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ATA59 Early Registration Ending Soon!

September 11, 2018

The Early Registration deadline for ATA59 is rapidly approaching! Don’t miss this opportunity to save on registration, and come join other ATA members (and SLD members in particular) in New Orleans this October.
Registration: http://www.atanet.org/conf/2018/registration/
SLD sessions: http://www.atanet.org/conf/2018/sessions/?track=18ATA-ANNUAL-4915&token=395015f5f9494b96299ca49666e04400

Wondering what you might see at the conference? Check out the conference reviews from past conferences in past SlavFiles or on this blog (last year’s conference), under the tag ATA58: http://www.ata-divisions.org/SLD/tag/ata58/

 

Filed Under: Annual Conferences, ATA, ATA59, SLD Tagged With: ATA59, professional development

SLD Podcast: Episode 3 with Maria Guzenko and Eugenia Tietz-Sokolskaya

April 19, 2018

Check out the third episode of the SLD podcast, where the administrators and founders of SLD’s ATA exam practice group, Maria Guzenko and Eugenia Tietz-Sokolskaya, discuss how the group helps participants prepare for the ATA Certification Exam, their experience managing the group, and volunteering opportunities.

Filed Under: ATA, Certification, Podcast Episodes, SLD Tagged With: certification, podcast, SLD practice group

SLD Practice Group in Numbers

December 6, 2017

By Maria Guzenko

The Slavic Languages Division exam practice group is entering its second year. The background and activities of the group were covered in detail in our SlavFile article and a subsequent ATA Chronicle column. Now is a good time to report on how the group is doing.

To this end, the administrators of the group (currently Eugenia Tietz-Sokolskaya and Maria Guzenko) conducted a brief survey among group participants in late summer of 2017. We received responses from 21 group members. Although our sample was too small to be talking about any trends, we thought it may be interesting to share some numbers. The respondents had the option to skip questions, so some of our numbers will not add up to 21.

Participant Statistics

Of all respondents, 15 (71.4%) reported working in the English to Russian pair, 10 (47.6%) in Russian to English, 2 (9.5%) in English to Ukrainian, and 1 (4.8%) in Ukrainian to English, Polish to English, and French to English, each. Respondents had the option of choosing more than one combination.

Most participants (90%) were located in the United States, with one person located in Poland and Ukraine each. English to Russian was the most popular language combination for practice (14 respondents), followed by Russian to English (11), English to Ukrainian (2), Polish to English (1), and English to Polish (1). Unfortunately, none of the respondents reported joining the practice group in the Ukrainian to English, Croatian to English, and English to Croatian directions.

Bar chart of language directions that people had joined in the practice group

Experience with ATA Exams

Nine respondents (42.9%) had taken a certification exam before joining the practice group. Of those respondents, 4 did so in the English to Russian combination, 3 in Russian to English, 1 in Polish to English, and 1 in English to Ukrainian. Six of the participants who had taken the exam reported failing, while 2 reported passing.

Pie chart showing participants' plans to take the exam within the next year

Most of the respondents (66.7%) were planning to take the exam in the next year, with only 19% not planning to, and 14.3% undecided. The combinations in which candidates planned to take the exam were as follows: 12 English to Russian, 6 Russian to English, 1 Ukrainian to English, and 1 English to Ukrainian.

Thirteen (61.9%) of all participants reported taking the official ATA practice test, 8 in the English to Russian direction, 4 in Russian to English, and 1 in Polish to English.

Bar chart of the language directions that participants had taken the exam in since starting with the group

By the time the survey was distributed, 33.3% (7) of the participants had taken the certification exam. The most popular exam directions were English to Russian (3), Russian to English (2), Ukrainian to English (1), and Polish to English (1). 57.1% (4) reported failing, and 28.6 % (2) reported passing, with the remaining respondent waiting for their result. Since then, we have heard from at least three more participants that they had passed.

Continued Engagement

Pie chart showing frequency of participation in the practice group

Of all participants, 23.8% reported participating in the group weekly, 28.6% monthly, 19% occasionally, and 28.6% had ceased to participate in the group’s activities. Of those no longer actively participating, 50% said they planned to return to the group in the future, 33.3% answered “maybe,” and 16.7% (1 person) was not planning to resume participating.

Practice Group Rankings

On a scale of 1 (worst) to 5 (best), the average rankings for the following categories were:

  • User-friendliness of the Slack website: 4.00
  • Source texts for practice translations: 4.63
  • Feedback from peers: 3.94
  • Feedback from certified translators/graders: 4.12
  • Admin responsiveness: 5.00
  • Scheduling of practice rounds: 4.80
  • Improving my translation skills: 4.53
  • Enhancing my familiarity with exam standards and procedure: 4.26

Most participants (44%) found the feedback received from their peers “very useful,” 33% “somewhat useful,” 11.1% “not very useful,” and 11.1% “have not received feedback.”

Pie chart showing how useful participants had found feedback from their peers

We also received some useful verbal feedback from the respondents, which was covered in the Chronicle column. In a nutshell, most participants appreciated the group, although some wished the online platform were easier to navigate, participation were steadier, and peer feedback were more consistent.

We plan to continue and expand practice group activities in the coming year. To join us as a participant or volunteer reviewer, please get in touch with Eugenia (eugenia@sokolskayatranslations.com) or Maria (maria.guzenko@intorussian.net).

Maria Guzenko is an English>Russian translator working in the healthcare and corporate domains. She holds an MA in Translation from Kent State University and has worked as a translation project manager and a Russian instructor. She is a co-administrator of the certification exam online practice group for ATA’s Slavic Languages Division. 

Filed Under: ATA, Certification, SLD, Translation Tagged With: ATA, certification, SLD practice group

Slavic Languages Diversity and the SLD

July 12, 2017

Post by Jennifer Guernsey – originally published in 2014

As far as language divisions go, the Slavic Languages Division is by far the most linguistically diverse. Most language divisions are monolingual. The only other division that comes close to the SLD is the Nordic Division, which encompasses five languages. Slavic languages, on the other hand, number more than a dozen. Not only that, but our division also welcomes members speaking any language of the former USSR. We are a diverse lot, indeed.

The Slavic Languages Division was originally founded as the Russian Language Division, and though the name was changed a few years later, in 1996, the Division’s origins and its preponderance of Russian speakers meant that it initially offered little to the speakers of other (i.e., non-Russian) Slavic languages. Fortunately, during my decade as an active member of the SLD, I have seen the other Slavic languages become much more active and better represented in all aspects of the Division’s activities. This has been the result of two major shifts: a more encouraging and welcoming attitude on the part of the Russian speakers, and more speakers of other Slavic languages willing to step up and become active in the Division. Both of these are key to ensuring that all Division members are able to reap the benefits of Division membership.

What opportunities exist in the Division for the speakers of other Slavic languages, and how can the Russian speakers continue to foster their continued inclusion and involvement? As the Leadership Council member responsible for outreach to non-Russian-speaking SLD members, I’d like to provide some suggestions:

Conference presentations: Last year we had one Polish session and one Serbian/Croatian session; the year before we had a Polish session and a Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian Greiss lecturer. These sessions would not have taken place if not for the presenters’ initiative and effort. If you want to see presentations in your language, make it happen. Propose your own presentation, recruit a colleague to present, or suggest suitable Greiss lecturers. For further information, contact Lucy Gunderson (russophile@earthlink.net) and Fred Grasso (frdgrasso@satx.rr.com).
Blog postings: Write your own post. Blog postings are short- to medium-length articles on any topic of interest to the Division. Posting is a great way to get name recognition within the Division and particularly among your same-language colleagues, and to ensure that the Division blog contains material relevant to your specific language. For more information, contact our blog administrator, Sam Pinson (sjpinson@pinsonlingo.com).
SlavFile: Write an article – it doesn’t have to be long, just relevant. You can also suggest topics for future articles or recommend articles from other publications for reprint (with appropriate permission, of course). If you’re interested in taking it to the next level, serve as a SlavFile Language Editor, recruiting people to write articles related to your language. As with blog postings, writing for the SlavFile is great for name recognition, networking, and ensuring that the SlavFile contains articles relevant to your language. For more information, contact our SlavFile editor, Lydia Stone (lydiastone@verizon.net).
LinkedIn Group: Post a comment relevant to your language to the SLD’s LinkedIn group. For more information, contact Todd Jackson (todd@moselytranslations.com).
Listserv: Aside from the Russian listserv, there is a Yahoo-based listserv for only South Slavic languages. To join that listserv, go to https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/ATA-SSLI/info. If you are interested in starting a listserv for your language, contact Lucy Gunderson (russophile@earthlink.net) and Fred Grasso (frdgrasso@satx.rr.com).
Twitter feed: Just launched! Subscribe and/or tweet something relevant to your language @ATA_SLD.
Certification: Among the non-Russian Slavic languages, certification is available for Croatian<>English, English>Polish, and English>Ukrainian. For more information or to register for an exam, go to http://www.atanet.org/certification/index.php. It is possible to establish certification in additional languages, but it requires a certain critical mass of participants and considerable time and effort. For further information, see http://www.atanet.org/certification/abourtcert_new_language.php.
Web page: Your language group can create its own web page, which can be linked to the SLD web page provided it undergoes the normal review required of all ATA-associated web pages. For further information, contact webmistress Zhenya Tumanova (eugenia@tumanova.org).
Leadership Council: Serving on the Leadership Council is a great way to get involved, learn more about the Division, forge closer connections with other Division members, and ensure that your language is represented. For more information, contact Lucy Gunderson (russophile@earthlink.net) and Fred Grasso (frdgrasso@satx.rr.com).

For the Russian speakers:

Remember that the lingua franca of our division must of necessity be English.
When possible, make your contribution – whether a blog post, a SlavFile article, or a conference presentation – useful to all SLD members. Obviously, some topics do not lend themselves to this: a discussion of idioms or legal terms, for instance. But some topics are of interest to the entire division, while others can be expanded to encompass multiple languages. When John Riedl and I did a presentation on pharmaceutical translation a few years ago, we decided to “pan-Slavicize” our presentation. It took a bit of effort and coordination, but our non-Russian language colleagues readily responded to our request for aid, so we were able to include multiple Slavic languages in the exercises we used, and we offered participants a multilingual glossary.

For questions or suggestions related to this blog post, contact Jen Guernsey (jenguernsey@gmail.com).

Filed Under: ATA, SlavFile, SLD Tagged With: Administrative

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