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As language professionals, we have a duty to keep up with training and education in our languages and specializations; with technology, legislation, and other developments important to our field; and with other people, both colleagues and clients. Attending a professional conference is a great way to manage all of these obligations. But conferences, by their very nature, can be big, overwhelming, and difficult to navigate. Simply showing up and hoping for the best is a recipe for exhaustion, failure, and wasting all the money we invested to be there. To really make the most of the conference experience, it helps…
ATA’s Certification Exam Preparation Workshop in Boston
Reblogged from The ATA Chronicle, with permission ATA’s Certification Exam Preparation Workshop presented opportunities for participants to learn how the Certification Program works, including the general characteristics of exam passages and how exams are evaluated and graded. ATA held a Certification Exam Preparation Workshop on January 20 at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Training has always been an important part…
What Exactly Is a Technical Freelance Translator?
by Jost Zetzsche I was asked some time back to write a book chapter about freelance translators and translation technology. Not surprisingly, I started by defining a “freelance translator” in this context. Here’s what I came up with: “According to Wikipedia, a ‘freelancer’ is ‘a person who is self-employed and is not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. (…)…
After 35 years as a translator, these two things I know: we translators love words, and we love a good meal. The more exotic the meal (or the words), the better. Need a good Burmese take-out in Oklahoma City? Ask a translator! A colleague and I recently had a discussion on the taxonomy of the world’s dumplings, from Russian pel’meni…
I had heard many people say Errors and Omissions (E&O) policies were not necessary for translators. I went along with that… until a direct client required it. In the medical field, it is common for direct clients to require a one million dollar E and policy limit. When I signed the policy, my insurance agent walked me through the do’s…
Reblogged from the Gostalks blog, with permission This is to give you some pointers as to what and how to check for, hence a sort of QA/QC checklist, for legal translation: Unless you have perfect memory and consistency, write down a glossary, either a general one or a specific one for every larger project, to make sure that you translate the…
My Personal Style Guide for the ATA Translation Exam into Spanish
Reblogged from Gaucha Translations blog, with permission by the author Based on the comments from a failed exam. I am writing this to help others not fail the same way! Include necessary clarifying information to reduce ambiguity. (register former inmates/registrar para votar a los que habían sido…) (spread the word to thousands… /informarles la decisión a decenas de miles…) Keep…
Book review: The Subversive Copyeditor
I first became aware of the work Carol Fisher Saller does when she spoke at the American Copy Editors Society conference in Portland, Oregon, and presented on her book, The Subversive Copy Editor: Advice from Chicago. I finally read her book in January of 2018. I should have done so sooner. There are so many things we can learn from…
Inbox Zero: Forever in pursuit of “No new mail!”
There is nothing more satisfying than seeing those three little words: “No new mail!” My Gmail app announces, “You’re all done!”, and I especially love the accompanying image because, yes, I do want to be sitting in the sun reading a book right now. The elusive Inbox Zero is indeed attainable, but I have a little help. I use Unroll.Me,…
How to identify and avoid translation scammers
It is an unfortunate truth that translation scammers abound. Many of us receive dozens of emails per week that qualify as translation scams… some more convincing than others. How do we sort through the myriad of requests to determine which ones are legitimate and which are worth nothing more than a quick “Delete”? Although much has been written on this…
Fidelity In Translation
Reblogged from Dragon Translate blog, with permission from the author (incl. the images) Faithfulness or fidelity has been a measure by which a translator’s work can be judged. However, fidelity has not remained constant throughout time and across space and at different stages of history the interpretation of fidelity has varied quite broadly. This essay aims to discuss this meandering…