May 1st, 2008 | NCTA Events, Reports | No Comments
BY RAFFAELLA BUSCHIAZZO
On February 25 at 5:30 PM, a group of NCTA members, all aficionados of our monthly Happy Hours, met in Oakland at the Pacific Coast Brewing Co. The pub is in an elegant 1876 building where several museum pieces are on display. It’s conveniently located downtown, a block from the 12th Street Bart Station in an area that has been renewed and now hosts cafes, restaurants, and interesting shops, from the well-known Ratto’s European Deli to an exotic African products boutique.
After a hard day of work we enjoyed a drink while relaxing and chatting with colleagues who share the same interests. You can’t talk with just anyone you meet about the difference between cognates and “false friends,” their important role in learning languages, and how excruciating it is to see them badly translated. But at our Happy Hours you have an attentive audience ready to start an intelligent discussion on these sorts of topics. Bob Killingsworth, Sylvia Korwek, and Sharlee Merner Bradley were the key participants in this interesting debate.
I particularly enjoyed exchanging book titles such as Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky and trying to remember the name of that Nobel-laureate Portuguese writer … Salgado? Salvado? We all had his name on the tips of our tongues and Sharlee satisfied our curiosity on the spot by consulting Wikipedia directly on her iPhone. We all exulted when she pronounced the name of the well-known author of several masterpieces: José Saramago!
If you wish to organize a Happy Hour where you live, just drop me a message at events@ncta.org.
Feb 1st, 2008 | NCTA Events, Reports | No Comments
By Nina Bogdan
The annual NCTA New Year’s brunch was held at Skates on the Bay restaurant in Berkeley on January 13th. This is the fourth year that the event was held at this location and the general consensus among attendees was that it remains a good choice. Approximately 30 members attended, although apparently 50 or so sent in a positive RSVP. The whereabouts of the missing attendees remain a mystery and they certainly did miss out on a very pleasant social and networking event. This was my first time attending the brunch and I must admit that while I made the decision to go only at the last minute, I am very glad that I overcame my slothful inclinations and took the plunge.
Skates on the Bay is located on the Berkeley waterfront and has a sweeping (one might even say “spectacular” view) of the bay. The weather on Sunday was perfect—clear and bright with a slight breeze. One of the blessings of living in the Bay Area is having these unexpected very un-winter like days that pop up between rainstorms and overcast drizzly periods.
Lunch began with an offering of a variety of beverages. I, not being a designated driver for once, opted for a Bloody Mary and although it looked almost too pretty to drink, it went down quite nicely. We proceeded with ordering brunch and then were presented with pastries, coffee, and tea courtesy of NCTA.
There were quite animated social and business discussions throughout the meal and it was quite apparent that a good time was had by all. I was finally able to put names and faces together, which I find to be an important part of networking when most communications are by email. The lunch ended with what may become a traditional walk on the long pier adjacent to the restaurant and the obligatory group photo. All in all, this was a very pleasant way to spend an early Sunday afternoon.
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!
Dec 1st, 2007 | NCTA Events, Reports | No Comments
Sharlee Merner Bradley and Yasuko Wooster
Oakland
On a Wednesday evening in October, a few NCTA members who wanted to be happy together met at the Pacific Coast Brewing Company in Oakland to exchange war stories. It was exciting to have member Per Dohler, visiting from Germany with his wife Thea, join eight other NCTA members for this event. Per has been a valuable contributor to many online discussions.
On an earlier night in October, a mini-gathering of Bob Killingsworth, Luis Salvago, Sylvia Korwek, and I lunched at a Thai restaurant in Lafayette. The four NCTA members hashed out methods of getting paid from Europe.
These social gatherings, organized by Raffaella, have been a great success. We all need to relax now and then and pour out our trials and tribulations to our sympathetic colleagues. Usually we go home with new ideas and solutions to our everyday challenges. Go NCTA! SM
San Francisco
September 5th was a very warm day—rather unusual in San Francisco. At 5:30 PM, there was no fog; the breeze was soft and the skies were blue. A perfect evening to go somewhere after work!
This is the first time I have ever attended a “Happy Hour” sponsored by NCTA. In the past, I had always found some excuse for not attending such an event: “I am too tired after work,” “It is too far,” or some such reason. But not this time.
Mijita is a casual Mexican restaurant in the Ferry Building. After ordering our food, I went outside to join the other 20 or so NCTA members who also attend¬ed. Looking at the gorgeous view of San Francisco Bay, we had a drink, ate, chatted, and enjoyed each other’s company—a nice break indeed from our daily routine.
Yes, there is a life without a computer screen. Next time, please join us for an NCTA Happy Hour! YW
Sep 1st, 2007 | Business Tools, NCTA Events, Reports | No Comments
By Kathy Davis
On the golden spring evening of Wednesday, April 18, a group of nine NCTA translators and interpreters gathered at the home of Christine Lamar-Drake in San Francisco to meet Yves Champollion, the developer of the Wordfast Translation Memory engine. Mr. Champollion was in town on business (his first visit ever to San Francisco and his first time in California since the 1980s). The nine of us, some experienced in using Wordfast and others new to the tool, were together for a question-and-answer session on the use of Wordfast.
The evening began with introductions and quickly became a bilingual event, since most of the attendees were fluent in both English and French. Mr. Champollion spoke briefly of the development, in 1999, of the Wordfast tool, which is now at Version 5.51j, as of April 2, 2007. He is currently working on a linguistic experiment involving the use of Wordfast for visually-impaired translators. This project anticipates having the source segment read aloud for the translator, who can then enter the translation into the Wordfast segment.
The question-and-answer format of the evening addressed the following questions:
Q: I use Dragon Naturally Speaking (DNS) as dictation software for translations. It does not work well with Wordfast, since the cursor jumps a few lines up and down when a new segment opens. What can I do to correct this?
A: Wordfast has a tiny, three-line macro which was written to correct this problem. Use of the macro as a hook will change the code and bring the cursor back to the correct segment. This macro is available at the Wordfast website, www.wordfast.net
Q: I am having problems using Wordfast with Arabic-English translations.
A: Wordfast can be successfully used with Arabic texts. However, if Latin characters are embedded within the Arabic, there may be a problem. Go to the Wordfast hotline at the website and describe the problem in detail.
Q: The Alt-Home shortcut in Wordfast, which takes you back to the segment you were originally working on, is not operating.
A: Rather than using the shortcut, select the function from the drop-down menu. Sometimes if you use separate keyboards—for example, one for French and one for English—various shortcuts may be disabled. Check to make sure that there is a connection to only one keyboard. If a connection exists to more than one, disable the one least often used. This should enable the shortcuts again.
Q: What are the most useful features of Wordfast, beyond the basic ones?
A: The glossary feature is very useful. Word and Excel glossaries of your own can be easily converted for use with Wordfast. Convert the Excel or Word table to plain text with tab delimiters. Then save the file with a .txt extension, and specify the file as a glossary.
Q: How do you convert multiterm glossaries to a glossary usable with Wordfast?
A: Put the multiterm glossary into an Excel file, ensuring that there are no empty lines or spaces in the Excel file. Give the file a name, and specify that it is a glossary and not a translation memory (TM). This file can be converted to a Wordfast glossary as a tab-delimited file.
Q: When I open up Wordfast, I see four identical Wordfast toolbars instead of just one.
A: It seems that when you upgraded your version of Wordfast, previous versions were not deleted or replaced. Therefore a toolbar is appearing for each version. Delete the older versions of Wordfast (using Add/Remove Programs or Tools/Templates), and the extra toolbars should disappear.
Q: How do you align texts?
A: Download the Plus Tools file, available at the Wordfast website, as well as related manuals. These will guide you in alignment.
Q: how do I work with Wordfast and an Excel file?
A: Open your Excel file. Open Wordfast in Word and enter the translation into Excel. Details are provided at the Wordfast website and in the Wordfast manual.
The following snippets of information were also revealed in the course of the evening.
1. Wordfast Office is now being rewritten in Java, and the Very Large Translation Memory (VLTM), which previously was remotely accessible, is now being incorporated into the automatic installation and upgrade process.
2. The latest version of Wordfast is compatible with Office 2007 for PCs, but it is not yet compatible with the latest Mac upgrade.
3. Yves Champollion is related to Jean-François Champollion, the famous French Egyptologist (b. 23 Dec 1790, d. 4 Mar 1832) who is best known for his work (1822-24) on translating the Rosetta Stone, found during Napoleon I’s 1798-9 campaign in Egypt.
4. Wordfast is entirely compatible with Trados, which historically was the first CAT tool, developed in the early 1990s. When Mr. Champollion developed Wordfast, he re-cycled some Trados ideas, including the segmentation look, so that it would be well-integrated with Trados.
5. The choice of Java for the latest Wordfast version was based on making Wordfast available for Linux users. This will make it look something like a tag editor, but it will have the features and shortcuts of MS Word.
6. It is important to only use the website www.wordfast.net for downloading the very latest free trial version of Wordfast. Other websites may offer free versions but they are often not the latest. The Wordfast website also offers genuine support and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) to assist Wordfast users.
7. For answers and assistance with questions that are not mentioned here, users can go to the Wordfast website and get on the email list to ask questions.
One of Mr. Champollion’s other projects has been the Very Large Translation Memory (VLTM), which is now available via the Internet. He demonstrated the program, which now holds 45 languages and 45! pairs of terms, all of which were gleaned from free, open-source materials available on the Internet. It was originally created by aligning the official translations of the proposed European Union Constitution. The VLTM is read-only and can be used in conjunction with your own TMs. Although it is not highly useful for finding direct matches of entire sentences, it does have the capability of context searching, in which a sentence may be found which contains a specific word or phrase.
In order to use the VLTM, you need to have a recent, registered license for Wordfast and an open Internet connection. The VLTM can be selected in Wordfast from the TM setup dialogue box. Access is in the same manner as for normal context searches (highlighting a word or phrase and pressing CTRL-ALT-C). The source of the Translation unit (TU) can be found by pressing CTRL-M.
After the demonstration of the new VLTM, the attendees partook of a delightful potluck dinner, contributed by the participants. Among the comestibles devoured were: champagne to toast the guest speaker, Greek salad, various cheeses and crackers, a red wine bottled by one of the group, tender new spring green asparagus, spicy chicken à la kabob, fresh vegetables, a large selection of antipasto elements such as sardines and mushrooms, and for dessert brownies, ambrosia, fresh fruit slices, and rum cake.
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
Sep 1st, 2007 | NCTA Events, Reports | No Comments
By Eugenia Teytelman
I hate driving alone to unknown remote places. On a bright morning in June, with my husband out of town, and a 5-year-old in tow, the perspective of an hour-long drive to Tiburon did not seem like fun. But I promised my son Lev some fun in the sun. And besides, I badly needed company of fellow adults.
It was my second time at an NCTA event, and I was not sure I would find familiar faces right away. With a cheerful smile and the magical word “NCTA”—which had already paid for my parking—I was directed to a BBQ-frying couple who turned out to be Raffaella Buschiazzo and Marc Weber.
The park was great. A real paradise, with a splendid view of the bay and the San Rafael bridge, with lazy fishermen on the pier … but no playground! What a bummer! And no kids of Lev’s age! That meant I’d have to entertain him myself!
So I was torn apart between pleasant adult company and a sweet tyrant who made me fill his balloons with water almost nonstop. Later on, Michael Metzger’s wife Chikako came and joined him in his play. Probably, the fact that she did not mind getting wet made Lev think that adults in general loved this, and he approached Marc Weber from behind and just poured water on him. Thank God Marc was good-natured about that and it was a warm day.
A mixture of old and new faces, accents and perspectives, jokes and handshakes. With all the socializing and water play, I didn’t have time to eat, but still I got a taste of gourmet food: from sushi and salads, to pastas and BBQ meats, to home-made cookies, sesame balls and strawberries.
A delicious afternoon, by any account!
May 1st, 2007 | NCTA Events, NCTA Info | No Comments
By Paula Dieli
Great food, a wonderful view, and genuine camaraderie were enjoyed by a sizeable crowd of NCTA members and their families January 28th at the New Years’ Brunch at Skates on the Bay on the Berkeley pier.
As we arrived at the restaurant, attendees were warmly greeted by the board and fellow members so we all had a chance to say hello before sitting down to an enjoyable get-together.
We started our meal with delicious pastries that NCTA offered to us along with coffee. When it came time to place our orders, we were already into rousing discussions of world politics and lighter conversations in which we shared our thoughts on favorite films.
The weather cooperated with us and the rain held off so we were able to enjoy a beautiful view of the bay and wildlife as we watched boats sailing by. It was so scenic and restful that it hardly seemed we were just a few minutes from bustling city life!
Over coffee, again generously provided by the association, we then played musical tables and caught up with friends new and old. As a new member (having joined just this past October), I’m continually pleasantly surprised by the support and encouragement that the longer-term members provide to us “newbies.” For example, Ines Swaney kindly introduced me to a member who happened to be looking for someone who works in my language pair and then provided me with an index card and pen so I could pass on my contact information (note to self: next time bring more business cards!). It sure is great to be part of such a supportive group! One of the people at my table is considering becoming a translator and came to the brunch to get a feel for the group and to see what kind of environment it is and I know she felt welcome. So thanks to all of you for supporting the newer members—I pledge to do the same when it’s my turn!
As the get-together was winding down, folks seemed reluctant to leave as there were still many people to say hello to and catch up with. There was still a sizeable crowd as the brunch wrapped up with a walk on the Berkeley pier afterwards, extending the camaraderie that I now know is typical of this group. Here’s to another wonderful year of NCTA membership!3
Dec 1st, 2006 | NCTA Events, NCTA Info | No Comments
By Norihito Hamaguchi
Picnics bring out the best in us. Away from our cubes, with family and colleagues-turned-friends, we let our hair down and share treats and stories in a beautiful setting on (if we’re lucky) a beautiful day. Welcome to the Great NCTA Picnic, in which a new member gets a warm welcome in Tilden Park—and then volunteers to write about it!
Hello, is this the Big Leaf Picnic Area?” “Yes, are you here for the NCTA picnic?” “Great! I am Norihito from Morgan Hill.”
Raffaella Buschiazzo and her husband, Marc Weber, gave me a warm welcome. They were busy preparing for the BBQ; soaking hickory pellets in water, wrapping some vegetables in foil, and arranging food on the table. There were a few children, playing in the field and climbing trees. Occasionally some hikers walked by. It was a gorgeous day: perfect weather, a beautiful meadow surrounded by mature trees, and steep hills with no house or cell phone tower in sight.
I joined ATA and NCTA only a month ago and had been looking forward to meeting fellow members for the first time. I rush-ordered my new business cards for this occasion and was ready to give them to anyone I met. Actually, not having lived in Japan since graduating from college, I never participated in the Japanese business card-giving tradition, and failed to give my cards to the first few people I met! When I met Tuomas Kostiainen, the NCTA president, I was determined to share one with him. He politely gave me his, along with a quick rundown of what NCTA does. It is one of the benefits of living in the Bay area.
Tetu Hirai, who has been tirelessly answering my never-ending basic questions about NCTA, could not make the picnic, but he would have been proud to see the fresh fruits I brought for the occasion.
Tuomas said some members like raw vegetables and fruits and this comment invited some heated discussion about cooking, just as the fire was roaring in the grill.
Other members trickled in, some alone, some with family members. It was very nice to meet them all and talk about wide-ranging topics; from why the pony ride in the park was closed, to why healthcare is so expensive.
Thank you, Raffaella and Marc and NCTA!
Sep 1st, 2005 | NCTA Events, NCTA Info | No Comments
By Raffaella Buschiazzo
When we left San Francisco at mid-morning Sunday the 26th of June, it was foggy, of course. I kept telling myself that by the time we got to Coyote Point Park in San Mateo County, the spot we had chosen for the picnic, the fog would have disappeared, but nothing happened for a long while. We were worried. Then suddenly, right before San Mateo, the fog left room for a nice sunny day and at that point we knew that we could enjoy our NCTA picnic without the need to dress for a winter camp in Alaska!
We arrived at the aptly named Eucalyptus Picnic Area # 1 and started exploring the surroundings. The location is pretty, in a grove of the trees on top of a gentle hill facing a green golf course at the foot of the coast range on one side, and a small harbor on the Bay side.
When the first NCTA members began arriving around one, the charcoal was ready to cook the delicious ribs that Marianne Pripps had brought, along with our humble sausages. That is how the feast started. We wrapped mushrooms and other vegetables in aluminum foil and put everything on the grill. This is the way I prefer to cook: checking the fire from time to time, with a glass of wine in my hand, chatting in very good company. There is nothing better and easier.
We had a taste of France when Sonia Murray and her husband and son arrived, bringing with them her famous homemade pâté, made from a family recipe that we all appreciated very much. When Tatyana Neronova and her family joined us, we all moved to a big table under the trees, not far from our barbecue but sheltered from the sun that was getting very warm. Later, Tetu Hirai arrived with the perfect summer dessert: fruit salad with grenola and soy yoghurt. Delicious!
The picnic lasted all afternoon, with comings and goings, and good food and good moods. It was once again a successful NCTA event, where people had an opportunity to meet, socialize, and share the ups and downs of the translator’s life, all in a very pleasant atmosphere.
So next time you feel lonely and uninspired in front of the screen—or elated at finding the perfect translation for that tricky word—just think of the next NCTA event, when you will be able to meet the people who understand your travails and triumphs! See you at the next one!
