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Please complete the ATA SLD Professional Development Survey!

December 22, 2020

The SLD Professional Development survey is live until December 31, 2020! We encourage all ATA SLD members to take a few minutes to complete it as soon as possible.

Our Division needs to know more about you, your preferred modes of learning, and your CPD wants and needs in order to serve you better.

The survey will be available through the end of the year, closing on December 31. But we can’t wait to hear from you, so please don’t delay your response! 🙂

If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or just want to vent about professional development, feel free to email our SLD administrator at eugenia@sokolskayatranslations.com.

We’re excited to find out more about the diverse group of people that constitute our membership and welcome all your feedback!

Filed Under: SLD Tagged With: professional development, survey

December 14: New Back to Business Basics Webinar

December 10, 2020

ATA is closing out the year with another Back to Business Basics webinar: Entrepreneurial Habits for Freelance Translators and Interpreters by Corinne McKay on December 14 at 12 pm Eastern. As all webinars in this new series, it will be free to ATA members. Recording will be available to members at no charge (non-members can access it for a small fee).

Succeeding as a freelancer will always involve some factors you can’t control—like a global pandemic—but it also involves daily, positive habits and a business mindset.

In this fourth episode of ATA’s Back to Business Basics webinar series, presenter Corinne McKay will examine two kinds of business habits that can help you make the transition from “throwing it against the wall” to an actual business strategy!

What will you learn?
    • Why the entrepreneurial mindset is important
    • The non-entrepreneurial mindset that most freelancers have
    • Business processes that contribute to entrepreneurial habits
    • Mental processes that contribute to entrepreneurial habits
    • Simple changes you can make right away

Registration: https://www.atanet.org/webinars/ataWebinar252_entrepreneurial_habits.php

Filed Under: ATA, Business Practices Tagged With: professional development, webinar

Tell SLD about Your Professional Development Needs!

December 2, 2020

neon question mark

Photo by Emily Morter on Unsplash

The SLD Professional Development survey is live! SLD members, please help us organize more useful professional development offerings by telling us what you want and need. The more we know about you – your background, experience, development goals, modes of learning – the more useful the division will be to you.

The survey will be available through the end of the year, closing on December 31. But don’t wait! Nobody wants to be stuck doing a survey at the last minute instead of enjoying the holidays. Completing the survey should not take more than 10 minutes of your time.

If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or just want to vent about professional development, feel free to email your SLD administrator (that’s me!) at eugenia@sokolskayatranslations.com. We’re excited to find out more about the diverse group of people that constitute our membership and welcome all your feedback!

Filed Under: SLD Tagged With: professional development, survey

CEU Watch: DVTA 2019 East Coast Summit

September 26, 2019

Photo credit: DVTA

On September 14 I gave up my Saturday to network and learn at a one-day conference organized by my local ATA chapter, the Delaware Valley Translators Association (DVTA). The event, formally the 4th Annual East Coast Interpreters and Translators Summit, was hosted at Widener University Delaware Law School, which is a convenient 25-minute drive for me. This was a lovely, local, bite-size chunk of professional development that left me energized, inspired, and excited to keep working on my skills and my business.

For the two two-hour slots where there were several talks to choose from, I chose the translation-related sessions. Reflecting the DVTA’s membership, most of the sessions focused on interpreting, so there was one translation session for each slot. The first session, led by DVTA President Dorothy Evans, was titled “What Does It Mean to Be a Successful Translator?” and was the most inspiring session for me. While the context and the examples all referred back to our shared experience as freelance translators, the themes of determining your own definition of success, setting reasonable goals, and making incremental changes apply broadly to self-employment and life in general. Plus, it was encouraging to hear a more established translator talk with candor and humor about the same struggles I’ve been running into.

The second session was one on diplomatic translation by Joe Mazza, the head of the translation division at the U.S. State Department’s Office of Language Services. His presence speaks to the fact that attendees at the summit hailed from up and down the Northeast Corridor, offering more networking opportunities than other DVTA events. While I’ve seen Joe speak at other events and chatted with him multiple times at ATA conferences, this time around he had a longer session (two hours instead of his usual one) and there were contractors that work with his office in the audience, in a relatively informal setting where they were able to share their experiences to complement his presentation. This time something clicked—maybe the fact that I finally have the five years’ experience Joe had stipulated the very first time I talked to him—and, with the encouragement of one of the contractors, I got the ball rolling on applying to work for the State Department.

Two other sessions were held for all attendees at once: the keynote and a closing session by a local accountant. The keynote speaker, Holly Mikkelson, gave a somewhat lyrical meditation on considering the human side of interpreting, keeping in mind the ways in which real lives are affected, and remaining compassionate rather than clinical. (Of course, much the same can be said of translation, even if we don’t see the humans affected face to face.) The closing session was a demo of QuickBooks that unfortunately ran into some technical difficulties (when each keypress registers twice, $120 very quickly becomes $112,200), but still sparked useful conversations and convinced me to take the plunge after doing my accounting by hand and Excel for over three years.

All in all, this summit had the energizing effect of an ATA conference on a smaller scale. I came away with workable steps to take moving forward, not to mention 5 CEUs. I would encourage everyone to check if they have an ATA chapter nearby and see if they organize a local conference or summit. It’s well worth a Saturday!

Eugenia Tietz-Sokolskaya is a Russian>English (ATA-certified) and French>English legal and financial translator based in the Philadelphia area. She holds a Master’s in Translation from Kent State University.

Filed Under: Annual Conferences, CEU Watch Tagged With: ceu watch, conference, networking, professional development

CEU Watch: ATA Webinar on Linguistic Challenges in Palliative Care

September 3, 2019

Photo by Martha Dominguez de Gouveia on Unsplash

Are there topics that you enjoy working with but can be emotionally draining? For me, palliative care is one example. I love working on translations that can help promote understanding of palliative care among Russian patients and the general public, as well as the development of palliative care in Russia, but it can be hard to look past the suffering and pain behind the text, especially if it is about pediatric palliative care.

I was glad to discover that ATA offers a webinar on this subject. “Linguistic Challenges in Palliative Care” by Jessica Goldhirsch can be found in ATA’s Webinars On Demand. Jessica Goldhirsch, LCSW, MSW, MPH is a licensed clinical social worker with the Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Institute’s inpatient adult palliative care consult service. She teaches staff interpreters and clinical staff how to work together effectively, and her background and experience really show.

Ms. Goldhirsch talks about the role of palliative care in the healthcare system and different stages of palliative care (hospice care is just one of them). She breaks down commonly used terminology, lists the most common misconceptions, and describes typical challenges. She stresses that the interpreter/translator must be an integral part of the palliative care team, backs it up with examples, and gives advice on how to become a member of this team. Most importantly, Ms. Goldhirsch explains how crucial it is to understand the patient’s cultural norms, beliefs, and traditions, and encourages interpreters and translators to be cultural meditators and coaches for the palliative care team.

I found this webinar both highly informative and really empowering. It didn’t make palliative care less of a difficult subject, but it helped me understand its scope and purpose, and made it clear what my role is. Armed with tips and useful resources that Ms. Goldhirsch generously shared, I feel better prepared, both mentally and emotionally, to tackle future translations on this subject.

I am grateful that ATA offered this webinar and included it in its Webinars On Demand. Ms. Goldhirsch mentioned other topics that she believes deserve to be addressed in more detail, such as serious illness conversation guides and palliative care family meetings, and I hope that ATA will offer webinars on these topics in the future.

Author Bio

Veronika Demichelis is an ATA-certified English>Russian translator. She holds an MA in Linguistics and an MBA in Human Resources Management. She specializes in corporate communication, HR, and social responsibility, but also enjoys working with health and wellness, in particular patient outreach and education materials. More information can be found on her website, https://veronikademichelis.com/.

Filed Under: CEU Watch, Interpreting, Translation Tagged With: ceu watch, professional development, webinar

SLD Podcast: Episode 16 with the Black Squirrel Collective

July 30, 2019

In this latest episode of the SLD Podcast, Veronika and Ekaterina talk to the members of Black Squirrel Translator Collective (BSTC)! In 2016, Victoria Chavez-Kruse, Mary McKee, Jamie Hartz, and Elizabeth Nelsen established Black Squirrel Translator Collective, a working group that provides many tangible and intangible benefits. Tune in to learn how they did it, what working together means to them, and how you can partner up with your colleagues to take your business to the next level!


Just one day left to register for the SLD’s webinar on English>Russian editing on July 31! The more people sign up, the more reason there will be for ATA to continue with language-specific “division webinars.” Don’t miss out!

Filed Under: Business Practices, Podcast Episodes, Translation Tagged With: business, podcast, professional development

ATA English to Russian Editing Webinar

July 16, 2019

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.

Filed Under: ATA Tagged With: ATA, editing, professional development, webinar

CEU Watch: Medical Translation Course (English–Russian) by Alliance Pro

June 10, 2019

By Maria Guzenko

Image by rawpixel from Pixabay

Introducing the CEU Watch Column

Having up-to-date subject-matter, technology, and business expertise is one of the things that sets the professional translator apart from the amateur. In addition, if you are certified by the American Translators Association (ATA) or another translation/interpreting organization, you need to accrue continuing education credits to maintain your credential. The requirements will vary depending on the organization, and those for the ATA can be found here.

With that in mind, I would like to start a column where we review continuing education opportunities, whether specific to the languages of the SLD, focused on a certain subject area or text type, or promoting any other skill useful for translators. If you have taken a course, watched a webinar, or attended an event in the last year or so and would like to review it for the SLD blog, please get in touch with Maria Guzenko at maria.guzenko@intorussian.net.

Course Information

My American Master’s degree, while incredibly helpful in many ways, did not offer practical English-to-Russian classes. Since I mostly translate into Russian, I wanted to fill that gap and started looking for language-specific classes where I could get some tips, guided practice, and feedback. My search brought me to the website of Alliance Pro («Альянс Про»), a company that offers Russian translation and interpreting classes, either as live webinars or as recordings of past events. I have no financial or business relationship with this course provider, other than paying for their class.

The class I took was called Medical Translation («Медицинский перевод») and “met” via teleconference twice a week for two hours. Four weeks of webinars were followed by a final test, which determined whether the participant would get a certificate of completion. Because the live sessions were held in the evening, Moscow time, I was able to join in the early afternoon on the East Coast. Webinar recordings and PowerPoints were available for later viewing if you had to miss the live session, which was also convenient for the times I had to be away from my desk.

Content and Instructor

The course was taught by Olga Gilyarevskaya (Ольга Гиляревская), the chief editor of a Moscow-based translation agency and a former pharmaceutical representative. It appeared that the curriculum largely reflected the types of documents and subjects Ms. Gilyarevskaya regularly saw in her work, such as clinical study protocols and disease descriptions. Each week covered a different area; by the end of the course, we had looked at clinical trials, evidence-based medicine, oncology, cardiology, pharmaceutical companies, and ophthalmology.

Each webinar started with the instructor going over the homework from the previous class, and she would either comment on our cohort’s proposed solutions or discuss typical errors for the homework passage. Next, the instructor would present new material. Beware, a typical PowerPoint had more than 100 slides, which can definitely be a lot of information, especially if you are trying to take notes! Fortunately, the PowerPoints were available to the course participants online so you could always go over them later.

On the positive side, Ms. Gilyarevskaya did not only lecture and share information; she made sure to keep the group engaged by asking us for possible translations and giving us feedback. Clinical studies can be intimidating for a newcomer, and the teacher put the group at ease with her down-to-earth attitude and not being hard on those giving incorrect answers.

Workload and Homework

At the end of each class, the instructor would assign homework for the following class. There were two differently priced “access tiers” for this course, so some participants turned in homework and had it corrected, while others simply audited the class. We would normally get a choice of two texts, one more advanced than the other. A typical passage would be some 3-4 paragraphs long, and we would usually get about 2 days to upload our translation. Between going over the new material and doing your homework, you would probably need a minimum of two hours after each session, so I do not recommend taking this class if you are overloaded with work or family responsibilities!

A lot of homework passages came from clinical trial documentation, and I appreciated that we worked on real-life texts. On the other hand, the homework would regularly include concepts we had not discussed in the previous lecture. It could be a bit discouraging when some things in the passage were not clear even after you went over your class notes. I suppose that reflects real-world working conditions, where we often have to research things as we go along.

Takeaways

Any review is bound to be subjective, so what I say here reflects my professional goals and preferences. If you come to this class expecting a comprehensive overview of medicine and different text types in various specialties, you are likely to be disappointed. For instance, the text types I translate most often—patient education materials and descriptions of health benefits—were not represented. Neither were such areas as mental health or diagnostic imaging. That makes perfect sense, though—no single month-long class can cover all possible text types you come across in the medical field.

Personally, I am happy I took this class. I now have a better understanding of clinical trials, statistics, immune therapy, and the cellular mechanisms underlying cancer, even though I still have a lot more to learn. I also enjoyed the easygoing teacher and the “can-do” attitude she encouraged in her students. I would recommend this class to English-Russian translators who are interested in clinical studies and are willing to put in several hours of study and homework every week.

Author Bio

Maria Guzenko is an ATA-certified English<>Russian translator and a certified medical interpreter (CMI-Russian). She holds an MA in translation from Kent State University and specializes in healthcare and marketing content. Maria has also worked as a project manager and has taught college Russian and writing classes. More information can be found on Maria’s website at https://intorussian.net.

Filed Under: CEU Watch, Translation Tagged With: ceu watch, medical, professional development, translation

ATA Law Seminar in Jersey City

January 3, 2019

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.

Filed Under: ATA, Interpreting, Legal, Translation Tagged With: ATA, interpreting, legal, professional development, translation

ATA59 Early Registration Ending Soon!

September 11, 2018

The Early Registration deadline for ATA59 is rapidly approaching! Don’t miss this opportunity to save on registration, and come join other ATA members (and SLD members in particular) in New Orleans this October.
Registration: http://www.atanet.org/conf/2018/registration/
SLD sessions: http://www.atanet.org/conf/2018/sessions/?track=18ATA-ANNUAL-4915&token=395015f5f9494b96299ca49666e04400

Wondering what you might see at the conference? Check out the conference reviews from past conferences in past SlavFiles or on this blog (last year’s conference), under the tag ATA58: http://www.ata-divisions.org/SLD/tag/ata58/

 

Filed Under: Annual Conferences, ATA, ATA59, SLD Tagged With: ATA59, professional development

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