{"id":1062,"date":"2018-10-22T09:00:33","date_gmt":"2018-10-22T09:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/FLD\/?p=1062"},"modified":"2018-10-04T14:27:44","modified_gmt":"2018-10-04T14:27:44","slug":"proust-ben-karl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/FLD\/2018\/10\/22\/proust-ben-karl\/","title":{"rendered":"Proust Questionnaire \u2013 feat. Ben Karl"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ata-fld-newsletter-logo\"<\/a>[Editor\u2019s note: This is my last post as the editor of <\/em>\u00c0 Propos. I am stepping down in order to focus on my upcoming duties as Assistant Administrator of the French Language Division. The FLD is proud to announce that Ben Karl will be taking over as editor-in-chief as of our Annual Division Meeting on Thursday, October 25 at 12:30 PM, held as part of the ATA conference in New Orleans. Welcome to the team, Ben! \u2013Andie Ho]<\/em><\/p>\n

****************<\/p>\n

Ben Karl<\/a>, MBA, CT<\/strong> is a French and Mandarin to English translator based in Reno, Nevada who specializes in marketing, financial, and creative content. Visit his blog, Ben Translates<\/a>, or connect with him on Twitter<\/a> and LinkedIn.<\/p>\n

How did you get involved in translation?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I knew I wanted to be a translator even as a teenager. I pursued an undergraduate degree in lettres et traduction fran\u00e7aises<\/em>, which was very well rounded in terms of theory and stylistics, but not so useful in terms of real, practical application (my instructors never once mentioned CAT tools, for example). I also studied Chinese, so I moved to China after university and continued my language studies there for two\u00a0years before moving back to the US. I found work as a project manager at one of the top\u00a0three LSPs, and just over five\u00a0years ago, I transitioned to freelancing. I haven\u2019t looked back!<\/p>\n

What subject areas do you translate?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I focus on financial, corporate communications, and marketing. Three years ago, I decided that I wanted to up my game and my subject-matter expertise, so I went back to school for an MBA. It was a really invaluable experience for me, not only as a translator, but also as a business owner. Most of us are not business-minded people (we\u2019re language people!), so learning about business in such a rigorous environment was really eye-opening and useful.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your favorite word or phrase in French or English?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always loved the expression Il ne faut pas mettre le doigt entre l\u2019arbre et l\u2019\u00e9corce<\/em>. I find it elicits such a beautiful image. My favorite English words are cahoots<\/em> (back when I was little, I would always picture two owls talking secretively to each other) and slough<\/em> (i.e. the verb sl\u028cf, not the noun slu), which has a great sound and also elicits a great mental picture, especially when used figuratively.<\/p>\n

Do you have a favorite French or English book?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My favorite book of all time is The Master and Margarita<\/em>, by Mikhail Bulgakov (I love the Pevear\u2013Volokhonsky translation), but it\u2019s neither an English nor a French book! When I try to think of my favorite books or movies, my mind always seems to settle on something I\u2019ve seen or read recently. I was very shaken and moved by En finir avec Eddy Bellegueule<\/em> by Edouard Louis and have also really enjoyed Jo\u00ebl Dicker\u2019s page-turners La V\u00e9rit\u00e9 sur l\u2019affaire Harry Quebert<\/em> and Le livre des Baltimore<\/em>. Reading about an America imagined by a Swiss author is fascinating and very entertaining! Translating a book like that would definitely be my dream project.<\/p>\n

Tell us something surprising about yourself.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have a twin sister! Not only that, we were among the first IVF babies born in the United States and were featured in the New York Times as infants. She also speaks Danish, which I\u2019ve always thought is really cool.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Editor\u2019s note: This is my last post as the editor of \u00c0 Propos. I am stepping down in order to focus on my upcoming duties as Assistant Administrator of the French Language Division. The FLD is proud to announce that Ben Karl will be taking over as editor-in-chief as of our Annual Division Meeting on … Continue reading Proust Questionnaire \u2013 feat. Ben Karl<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/FLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/FLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/FLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/FLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/FLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1062"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/FLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1062\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1067,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/FLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1062\/revisions\/1067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/FLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/FLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/FLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}