Have you ever wondered about the field of human rights translation? There is no shortage of human-rights issues in the post-Soviet space, but breaking into this specialization may feel too daunting. Fortunately, with research, you can become confident in your translations. But where should you look?
Present at ATA61 in Boston!
The ATA has issued its call for speakers for this year’s conference, ATA61 in Boston! Proposals can now be submitted online and will be accepted through March 2, 2020. This is your chance to share your expertise with T&I professionals, even if you are not a member of the ATA or SLD.
The Slavic Languages track will have 4 slots available, but we also encourage you to submit proposals in other subject areas and cross-listed in several tracks. You can also submit your proposal as a limited-capacity AST (advanced skills training) workshop.
Complete information on the proposal process, requirements, and topics of interest to ATA members, along with a link to the proposal submission form, can be found here.
SLD Podcast: Episode 18 with New SLD Admins
The last episode of the SLD Podcast’s “Business Matters” season welcomes the new SLD Administrator Eugenia Tietz-Sokolskaya and Assistant Administrator Steven McGrath. Outgoing co-hosts Veronika and Ekaterina chat with them about the future of the division and the podcast, and look ahead to ATA60.
Be sure to subscribe to the SLD Podcast wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode!
Register for SLD Newcomers Lunch at ATA60!
Thursday, October 24
12:30 PM
Grand Central Palm Springs
160 La Plaza, Palm Springs, CA
ATA English to Russian Editing Webinar
Photo by J. Kelly Brito on Unsplash
On July 31, ATA will host a 2-hour practice-driven webinar for English to Russian translators on editing their own translations. During this webinar, participants will go through a sample text and practice their editing skills, as well as learn a framework to edit their own translations more efficiently.
You can register at https://www.atanet.org/webinars/ataWebinar203_russian_editing.php.
Join Us in Palm Springs for ATA60!
The ATA 60th Annual Conference takes place October 23-26, 2019, in Palm Springs, California. Whatever your role in the T&I Industry, ATA60 is the place where dedicated professionals come together to expand their knowledge and their network.
The conference website is live! Learn more at: https://www.atanet.org/conf/2019/
ATA 60th Annual Conference: Proposals Due March 1st!
The American Translators Association is accepting presentation proposals for the ATA 60th Annual Conference in Palm Springs, California, October 23-26, 2019. Proposals must be received by March 1, 2019.
Learn more: https://bit.ly/ata60speak
If you are looking for proposal ideas, here is a call from Jen Guernsey specific to the SLD:
Hello everyone! The deadline for submitting a proposal for a conference presentation is March 1. Presenting at a conference – whether as a solo act, with a colleague, or as part of a panel or a translation slam – is a fun way to get your name and face out there, connect with your colleagues, and support our conference, which relies on us members to provide nearly all of the sessions on offer. Jen Guernsey would be happy to provide you with information, suggestions, and help in getting your proposal submitted.
We have had requests for presentations on tricky interpreting situations, differences in training (particularly interpreter training) in the US vs Slavic countries, and additional translation slams. Please email Jen Guernsey (jenguernsey@gmail.com) if you would be willing to serve as a participant, panelist, or moderator on any of the following:
- Panel comparing interpreter training programs in the US versus Slavic countries
- Panel on challenging situations in interpreting
- Translation slam: from English into any Slavic language
- Translation slam: from any Slavic language into English
Thanks, and see you in Palm Springs!
Apply to Speak at ATA60!
The ATA has put out its call for speakers for the 60th Annual Conference in Palm Springs, CA. Details on proposal requirements and perks can be found here.
The SLD encourages anyone with an idea for a session to apply. Our members have expressed specific interest in sessions focusing on the day-to-day practice of interpreting, including cultural expectations, as well as deeper dives into specialized fields and the linguistic aspects of translating, but other topics are always welcome! Keep in mind that the SLD is limited to 6 slots (of which 2 are reserved for the Distinguished Speaker), so we encourage potential speakers to consider submitting sessions overlapping with other topics and divisions (such as interpreting, literary, T&I education or technology, etc.).
We look forward to seeing you at the conference in October!
ATA Law Seminar in Jersey City
Happy New Year! If one of your professional New Year’s resolutions was to do more continuing education in the coming year and you are a legal translator or interpreter, the ATA has just the opportunity for you. It will be hosting a full-day law seminar in Jersey City on February 16, with morning and afternoon sessions divided between translation and interpreting. ATA-certified attendees can earn 7 CEPs!
The schedule, session descriptions, and hotel and registration information can be found here: https://www.atanet.org/events/law_jerseycity.php.
ATA59 Review: Strategies for Avoiding Language Interference and Coping with Opinionated Clients
Photo by Romain Vignes on Unsplash
Review by Eugenia Tietz-Sokolskaya
Topic: Dutch, Independent Contractors, Translation
Speaker: Joy Burrough-Boenisch
Haven’t we all, at some point or another, had to deal with a client best described as “opinionated”? Or noticed that our language skills needed a bit of brushing up? So it should come as no surprise that Joy Burrough-Boenisch’s unambiguously titled session was packed, including by plenty of people who didn’t know Dutch.
Joy, a British expat permanently residing in the Netherlands, set the stage with some important context: the Dutch have some of the highest English proficiency levels in the world among non-native speakers. Translators working in this environment find themselves constantly having to justify their translation choices—or discovering after the fact that their translations were subjected to “disimprovement” without their knowledge by clients overconfident in their own English skills.
Based on her own experiences and reactions she’s seen from her colleagues, Joy offered a few suggestions for reacting to disimprovement (whether suggested or already irreversible):
- At the far timid end of the spectrum, you can follow the “client is always right” mantra and let it go, especially if your name is not explicitly associated with the translation.
- At the other extreme, if a client is being particularly intransigent, drop them! One of Joy’s colleagues blacklisted an entire Dutch government ministry as a client for some particularly egregious edits and accompanying disrespectful treatment.
- There is, of course, a middle ground, mostly centered around tactfully voicing your objections, whether during the editing process or after the fact, respected authorities in hand to justify your objections. View the time spent justifying your version as an investment in your professional reputation.
- Speaking of professionalism, take a moment to step back and ask yourself if maybe the client is actually right. Do your research and be willing to admit it if you were wrong.
- Reiterate your advice against the changes in every communication, and if changes are made without your knowledge or against your advice, get it in writing that it was not your responsibility. In matters of law, it becomes particularly important to request a written statement that unauthorized changes were made.
When it came to resources to cite, Joy came out as a strong proponent of corpora, such as COCA (Corpus of Contemporary American English). In addition to researching the frequency of certain collocations across the language as a whole, they can be used to determine the register of a particular word or phrase.
Corpora also featured prominently in the first section of the talk, which covered language attrition, a particularly salient problem for expats like Joy, who work in a country where they are surrounded by a foreign language (and often by a lot of foreign-inflected English). Over time, this exposure begins to interfere with their native-speaker intuition for how English should sound. The first signs of trouble will show up in mixed-up prepositions and false friends, but language interference is at its most insidious where it affects style and rhetoric. Different languages prefer sentences of different lengths and different argumentation styles (do you state your conclusion first, then support it, or do you lead the reader gradually to your main point?), and these standards are so ingrained that we can barely articulate them, let alone notice when they start to slip.
Joy’s recommended treatment for language attrition is reading up on contrastive grammar and—you guessed it—making good use of corpora to check yourself on prepositions, word frequencies, and appropriateness for the specific text type. I would add that these approaches are also worthwhile for those of us not living abroad: if I spend long enough staring at a Russian source text, or worse, editing non-native translations from Russian, eventually I notice language interference rearing its ugly head as well. Listening to Joy’s engaging talk inspired me and gave me the tools to fight off language interference and remain professional in the face of client feedback.
Eugenia Tietz-Sokolskaya is an ATA-certified Russian to English translator specializing in legal and financial texts. She has a Master’s in Translation from Kent State (2016) and has been working freelance since graduating. She can be found at eugenia@sokolskayatranslations.com and www.sokolskayatranslations.com.