Dec 1st, 2005 | Interviews, Localization, NCTA Info, NCTA Members, Translation | No Comments
By Anna Schlegel
Silvia Campos is an International Web Manager at VeriSign, a company that delivers intelligent infrastructure services. A native of Brazil who has been living in the Bay Area for the past eight years, she has more than five years of experience in the localization industry: as a translator, as a project manager for a translation agency, and now on the client side with VeriSign. Silvia is fluent in Portuguese, English, and Spanish, and she is now learning French. She has a master’s degree in business from San Francisco State University.
What are the responsibilities of an “International Web Manager”?
SILVIA CAMPOS: My job is to manage the ongoing maintenance and production of content for our international websites as well as translations, vendor and stakeholder relationships, and in-house reviews. I work with cross-functional teams (content partners, design, legal, developers, engineers, and QA) to implement site changes across our websites. When working with the different teams I need to ensure that the site gets built according to specification, on time, and on budget. I am also responsible for analyzing site traffic and data, evaluating user surveys, and participating in user testing. Finally, I need to make sure that we integrate the corporate brand strategy on the international sites through both visual and messaging.
Where does your passion for languages come from?
I always liked languages, but I guess it really started when I moved to the U.S. in 1997. I was living in a hotel for international students, a type of residence common in San Francisco. There, I met people from all over the world and thus was exposed to numerous languages and cultures. I was fascinated by them: all the differences and the common ways of life of my fellow international friends. Learning languages, visiting countries, and experiencing the different cultures became my passion.
How did you get your start in the translation business?
I started teaching Portuguese to Americans and doing occasional translations. These became more frequent and more complex, and because of my medical background I began doing a lot of medical translations. I was also doing voiceover work and interpretation. I landed a job at a dotcom company as a full-time translator, but later my responsibilities increased and I became the localization project manager.
Please describe your ideal translator and localization manager.
My ideal translator is reliable, available, flexible, and up to date on current issues. He or she is passionate about languages and cultures and is a native speaker of the target language. The ideal project manager is always on top of things, is detail oriented, has great interpersonal skills, and is pleasant to work with. Additionally, he or she is fluent in at least two languages.
Do you find that language - and language professionals - are becoming more important and visible in U.S. Companies?
Absolutely. As the Internet became popular over the past decade, local companies in many countries started to create their own sites offering products and services in the local language. This gave them an edge over U.S. companies; they had broken the language barrier. But as American companies began to see the need for localized sites, the importance of language professionals in this country grew drastically. Today, we know that a U.S. company wishing to succeed in other cultures must offer its products and services - as well as its website - in the target country’s language.
How does English influence other language localization?
The high-technology industry and the Internet are relatively new, so many of the terms pertaining to these fields were created in the U.S. and never translated, making the English language pretty common in a lot of the localized materials. In addition, a lot of times companies don’t translate product and service names because of corporate branding policies that dictate that names must remain the same; sometimes they even keep acronyms that don’t mean anything in a foreign language.
What are the major challenges facing corporations today?
Companies face challenges at all levels: from the day-to-day management of localization requests to the coordination of strategic localization initiatives. These days, it is no longer acceptable to offer older versions of products in foreign markets; the Internet-connected buyer is well informed and wants the latest version of products that are being sold in the company’s home market. Because of that, companies now must keep up with the demand for accurate and up-to-date information in all the markets in which they offer products - a huge and expensive effort. Conversely, in order to be competitive in foreign markets, companies need to reduce their globalization costs, but without affecting the quality of their localized content. It is a delicate balancing act.
What was the most difficult translation challenge you’ve faced in your own work?
It was probably when I first started as a translator. I had to localize a collection of children’s books to Brazilian Portuguese, and I was given a very tight deadline. There were a lot of words not found in the dictionaries, words that only children and parents know about. For a starter, it was a tough one.
What you are reading now about the localization field?
I’m reading Business Without Borders by Donald A. DePalma.
Sep 1st, 2005 | NCTA Info, NCTA Members, Reports | No Comments
By Steven Goldstein, with database assistance from Brigitte Reich
In our May issue, we looked at where our non-Northern California U.S. members live, and why they retain their ties to NCTA. In this issue, we focus on our international members, and find out from them what it is about our Northern California organization that keeps them connected.
Of NCTA’s nearly 500 individual members, 28 live outside the United States. While this may not seem like a lot, it’s fair to ask why even that relatively small number choose to keep their membership in an organization that is often a continent or an ocean away.
NCTA’s international members live on every continent except Antarctica and Australia; we have 14 members in Europe, seven in North America, four in Asia Pacific, two in South America, and one in Africa. To break it down further, our European members include six colleagues in France, two each in Germany and Italy, and one each in Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Hungary; our North America colleagues number seven in Canada; our Asia Pacific membership includes three individuals in Japan, and one in China; our South American contingent numbers one in Chile and one in Brazil; and our lone African representative lives in Morocco.
A number of our international members report that maintaining their ties to NCTA helped them when they moved away, not only in terms of the work contacts they were able to keep, but also in providing a sense of familiarity as they were navigating new and sometimes uncharted waters in a different country.
Easing transitions
Emmanuelle Cassan, who now resides in France, says that a difficult decision to the leave the Bay Area was made easier by her connection to NCTA. “The Bay really felt like home,” says Emmanuelle. “Professionally, it all had started there and all my clients were in the U.S. It felt as if I had a safety net under me: I could always write to ask something. It was also a way of still being in the Bay Area, somehow.”
Other reasons for maintaining ties range from the practical to the romantic. Masumi Otaka, an English-to-Japanese translator living in France, notes that because of the unusual nature of his language pair in a country where the native language is neither one, his connections to the U.S. market via his membership in NCTA were vital in continuing to provide a source of jobs (and moral support!) that might have been difficult to find otherwise.
This was true also for Lieselotte Schwarzenberg, who—while having lived in the Bay Area in the seventies—joined NCTA only five years ago, from her current residence in Santiago, Chile. “I joined from here because I wanted the contact with American colleagues,” says Lieselotte, “which has been very interesting and worthwhile through the mailing lists. In addition, I was looking for more work and proposed helping association members on projects if they needed it.”
Dr. Ulrike Walter, an NCTA member currently residing in Germany, says that while she does not at present make much use of her membership, she keeps her ties “because I love NCTA, the people, and what the organization stands for. Being connected to my second home, keeping in touch with colleagues via the mailing list … perhaps a workshop or conference will even draw me back to the Bay Area.”
While some of our international members have joined local translation organizations in their new countries, others have not; this despite local market conditions that would seem to make reaching out to local colleagues a beneficial endeavor. In France, says Emmanuelle, “in order to really make a decent profit without work-ing 90 hours per week, we need to either work for the government (be certified for a local court, for example), work with other translators to share a clientele, or move to England, Spain, Poland to pay less taxes!”
Ties that bind
In Germany, Ulrike reports that “we struggle with the impact from monopolization and globalization like other places, but there also is a tradition here of translators working for direct clients rather than agencies and that provides some counterbalance.” And Lieselotte reports that “the state of the translation industry in Chile is quite developed, and while neither as much nor as specialized as in the U.S., there are signs of progress from year to year.”
In Germany, Ulrike reports that “we struggle with the impact from monopolization and globalization like other places, but there also is a tradition here of translators working for direct clients rather than agencies and that provides some counterbalance.” And Lieselotte reports that “the state of the translation industry in Chile is quite developed, and while neither as much nor as specialized as in the U.S., there are signs of progress from year to year.”Perhaps, in the end, the NCTA connection is strong enough to carry our international members in whatever their current work situations may be. Virtually all members keep in touch with NCTA goings-on via Translorial—either in printed or PDF form—and with each other through the email lists, where members have found helpful hints about their new countries from others who arrived before them.
“Before I left California,” says Emmanuelle, “and just when I got here, I emailed Dee Braig often to ask questions regarding the way things worked out here for her, how she moved her computer, how she got settled … It was nice for me to know that someone I knew (only virtually, though) was there.”
It is nice to know, too, from the standpoint of the organization, that there exists an informal NCTA professional camaraderie that extends outward—often very far outward—from our base here in Northern California. These professional relationships, which are personal, too, sometimes, reflect the very best of who we are as an association. No matter where in the world we are.
May 1st, 2005 | Interpretation, Interviews, NCTA Members | No Comments
By Michael Schubert
After working as an interpreter for over 25 years both in Taiwan and in California, NCTA member C.J. Phillips retired at the beginning of this year. Her résumé is a long and distinguished one. She worked as the chief translator and editor at the National Central Library and National Museum of History in Taipei, Taiwan, from 1980-1985, and as a freelance translator and editor before starting work in 1997 as a registered Mandarin interpreter for U.S. District Court in San Jose and for the Santa Clara County Superior Courts. C.J. translated statements made by Democracy Movement leaders following the Tiananmen Massacre for the San Francisco Chronicle in June 1989, and also did work for the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, among others organizations. Visit C.J.’s website, www.cjphillips.com, for more on her amazing career.
While an interpreter, C.J. was an active member of NCTA, as well as the Bay Area Court Interpreters (BACI) and the National Association of Judicial Interpreters and Translators (NAJIT), and is known among her colleagues for her mentoring of younger Chinese interpreters, her presentations at workshops and lectures on interpreter issues, and her work for interpreters’ benefits and rights. C.J. is married to Chinese scholar and author J.H. Huang. They have one daughter, Deborah.
Is your imminent retirement to be a clean break, or do you anticipate still dabbling in translation and/or interpretation?
C.J. Phillips: This should be a clean break from court interpreting, although I still have a few old cases and good clients that will keep me from going completely to pasture. I have some private translation work that will keep me busy, too. This mainly will be translation of classical Chinese works.
What has been the proportion of interpreting to translating over your career, and which activity do you prefer or find more fulfilling?
About 50-50, and I enjoy both types of work very much. From the standpoint of immediate gratification, I got a lot of pleasure out of working as a court interpreter, since I was able to work directly with people. From an intellectual standpoint, translation is wonderful because it gives me time to think about my work and hone it until I’m satisfied with the results. I’ve been very lucky in that I’ve worked in both fields from the very beginning.
I have heard Taiwanese acquaintances say that the simplified written Chinese, dominant on the mainland, is ruining the Chinese language. Do you see it in such stark terms, and do you believe traditional written Chinese can survive whatever eventual reunification there is between China and Taiwan?
I don’t know whether simplification will stand the test of time, but both forms are widely used in the Chinese-speaking world. However, even though government-mandated simplified forms remain the standard in Mainland China, they generally are not understood in the areas that still employ traditional characters. Some of this has to do with politics, but much of this has to do with how a culture evolves. One thing many people forget, though, is that not all the characters were simplified; in fact, only less than ten percent, or around 2,800, so it is only a small fraction.
The Chinese government has a new policy now of “yong jian, ren fan,” meaning that while simplified characters should remain the norm, people should begin to recognize the traditional forms, too. The problem is that while the evolution and sources for traditional script remain very clear, the synthetic creation of the simplified forms cut the language off from its cultural roots. China’s 5,000-year-old history is too closely intertwined with its written language for the traditional forms to be blithely discarded. And the Chinese people I know generally agree with this.
What I’ve found encouraging is that more and more people—particularly the intelligentsia and the young—have returned to traditional script. I’ve even seen everyday people come to the U.S. from Mainland China and start picking up traditional characters so that they can read the paper, watch Chinese television with the subtitles on, and be more a part of the local Chinese community. Of course, the media and the Internet have helped a great deal, too. But I haven’t seen this interest flow in the other direction!
As to which form will last, perhaps the two forms will evolve together into a new form. Who knows? Only time will tell.
I see on your website that you have experience in movie subtitling. Does the recent boom in Chinese martial arts/fantasy cinema represent the kind of Chinese cinema that is also popular in Asia, or are these films directed more toward a Western audience?
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was a hit, as have been films in the same vein such as Hero and House of Flying Daggers. Cross-cultural action movies such as the Matrix series, Shanghai Knights, Tarantino’s films, and so forth have also proved to be big at the box office, but then again, so have all the other big movies we’ve enjoyed here in the U.S.
I imagine you have traveled widely. What are some of your favorite places on Earth?
In no particular order: San Francisco, Chinese Turkestan, Xi’an, Tainan, Beijing, Vancouver, and the Big Apple.
May 1st, 2005 | NCTA Info, NCTA Members, Reports | No Comments
By Catherine Theilen-Burke, with database assistance from Brigitte Reich
We often try to define ourselves as an organization: Who are we? What is our mission? What are our individual interests and passions? In this two-part series, prompted by a recent flurry of emails in our online discussion group, we’ll tackle something far simpler: Where do we live? And why, for those of us who no longer reside in Northern California, do we choose to keep up our NCTA membership? In September, we’ll look at our overseas contingent. To start us off, though, Catherine Theilen-Burke examines our all-American diaspora.
A somewhat surprising one out of four NCTA members lives outside of Northern California. Here’s how we break down: of our nearly 500 individual members, 459 live in the United States and 28 overseas. Of our domestic membership, 416 live in California, and 43 out of state.Within California, 363 live in Northern California, and 53 live in Central and Southern California. Within Northern California, 337 live in the Bay Area and 26 in the Sacramento region. And finally, within the Bay Area, 98 live in San Francisco, 94 in the East Bay, 21 in Marin, 40 in the South Bay, 60 on the Peninsula, and 24 in Sonoma.
Long-time Northern California resident Maren Mentor, who recently moved to rural Pennsylvania, provided an insight into NCTA membership. “I consider NCTA the most active ATA chapter, have made many personal and professional friends over the years, and appreciate member benefits such as the email list and Translorial,” she says. Maren has maintained her ties with her NCTA friends and says that the more inclusive and active the email list, the better. Her work for translation companies does not reflect the economic situation in her current region, which is “rural, economically depressed, and monocultural.” Maren’s situation demonstrates that translators are expanding their possibilities of where they can live, even taking advantage of places where a good standard of living need not depend solely on the performance of the local economy.
Chantal Wilford, a resident of Colorado, has kept ties for similar reasons. “I’ve kept my membership because the association is active, and appears to be known and respected by other translators in the U.S. I’ve come to know, recognize, and respect many of our members and I continue to get work from people who find me via NCTA’s online referral database.” For Chantal, the concept of an online community is attractive; getting to know members over a period of time is rewarding and the business contacts useful. The Entre Nous French online discussion group is particularly active, with members putting out queries and generating responses on a regular basis. The brainstorming initiated by these queries offers lessons in approaching material that is often difficult to decipher.
Steve Vitek is another NCTA member who no longer lives in Northern California, having moved to Virginia a few years back. He wrote about his experience in an earlier Translorial article entitled “Home is Where You Hook up your Modem.” Steve’s reasons for moving involved quality-of-life issues for himself and his family, who are now thriving in a seaside area that he says is not so different from Northern California—except in terms of the cost of living. Fortunately, he has kept virtually all of the clients he had here in Northern California; another indication that in our electronically connected age, location doesn’t really matter if you can consistently deliver quality work on time and have a good relationship with your clients.
NCTA is represented in the Great Northwest by several members, including, among others, George Fowler and the recently relocated Tony and Sylvie Roder. George resides in Spokane, Washington, where he is currently on the board of directors of fellow-ATA chapter Northwest Translators and Interpreters Association. After living in the Asia Pacific region for more than three decades and working for most of that period in the commercial banking sector, George comes to translation with related experience in four Asian langugages. George joined NCTA when he first started translating in view of the correlation between his language specialties and the translation needs of the large ethnic Asian population of the Northern California area covered by NCTA. As with others, George cites a diverse membership as being a powerful benefit of belonging to organizations such as NCTA.
To paraphrase one of our most inventive linguists, Dr. Seuss, “From here to there, from there to here, NCTA translators are everywhere!”
Feb 1st, 2005 | French, Interviews, Literary Translation, NCTA Info, NCTA Members, Translation | No Comments
Interview by Michael Schubert
NCTA member Alison Anderson leads a triple life as a novelist, French-to-English literary translator, and employee of the French consulate in San Francisco. After growing up in the eastern United States, she moved to Switzerland as a teenager. There she earned a degree in French and Russian literature and later an M.A. from the University of Geneva School of Translation and Interpretation. Widely traveled, she has taught English in Greece and Croatia and also lived in France.
After two decades abroad, she returned to the United States, finally settling in the Bay Area in 1987. Her first novel, Hidden Latitudes, was published in 1996 and named a Best Book of the Year by the San Francisco Chronicle. She is a recent NEA grant recipient for literary translations (works of Christian Bobin), and her published translations include Onitsha by JMG Le Clezio and a comprehensive history of the Surrealist movement. Alison’s latest novel, set in Mauritius, is entitled Darwin’s Wink and has just been published by St. Martin’s Press. Alison’s association with the NCTA goes back to 1988.
You’ve cited your travels as inspiration for your novels - specifically, your sailing trip to Mexico for your first novel, Hidden Latitudes, your trips to Mauritius for Darwin’s Wink, and your time in Greece for your novel-in-progress, The Road to the Island. Can you elaborate on how travel inspires you?
ALISON ANDERSON: Travel heightens the senses and attunes you to the exotic. It makes you more aware of the people who surround you, even if you don’t speak their language. Travel opens your imagination.
Are language and culture important plot elements in your fictional work?
Not in Hidden Latitudes, since it’s set on a desert island! They are more important in Darwin’s Wink, because Mauritius is a melting pot of many different cultures. I had to reflect these historic and cultural differences. The Road to the Island is more homogeneous, about a Greek-American woman who goes to Greece to research her family history.
Is your multilingualism and your experience as a translator always present in your thoughts as you write? Do you imagine how people of different cultures will understand your words or how translators will render them?
First of all, I came to writing through translation; it was the confidence I developed through manipulating other people’s words which gave me the strength to try it on my own. As far as incorporating my knowledge of languages into my own fiction, in The Road to the Island, I am aware in writing the dialogs that the people are actually speaking Greek and I imagine this dialog in Greek and “translate” it. The same was true for French in Darwin’s Wink. But I don’t imagine or worry about the job of some future translator when I am writing in English!
Tell us about your career as a translator.
I translate almost exclusively literature now. After I earned my M.A., I began doing general translation work. I tested for the United Nations, but they weren’t hiring. I did various other jobs before finding my way to literary translation. My first translation, of La place by Annie Ernaux, was not accepted by the publishers, but they thought enough of my work to steal my rendering of the title! (The British translation, which they ended up using, had been called Positions; it was published in America under my title, A Man’s Place). My next experiences were better: two books on sailing for Sheridan House. In a nice instance of serendipity, it was through them that I found the agent for my first novel. Since then I’ve translated a number of art books, several novels (I’m most proud of Onitsha, which is a beautiful autobiographical novel about Africa), and am currently working on two more novels, one a fictional biography of the great Egyptian singer Oum Kalthum.
Do your writing and translation careers compete with or complement each other?
Complement. Of course, they sometimes compete for time, but they complement each other in their methodology. I devote roughly equal amounts of time to both translating and writing, though that can vary depending on my specific projects. My travels, my knowledge of foreign languages, and my experience with different cultures have all helped my careers in both writing and translation.
Sep 1st, 2004 | Agencies, Interviews, NCTA Members | No Comments
By Anna Schlegel
Founded by Dagmar Dolatschko in San Carlos, California in 1991, NCTA Corporate Member Peritus Precision Translations (peritustranslations.com) offers a full range of language and globalization services including translation, interpretation, software localization, linguistic quality assurance, and international brand name analysis. A native of Germany, Dagmar is certified as a translator by the Bavarian Ministry for Education and Culture, and has a graduate degree from the highly accredited European language institute “Sprachen- und Dolmetscher-Institut,” in Munich.
How did your business get its start?
DAGMAR DOLATSCHKO: Peritus began as an “international trade consulting side business” in 1991, although it has since evolved into a focused translation agency. Originally, it was the outcome of my work in export/import and the desire to start something of my own after obtaining my MBA. It was called Peritus International at the time and, strangely enough, was founded in San Carlos, CA, where we landed again in 1999, after having been in Massachusetts for some time. In the first year of our new agency, in 1996, I had already won a few projects that required up to seven languages. Today that number is at 70 languages, with about 50 percent of our business coming from California, and the rest from all over the U.S. and some from Europe.
What languages do you deal with the most?
The majority of our work is in the standard business languages, such as French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, and Korean. This is probably true for most agencies, and is determined by economic need for those languages. But we also work in Nordic and Eastern European languages, as well as Vietnamese, Russian, Khmer and Lao.
What does the name of your translation agency stand for?
Peritus is Latin; it describes a person who helps others with their knowledge; an expert, a qualified professional. That was fitting for the image I want the firm to portray.
Describe your ideal translator.
My ideal translator is solid in two or three languages. He or she either studied the languages and/or lived in countries where those languages are spoken. This translator truly knows his or her mother tongue, is specialized in a number of related fields, and has the professionalism to say no to work in areas that he or she does not feel fully comfortable in.
We use quite a lot of translators who are excellent examples of what I expect of our profession. Besides the professional, linguistic background and experience, I am also looking for certain characteristics such as great attention to detail, commitment to quality, flexibility, willingness to follow instructions, technical capability to use today’s software as necessary, willingness to accept feedback to learn and grow, and the ability to work on a team with an editor or other translators (on large projects).
Describe your ideal interpreter.
My ideal interpreter meets criteria similar to the translator’s from a linguistic and professional background. But the best interpreters also have quite a few years of experience, have diplomacy and sensitivity, can adapt easily to change, and always come across as true professionals. A translator can often hide behind the computer and has more time to figure things out. An interpreter is on stage and needs to perform the way an actor performs. Another aspect I find very important for both translators and interpreters is the willingness to speak up if you find errors or oversights in the source language. This is more the case for translators—interpreters have to handle such issues with great tact. This shows that the translator is really engaged and has thought about the work and did not just mechanically translate the text.
What are your current challenges?
Client education—making sure clients understand why there is a certain price for good work and at the same time dealing with the ever-increasing price pressures from low-cost translation vendors, both in the U.S. and overseas. That is probably the biggest challenge. It makes it hard for all of us professionals, to see the low price at which the art of translation is traded in some circles.
Where do you see the translation business in 10 years?
I see more and more mergers and acquisitions. The big fish will get bigger. The small fish will have to find their niches and diversify or specialize. Using tools such as MT can no longer be avoided and will be an important part of the survival of the fittest. I don’t think that machine translation will be a challenge to high-end, high quality translation, however. There is no substitute for the subtleties of the human mind.
May 1st, 2004 | Interviews, Italian, Literary Translation, NCTA Members, Translation | No Comments
By Steven Goldstein
Congratulations are in order for one of our very own, Anne Milano Appel, who has recently been awarded the Northern California Book Award (formerly the BABRA Award) in the translation category. Anne, holder of a doctorate in Italian literature, was recognized for her translation of Italian author Stefano Bortolussi’s debut novel, Head Above Water (Fuor D’Acqua), published by City Lights Books of San Francisco.
Presented by the Bay Area Book Reviewers Association (BABRA), the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association, and Poetry Flash, the Book Awards honor excellence in a variety of literary genres, recognizing exceptional service to the literary community and to the broader culture. Anne’s translation— which competed with two other outstanding works—was described as “elegant and transparent.”
The road to the award was long, although—as many of Anne’s fellow translators might concur—perhaps not entirely atypical. After having her initial proposal to translate a different work rejected (it is difficult enough to have a proposal accepted at a large publishing house, let alone a small one—even one headed by a renowned translator of Italian poems, as is the case with City Lights!) Anne was referred by the publisher to a different author, who hired her for a completely different project—a collection of short stories. Although Anne’s translation of these stories was never published, it was only after completing this work that she was offered Bortolussi’s intriguing and beguiling manuscript about a man, his past, and the opportunity for redemption.
For reasons that largely have to do with the nature of the publishing industry in Italy—and in other European countries, for that matter, where the sheer volume of imported literature is enormous—Head Above Water was never published in that country. But inspired in part by the story’s blending of family, mourning, and renewal in 1970s Italy, Anne believed it was important to make the publisher feel that she was the right choice to bring this novel to an English-speaking audience.
Instead of merely agreeing to do the translation, Anne translated a prova, or sample, of what she felt was a pivotal part of the novel, and presented it to City Lights. Thus began what would quickly grow into a solid and ultimately satisfying relationship among all three parties: author, translator, and editor/publisher. While Anne’s translation proceeded fairly smoothly with very little interaction between her and the author, she nonetheless feels that the trust they shared—and the opportunity for her to have access to him—was very important.
In a moment of reflection, Anne touches upon the one-sided nature that translation can sometimes represent. “I feel it’s unfair for them,” she says, referring to authors, “because I get to know their minds—I get to know them from inside their heads—and they don’t get to know anything about me except the final product that I’ve created, which is their work.”
That the final product in this case satisfied the author, however, was never a question: Mr. Bortolussi—a translator himself— supported Anne’s work throughout the process and called her translation “masterful” in his generous acknowledgements in the preface to the novel.
What does the award mean to Anne? Aside from the niceties of an elegant reception and the nervousness associated with a formal awards ceremony (as with the Academy Awards, she did not know in advance whether she would win or not), Anne is appreciative of the recognition. She is, however, under no illusion that this will make her a rock star among translators.
“For me, just getting an article or a translation published is a reward,” she says. “So this was especially nice.”
Anne sees the award primarily as a validation from her peers. Whereas going to a conference and being part of a reading or panel is certainly satisfying, the recognition that comes from receiving an award is both deeper and broader at the same time. It also confers a sense of satisfaction for labors that go all too often unappreciated— and sometimes, unfortunately, completely unnoticed—in our larger culture.
“In addition,” she says with a smile, “the award meant getting away from the computer for a change and getting to talk ‘live’ with people who have similar interests! We translators live like hermits, so human interaction is always welcome!”
If her recent award is any indication, Anne may soon find herself getting out more: at the reception for the Book Awards, she was invited to an upcoming PEN-West-sponsored book party, at which all of the past year’s published authors will be gathered. Although she maintains she is not tempted to write her own book, her recent efforts may well translate into new opportunities in the future.
Sep 1st, 2003 | Business, Interviews, Localization, NCTA Members | No Comments
By Andrea Bindereif
At the May 2003 general meeting, Anna Schlegel, Global Content Manager at Xerox and long-time member of NCTA, presented a Q&A session about the localization market for translators. Originally from Spain, Anna had made the exciting transition from freelance translator to in-house translator and then project manager during the boom years, in the mid- and late 1990s. She has worked for some of the biggest companies in the industry, such as Cisco Systems and Xerox, and has experienced the transformation of the translation field firsthand. We captured Anna’s view of the localization industry in an interview.
TL: Anna, tell me a little bit about yourself. Where are you from, when and why did you come to the US, and how did you start as a translator in this country?
AS: I am Catalán. I come from a little beautiful village called Olot, at the foot of the Pyrenees, not far from Perpignan. I came to the States in 1992, and I had already started my own little translation business in my head flying over in the plane, thinking what I would do in this country if I were not accepted into an MBA Program.
TL: How was the translation industry when you started working here? And how was it in Spain back then?
AS: When I started here in the States I had WordPerfect, there were no translation tools, and I was already being paid 11 cents a word. Localization and Globalization were really scary words to me at that time, but I already wanted to learn more about them.
In Spain, I had worked at a software engineering firm, translating manuals into English, and I was being paid the equivalent of $5 an hour. That was in 1990. That was also my fifth year of studies in German philology, and I needed the cash to survive in Barcelona. Then I came to the States. To get by, I also had to teach English and German. I didn’t know how to get into the translation market back then.
TL: How did you make the transition from freelance to in-house translator at one of the biggest tech companies?
AS: I got a phone call one day from a desperate HR employee at Cisco saying, “We hear you are good, can you start tomorrow?” The next day I got an anxiety attack, but I started anyway. It was awful. I was sitting in a conference room with all these corporate folks with paradigms, visions and objectives, Q1s and levels of effort, suits and PowerPoints full of acronyms. I thought I would die.
I found out later that a Silicon Graphics employee for whom I had done telephony translations had recommended me for the position. He was Andreas Ramos. I will always remember his name, and I don’t know if I would ever have worked in these powerhouses otherwise.
TL: How important was translation work for high-tech companies in the 1990s, and how much respect did translators enjoy?
AS: The work was very well paid, we were already able to telecommute, and we learned TRADOS and other tools. It was fun, but also scary because we were just translators trying to navigate the bureaucracy in these really big corporations.
TL: How has your own role as an inhouse translator for high-tech companies changed over the years?
AS: I started as an in-house translator and was promoted several times in the course of three years. Those were the good old days… I went from consultant to in-house translator to project manager to program manager II to leading a small team. And now to leading the globalization effort for a bigger operation of 28 websites.
TL: Can you tell us a bit about the development of software localization and globalization?
AS: It is key to be part of the very first stages of whatever software application you’re working on, and you need to raise your concerns right at the requirements phase. You want to follow its development all the way until implementation. Some companies, or should I say groups, are better than others in engaging the global folks at the outset of software development. Globalization really happens through education of software developers and close collaboration with your stakeholders.
Also, you need to find the kinds of people who can bridge technology and the business side of why you need a global tool. Communication and being at the same level is key.
TL: Do you remember the early translation tools, and can you tell us how they’ve developed over the past few years?
AS: I remember working with TRADOS. I still own it, but I rarely use it anymore; I am more on the management side of globalization now. Our current vendor is moving away from creating an internal tool and going back to TRADOS.
I am still surprised to see all these companies spending humongous amounts of money trying to create tools that don’t integrate well.
TL: What is required from a translator today in comparison to the mid-1990s? What is a typical profile of a translator specializing in localization?
AS: I don’t think that much has changed for the profession in itself, other than the tools we use are better and computers are faster. What has changed in the newer versions of translation memory programs is that nowadays we have better tools to freeze tags. I can remember destroying all kinds of code…
I’d say that a typical profile would describe someone who uses computer-assisted translation tools, understands the business he/she is working for, asks about terminology, has a good relationship with the project managers. And is someone who understands what the project entails, who needs to know what not to touch in a translation, who knows about HTML, XML, or whatever format is needed. Although now we do have good file processing that can freeze code.
TL: What does a typical workday look like for you?
AS: As a Global Content Manager at Xerox, I am in meetings all day with translation project managers, web managers and my senior managers, trying to coordinate 28 countries. I am on the phone with South Africa, India, France, Egypt, Brazil - you name it. We brainstorm about what countries need to have, content-wise, to make their business successful. Most projects start in the US, then we follow up for other regions.
TL: How important is knowledge of translation tools for a translator today? And what is a good way of learning to use CAT tools?
AS: To those not familiar with translation tools, I would suggest downloading demos from TRADOS and IBM. I would start there. I think a translator who is here to stay in the profession and wants to go into localization needs those kinds of tools.
I am not talking here about translating resumes or fliers or business cards. I don’t think you have to have CAT tools for those, but it definitely helps on those bigger projects.
TL: What would you recommend to a translator to stay competitive in the field?
AS: Market yourself, get ATA-accredited, put yourself out there even if it is scary. And take those jobs that scare you; you can always take a partner in crime. Learn by doing, write to corporations, or take tests with translation firms that are looking for freelancers.
Keep evolving with whatever is needed.
TL: Where do you see translation five and ten years from now?
AS: More and more, US corporations are leaving globalization up to the foreign countries. I see less being paid from the US and more being relegated to other countries: it is up to them if they want something translated. That is where things are heading, to my mind. This is a tough business. Budgets are tight, and things get translated only if they will bring in money and are key to the success of the business. I also see less centralization. Globalization customers within the corporation are not forced to use a particular vendor or another corporate unit; it is preferred, but not mandated, in most of the corporations I know. This hurts the business, in my opinion. I am for a centralized approach, if it is well leveraged and well run.
TL: Thank you for talking with us, Anna.
May 1st, 2000 | Interpretation, Interviews, NCTA Members, Translation | No Comments
by Miriam Mustain
When I first met Sharlee at an NCTA meeting in San Francisco, it was obvious that she was a remarkable woman. She is so soft-spoken and unassuming that it can be difficult to realize the impact that she has had on the NCTA. I had read the December 1999 issue of Translorial (her last as editor) and had been very much impressed by the professionalism that it conveyed. The few words we exchanged made me want to know more about this dedicated and vivacious person. Sharlee graciously answered my simple questions with the following fascinating responses.-MM
Q. How did you acquire your foreign languages?
My parents encouraged their children to study French as the language of culture, which is now an old-fashioned view. I started with the first course offered, French in the eighth grade. Latin was not given until the ninth grade. That made five years of French and four of Latin before college.
During World War II when the United Nations Charter was signed in San Francisco, my mother suggested how wonderful it would be to interpret for them, but that was never my goal. I fell in love with the written word and, from the beginning, played at translating whatever literature we studied in school and anything else that interested me.
College gave me one more year of Latin, and French forever. I had French courses every year until I received my doctorate at age 34. In the meantime I had been required to study German and another Romance language, which I chose to be Italian. My very first paid translation job, offered to me by my professor, was a translation of an insurance survey into (!) Italian. I immediately ran out and bought myself a gold bracelet with the proceeds in honor of the occasion.
After I had been teaching high-school French for several years, a Fulbright scholarship sent me to France to study at the Sorbonne. That period and a two-year residence in Lausanne, where my husband’s work had taken us, were my only experiences in French-speaking countries.
One day in Lausanne I received a phone call from the United Nations in Geneva, saying they had my name from the UN in New York (where my doctoral advisor had sent me to take the UN exam for French). It was the era of the Kennedy Round trade talks under the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade), and Geneva needed more translators. The fascinating subject they assigned me was standardization of pallets!
I never formally studied Spanish, which has turned out to be my dominant spoken foreign language, but when I was living in the Canary Islands I did grammar exercises in Spanish school books and corrected them myself. I arrogantly considered myself an expert on Romance grammar, partly from teaching French for five years at the high-school level and two at the university level. As a mother with a small child, I spent baby-sitting hours memorizing irregular verbs and repeating to myself conversations I would overhear in social situations.
How we got to the Canaries is a long story in itself. In brief, my husband, departed from this world while we were there, wished to retire at a relatively young age. With very little money we researched in the local library where in the world to go for a good climate, an easy language to learn, and a low cost of living. Lo and behold, there was a book called You Can Live Cheaply in the Canaries. That convinced us, and off we went, with a new-born babe, our car and all our books and furniture, sight unseen to spend the rest of our lives there - that was the plan.
The thirteen years spent in Spain overlaid, for a time, the twenty-one years I had spent studying French and even made inroads into my English; but now, years later, l can work equally well translating from either language.
Q. Where did you earn your PhD?
The short answer is at the University of Pennsylvania, which in spite of its name is a private, Ivy League college and not part of the state university system as one might expect.
My doctorate is in Romance Languages. Because my advisor was writing a dictionary at the time (the then highly regarded University of Chicago’s Spanish English dictionary), I wrote my dissertation on problems of lexicography in monolingual French dictionaries, carefully comparing Littré, Larousse and Dauzat. The lessons of Professor Edwin Williams have stood me in good stead throughout my career, leading me to the ATA’s Dictionary Review Committee, on which I have served since shortly after I became a member, around 1985.
I probably would not have a doctorate if the U of P had accepted my University of California credits for the Master’s degree. It is hard to believe, but true, that Penn would not accept the graduate courses I had taken at night at Berkeley while teaching high-school French during the day. The direction of my life changed when I learned that those same units could be credited towards a doctorate if I cared to pursue it!
The second unbelievable quirk in graduate studies at Penn was their policy that all graduate courses had to be taught in English. When we had a visiting professor from France whose accent in English made his lectures on linguistics nearly incomprehensible, we petitioned the department to allow him to speak French. Petition denied!
Q. Have you traveled outside the United States?
Yes. It you count it, I was born in Toronto, but our family moved to the Bay Area (the company my father worked for expanded to the West Coast) when I was ten, the first of several long cross-continental train trips. (l commuted to Vassar as an undergraduate.)
My travels have been mostly in Europe: once to Russia (a boat cruise across from St. Petersburg, across Lake Ladoga, up the Svir River to Lake Onega), once to China (a five-week trip) and once to the South Pacific (for a two month’s stay in Raratonga). I’ve also made several trips to Mexico.
Last year I learned a few words of Turkish while touring Istanbul, Cappadocia and sailing and hiking the southern coast of Turkey.
This year I have earned enough to go to France and England. We’ll stay in a friend’s house near Toulon and then visit some literary sites in the south and southwest of England.
Q. How did you get into the translation business?
My first translation job was through my Italian professor. While I was a professor at the University of La Laguna in Tenerife, I did many translations for the physical chemistry department, not by asking for jobs but simply by being there and being English-speaking. The professors there knew enough English in their fields to understand technical articles, but when they went to symposiums and conferences they could not converse in English. So, during our lunch hour, I held conversation classes for them; subsequently, they gave me their monographs to translate into English so that they could be published internationally.
Q. Do you interpret as well?
When I returned to the United States after a 15-year absence, my Spanish was quite fluent, so I signed up to be a host with the International Visitor Center in Philadelphia. After studying up on the subject, I led busloads of Spanish tourists through America’s most cherished historical monuments.
One day, the Center called me to say that they had been asked to supply an interpreter at the federal court, where the regular interpreter was unavailable. Could l go? Although I had never interpreted, I boldly agreed to go and did a fine job of interpreting. However. I did not conduct myself very professionally. It was a drug smuggling case. A “poor” young Hispanic had been caught in the airport with a bundle under his arm. He protested that he didn’t know what was in it, and he had his mother and grandmother there to witness his character and swear that they would go hungry if he went to jail, for he was their sole source of income. While the grandmother spoke, I gravely interpreted while tears were running down my face. I fell for the whole thing, hook, line and sinker.
Regardless of the truth of the matter, later, after studying court interpreting at the nationally famous University of Arizona program, I was able to interpret without emotion almost anything thrown my way. For several years, at the Marin County Health Clinic, I interpreted for many legal and illegal Hispanics, many of whom were in desperate need, but some of whom were trying to take advantage of the system long after they were able to get along by themselves. Only because of my training was I able to be objective during interpretation. In addition, I have interpreted for the Parole Revocation Board at San Quentin, the Department of Motor Vehicles in San Francisco, the Department of Education in Fresno, the State Labor Relations Board in Sacramento, doctors and insurance companies, among others.
As time passed, and because I had already taken a two-year hiatus in interpreting while my husband was terminally ill. I gave up interpreting and now do translations exclusively.
Q. What are some problems (and possible solutions) that you encounter in your translation business?
Access to the Internet has solved a lot of research problems. I no longer feel so isolated from a big university library as I once did.
Some dictionaries in my office are on CD and others are books on shelves. It’s sometimes a toss-up which will be quicker, getting the book and leafing through it, or changing CDs on the computer and typing in the term. The ideal would be to have all dictionaries computerized and available at a keystroke. At present, the only dictionaries in my computer memory are the Word and WordPerfect spellchecker dictionaries and Stedman’s medical dictionary. The other electronic dictionaries are on CDs, which must be inserted, even after installation. I find myself taking a fair amount of time taking out one CD and putting in another and waiting for it to pop up, even at today s megahertz computer speeds.
If I had two monitors, I could have terminology up on one while working on the translation on the other screen, which is often split already between source and target texts.
Organizing my terminology lists has always been on my mind, but I m often too rushed to enter new data when a job is finished; then the next time I need the term. I remember I have it somewhere, but it takes an age to find it. I would like a macro written that would copy the term right out of my text and into the proper glossary on my computer. Then I could have that glossary open on another monitor while translating. I can do simple macros, but that one seems to me to be getting perilously close to programming - not something I can do, especially in Windows and Word. It is much easier in DOS and WordPerfect 5.1, where the codes can be seen on the screen.
There is no dearth of other problems to discuss, only a dearth of time and space…
Q. How did you acquire your expertise in journalism? (We’re all curious because you did such a great job as Translorial editor.)
First let me be flattered by your praise. Calling what I did “expertise in journalism” seems somewhat of an exaggeration. I filled the Translorial with articles from our own members, articles taken from other newsletters and sources that were not newsletters, such as comments on translation by literary figures, and helpful hints tor translators and interpreters still in a learning process. We were all adapting to the computer age, and there was a lot to learn that could be shared. I think one of my guidelines was “If it is of interest or helpful to me, surely it will be so to many other NCTA members.”
So much for the subject matter. As for actually editing someone s writing, that was natural, for I taught English and corrected compositions, essays and examinations for more than 17 years before “becoming an editor.” Now that we have a new editor, I still keep my eyes peeled for items of interest and send them in for consideration.
Q. What problems do you see facing the translation business today? High expectations (formatting, speed, etc.) because of computers? Customers using machine instead of human translations?
I really think there is nothing to stop the juggernaut or our growing industry. The world is a handkerchief as they say in Spain, and now that we can all be so easily connected on the Internet, and with the movement toward the formation of trade blocs, such as the European Community and the NAFTA countries, demand for our services can only continue to expand. There should be lots of work for us for the foreseeable future. However, we do have to contend with the possibility of competition at lower rates than prevail in our country. In the long run, though, I imagine there will be more than enough work for all professional translators and interpreters.
The once apparent threat of machines replacing us is now seen to be something for the distant future, if ever. Perhaps the next generation of translators will have to be even more specialized than today if machines do succeed in translating some boilerplate better than they do now, but that’s about the most fallout I can imagine.
In general, however, translators do need to keep abreast of fast-paced technological advances. That means a new computer every few years, new software to learn, especially translation memory programs. On the non-mechanical side it means moving with our subject field, generally by voracious reading or texts in the target language in search of the latest terminology.
The clients demand tor speed ( “I need it yesterday”) will probably not change. It could be mitigated if our public relations program were actually to get under way. Public ignorance of what we are what we do and how we do it needs to be transformed into awe, admiration and understanding. That will only happen if individuals take on a project to publicize our profession and if groups such as the NCTA make formal plans to carry out an educational publicity program. Our chapter seems to have been an innovator again in visibly going on screen to help public television raise funds. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, they say, and at least one other chapter of ATA has since done the same. So maybe the translation industry/profession will eventually make its mark on the public at large. I’m optimistic.
Interview with the Interviewer
by SMB
Although born in San Diego, Miriam Mustain was schooled in Belgium, one of the global stops of a father trying to support eight children. Her French accent is thus a genuine one.
Her specialty is editing English translations, especially those done by her sister, Theresa Lynch, a professional translator and current president of MITA (Metroplex Interpreters and Translators Association in Texas). Miriam looks for consistency of terminology in large and small projects and is an experienced formatter.
Her home is outside of “civilization,” forty miles from the nearest town - no electricity, even-where propane, a generator for the computer, and a passel of pets (six horses, two dogs and a cat) make for a happy life in northern California with her retired- from-law-enforcement husband.
May 1st, 2000 | Interviews, Literary Translation, NCTA Members | No Comments
by Amy Russell
Jeannette Ringold,Ph.D., longtime NCTA member and until recently member of the NCTA Board of Directors, has completed the translation from Dutch into English of two novels by Anna Enquist, The Masterpiece (1999) and The Secret (2000), both published by The Toby Press Ltd., London. Jeannette graciously agreed to answer some questions about her experience translating these novels so that Translorial readers like myself, who see literary translation as a far-off dream, can get an idea of what it’s like.
AR: Can you give us some background on these books?
JR: The Masterpiece was originally published in Holland in 1994 as Het Meesterstuk and was Enquist’s first novel. (She had already published several very successful volumes of poetry.) It was a bestseller, with over 200,000 copies sold. The Secret was published in Holland in 1997 as Het geheim and also sold more than 200,000 copies. The novels are set in Holland, middle to late twentieth century. Both have as an important theme the way artists express themselves in their medium and can t express themselves emotionally outside it.
AR: How did you get involved in translating these novels?
JR: In January 1999 I was asked to translate The Masterpiece by the publisher of Toby Press, Matthew Miller. He had asked several of my colleagues w ho were unavailable and who referred him to me. Instead of having to do some sample pages to prove my ability, I could refer him to some of my published translations and to a review in The New York Times Book Review.
Matthew Miller is an unusual publisher. He had been in other types of business, and he finally decided that he really wanted to go into publishing. The books he publishes can be bought only through the Internet (www.tobypress.com) or by phone (800 810-7191). Instead of spending money getting his books into bookstores, Miller spends it on advertising. He may be ahead of his time and it’s risky. He is definitely an unusual man. Instead of waiting to see whether The Masterpiece was successful with the English-speaking public, he plunged ahead and had me translate Enquist’s second novel, The Secret, as well her collection of ten stories, The Injury, which I’m working on now. The manuscript is due in June, and after that I think I won’t be working on any Enquist translations for a while!
AR: Did you collaborate with the author on the translation? Is that standard?
JR: While I’m translating a novel. I make a list of questions to ask the author. These can range all the way from checking an obscure reference, to asking about an unusual expression, to asking to change the name of a character. Most authors are quite willing to help out in any way they can, and I have very good personal relations with the authors whose work I have translated. It can be very enlightening to talk to the author about a specific translating problem because it often gives new insights into the novel.
It isn’t until the translation is finished and edited that the publisher submits it to the author. Most Dutch authors are able to read English quite well, but they don’t necessarily know all the nuances. I therefore prefer to submit the whole book to them instead of having them second-guess every sentence and expression. Many of my colleagues seem to work in this way. Sometimes I wish I were translating into Czech, Russian, Hebrew, or any other language that isn’t as easily read by Dutch authors!
AR: What are the special challenges associated with translating literary works?
JR: In translating literary works I find that I have to pay special attention to how the authors exp.ess themselves. The Masterpiece which is a loose adaptation of Don Giovanni, has an operatic quality that shows in the short, dramatic sentences and phrases. It took me a while to get into that feeling. I have translated other authors, such as Marga Minco and Carl Friedman, whose style is much more understated, and then I follow their lead.
Since Anna Enquist is a poet, I have to make sure that I catch the sound as well as the meaning of the words in my translation. At times I find myself reading whole passages aloud in both languages, first in Dutch and then in English, whereas usually I read aloud only my translation.
A particular problem in these translations was that the publisher is in London and the British editors wanted to make some changes that might have made the books too foreign for the American market, which the publisher definitely wants to reach. We had some interesting transcontinental arguments about the merits of diapers versus nappies foe example.
AR: How do you think English-speaking audiences will react to these novels in translation?
JR: I have no idea how the English-speaking reading public will react. I don’t think the settings, the stories, or the language should strain anyone’s comprehension. The story of The Masterpiece will tend to sweep readers along. The question is, will people buy books exclusively through the Internet? That is the publisher’s gamble.
Editor’s note: Excerpts from Jeannette’s translations of The Masterpiece and The Secret can be read online at www.tobypress.com/books , where you can also order each of the novels in hard or soft cover.
