Orchestrate and Crescendo

I recently signed up to DailyWritingTips. With my special interest in music, I was delighted when this gem on using musical terms popped into my inbox:

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/orchestrate-and-crescendo/

ITI International Conference 2009: Sustainability in Translation

Institute of Translation & Interpreting (ITI) Conference
16 – 17 May 2009, 1 Birdcage Walk, London

With this my first ever ITI conference, expectations were already running high. Dubbed 'the must attend event of 2009,' the conference had an extremely broad remit: 'Sustainability in Translation' in all its guises. Some talks had an environmental focus (Forest Stewardship Council, Friends of the Earth), while others looked at the sustainability of the industry and work-life balance.

Here's a snapshot of my personal highlights from the event:

Many of us had already heard of the translator/interpreter recruitment crisis at EU Institutions, but the session entitled 'Where have the translators gone' really brought this into sharp focus. No doubt about it: the shortage of linguists with English as a mother tongue is severe. Reasons cited were numerous and varied. A retirement wave, a career perception problem and the requirement for native English speakers to have two foreign languages (preferably including French or German) were just a few of them. The latter is a particular issue since the vast majority of English school pupils only study one foreign language for their GCSE exams. View more startling facts on this issue here: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/09/76&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

Interestingly, my first job as a freelance translator involved translating texts for a gaming website (not an area I ever returned to). As well as chess and blackjack, one game involved food items flying across the screen. No background material or screenshots were available, so I was able to sympathise with some of Silvia Ferrero's experiences during her talk on video game localisation. This proved a fascinating window onto another translation world. Gaming has moved on a lot since the days of 'computer geeks' and I was surprised to learn that the average age of a gamer is 35 and women now make up 40% of the market. Computer game localisation poses a real translation challenge, not least due to the lack of consideration given to languages other than English at the design stage. Small dialogue boxes, inflexible word order and lack of context were among the difficulties commonly encountered. Oh, and did I forget to mention that translators never actually see the game?!

Spencer Allman's paper on 'The notion of translational specialisation' was particularly poignant. As the speaker pointed out, there is often a gap in the degree of specialisation between the original author of a text who may be, for example, an expert in contract law, family law or employment law, and a 'legal' translator who covers all these areas. The extent to which a translator is able to specialise does depend on the language pair. Due to different levels of demand and availability, an English-Icelandic translator will need to cover a broader range of specialisms than, say, an English-Spanish translator in order to get a sustainable flow of work. For me, the topic of subject specialisation touches on a broader issue of career development for translators who, as demonstrated by a straw poll of attendees, come largely from a language background and therefore may not originally have had formal education in a specialist area such as law. As freelancers in a profession with no set career paths, we are all responsible for investing in our own training – a point that was picked up by translator Chris Durban at the close of the conference.

You can find information about the rest of the topics covered on the conference website: http://www.iti-conference.org.uk/

A bit of background: For those unfamiliar with the United Kingdom translation market, the Institute of Translation & Interpreting or ITI (of which I am an Associate) is an independent professional association based in the UK and is one of the primary sources of information on translation and interpreting to government, industry, the media and the general public. Members include translators, interpreters and translation companies (for more info: http://www.iti.org.uk/).

Southern Manufacturing & Electronics Exhibition 2009

In February this year I thought it was high time I stepped into my clients’ shoes – by attending a technical exhibition. Although having translated many a press release for trade fairs across Europe covering industries as varied as electronics, machine tools, automotive and pet care, I had never set foot in one myself. Thanks to its convenient location and relevant remit, the Southern Manufacturing & Electronics Exhibition 2009 was the place to start.

I was interested to see how the companies presented themselves on their stands so I could better visualise how my future translations would be displayed as part of a marketing campaign. Since my work often involves the translation of machine tool manuals, I was also eager to see the machining centres being demonstrated and several company representatives were kind enough to give a brief explanation of their model’s particular features. No matter how good the diagrams in a user guide, certainly nothing beats seeing a machine operating in 3D.

Although I am sure I would have benefited more from the exhibition in terms of acquiring technical insight had my fiancé (an engineer) been able to accompany me, it nevertheless impressed upon me why it’s so important to make sure trade fair literature hits its mark.

Any punters?

On a family trip to Cambridge last weekend we were accosted by a number of people selling trips on punts, small flat-bottomed boats similar to Venetian gondolas that are propelled by means of a long pole. It was remarked that maybe this could be the origin of the term punter in the sense of customer. Of course this is exactly the sort of thing that floats my linguistic boat...

A quick forage in the dictionary, however, reveals that, despite the similar spelling, the two words have entirely separate origins. A punt, referring to the boat, comes from the Latin ponto, which is where we also get the English word pontoon. In this sense a punter is someone who propels said vessel.

Yet punter as used in phrases like "this place draws in a lot of punters for the food" has its origins in gambling terminology. This comes from the French ponte which is a bet laid against a banker. Indeed the word punter is still very much used in the betting industry today: "Punter lands record jackpot".

Hitting the right notes

Pick up an English music book for beginners and the first thing you will notice is the plethora of Italian terms. For many children in the UK, Italian is the first foreign language they encounter, long before their first school language lessons. Italians must be bemused by the music-lovers they meet who can reel off a string of bizarre phrases such as allegro ma non troppo (fast but not too much), un poco maestoso (slightly majestic) and con spirito (with spirit), and yet would have no idea how to buy a return ticket to Naples.

In fact, when it comes to ‘holiday’ Italian, you had better leave your musical phrase book at home. The differences between the musical meaning and the literal sense could lead to some awkward situations, especially in the case of rubato indicating a more flexible tempo, but, literally translated, means ‘stolen’...

Read the rest of the article here: http://www.pointoneservices.com/linksanddownloads/Music%20article_Hitting%20the%20right%20notes.pdf

Part of an article originally published in the journal of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting: ITI Bulletin, September-October 2007, pp 22-23, ISSN-0954-1799
© 2007 Nicola Bottrell

The Interpreter II

Another interesting drama series brought to us by BBC Radio 4. This is Anjum Malik's second series about a freelance interpreter, Nina, and her encounters with courts, doctors and affairs of the heart.

I always find it interesting to hear stories about the world of interpreting as it is so different from my own work as a translator of the written word. How close the drama's portrayal is to real life is something I'll have to find out from my interpreter colleagues.

The drama is being broadcast Monday 28 January - Friday 1 February at 10.45am and each episode will be available to listen to for seven days after broadcast at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/whour_drama.shtml

Nina ...... Archie Panjabi
Mike ...... Delroy Brown
Zarina ...... Bharti Patel
Mr Lawson ...... James Nickerson
Mrs Bell ...... Kerry Peers
Judge ...... Jonathan Keeble

Directed by Nadia Molinari.

Face to face

September was extremely busy, but I did manage to fit in a couple of translation events. As much of my work as a professional translator is computer-based and contact with colleagues and clients normally takes place via email, it was great to meet other translation professionals face to face.

20 Sept 2007: Association of Translation Companies – Annual Conference
This one-day event took place in London and was attended by representatives from translation agencies and companies in addition to several freelance translators like myself. As well as networking opportunities there were a number of interesting talks. I was particularly inspired by Chris Durban’s talk on behalf of the American Translators’ Association (ATA) which detailed the organisation’s PR mission. Suggestions were also made about outreach work, for example, to schools. This is something that I have been considering and therefore was excited to learn that a wealth of resources for such programmes can be downloaded from the ATA’s website.

29 Sept 2007: ProZ.com – International Translator Day event
A much more informal affair, this event was held in Bristol and was a chance for members of the ProZ.com translation website to meet 'offline' for a change. Several freelance translators attended, all offering a variety of language combinations and subject expertise. It was interesting to see how other translators deal with various professional issues. I also gained an insight into other areas of the industry that I do not personally work in, such as interpreting for the prison service.