To make our Continuing Education Series Podcast more accessible and searchable for FLD members and the general public, we are now offering transcriptions of our episodes right here on À Propos. Many thanks to our volunteer transcriptionists, who are credited at the bottom of each transcription. If you’re interested in helping us transcribe podcast episodes, email divisionFLD [at] atanet [dot] org.

HOW TO LISTEN TO THE ORIGINAL EPISODE

SOUNDCLOUD: You can listen to or download Episode 26 and all previous episodes on Soundcloud here.

ITUNES: This episode and all previous episodes are available on iTunes here. You can subscribe or listen online. Like what you hear? Rate us and review us! It really helps get the word out.

Episode 26: A Chat with the SPD & KLD

Andie Ho: This is Andie Ho, host of the Continuing Education Series, a podcast produced for the members of the French Language Division of the American Translators Association, offering educational content about the craft of French-to-English and English-to-French translation and the division. Hi and welcome back to the podcast. We have a very exciting episode for you today. I have two guests, Paul Gallagher and Edna Santizo. They are here from the Korean Language Division and the Spanish Language Division, respectively, here to talk about what it’s like to run the largest and smallest language divisions of the ATA. Now, normally we here at the ATA or at the FLD podcast focus on French subjects, because obviously that is of interest to our memberships. But thought also, you know, we don’t talk to the other language divisions that often. So I wanted to reach out to them and see what their lives were like and kind of compare them to each other and to ours. So a brief bit about our guests today. Paul B. Gallagher is a Russian-to-English translator celebrating his 38th year in business in May. Congratulations, Paul. He has a master’s in linguistics from The Ohio State University and has also studied French, German, Polish, Bulgarian, Hebrew and Sanskrit at the college level.

Andie Ho: He took up Korean in 2007, soaking up Korean dramas, K-pop, Korean cuisine and working with Koreans in his local community to increase voter registration and engagement. As he’s gotten more into the Korean language and culture as his main hobby for the last 16 years, he was recruited by the to be its administrator in 2019 and is now finishing up his second term. Edna is a court-certified interpreter with the California Judicial Council, a conference and community interpreter and a translator. She was first elected administrator of the Spanish Language Division and is also on her second term and as an ATA and SPD member since 2010, Edna was invited to join the division’s Leadership Council in 2016 as a member of the Digital and Social Media Committee. And then the next year she was appointed chair of the committee, and that offered her a platform to learn about the inner workings of the ATA’s largest language division by far, as we’re going to discuss. So welcome, Edna. Welcome, Paul.

Edna Santizo: Thank you.

Paul Gallagher: Thank you.

Andie Ho: So, quick numbers for you. I pulled this from the ATA’s member directory. Edna, the Spanish Language Division has currently 2,073 members. French is a little less than half that at 931. And then Paul, the Korean Language Division has 98. So that is quite the disparity. That is a factor of 10 or 20, really. Edna, we’ll start with you. What is it like to run a language division with so many people from so many different places all over the world?

Edna Santizo: It’s fun and it’s challenging, as you can imagine. The Spanish Language Division, aside from being one of the largest divisions of the ATA, is also one of the oldest divisions. A lot of colleagues know each other because, you know, we run into each other at the conference. So we know a pretty good size of the members of the SPD, and that helps run the division. Aside from that, I’m blessed to follow on the steps of some amazing leaders that have, that did a lot of very good work in establishing the division, you know, creating committees, working on the website and what-have-you. And also, I’m very lucky to have a group of volunteers that are committed and that are always, you know, willing to lend a helping hand when we have activities or what-have-you. So overall, I would say it’s very fun and challenging.

Andie Ho: And Paul, what about you? What is it like to have a much smaller group of people to work with?

Paul Gallagher: Well, I would like to start with one small correction. We just added a member, so we’re at 99 today. Yeah, it is very interesting. Um, I enjoy working with Koreans, but there are certain cultural challenges because their mindset is often very different from the American mindset. They tend to be cliquish. If you want to deal with Korean, it’s best if you get an introduction from somebody they already know. But once you get in, they’re very tight. I really enjoy working with them. And the size has both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage, of course, is that you basically know everybody. The disadvantage is if you need if you need somebody to do a particular task, it’s harder to find someone if you have a smaller group to choose from. But we get by, we’re fine.

Andie Ho: So that was going to be one of my first questions is would you each describe your divisions as close-knit? Obviously it’s going to be much harder, Edna, for the Spanish Language Division for everybody to know each other. But are there, you know, very close groups within that as well?

Edna Santizo: I would say so. And this is something that I’ve heard over the years and, you know, I’ve been a witness of it where people have met during an conference and they become very good friends. They share, you know, work opportunities and they look forward to the next year to meet again at a conference. And they met because, you know, they attended the annual dinner of the SPD or they attended an event of the SPD or because they found out that they’re both SPD members. So I don’t think, you know, all 2,000 members know each other. That would be very hard. But yes, like you described, there are groups of people that are very close-knit that have met at a SPD activity and that they remain, I mean, they become very close friends and work colleagues over the years.

Andie Ho: Paul, you said some of the members tend to be cliquish. Would you view the world as one big clique or are there sort of some sub cliques within it?

Paul Gallagher: In any organization with more than about 10 people, there’re going to be sub-cliques. It’s just by default. I would say that. The Koreans compared to Americans. Again, the Koreans tend to be hardworking, very diligent, very committed to their duties. So once you get somebody on board for something, they will push the limits to get it done. Americans by comparison—and of course, any group has a mix—but Americans compared to Koreans, I would call myself a shirker. And I mean, I think I’m working hard and then I look at them and. Wow.

Andie Ho: So some of the advantages and disadvantages of the sizes of your divisions are obvious. But Paul, for your small division, do you have trouble finding volunteers, or do you have more volunteers stepping up because it’s so close-knit and everybody feels part of the group?

Paul Gallagher: Yes and no. It depends on how we approach them. And I didn’t know this at first, but when I first got started, I would send a broadcast to my Leadership Council, which even though we’re recommended to have about 10 people, we at the beginning had about 12 or 13. I would send a broadcast to all of them and say, if anybody is interested in doing this, if anybody can help, please contact me. And I was getting no response. And I realized, and people within the division clued me in, that I have to approach each one of them personally and say, you know, Kyung-ah, can you help? Or can you do this? And make a specific ask to a specific person. And then they will answer. And more often than not they’ll say yes, but if I just send a broadcast, they’ll each wait for someone else to step up.

Andie Ho: You know, I have found that in the French Language Division as well and also in other organizations I volunteer for. That may just be human nature. But Edna, I mean, you tell us, you have the biggest division. Is that also true for the SPD?

Edna Santizo: Yes, I know. Can you repeat the question? I’m sorry.

Andie Ho: If you send out a general call for volunteers, do you have millions of people stepping up, you know, leaping up to volunteer because you have so many people? Or do they just sort of hide behind each other because there’s so many of them?

Edna Santizo: Well, you know, actually, I think we are very lucky. We have a total of nine committees on the SPD. Each committee runs between three to seven members per committee. And like you mentioned at the beginning, this is the third year that I’ve been an SPD administrator and I haven’t had any issues in finding volunteers as to asking for a specific task because we are very well structured. Each committee has their area and they know what they need to do and they do it. I do very little work. I will say, thankfully, in guiding the everyday operation, we have special activities and special projects that we do. And that’s where we get together and we plan and we decide who’s going to be doing what. But it’s been pretty good so far, As to calling for volunteers, usually we at the conference, the administrator, the assistant administrator, we are always talking to people, to new members. And if they show interest in joining the Leadership Council, we try to take them in. We don’t say no. We take volunteers because we need them. And usually that’s the case at the ATA conference. People approach us and they ask us if they can help. And we always say yes. And we tell them we have these committees. Let us know where you think you can help us, and then we take it from there.

Andie Ho: So what are some of these subcommittees that you have, or committees?

Edna Santizo: We have the Digital and Social Media Committee. We have the Intercambios, which is the SPD bulletin. We have a website committee, student involvement, hospitality and relationships and, let me see, podcast. We also have a podcast committee.

Andie Ho: Paul. What about KLD? Do you guys have a newsletter or podcast or anything like that? Social media?

Paul Gallagher: We have a technically we do have a blog and we do have a Facebook page, but there isn’t a lot of activity there. As you know, any blog is successful if there are frequent posts so people have a reason to come and visit. Most of the stuff, most of the activity that we have goes through our listserv, where somebody posts a message and all the members of the listserv get a copy in their email box. So they don’t have to go looking for it. It comes to them.

Andie Ho: What is your relationship, Pau, the KLD’s relationship to some of the other language divisions? Do you ever partner with, say, Chinese or Japanese or any of the other divisions?

Paul Gallagher: We have explored connections with Chinese and Japanese, who are our natural partners. If if you know English, obviously half of what you know is from French because of the Norman conquest. And so if we want to say “go back,” we can also say “return,” and “return” is the French equivalent of the Anglo-Saxon “go back.” In Korean, the corresponding parent language, so to speak, is Chinese. They’re not genetically related, but Korean has borrowed thousands and thousands of Chinese words, and they pronounce them pretty close to the middle Chinese version, in about 500 AD. The Korean pronunciations sound a lot like the Cantonese pronunciations, which have not changed a lot, but Mandarin because of the Mongol influence and the conquests over there has changed a lot. And so you know, the common name Kim, which originally sounded more like “come,” is now Jin in Mandarin and doesn’t sound like Kim in Korean. Similarly, Japanese has borrowed thousands and thousands of Chinese words and they’ve also borrowed the writing system and supplemented it with their own. So you can look at a character in Japanese and understand the meaning, but maybe not be so sure about the pronunciation. So there is this natural cross-cultural — and I should also say Buddhism and Confucianism have migrated from the continent onto the peninsula and the Japanese islands. So there’s a lot of that. The mindset, the thought process has similarities. We have tried a couple of times to put together a joint presentations at ATA. So far it hasn’t worked out and it won’t work out this year. You know, everything has been set. But I do hope that someday soon that CJK will join forces and put together a joint presentation.

Andie Ho: Edna, what about you?

Edna Santizo: Yes, we have collaborated with other divisions. I know that we have collaborated with the Audiovisual Division. We are looking forward to collaborating with the Interpreters Division this year. I’m hoping that that happens and, I can’t remember right now, you know, specific collaborations. But yes, we usually reach out to other divisions because our members, you know, we’re Spanish Division, but our members are — their specializations are you know, audiovisual, medical, they’re interpreters, they work into the legal fields. So we have members in other divisions, and that’s why we try to collaborate. Also, we try to publish on the Intercambios bulletin articles related to those specializations. And usually members from other divisions are the ones who are contributing to those articles.

Andie Ho: Do either of you have special events for your divisions at the annual ATA conference besides the annual meeting for members?

Edna Santizo: Go ahead, Paul. Oh, thank you. We do. We have what we call our annual dinner. The annual dinner is called Muchas culturas un solo idioma, many cultures, one language. And it is very well known in our division, I think with other divisions too, we usually have about 100 people in our annual dinner. We have a very famous raffle that takes place at the end of the dinner and we have, you know, so many prizes. We have licenses for Trados, for Wordfast, books, webinars, workshops. What we try to, you know, celebrate our members at our annual dinner. And it’s a networking event. It’s an opportunity to be, you know, outside of the conference setting and just relax and enjoy a dinner and get to know one another. And it’s very fun. And it’s one of the traditions that we have for the annual conferences.

Andie Ho: Paul?

Paul Gallagher: Yes.

Paul Gallagher: We do also have an annual dinner and it draws a substantial, I would say typically two-thirds or more of the attendees go to or come to our dinner. Korean food is delicious. If you’ve had it, you know. If you haven’t, one of the things I especially like about it is what they call banchan, the side dishes. You don’t just serve an entree and a drink, but six, seven, eight, ten, sometimes more little side dishes. So you’ve got six, seven, eight, ten or more different flavors mixing in with your entree.

Andie Ho: I had read about banchan. I don’t know how you say it, but the first time I actually experienced it, it was overwhelming in the best possible way. It just kept coming and so much of it and they were so different. It was—I thought, why doesn’t every culture do this? This is amazing.

Edna Santizo: I used to work for Koreans before I became a translator and interpreter. And yes, I love the Korean food like I’m a witness of it.

Paul Gallagher: I’d be interested to know, Edna. Korea is a small country, well-populated, but relatively small, and pretty much everyone can understand everybody. But I understand that there are a lot of Spanishes across the world. I was especially impressed when I saw the movie Walk the Line. The Spanish title is La Locura de Johnny y June. It’s about Johnny Cash. And I discovered that it has not only Spanish subtitles but Spanish audio as well. But they were done by people from two different countries, one from Mexico and one from Peru. So if you turn them both on, you get two different sets of, two different scripts.

Edna Santizo: Right. Uh huh.

Paul Gallagher: Did you find any difficulty understanding Spanish speakers from other countries?

Edna Santizo: It varies. Yes. There’s people from Spain versus people from Argentina and from Guatemala. So it’s a very different dialect of Spanish. But Mexico, Mexico also has like many different dialects within Mexico. But we understand each other. I think there is something that not everybody agrees on, but there is something called neutral Spanish, and we’re able to understand each other. Obviously, there are nuances, especially with, you know, jokes, humor or bad words, you know. But then, you know, each country has its own twist to that. So that may be difficult. And obviously there’s, you know, those words that have one meaning in one country and a completely different meaning in another country. And, you know, we all make fun of those words. And of course, we use them because we know, you know, they’re going to be a very good conversation topic. But I think overall, we’re able to understand each other pretty well.

Paul Gallagher: Thank you.

Andie Ho: All right. Well, final question that I ask all of my interviewees. Is there anything else you would like people to know at all? Edna, I’ll start with you.

Edna Santizo: Well, I think there is this conception sometimes, that’s what I’ve heard, that because the Spanish Division is so big that it’s not approachable sometimes or that, you know, the volunteers are handpicked or that we are not willing to collaborate with other divisions because we are so big. But that’s not the case. Please reach out to us if you need any help, if we can support in promoting your events, your content, if you have a podcast and you want us to help you, please reach out. And if you want to volunteer also, you will be more than welcome to join us. Yeah.

Edna Santizo: That’s it.

Paul Gallagher: I was going to say much the same thing. So thank you, Edna, for saying it so well. The Korean Language Division always welcomes new members. We’re happy to have you to join with you, to welcome you in. What should I say? [speaks Korean] When somebody arrives and you want to welcome them, typically that’s what they say, [speaks Korean], which is literally “quickly come,” in a polite form. It would be like usted in Spanish or vous in French.

Andie Ho: I love it. Thank you guys for being here. I think we should maybe think about some collaborations with each other.

Edna Santizo: Absolutely.

Paul Gallagher: I’m ready.

Edna Santizo: Yeah.

Andie Ho: Excellent.

Andie Ho: Maybe stay tuned, people. And also, if you want to be the one hundredth KLD member, sign up now.

Paul Gallagher: Yeah. You get a you get a free toaster.

Paul Gallagher: Just kidding. Kidding.

Andie Ho: Thank you.

Paul Gallagher: Thank you, Andie, for hosting this.

Edna Santizo: Thank you, Andie. Appreciate it.

Andie Ho: This concludes our episode for today. You can subscribe to the Continuing Education Series podcast on SoundCloud or iTunes by searching for Continuing Education Series. You can contact the FLD at division@atanet.org, visit our website at www.ata-divisions.org/fld, or get in touch with us on social media. This is Andie Ho signing off. Thanks for listening and à bientôt!