The American Translators Association (ATA) will host its 52nd Annual Conference in Boston, Massachusetts (October 26-29). This conference showcases diverse panel discussions, expert presentations, training workshops, and scholarly papers. Both general and language-specific sessions will be offered. The conference also offers language professionals one of the best opportunities to network with colleagues. Additional conference activities include a Job Marketplace, a vendor exhibit hall, and ATA certification testing. For conference information see https://www.atanet.org/conf/2011/
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By John Rock On reading “Translation in Canada,” an article in The Chronicle (October 2010) about translation in Canada, I was struck by the certification practices of OTTIAQ where, according to the article, there is no certification exam; rather, one must have a translation degree and perform a mentorship under a certified member for five years. Without a translation degree, a person must prove that he or she has worked at least five years as a full time translator and can submit a corpus of work for evaluation by committee. This immediately rang a bell with me, since I have …
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By Barbara Jungwirth Gary Smith’s Oct. 4, 2010 post in this blog, “Translation and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” noted that consumers generally don’t consult help files or the documentation for their devices. They simply give up if a device doesn’t work the way they think it should. On the other hand, how often have you and I attempted to decipher badly written, badly organized and/or badly translated documentation for some device we bought? Small wonder that customers don’t even try to consult documentation after they have encountered a few such texts written in programmer speak, containing factual errors or …
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By Joanne Archambault I was in attendance for Bruce Popp’s presentation on “French Patent Terminology”. I have only translated a few patents up to now, and hope to translate more in the near future, so I was keen to learn appropriate patentese from an experienced patent translator like Bruce. The first gem was a link (https://www.epo.org/patents/law/legal-texts/epc.html) to the European Patent Convention, a tri-lingual document with European Patent Office (EPO) rules and regulations. This is a valuable source for the terminology used in EPO documents—you can search for a term in one language and then look at the parallel sections in …
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By Rafaela Novais Photonics is a term that is not very common, but is starting to gain space in the news and in our personal world, albeit, behind the scenes. This short article should give you a quick overview of the subject, and not leave you looking like a deer in the headlights whenever the subject comes up. I hope this will familiarize you with the basics of the photonics world and pique your curiosity for more. For the experts, may you be entertained. I have also included several terms in Portuguese which appear in brackets. According to Merriam-Webster, Photonics …
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A brief note to mark S&TD’s first full new year since since it was re-established. Happy New Year to you all. May your practices thrive and grow and may low-paying, tiresome clients be a thing of the past!Our trusty blog editor Stephanie Strobel broke her femur while skiing in December, so I’m writing… We wish her a speedy, complete recovery.At last count the division had 483 members. Welcome to the large group of new members who joined after the annual conference. Please feel free to introduce yourself in a comment. Some of you have joined the Yahoo mailing list, others …
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By Dana ScruggsOn a gorgeous autumn day in the Colorado Rockies, an enthusiastic group of translators from around the world gathered in Denver to catch the bus to Boulder for a tour of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), on October 21, 2010. The tour had been arranged by Karen Tkaczyk as one of the preconference activities of the 51st Annual Conference of the American Translators Association. The 20 or so of us who participated are certainly thankful for her efforts. Scientific information without end, data that defy imagination, mind-boggling facts, the furthest reaches of physics, chemistry, metallurgy, …
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Review by Valérie Chataignier Seminar C: From Soap to Drugs and Back, via Quality Assurance & StandardOperating Procedures; Dr. Karen Tkaczyk Dr. Karen Tkaczyk deftly polymerized a number of topics across the diverse domains of her cosmetic/pharmaceutical/chemical experience from the perspective of the technical translator. Seminar C, “From Soap to Drugs and Back via QA and SOPs,” held Wednesday morning at the ATA Conference in the “Mile High” city of Denver was indeed a refreshing overview and cross-section of this broad industry. Conjuring up the trials and tribulations in translating handwritten records and tackling terminological obstacles, she emphasized strengthening one’s …
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We’re having a great time in Denver. There have been two highlights for me: the pre-conference tour of NIST (it was described as ‘geek heaven’ by one attendee!) and the division’s annual meeting, where an enthusiastic group of about twenty people discussed our areas of expertise and what we can provide and share to help one another, and the division, grow.In the following weeks we will post more about that, along with reviews of sessions of interest to our division.Karen
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From the 51st ATA Annual Conference in Denver. We’re looking forward to the pre-conference Seminars on Wednesday, Oct 27. Especially Seminar C From Soap to Drugs and Back via Quality Assurance and Standard Operating Procedures, Karen m. Tkaczyk; Seminar D Nuts and Bolts: A Visit from the Entrance Gate to the Dispatch Dock of an Industrial Plant, Paulo Lopes and Seminar G Biomedical Translation Seminar, Damián Vázquez