December 15, 2017April 12, 2026 Web Admin

Quatorze ans d’industrie pharmaceutique plus tard, ou de l’anglais au créole

by Priscilla Tuernal-Vatran

Titulaire d’une Maîtrise de Langues Étrangères Appliquées (Anglais-Espagnol) obtenue à l’Université Paris Sorbonne (1982), complétée par un Master 2 LEA Management International des Assurances de l’Université Paris Nord obtenu en septembre 2015, j’ai longtemps été salariée. Il y a quatre ans, j’ai décidé de quitter la région parisienne pour me réinstaller dans mon île natale, la Martinique.

Nouveau virage professionnel : je quittais le confortable statut de salariée pour endosser l’habit de traductrice indépendante.

December 1, 2017April 12, 2026 Web Admin

Wait for Your Pitch—Growing Your Translation Business by Turning Down Work

by Stephanie Strobel

At the 2017 ATA conference, I attended a great session on specialization and expanding into technical markets. Thank you Lebzy González, Nick Hartman, Karen Tkaczyk and Matthew Schlecht. The panelists pointed out that there is more than one way to become a technical translator. Perhaps you studied language and translation and landed a position with a technical company, or you trained yourself in technical language by reading lots of journals or, maybe, you had a technical background and you decided to trade in your calculator and apply your linguistic muscles to technical translation as a second career.

November 9, 2017April 12, 2026 Web Admin

The French Historical Present Tense

by Bruce Popp

As professional French-into-English translators, we commonly encounter the French historical present tense in meeting minutes and reports of clinical cases written by doctors. In these documents, the writers use the present tense (and thereby avoid repeated use of the passé composé and imparfait) to describe events that occurred sometime earlier. To my mind this can seem like some kind of historical reenactment. “We are standing next to the village green in Lexington. On one side Capt. Parker is steadying his company of colonial militia and on the other the vanguard of the King’s Own 10^th Regiment of Foot is marching into sight.”

October 4, 2017April 12, 2026 Web Admin

Review: Translate in…/On Traduit à Québec

by Jenn Mercer

This year’s Translate in Québec/On traduit à Québec was the 8th in a traveling series of FR<>EN translation workshops focused on craft. This series, which began as a small workshop in the Catskills, has since been held in such varied locations as Cambridge (U.K.) and Chantilly (France). This is only the second one I have been able to attend and, mostly coincidentally, both have been in Québec.

August 10, 2017April 12, 2026 Web Admin

Review of Trilingual Swiss Law Dictionary

Review of Trilingual Swiss Law Dictionary
French-German-English
German-French-English
Thomas L. West III, JD

Review by Anne Goff

Mr. West’s new dictionary is the first trilingual dictionary focused solely on Swiss legal terms. This dictionary includes Swiss civil law, criminal law, constitutional law, debt collection, bankruptcy, and corporate law. It is divided into two parts:

August 9, 2017April 12, 2026 Web Admin

Some Thoughts on Translating Poincaré

At the American Translators Association (ATA) conference in San Francisco in November 2016, I talked about Translating Poincaré. Instead of providing a summary for this blog of what turned out to be a very interesting talk, I’d like to discuss some related points that didn’t make it into that talk.

February 15, 2017April 12, 2026 Web Admin

I Tried It: Hiring a Translation Intern

One of the best business decisions I’ve made in recent years was to hire an intern. I had learned about it while take a massive open online course (MOOC) on employment law through Northwestern University. If you don’t have a budget to pay an assistant yet, or want to test the waters before you hire part-time help, recruiting an intern is a solid move.

January 9, 2017April 12, 2026 Web Admin

A Translator’s Review of the Box-Office Smash Arrival

The translation world has been abuzz about the film Arrival since it was released on November 11, 2016. Translators have been intrigued, and some would go so far as to say flattered, by the elevated position a language expert is given in a Hollywood blockbuster. On top of that, the starring translator is tasked with saving the planet!

January 3, 2017April 12, 2026 Web Admin

The Role of the Genealogical Translator

My response to the question “what do you do?” tends to be a conversation stopper. I’m a professional genealogist and genealogical translator. Most people don’t have an idea of what either field entails. A professional genealogist or a professional translator might have some idea, but they’re usually missing part of the picture.

September 28, 2016April 12, 2026 Web Admin

L’arabe du futur : une jeunesse au Moyen-Orient (1978-1984) – Riad Sattouf

I am not someone who has a natural inclination to read graphic novels. The first one I read, at the urging of a book group, was Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. I thought it was a fascinating peek into what it was like to grow up in Iran and it made me realize that graphic novels can indeed be literary endeavors. This particular genre is a revered form of expression within Francophone culture so I am in good company. My most recent foray into the world of graphic novels was to read Riad Sattouf’s L’arabe du futur : une jeunesse au Moyen-Orient (1978-1984) by Allary Éditions, the subject of this article.

ATA French Language Divisions

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