalization, I enrolled in the Triple Certification course offered by California State University/Chico, GALA, and The Localization Institute.
In addition to the standard workshops, the course offered 46 hours of online instruction in the form of PowerPoint presentations, lecture notes, and videos of real-time lectures recorded in previous semesters. There were tests at the end of each instruction segment to make sure we actually internalized the material. The online setup was also helpful in connecting with other course participants ahead of time. I really enjoyed this opportunity since it triggered additional peer-to-peer exchanges. The workshops provided a unique platform for novices like myself to mingle with industry leaders and to exchange ideas and learn from each other.
From my perspective as a Project Manager, I found these sessions especially useful:
Localization Kits
This session addressed the preparation of a localization toolkit, consisting of all resources and instructions such as source files, glossaries, translation memories, and locale-specific style guides.
Project Management
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Insist on clear communication and encourage people to speak up if there’s a problem. Everyone can have a bad day!
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Start a project only when you get a final ‘approval’ or PO. This is applicable to translation vendors and freelancers.
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Be proactive in identifying a problem before it occurs or find a solution and fix the issue RIGHT AWAY.
Localization Budgeting
Prepare detailed budgets for translation, testing (linguistic & functional), DTP and multimedia, and translation memory creation and maintenance.
I would definitely recommend this certification program to anyone who wants to learn more about localization, meet great people in the field, or simply has an interest in languages and international business and wants to find out what it takes to work on the industry. For further information on next year’s coursework and registration procedures, visit http://www.csuchico.edu/localize/.
May 1st, 2006 | Business Tools, Continuing Ed., Reports, Translation | No Comments
By Jennifer Allen
As a second-year student at the Monterey Institue of International Studies, I was fortunate enough to be offered a class dedicated entirely to the use of computer-assisted translation tools. It was great to know that the Institute had a focus on keeping its graduates on the cutting edge of technology, and it was exciting to learn the ins and outs of the various programs we studied. Several weeks of the semester-long class centered on the use of TRADOS, which at the time was completely unfamiliar to me. I found the software fascinating and immediately recognized its benefits. Each of us in the class invented translation memories, did test-run translations, and had the chance to see a side of the translation industry that we hadn’t seen before.
And then … I graduated. And … and promptly forgot everything I learned in that class.
A second-year graduate student living on some hefty financial aid, I balked at the handsome fee required to make TRADOS my very own. Upon graduating in 2000, I embarked on a career as a freelancer, working without the assistance of CAT tools, and I’ve been doing that ever since. Over the course of the past six years, many are the times I’ve thought to myself, “Hmmmm, I could swear I’ve translated that very sentence before … oh well, I’ll just do it again!”
That was then, this is now. Over the past year or so, it started to become increasingly clear to me that TRADOS is a reality. It began to dawn on me that some translation agencies would contract jobs only to translators who used TRADOS. This may sound naïve, but it was a legitimate realization for me. Sure, I could spend the remaining 35 years of my career translating multiples of the same long, repetitive documents on my own and get really comfortable with the copy/paste feature of my keyboard – but why? A month ago, I made the decision to relearn TRADOS and welcome the program back into the fold of my professional life.
Luckily for me, there was a TRADOS workshop just around the corner. On March 4, I joined about 25 other members of the Northern California translation community in San Francisco to watch earnestly as Tuomas Kostiainen passionately reminded us why TRADOS is such a gem.
To begin with, Tuomas was great. He has been using TRADOS in his professional career as a Finnish/English translator for the past ten years, and it shows: he knows the program like the back of his hand. After resolving the many technical difficulties that are inevitable when you bring 25 laptops into a room together, we started off with the basics. Tuomas gave us an overview of how the program works and the benefits it offers, and then we moved on to the real-world practice run. This, I truly believe, is the best way to learn a new skill. We’ve all been to classes and workshops in the past where the students sit in nice neat rows with their notepads and take careful notes on what the teacher alone is doing on an overhead projector at the front of the room. We then take our notes home and two weeks later, when we finally get around to looking at them again, have no idea how to apply them to the program we want to learn.
Not in this workshop. Each participant came equipped with two sample files that Tuomas had emailed to us the week earlier. These files consisted of a series of phrases designed to illuminate various features of the program, so that we would know how to respond at each and every turn. We followed along with Tuomas, mimicking his actions at the front of the room on the overhead projector, translating each sample file in TRADOS one sentence at a time. When there were problems—why won’t it insert the tag for me?! I already translated that segment; why is it telling me there’s no match?!– Tuomas and his quite capable group of assistants were on the case to help resolve the problem quickly, if not immediately. When it worked, we felt impressed and satisfied.
As if that weren’t enough, there were refreshments!
Obviously, there is no way to learn every single aspect of a program in four short hours. However, the amount of information Tuomas packed into the workshop was impressive; leaving the class, I truly felt empowered to run straight home with my newfound knowledge and retranslate every file I’d ever delivered, just to see how much easier it would have been to translate with TRADOS. Okay, maybe not that empowered. But pretty close.
For me, attending the NCTA TRADOS for Beginners workshop was a step in the right direction, and well worth the modest workshop fee ($45 for NCTA members). I will definitely be glued to the NCTA calendar in hopes of finding an Advanced TRADOS workshop to attend, and I highly recommend that any translator not currently using TRADOS immediately look into its benefits. This workshop is the perfect vehicle to do that.
