ATA Interpreters Division

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Portable equipment for socially-distanced simultaneous interpretation in court

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By Flavia Lima & Monica Guelman After months of near-total lockdown in many US states, courts are reopening with a massive backlog of cases to work through as a consequence of the pandemic and interpreters are in high demand. We need to find solutions to assist court attendees who are Limited English Proficient (LEP), while maintaining social distancing. In the pre-COVID … [Read more...]

How can I make RSI platforms work for me as a freelancer?

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by Julia Poger This post originally appeared on the webzine Communicate! and is republished with permission. “Wait a minute,” I can hear you say. “I didn’t sign on to be an interpreter to work remotely - I want to go to conferences in exotic places! I want to see and work with my friends! I like people, and don’t want to work alone in my office!” Remote simultaneous … [Read more...]

Conference or court interpretation: Combining specializations

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By Esther M. Hermida This article is written from the perspective of a Spanish<>English interpreter, for US court and conference interpreters who, while comfortable in their respective niches, might be curious, or even actively looking into combining the two. There are many interpreters who have successfully done so. There is an undeniable appeal to conferences: the … [Read more...]

A quiet revolution in diplomatic interpretation

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A story of innovation at the UN as told by the sidekick Sheila Shermet One Saturday morning in January 2007 the phone rang as I emerged from the shower. I ran to answer. I had only been in Geneva for about six months, having transferred from Vienna where I served for almost five years. The Chief of the English booth was on the other end. "Would you like to go on mission with … [Read more...]

What a Speaker’s PowerPoint Won’t Tell—And the Interpreter Needs to Find Out

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The more skillful and/or experienced a speaker, the more likely the content of his talk will be in his head rather than on his slide deck. Some speakers will stuff each of their slides with text and simply read them out to the audience, and if the interpreters are able to get hold of the PPT presentation beforehand, they just need to study the text and terminology carefully in … [Read more...]

Mobile Interpreting Technology

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We all watched President Donald Trump being greeted in Spanish by the Argentinian President Mauricio Macri at the G20 Summit. Mr. Trump then tossing the mobile interpreting system on the floor while commenting that he understood him in Spanish better than when using the interpretation. Before commenting on this from the perspective of the interpreter, I would like to first … [Read more...]

Shooting the Messenger: The Case of the Interpreter in Conflict Zones

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By Maha El-Metwally As conference interpreters, we know that the real start of simultaneous interpreting was at the Nuremberg trials in 1945. Until then, consecutive interpreting was the modus operandi. However, it became obvious soon after the Allies created the International Military Tribunal after World War II that consecutive interpreting was not going to be the suitable … [Read more...]