ATA SLD

Slavic Languages Division (American Translators Association)

American Translators Association: The Voice of Interpreters and Translators

ATA66: SLD Roundup

66th ATA Annual Conference, October 22-25, 2025

If you’re heading to Boston for the 66th ATA Annual Conference this year (October 22-25) and wondering what will be there for the Slavic languages enthusiast, we have you covered! In this roundup, we’ve compiled a rundown of SLD-related happenings at the conference, from the Wednesday night division meetup to our Distinguished Speaker sessions to the annual dinner. Hope to see you there!

And if you haven’t registered for the conference yet, there’s still time!

Division Mingle

Keep Connecting and Celebrating with Divisions & Special Interest Groups

Wednesday, October 22, 7:00–8:00 PM (after the Welcome Celebration)

Commonwealth Ballroom AB

Come find the SLD area, meet our administrators and fellow members, and get the conference off to a good start!

SLD-Related Sessions and Sessions by SLD Members

(067) Changing Attitudes to Translating from Russian

Robert Chandler (Distinguished Speaker)

Friday, October 24, 2:40–3:40 PM

Session description: Constance Garnett was a courageous and independent woman. She translated at least five great Russian writers well enough that readers could sense their greatness for the first time (there are few translators of whom one can say that). Her translations influenced such varied writers as Arnold Bennett, D.H. Lawrence, Katherine Mansfield, and Virginia Woolf. Bizarrely, both Nabokov and Brodsky and, more recently, Pevear and Volokhonsky, have criticized her work. These attacks exemplify how rigid ideologies of translation can interfere with our real work–that of communicating meaning, whether thought, fact, or feeling.

(099) Learning from My Mistakes

Robert Chandler (Distinguished Speaker)

Saturday, October 25, 10:30–11:30 AM

Session description: In some fields of translation (e.g., legal), mistakes are likely to be noticed. In other fields, there may be no one checking your work. That’s why it’s essential to find a way of getting another person to do this. One of the dangers in our profession is that the better one’s command of English, the better one can be at disguising a misunderstanding. A serious source of misunderstandings is verbal aspects. The speaker will provide memorable examples of his own misunderstandings to help attendees grasp the power of these aspects.

This session is also available on livestream (https://www.atanet.org/ata66/education/livestream/), which is included with every level of conference registration and can be purchased separately before October 16.

An interview with Robert Chandler is available on the blog.

(103) New Directions on the Contact Line: How the Russia-Ukraine War Changed Terminology

Steven McGrath

Saturday, October 25, 10:30–11:30 AM

Session description: After more than three years of intense fighting, the war in Ukraine has resulted in numerous consequences for diplomatic and military affairs, as well as for the lives of millions of soldiers and civilians in harm’s way. Nonetheless, English-language media has struggled with terminology for discussing even the technical aspects of battlefield weapons and tactics, let alone the deep, distinct Russian and Ukrainian cultural contexts involved in home-front mobilization and information warfare. In this session, attendees will discuss various approaches for conveying wartime concepts to a general audience in English as they explore terminology with potential applications in various translation fields.

(119) Three Paths to Publishing Professional Literary Translations

Shelley Fairweather-Vega

Saturday, October 25, 1:30–2:30 PM

Session description: No literary translator can succeed without publishing their work, but most translator certification programs teach nothing about publishing. That means too many highly skilled translators never pursue a career in book translation. This session will dispel some of the mystery around the publishing process through case studies of three recent translations published by different routes: a teen romance self-published by the author, short fiction published by a tiny university press, and literary fiction commissioned by a prestigious imprint of another university publisher. We’ll explore specific differences in process, cost, editing, marketing, and more in each publishing scenario.

(138) Court Interpreting – The Translation Side of It

Ana Biškup

Saturday, October 25, 2:40–3:40 PM

Any court interpreting job, whether consecutive or translation, will always include analyzing relevant documents and making sure to use accurate terminology. This session will highlight the importance of research for a court interpreter that goes beyond what any available Artificial Intelligence tool could offer. This includes knowledge of consular affairs, relevant historical sources, and comparative analysis of the source and target language. It also implies using consistent terminology that conveys the correct meaning in the target language.

SLD Annual Dinner

Thursday, October 23, 7:00-9:00PM

Join us for a delightful dinner featuring dishes from Mediterranean, Italian, and Mexican cuisines. We will head out to Servia, located near the famous Faneuil Hall Marketplace, on Thursday evening between the job fair and After Hours Cafe. Servia offers a buffet of dishes to serve various tastes (salad, ratatouille, grilled chicken, pork tacos).

Location: Servia (https://serviaboston.com/)

126 State St, Boston, MA 02109

Guests will pay for their own food, but registration ensures we can reserve the right number of tables. To register, please contact Assistant Administrator Natalia Postrigan at divisionSLD@atanet.org.

Attending the conference? Consider writing for SlavFile Online, the division blog! Doing a writeup of an SLD-related session (or any session if it really made an impression!) is a great way to collect your thoughts and impressions, extend the reach of knowledge shared at the conference, and raise your own profile. If it’s your first time attending, you can also share general impressions of the conference for a Newcomer’s Column. If interested, contact editor Eugenia Tietz-Sokolskaya at eugenia@sokolskayatranslations.com.

 

Save the Date: Preparing Effectively for ATA’s Russian-to-English Certification Exam

Registration is now open for the upcoming webinar Preparing Effectively for ATA’s Russian-to-English Certification Exam on July 24 at 12:00 PM EDT. It will be presented by SLD member and certification exam grader Eugenia Tietz-Sokolskaya.

Interested in ATA certification but don’t know where to start? This webinar will help you prepare for the exam, using examples from actual Russian>English ATA exams and practice tests. We will cover the format of the exam, including what online resources are allowed, so you know what to expect on the day of the exam. We will take advantage of the resources made available by the Certification Program to delve into the skills and knowledge the exam is testing, with an in-depth look at the rubric and error categories used by graders to assess each candidate’s translation. We will examine examples of errors made on past exams to highlight common difficulties candidates face on the exam and discuss effective ways of preparing to overcome these challenges and increase your chances of passing on the first try. By the end, you will have an understanding of what ATA graders are looking for.

This webinar will be most useful to candidates looking to take the Russian>English and English>Russian exams, but can also provide valuable insight to any potential exam candidate with a working knowledge of Russian.

Find out more and register here.

Reminder: Messenger Marketing for Freelance Translators

One week left! On January 23, 2024, at 12:00 PM Eastern, SLD member Dmitry Beschetny will be presenting an ATA-hosted webinar titled “Messenger Marketing for Freelance Translators: How to Leverage It Effectively.”
In today’s digital age, conventional marketing approaches are evolving, and mobile messenger apps like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram, and more are becoming indispensable tools for freelance translators. In this webinar, Dmitry will explore inbound and outbound strategies and practical techniques tailored for freelance translators to effectively use these apps, ensuring that even your one-off clients of yesteryear keep thinking of you and prospects keep coming in.
This webinar is designed for freelance translators who work in geographical locations without access to major marketing platforms and for those looking to augment their marketing efforts with messaging platforms to boost their translation business. It will be primarily conducted in English, supplemented with illustrative examples in Russian.

 

ATA Webinar: Messenger Marketing for Freelance Translators

Mark your calendars! On January 23, 2024, at 12:00 PM Eastern, SLD member Dmitry Beschetny will be presenting an ATA-hosted webinar titled “Messenger Marketing for Freelance Translators: How to Leverage It Effectively.”
In today’s digital age, conventional marketing approaches are evolving, and mobile messenger apps like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram, and more are becoming indispensable tools for freelance translators. In this webinar, Dmitry will explore inbound and outbound strategies and practical techniques tailored for freelance translators to effectively use these apps, ensuring that even your one-off clients of yesteryear keep thinking of you and prospects keep coming in.
This webinar is designed for freelance translators who work in geographical locations without access to major marketing platforms and for those looking to augment their marketing efforts with messaging platforms to boost their translation business. It will be primarily conducted in English, supplemented with illustrative examples in Russian.

 

Upcoming ATA Webinar: Professional Liability Insurance for Translators and Interpreters

April 5 / 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EDT

Photo by Vlad Deep on Unsplash

Join this free webinar to learn about the benefits of having a professional liability insurance policy to protect yourself and your business from potential claims!

Are you a professional translator or interpreter? Have you considered the importance of professional liability insurance to protect yourself and your business from potential claims?

In this 60-minute presentation, you’ll hear from an industry expert about the nature of professional liability insurance, what it does and doesn’t cover, and other important policy terms. You will also gain insight into the types of claims that can be made and how to avoid or mitigate them.

Using examples of actual situations that have arisen, you will learn about the benefits of having such insurance and what to do in a claim or potential claim situation, including what is required by the terms of the policy. You will also learn about the features and availability of the insurance program available to ATA members.

This presentation is designed for both translators and interpreters and will be presented in English.

By attending this webinar, you will:

  1. Get a better understanding of the nature of your professional liability insurance coverage.
  2. See what types of claims you might face.
  3. Learn or reinforce ways to avoid claims or mitigate them.
  4. Learn or reinforce what to do and how to respond to claims when made.
  5. Hear about what coverage is available to you as an ATA member.

About the Presenter

Martin Ween, Senior Counsel at Wilson Elser, the law firm that works with the Underwriters at Lloyd’s, London, has been involved in the field of professional liability for 50 years, including extensive experience with the liability of translators and interpreters as a result of more than 20 years of responsibility for claims made under the professional liability program provided by the Underwriters at Lloyd’s to members of the American Translators Association. This has included handling and resolving claims; receiving and responding to inquiries from ATA members; and providing seminars, webinars, and materials to ATA and its members on a variety of topics related to their insurance coverage, liability, and ways to avoid and mitigate claims.

Upcoming Webinar – Russian Legal Translation

September 22 / 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm EDT

Learn the fundamental differences between contract law in Russia and the U.S. and how they affect the content of contracts in Russian.

In this two-hour webinar, we’ll take a look at the Russian law of obligations to see how it differs from contract and tort law in the U.S. We’ll also talk about three fundamental differences and see how they affect the content of contracts in Russian. Then we’ll consider the anatomy of a contract in Russian and English and compare standard clauses.

The webinar will be conducted in English and is primarily aimed at translators from Russian-into-English, but should also be of interest to translators from English-into-Russian.

About the Presenter

Thomas West founded Intermark Language Services in 1995 after practicing law for five years with a large Atlanta law firm. Tom received his B.A. degree in French and English from the University of Mississippi summa cum laude and his M.A. in German from Vanderbilt University, where he was a Harold Stirling Vanderbilt fellow. He earned his J.D. at the University of Virginia School of Law and was admitted to the State Bar of Georgia in 1990.

Tom is ATA-certified for translation from French-, Spanish-, German- and Dutch-into-English. He also studied Russian as both an undergraduate and graduate student. He has presented seminars on legal translation throughout Europe, the Americas, and in South Africa. From 2001 to 2003, Tom served as ATA president.

Register Now!

Registration closes September 22, 10:00 am ET

Upcoming Workshop – Become a Voice Talent

Don’t miss the exciting multilingual workshop “Become a Voice Talent” on May 19, 2022! The workshop will work for all language pairs that include English.

This 3-hour workshop is limited to 30 attendees who are able to attend the live event in real-time and actively participate in classroom activities during the workshop. Attendees will be contacted after registration to confirm their attendance.

  • Presenter: Rafa Lombardino
  • Date:  May 19, 2022
  • Time:  11:30 a.m. – 2:30 U.S. ET
  • Duration: 3 hours
  • Presenting Language(s): English
  • Level: All
  • ATA CEPs: 3.0

Increase your competitive advantage by adding voice recording services!

As the language industry landscape continues to evolve, diversification is becoming even more relevant to a successful business. One excellent opportunity for those language professionals looking to expand their services in a new direction has been created by the growing demand for multilingual voice recording.

Join us for this highly dynamic virtual workshop, where you’ll learn about the different market segments for voice recording and how to acquire the necessary skills to offer this service to clients.

During three hours of focused learning, this workshop will cover effective speaking, breathing, pauses, tone of voice, and what equipment and tools are needed for a successful audio-recording session. Attendees will also receive real-time feedback on reading exercises for different markets!

You will learn how to:

  1. Use sound hardware and software for successful audio-recording sessions
  2. Identify the market demand for your type of voice and style
  3. Prepare yourself to record voice samples
  4. Reach out to clients to offer your voice-over services
  5. How to charge for voice-over work

Special Notes

  • Due to the interactive nature of this event, the workshop is limited to 30 participants.
  • Participants can submit their recordings ahead of time, whether anonymous or not, for real-time feedback during the session.
  • We encourage everyone to connect with their video and audio on and actively participate in the workshop discussions.

About the Presenter

Rafa Lombardino became a professional translator in 1997, specializing in technology, marketing, human resources, education, health and wellness, audiovisual, and literature. She is ATA-certified in both English-to-Portuguese and Portuguese-to-English translation. Rafa has a professional certificate in Spanish-to-English translation from the University of California, San Diego Extension, where she started teaching translation classes in 2010. One of her classes, “Tools and Technology in Translation,” has been released in book format. She is President and CEO of Word Awareness, a small network of professional translators.

How to Register or Purchase

ATA Member: $135 – Click to Register
Non-Member: $180 – Click to Register

Registration Closes: May 18, 5:00 pm ET

Upcoming Webinar – “Bilingualism Across the Lifespan”

Our colleague Yuliya Tsaplina is hosting a webinar “Bilingualism Across the Lifespan” at 1 PM Eastern this Saturday, April 2. It sounds like an interesting opportunity, especially for parents!

See below for a description of the webinar:

Our professional lives as interpreters and translators depend on our abilities to juggle multiple languages, seamlessly and in real time.

The science of bilingualism has made great strides in understanding how bilingualism changes the mind in ways that go far beyond the linguistic. Popular press coverage has made many far-reaching claims about the advantages of bilingualism.

Are bilingual people truly more empathetic?

Do they really have a greater ability to focus?

In this session we will try to separate hype from fact and will discuss the multiple advantages conferred by bilingualism across the lifespan, as well as the costs involved.

We will focus in greater detail on early bilingualism and on factors that help children acquire proficiency in multiple languages at an early age.

The talk will be followed by a Q&A session.

Follow this link for further information and to sign up for the webinar.

Upcoming November ATA webinars

The ATA is offering another round of webinars over the next few weeks that should prove to be fun and informative!

Introduction to Mobile App Localization

There’s an app for everything these days, and there’s now an ATA webinar on mobile app localization, too! 🙂 
Presenter Dorota Pawlak will give us an introduction to mobile app localization and the role of translators working in this field. Drawing on years of experience in this field, the speaker will explain what skills, tools, and qualities are needed to localize mobile apps; what are some of the most common issues in mobile app localization projects; and how to solve them.

Join us on November 9 or sign up to get the recording and 1 ATA CEP
https://www.atanet.org/event/introduction-to-mobile-app-localization/

Registration closes: November 9, 10:00 am EST

memoQ for Intermediate and Advanced Users

Join this webinar to take your knowledge of memoQ to the next level: in this session, you will learn useful tips and tricks that can make your work as a translator a lot easier.
You will also learn how to search your preferred websites directly from the translation grid and how to connect to a machine translation provider to be able to use MT in your work. The trainer will also show you how to automate your processes using templates in memoQ and how to fine-tune the import of your documents with the help of powerful import filters.
Register at https://www.atanet.org/event/memoq-for-intermediate-and-advanced-users/
Remember that ATA members can save 35% on new licenses for memoQ translator pro. 

Join us on November 12 at 12 pm EST (recording will be available) / 1 ATA CEP
Registration Closes: November 12, 10:00 am EST

Intermediate Tips and Tricks for Trados Studio


This hands-on webinar will explore useful features that will take you a step closer to becoming a power user of the most powerful and popular CAT tool in the market.
This webinar was organized in collaboration with RWS.

You will learn how to:

  1. Identify and modify file type options
  2. Work with a translation memory’s language resources
  3. Use apps to extend Trados Studio’s functionality
  4. Use machine translation for pre-translation and interactive translation
  5. Set up verification option

Register at https://www.atanet.org/event/intermediate-tips-and-tricks-for-trados-studio/

Remember that ATA members can save 35% on Trados Studio 2021 Freelance and Trados Studio 2021 Freelance Plus.

Join us on November 17 at 12 pm EST (recording will be available) / 1 ATA CEP

Registration Closes: November 17, 10:00 am EST

Upcoming ATA webinars this week

We have two fun and interactive ATA webinars coming up this week!

November 2 at 6 pm EDT: Ethics in Conference Interpreting with Katty Kauffman

https://www.atanet.org/event/ethics-in-conference-interpreting/


Duration: 120 minutes
ATA CEPs: 2.0

What will you learn?

  1. Working definition of ethics in interpreting
  2. Core concepts and values of conference interpreters
  3. Best practices for onsite events
  4. Best practices for remote events
  5. Where ethics in onsite and remote events converge and diverge

Registration Closes: November 2, 4:00 pm EDT

November 4 at 7 pm EDT: The Power of Social Media: Key Strategies for Marketing Your Interpreting and Translation Services (free for ATA members!) with Mireya Pérez, MS

https://www.atanet.org/event/the-power-of-social-media-key-strategies-for-marketing-your-interpreting-and-translation-services/

What will you learn?

  1. What types of social media posts you can use as a marketing tool
  2. What is visual storytelling and how you can use it on social media
  3. How to identify your target audience
  4. How to create identity on social media
  5. What social media resources are available

Registration Closes: November 4, 10:00 am EDT

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