– by Tereza Braga and Bianca Bold –
At the ATA 54th Annual Conference in San Antonio, the Leadership Council of the Portuguese Language Division and a few volunteers started discussing many items we had been thinking of changing or implementing. A few weeks ago we had our first Leadership Council virtual meeting to discuss some practical issues, and we are now ready to share with you what we hope to be great news.
The most important development in our Division is the retirement of our quarterly newsletter, PLDATA, following a general agreement that an active and robust blog is more convenient to professionals, as it allows us to bring you more content, more frequently and with more variety.
We are pleased to introduce you to the PLD Blog, to which you can subscribe and receive updates directly by email or on your RSS feed reader. Just click the icons under “Subscribe” (in the right side bar). We will also use our social media channels to announce new posts as they go live.
We have been drafting content ourselves, but we would really appreciate more voices for interviews, columns, conference presentation reviews, etc.
Here are some ideas that might help get you started:
- Did you especially like one of the presentations in San Antonio? Send us a report or summary.
- Was it your first ATA conference? Share your impressions.
- Have you recently attended any other international or local event? Tell your colleagues about it.
- Do you have an idea for an interview? We will help you draft it.
- Do you have announcements? Shoot us a quick email.
- Are there blogs, articles, podcasts or websites you would like to recommend? Let us know about them.
We are asking for contributions between 500 and 700 words, preferably in English. If you wish to provide a bilingual version of your text, that’s even better!
Feel free to contact us at ata.pld@gmail.com to discuss any ideas or show us your draft.
Our 20 years’ worth of newsletters should not be forgotten, and that is why we have put together this rich archive that includes every single issue that the past administrations carefully edited and published: https://pldata.net/newsletters-archive. We plan to go through these issues and occasionally republish some of the articles in our new blog format.
We hope this change results in a more dynamic website that makes it easier for us to spread the word about our profession, our Division and the Portuguese language.
As always, we appreciate your input and feedback.
Thank you. Have a wonderful holiday season!
. . . . .
Tereza holds an international business B.A. and M.A. and has been a freelance Portuguese interpreter and translator since 1996. She is ATA-certified En<>Pt. She has dual Brazil-U.S citizenship. She served as ATA PLD Administrator from 2001 to 2005 and now from 2012 to 2015. She is a contract interpreter with U.S. Dept. of State, OAS and World Bank. Contact: terezabrazilian@gmail.com.
Bianca holds a B.A. and an M.A. in translation. A native speaker of Brazilian Portuguese, she has worked with English, Spanish, and Italian for 12 years, offering translation, interpreting, editing, subtitling, and courses in translation for subtitling. She is the PLD Assistant Administrator (2013–2015) and also part of the PLD Leadership Council. For more information: www.biancabold.com.
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