The Slavic Languages Division (SLD) of the American Translators Association brings together professional translators and interpreters working with English and one or more of the Slavic languages spoken in Eastern Europe and the non-Slavic languages of the former Soviet bloc.
SLD facilitates networking and sharing of knowledge through social media, quarterly SlavFile newsletter, and blog, as well as conference activities.
The Slavic Languages Division of the American Translators Association, first founded in 1990, brings together professional translators and interpreters working with English and one or more of the Slavic languages spoken in Eastern Europe and the non-Slavic languages of the former Soviet bloc. Some 1,100 Division members network through conference activities, the SlavFile newsletter, this website and other formal and informal networking tools. Approximately 150 of our members are currently certified for translation into or out of Russian, Polish, Croatian, or Ukrainian – the four Slavic Languages for which ATA certification is available.
In addition to the Slavic Languages – Belarusian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Macedonian, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovene, and Ukrainian – some SLD members work with one or more of the non-Slavic languages of the former Soviet bloc, such as Armenian, Azeri, Bukhari, Georgian, Romanian (Moldovan), Tadjik, and Uzbek, and we consider professional activities involving such languages to be relevant to our division. While our members translate or interpret more than 20 different languages, it will be no surprise to anyone that Russian is by far the most common. However, we are now endeavoring to provide increased representation to all Slavic languages, as well as non-Slavic languages of the former USSR. Only in this way can we live up to our name and our mission.
While most of our members reside in the United States and Canada, some live in Russia, Ukraine, Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany, Finland, England, Italy, Switzerland and Argentina. Judging from results of recent member surveys, approximately half our members are native speakers of English while half speak Russian and/or another Slavic language or language of the former Soviet bloc as a mother tongue. Also according to these results, our members have worked in translation/interpretation for periods ranging from less than 1 year to over 40 years.
The Slavic Languages Division previously ran a Certification Exam Practice Group for all of the currently available Slavic language exams (Croatian, Polish, Russian, and Ukraian, both into and out of English), which was open to all SLD members. Participants worked on a new text every month. The group was run on Slack from 2016 to 2022.
We attempt to meet the unique, as well as the shared professional needs of our member subgroups, and especially welcome newcomers both to our profession and to our organization.
How to Join SLD
Current ATA members can join the Division by following the instructions here: https://www.atanet.org/divisions/division_admin.php
Not a member yet? We encourage all translators and interpreters working with Slavic languages to join the American Translators Association and SLD. Just complete the ATA Application for New Members online or download and complete the form in PDF or Word format and send it to ATA Headquarters by mail or fax.
Keeping Up with SLD
Anyone, not just members, can follow SLD on Twitter @ATA_SLD and listen to the Division’s podcast on SoundCloud (or subscribe via RSS Feed).
Members may wish to join the Division’s Facebook Group (managed by Anna Livermore), LinkedIn Group (managed by Mikhail Yashchuk), and Google Forum (i.e. listserv, managed by Julia Thornton). Please allow some time for membership status to be verified.
SLD Blog
Our blog covers topics of interest for translators working with Slavic languages. It can be found under the “Blog” tab above.
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