French Language
Division
|
American Translators Association
FLD and Related Sessions at the ATA 50th Annual Conference For a list of these sessions in printer-friendly format, click here. The American Translators Association hosted its 50th Annual Conference in New York City on October 28-31. This three-day event showcased diverse panel discussions, expert presentations, training workshops, and scholarly papers. Both general and language-specific sessions were offered, with topics ranging from successful marketing in a difficult economy to international translation quality standards. The conference also offered language professionals one of the best opportunities to network with colleagues. Additional conference activities included a Job Marketplace, a vendor exhibit hall, and ATA certification testing. The conference included the following French Language Division and related sessions. French Language Division Sessions F-1 Avoiding Tourist Traps and Other Travel Perils Translating for the travel industry can be exotic and fun, full of enticing destinations and beautiful attractions. Yet many of the translations for hotels, resorts, travel groups, and tourist locales sound stilted and unappealing. This presentation will teach participants how to turn French travel texts into sharp and appealing English by examining the more difficult phrases and the most frequently used idioms and suggesting strategies for dealing with them. F-2 Challenges of French>English Translation at the United Nations This presentation will provide an overview of the work of the English Translation Service of the United Nations and of the importance of the French language to the work of the United Nations. Specific examples of translation challenges — drawn from United Nations documents and speeches — will be examined. F-3 Translating Slogans: Les slogans, j'en fais mon affaire ! La traduction des slogans est certainement un des plus grands défis qui se pose au traducteur. Toujours obsédé par la traduction idiomatique, François Lavallée s'est attaché à observer autour de lui les caractéristiques des slogans et des titres conçus en français afin de dégager en quoi ils se distinguent de ce qui se fait en anglais. Dans cet atelier, il donnera des pistes concrètes, émaillées de nombreux exemples authentiques, pour permettre au traducteur de sortir du cul-de-sac que représente souvent la traduction d'un slogan ou d'un titre dans ces langues, et de produire des slogans efficaces, idiomatiques et qui ont du … “punch”! Translating slogans presents one of the most difficult challenges for a translator. The speaker will discuss what distinguishes French slogans and titles from their English counterparts. He will share several recipes for the successful translation of slogans and titles, peppered with examples from real life, to show translators how to create effective, idiomatic slogans that are simply the “crème de la crème.”F-4 Translating for International Organizations: Issues and Challenges Translators working for international organizations benefit from a large number of resources. Glossaries, style guides, and other kinds of manuals enable them to acquire the administrative jargon and officialese used in the documents produced within these organizations. This session will analyze the function and nature of these manuals and examine how translation is viewed within organizations such as the Red Cross, United Nations, World Trade Organization, and World Intellectual Property Organization. F-5 The Legal Translator as Investigator Style, attention to detail, and accuracy are not enough in legal translation. The translator also has to be an investigator, always eager to explore the background of the text. Careful research not only ensures the accuracy of the terminology, but can also help unveil potential mistakes in the source text. Conducting research is also a particularly useful learning process in a field where practitioners' backgrounds vary widely. Based on his 15 years of experience as a freelancer, the speaker will share tips on research techniques and resources to help fellow translators produce well-written, well-researched translations that fit each client's specific needs. F-6 On Subjectivity in Technical Language: The Case for Patents Far from the established ideas that define technical discourse as being precise, objective, and neutral, patents are, by their particular nature, “deviant.” This presentation aims to propose extra-textual criteria for the analysis of technical context so that a translator who is not a member of the discursive community can understand the strategic, instrumental, and communicational value of a patent. F-7 French Language Division Annual Meeting The French Language Division Annual Meeting offers division members a chance to meet and network with other French translators and interpreters. We will review the division's activities during the past year and plan for 2010. All division members are encouraged to attend, and nonmembers are invited to come learn more about the division. F-8 La versification classique au XXIe siècle, ou le carcan au service de l'expressivité (Classical Versification in the 21st Century, or Donning the Straightjacket of Expressivity) François Lavallée a fait paraître en 2007 un recueil de fables écrites à la manière de Jean La Fontaine, mais sur des sujets contemporains. Dans cet atelier, il rappellera les règles de la versification classique, qu'il a scrupuleusement respectées, et montrera comment le jeu des rythmes et des rimes peut être mis au service de l'expressivité. Il assortira son exposé d'exemples tirés des fables de La Fontaine, de ses propres fables et même de quelques chansons. Par ailleurs, une de ses fables a été rédigée en deux versions : une version en français (très) châtié, et une autre en joual, variante populaire du français québécois. On peut considérer cet exercice comme une forme intéressante et ludique de traduction entre niveaux de langue. Devant le succès remporté par cet atelier au congrès 2008 de l'ATA, les organisateurs ont invité M. Lavallée à revenir partager son humour et son amour des mots et de la rime avec les participants du congrès de 2009. The speaker will review the rules of French classical versification — and show how the interplay of rhyme and rhythm can be used to enhance expressivity. He will illustrate his points with examples from the fables of Jean de La Fontaine, his own fables, and several songs. This exercise offers a playful and instructive look at a different form of translation, one that is about transforming one level of language to another. F-9 NEW SESSION Some seven million people in Canada consider French their mother tongue. Yet people outside Canada have been known to ask whether it is real French. Translation is a billion-dollar industry in Canada, yet U.S.-based translators tend to ignore this nearby, lucrative market. This presentation will look at what makes Quebec French different, from the perspective of a Quebec-based translator. Related Sessions Seminar Q
Translating Government/Administrative French>English This workshop will help participants identify the leading causes of poorly translated administrative French. Learn how to cut through the verbiage and grasp the idea being conveyed in French, improve the flow and structure of the English translation, avoid common gallicisms that obscure meaning, and make texts more readily understandable to readers. This is a "hands-on" workshop, with numerous examples of poorly translated texts that participants will be asked to discuss and correct in teams and as a full group. LAW-2 Research Techniques for French>English Legal Translation Legal translation requires highly specialized terminology and an understanding of both the source and target legal systems. The speaker will present a bibliography of source materials on the civil and common law systems. Online and hard copy reference sources and advanced legal research techniques will also be discussed. LAW-8 Anatomy of a Patent Understanding the form and structure of patents can help you prepare to translate a patent and to improve your patent translation and terminology research skills. This presentation will focus on U.S. patents as either the translation source or target, with reference to U.S. code and regulation. Some parallel examples will be taken from European and French patents and Patent Cooperation Treaty applications. You will learn how to find bibliographic information that will prove useful for researching terminology, and how to use the structure of a patent to clarify your understanding of the content. L-7 Translations from the French-Speaking Caribbean and Africa This will be a panel discussion on different aspects of French>English literary translation. Rose Myriam Réjouis will be speaking on creole and creolisms in Marie Chauvet's Love, Anger, Madness. Marilyn Gaddis Rose will examine the political aspects of recent works by Martinican writers Edouard Glissant and Patrick Chamoiseau, and their stance toward translation. Carrol F. Coates will consider the implications of the use of African languages (Wolof and Pulaar) by Mariama Barry in her autobiographical novel La Petite Peule. L-9 L'Elégance du hérisson: A Tour de Force in Translation L'Elégance du hérisson (The Elegance of the Hedgehog) has been a bestseller in France for two consecutive years. Written by Muriel Barbery, the novel covers ontological, ethical, epistemological, and aesthetic problems from the dual perspectives of Paloma, a very precocious and intelligent 12 year-old, and Renée Michel, an improbably erudite concierge of humble peasant extraction in Paloma's posh Paris building. This presentation will examine the novel in terms of its elegance and the translation problems it created, and how some of these were resolved by Barbery's English translator, Alison Anderson. M-3 How to Succeed and Position Yourself in the Voice-over Industry Linguists have a role to play in the voice-over industry, which can be lucrative and exciting. During the process, translators are first asked to localize the narration of a script from a timed-source version. Bilingual checkers are then hired for the recording session. “Voice acting” borrows from interpreters' skills: it is a simultaneous performance using voice as a tool to render a message via state-of-the-art audiovisual equipment. Presented from the viewpoint of a voice talent, this session will give practical tips on demonstration production, the creative process, and the relationship the talent shares with the studio engineer and casting director. MED-3 Bioethical Issues in Translation: Informed Consent This presentation will examine ethical issues in the translation of informed consent forms and related documents. The bioethical foundations of informed consent and its basic elements will be discussed. Participants will then review the contexts in which informed consent forms are translated, including surgery, pharmacotherapeutics, and clinical research. The concept of register as applied to informed consent forms will be addressed in detail, with examples of appropriate and inappropriate register in English, French, and Spanish. Finally, best practices in the translation of informed consent will be discussed, including design/layout, word choice, and readability. |
