ATA SLD

Slavic Languages Division (American Translators Association)

American Translators Association: The Voice of Interpreters and Translators

ATA59 Early Registration Ending Soon!

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.

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: https://www.ata-divisions.org/SLD/tag/ata58/

 

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

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.

SLD Practice Group in Numbers

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. 

SLD at the ATA 58th Annual Conference: all you need to know and do before leaving for Washington, D.C.

Watch

Image by Jiyeon Park via Unsplash

The ATA 58th Annual Conference is now less than a week away. We look forward to meeting new SLD members and reconnecting with the colleagues we already know.

We have several reminders for the SLD members coming to the conference – before you start your journey to Washington, D.C., make sure you are not going to miss any of the SLD events that interest you.

For the first-time attendees: advice from SLD members, Buddies welcome Newbies and Newcomers Lunch

If you are a first-time attendee, welcome!

You’ll be able to meet with SLD members even before the sessions start at the SLD table at the Welcome Celebration. We also recommend participating in the Buddies welcome Newbies program, and attending the SLD Newcomers Lunch (Thursday, October 26, 12:30 pm) – please remember that registration for this event closes on Friday, October, 20.

Read more about the SLD Newcomers Lunch here. Remember that this event is open to both newcomers and those who have already attended ATA conferences in the past.

In addition to organizing the newcomers lunch, Jen Guernsey has prepared a blog post with advice for the first-time attendees. You can read it here. Natalie Mainland, a recent first-time attendee, shares her experience and offers advice in this post. If you would like to read other conference reviews by first-time attendees, the Summer/Fall SlavFile Preview issue has a list of articles going back to 2004.

SLD Annual Dinner

This event will take place on October 26, from 7pm to 10 pm at Meze. You can find detailed instructions on registration and information about the event here. While we do offer an opportunity to register at the Welcoming Celebration, we would very much like to have as many attendees as possible register before October, 20. Please register now to avoid possible cancellation!

Other dining options: going out with other SLD members

This year we are running sign-up sheets for SLD members who would like to explore Washington, D.C., Slavic food scene. Additional information and a link to the sign-up form are available here.

SLD sessions and the Annual Meeting

While going out with fellow SLD members is an important part of the conference experience, it is not all that we do.

You can find the Slavic languages sessions schedule online, or in the Summer/Fall SlavFile Preview issue.

In addition to that we encourage all SLD members to attend the Annual Meeting on Thursday at 4:45 pm to 5:45 pm. This is an opportunity to discuss the division initiatives, find out about division plans, meet other members and help shape the future of our division. SLD Annual Meeting agenda has been published in the 2017 Summer/Fall SlavFile issue on page 24.

Other ways to make a difference

Even if you are not willing to take on a specific position as a member of the Leadership Council, you can still contribute to the division. For example, we would love SLD members and other conference attendees to share their experiences and/or reviews of non-Slavic sessions. Read a post from Eugenia Tietz-Sokolskaya, the SLD Blog Editor, to find out more.

Final reminders

Please remember that there is a new badging policy in place: do not forget to wear your attendee badge for any conference events and activities.

If you would like to attend one of the SLD events, please remember to register in advance, by October, 20, for both Newcomers Lunch and Annual Dinner.

Lastly, please consider contributing to the division, either by attending the Annual Meeting or by submitting a review, a post, or a SlavFile article.

We wish all attendees an exciting time in Washington, D.C., and hope to see you there!

Call for Volunteers: Help Us Review ATA58!

Photo by Thomas Lefebvre via Unsplash

Are you going to this year’s ATA Annual Conference? See any particularly interesting non-SL sessions on the schedule? Consider writing it up for the SLD blog!

Slavic language sessions are typically thoroughly reviewed in SlavFile in the issues following any given conference, but conferences are also chock-full of sessions in other categories that may also be of interest to our members. We would like to publish short reviews of those sessions on the blog after the conference. Unfortunately, just like every other conference-goer, we can’t be everywhere at once. That’s where you come in!

If you’re planning on going to a session – or several! – that might be a good candidate for a review on the blog, please let me know (eugenia@sokolskayatranslations.com). Feel free to contact me even if you are interested in publishing a review, but you don’t have a session in mind yet. Alternatively, you can volunteer to review one of the following sessions that we think might be of interest to the SLD blog readership:

We invite all of the ATA attendees, but SLD members in particular, to share their newfound knowledge with other and discuss thought-provoking sessions on SLD blog.

A new initiative for SLD members: SLD Goes out

Lunch photo

Photo by Dan Gold on Unsplash

Several members have requested SLD to start compiling sign-up sheets to facilitate mingling between SLD members during ATA conferences.

This year we offer all SLD members attending the ATA 58th Annual Conference an opportunity to explore Washington, D.C., restaurants offering Slavic (or, in one case, Uzbek) food together.

If you are interested, you can see additional information on the venues and sign up here.

Once the registration closes on October, 23, we’ll send out group emails to participants interested in the same time, date, and venue. From there it’s up to them to decide whether or not to make a reservation, where to meet, and how to get to the venue.

We hope that this new initiative will be of interest to the SLD members!

You’ll notice that there are no options for Thursday. We would like to encourage our members, both new and old, to attend the division events scheduled for that day: Newcomers Lunch and SLD Division Dinner.

Please remember that the registration deadline is October 20th for both of the events.

For SLD Dinner, please remember that we need to reach a minimum number of attendees in advance to avoid event cancellation. Do not wait until the Welcome Celebration to register!

 

Slavic Languages Diversity and the SLD

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 https://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 https://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).

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