Dear readers, my name is Patrick Weill, or Pat for short. I am delighted to have been accepted as a new blog editor and I am at your service for anything you may wish to publish here on our division’s blog.
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Dear readers, it is my pleasure to present this summary of the two-hour talk, given in November 2016 at the 57th Annual Conference of the American Translators Association in San Francisco, California, entitled “Seeing Voices: Using Light to Restore and Preserve Early Recorded Sound.” It was a fascinating inside look into the type and level of material that a scientific/technical translator or interpreter might have to render into another language. Dr. Haber, our division’s guest speaker for this year’s ATA conference, received a MacArthur Fellowshipin 2013 and he is the director of the IRENE project at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, …
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Come one, come all. Well, not everyone! This year I am giving a session that is part of the new Advanced Skills and Training (AST) Day on Wednesday, November 2, prior to the conference itself. This hands-on workshop costs extra and we have limited it to 25 participants, so that everyone can have personal attention. Here is the abstract for my half-day workshop: Technical translators with excellent technical writing skills stand out from the crowd, in the quality of their translations and in their income potential. This hands-on editing workshop for technical translators working into English will teach you how …
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Reviewed by Alicja Yarborough This was the first technical session on Thursday and the audience was full of enthusiasm to learn new things. Karen gave a very interesting and informative presentation on translating for the pharmaceutical, chemical, and cosmetics industries. She focused on the types of documents she translates, problems that have arisen, and texts that shouldn’t cause any issues. Karen primarily translates industrial, not clinical work (FR>EN). The customer is usually a manufacturer. Here are a few examples of documents she regularly works on, and some of her thoughts on each type: Quality Assurance Checklists and Certification Analysis These …
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By Karen M. Tkaczyk and Alicja Yarborough So how is the Science and Technology Division doing at the end of another year? Can we meet like-minded ATA members in the division’s varying networking venues? Do we share useful resources and provide insightful education on relevant topics? Do we keep members informed about useful news and events? At the end of 2013 our division had 2188 members. As is the case with most ATA divisions, only a small percentage of members take advantage of the benefits we offer in terms of year-round networking or conference activity. Perhaps this summary will encourage …
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Débora C. de D’Eramo, an English>Spanish translator, has a whole treasure chest of great resources for technical and scientific translators. Our first post with links to online terminology databases, glossaries, dictionaries was posted a few weeks ago, and here is a second batch of resources. Terminology databases METEOTERM, multilingual (EN, AR, CH, FR, RU, ES) database of weather and climate specialized terminology – WMO (World Meteorological Organization) https://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/lsp/meteoterm_wmo_en.html ML Lexicon, multilingual database of forensic science terms – European Network of Forensic Science Institutes (ENFSI) https://www.ies.krakow.pl/multilingua/welcome/index.php?item=searchengine TEPA, The Finnish Terminology Centre TSK’s term bank (FI, SV, EN) https://www.tsk.fi/tepa/netmot.exe?UI=engr&height=155 Glossaries Glossary of …
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Débora C. de D’Eramo, an English>Spanish translator, has kindly agreed to share her excellent resources for technical and scientific translations. These contain links to online terminology databases, glossaries, dictionaries and more and are listed below. Terminology databases AGROVOC – FAO multilingual terminology database (+30,000 terms in 22 languages) https://aims.fao.org/website/AGROVOC-Thesaurus/sub The CIMAC Lexicon – Multilingual lexicon of technical terms used in the internal combustion engine and gas turbine industries https://tinyurl.com/mjl6dpm Electropedia – Multilingual electrical and electronical terminology database (+20,000 terms) https://www.electropedia.org/ Glossaries Glosario de términos estadísticos en inglés y español https://www.tribunamedica.com/glosario.htm Multilingual glossary on nanotechnologies – EU https://ec.europa.eu/health/opinions2/en/nanotechnologies/glossary.htm ATSDR (bilingual EN-ES …
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The American Translators Association is accepting presentation proposals for ATA’s 54th Annual Conference in San Antonio, Texas (November 6-9, 2013). Proposals must be received by March 11, 2013. Submissions are invited from all areas of translation and interpreting, including finance, law, medicine, literature, media, science and technology, terminology, independent contracting, business management, and training/pedagogy. Sessions may be language specific or general. You do not need to be an ATA member to submit a proposal. Not sure about making a presentation? It is a challenge but also an opportunity-there is no better way to gain recognition in the translation and interpreting …
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As you know, teams called Leadership Councils run ATA divisions. It’s time for the Science and Technology division to renew ours for 2013. This council will run March-November 2013. By making the period less than one year we will be coordinated with annual conferences and administrator changeovers from then on. Two people are leaving as we do this: Vincent Lai and Steven Marzuola. We thank them for what they have done for the division, especially Steve, who was so involved in getting it up and running again in 2010. We have one new council member, Amy Lesiewicz, whom a lot …
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By Kevin Hendzel Subject-matter knowledge is not just “important” to translation. It’s the very essence of translation. Buried deep in the bedrock of every profession are certain truths that are universally understood and accepted by modern practitioners. In medicine, for example, those include a recognition that the human body exists in a physical universe subject to the laws of science and not to a fictitious universe of mysterious spirits accessible to the chosen, pre-ordained few, a concept that had dominated human medicine for millennia. As a result, medical doctors strolling through a cocktail party today would never encounter questions from …