{"id":707,"date":"2021-06-13T20:30:31","date_gmt":"2021-06-13T20:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/CLD\/?p=707"},"modified":"2021-06-13T20:30:31","modified_gmt":"2021-06-13T20:30:31","slug":"my-first-ata-conference-more-than-just-an-escape-from-the-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/CLD\/my-first-ata-conference-more-than-just-an-escape-from-the-kids\/","title":{"rendered":"My First ATA Conference \u2014 More Than Just an Escape From the Kids"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jessie Liu \u2022 Source: Yifeng<\/em> 2019 Winter Issue<\/p>\n

I first became aware of the existence of the American Translators Association in late August 2018 when I met Pency Tsai\u00a0(\u8521\u6653\u840d), the Chinese Language Division Administrator, in New York. Although I didn\u2019t know much about the ATA, when Pency told me about its 59th annual conference to be held in New Orleans that coming October, I made up my mind immediately to go because I had been looking for an excuse to get away from my children (I love them dearly but need some space from them occasionally to keep my sanity).<\/p>\n

Conference registration fees and membership\u00a0dues brought the cost of the\u00a0trip to $1,000\u2014and I hadn\u2019t even left home!\u00a0I remember saying to myself that this\u00a0conference had better be darn good. A\u00a0round-trip plane ticket between Los\u00a0Angeles and New Orleans and a hotel for\u00a0four nights multiplied the cost threefold,\u00a0along with my expectations of the\u00a0conference. I remember telling myself then\u00a0that something really unbelievably amazing\u00a0needs to happen during this trip because on\u00a0this budget I could\u2019ve done three escape-from-my-children trips.<\/p>\n

I arrived at the conference Welcome\u00a0Celebration with a ton of expectations, a good amount of anxiety, and a hint of\u00a0nervousness. Although I walked in with a \u201cbuddy\u201d and another \u201cnewbie\u201d like me, I knew I couldn\u2019t rely wholly on them and that I needed to find my own playground. Ah-ha, \u201cChinese Language Division!\u201d\u2014the big bold letters at the corner table smiled down at me. Off I went toward it, and that sign marked the beginning of a very fruitful and inspiring journey!<\/p>\n

I developed friendships with many like-minded professionals and fellow linguists\u2014a reward that no price can ever buy\u2014and that is my biggest prize! The coming together of these brilliant minds of their language specialties resulted in endless discussion of rich and inspiring ideas and topics. I certainly appreciated the platform that the ATA annual conference created for such a great meeting of minds. I also must mention the Chinese Language Division’s distinguished speaker: Mr. Zhongliang Chen, chief of the Chinese translation service documentation division at the United Nations department for general assembly and conference management, accepted an invitation to be a distinguished speaker at the conference!<\/p>\n

Given the\u00a0caliber of Mr. Chen and past distinguished\u00a0speakers, it would probably not be too far-fetched to imagine the celebrity Chinese\u00a0government interpreter Ms. Lu Zhang(\u5f20\u7490)\u00a0at some future ATA\u00a0conference as a CLD distinguished speaker.<\/p>\n

I feel that the ATA annual conference did an outstanding job in bringing so many\u00a0language professionals together. The\u00a0conference is a great place to make\u00a0connections, network, or simply find new<\/p>\n

friends who can laugh at your jokes that a\u00a0non-linguist would never be able to\u00a0appreciate. I believe that interpreters or\u00a0translators achieve the ultimate success\u00a0when their presence, whether in voice or\u00a0on paper, is not felt by their audience or\u00a0readers.<\/p>\n

We truly are heroic in silence, and\u00a0it\u2019s important that we be reminded of and\u00a0praised for the nobility of the work we\u00a0do\u2014at least by each other\u2014because it is\u00a0hard for others to understand this lonely\u00a0but intellectually challenging profession. I\u00a0left the conference with my many\u00a0expectations well-met, and I cannot wait to\u00a0see everyone again in Palm Springs,\u00a0California, in 2019!<\/p>\n

\n

Jessie is a California court certified\u00a0Mandarin interpreter. She is currently staff interpreter at California Superior Court, San\u00a0Bernardino County, and also interprets in\u00a0federal and immigration court. She also\u00a0loves the Spanish language and is excited to\u00a0be learning it in preparation to add it to her\u00a0repertoire of working languages.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jessie Liu \u2022 Source: Yifeng 2019 Winter Issue I first became aware of the existence of the American Translators Association in late August 2018 when I met Pency Tsai\u00a0(\u8521\u6653\u840d), the Chinese Language Division Administrator, in New York. Although I didn\u2019t know much about the ATA, when Pency told me about its 59th annual conference […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-707","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-ata-annual-conference","7":"entry"},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/CLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/CLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/CLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/CLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/CLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=707"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/CLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":738,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/CLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707\/revisions\/738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/CLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/CLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/CLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}