Blog

Most translators and interpreters, as well as everybody doing international business, know them well: high bank charges, sometimes coupled with exorbitant exchange fees, endless, complicated forms, long clearance times etc. Then there is the archaic way of paying via check. Given that this is the 21st century, one might think that there should be better, cheaper, faster ways for transferring money from person A to person B. There are, of course, Paypal and similar services, which however also involve non-negligible fees, and their newer relatives Apple Pay, Google Wallet, and the like. Neither of the aforementioned options is truly global. …

The Turbine Engine: An Introduction to Modern Aircraft Propulsion Systems (ST-2) The turbofan engines slung under the wings of a commercial airliner are highly engineered mechanisms developed over decades of research costing tens of billions of dollars. They are also manufactured by the thousand, and the aircraft that they propel can be seen almost anywhere on Earth. No other commonly encountered human product is both so sophisticated and so ubiquitous. This presentation explains why. Beginning with the gas mixture that serves as lift medium, working fluid, and combustion support for aircraft (usually called “air”), it moves on to Newton’s Third …

Here is the first in our series of previews for sessions to be presented at the 56thAnnual Conference (November 4–7, 2015, in Miami, Florida). A Lucrative Sideline: Editing Non-Native English Scientific Writing As we wind down on Saturday afternoon in Miami, come and join me to ponder a sideline that scientific and technical translators might want to consider. I am not suggesting that I couldn’t make my entire income from translation, but I feel this sideline builds upon my skill set and I enjoy it. Attend if you think you might enjoy it too. I have always edited academic articles …

Interview with Lebzy González, PhD, Spanish into English Translator Can you tell us a bit about yourself? I was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico and moved to Boston to study engineering at MIT just after I turned 17. At this point I have lived most of my life on the US mainland and visit the island once or twice a year. Like many Puerto Ricans, my family is scattered all over. At last count, we’re spread over two Caribbean islands, four states, and two languages. It seems that many scientific and technical translators take a roundabout path …

Interview with Carola F. Berger, PhD, English into German Translator  Can you tell the readers a bit about yourself? Some colleagues in the Science and Technology Division will know me as the bicycling physicist with the funny Austrian accent from my presentations at previous ATA conferences. This obviously warrants an explanation: I was born and raised in Austria, where I also obtained a Master’s degree in engineering physics, which explains the accent. I then moved to the USas a Fulbright scholar to study theoretical physics. After obtaining my PhD and a brief one-year interlude in Italy, I moved back to …

by Marcia Riefer Johnson, Science and Technology Division Distinguished Speaker at the 2015 American Translators Association Annual Conference A version of this article originally appeared on the Confab 2015 site. Why I Talk about Tight Writing We all use too many words. In and of itself, cutting unhelpful words (or sentences, or paragraphs, or whole chapters or blog posts) doesn’t make writing good. But it always makes writing better. One reason to care about conciseness is money. Extra words carry dollar signs—especially if your company publishes in multiple languages. If you tighten before you translate, you can save staggering amounts …

by: Matthew Schlecht ATA discussion lists have recently touched on the issue of copyright of texts, but copyright extends beyond the written word. I had a recent run-in with a UK-based company, License Compliance Services (LCS), that appears to be operating out of Science Photo Library (SPL)* in Seattle, WA, ostensibly their client. An email message arrived in my inbox around mid-March informing me that I was in violation for having a copyrighted image on my web site. I was instructed to show a valid license or pay the penalty, which in this case was $510, but offered a 5% …

A review by Robert Sette  As an avid recreational cyclist and rabid cycling fan, from the time I first perused the list of presentations for ATA’s 55th Annual Conference in Chicago I had circled the presentation mentioned above, which was to be presented by Carola Berger, an English-German translator. My anticipation level was high, and the presentation certainly did not disappoint.  Berger used her experience as a cyclist and cycling coach to highlight not only some of the scientific aspects of cycling, for example the forces working on a cyclist and machine while cornering and the aerodynamic features of various …

By Kate Forster At ATA conferences I like to divide my time between sightseeing and professional activities, and among the latter I usually try to take in a wide variety of sessions organized by different divisions. In Chicago in 2014, I found myself attending a lot of Science & Technology Division events (although I’m not a division member or even an ATA member) because the lineup was so strong. Among the S&TD offerings were two presentations by Distinguished Speaker Christiane Feldmann-Leben, who has a PhD in chemistry and is a freelance translator specializing in chemistry, materials science, pharmacy, and medicine. …