Interpreting Featured Language: Arabic

The hronicle C A Publication of the American Translators Association VOLUME XXIX • NUMBER 2 FEBRUARY 2000

Focus on: Interpreting Featured Language: Arabic

The Features A House Without Mirrors Chronicle By Manouche Ragsdale ...... 16 A Publication of the American Translators Association With the help of the ATA Board of Directors, the ATA Public Relations Volume XXVIX, Number 2 Committee will launch a program to educate, inform, and “train” T&I February 2000 users in order to help interpreters and translators build a long-overdue public image. Parlance in European Union By Louis Korda ...... 17 Bright Horizons for the Interpreters Division By Diane E. Teichman ...... 19 The first year of our established division, 1999, was dedicated to taking stock of who we were, how we work, and what our needs were. The result was the establishment of a sound structure from which to build on within the ATA. Our division meeting and reception at the St. Louis conference showed a cohesive, fun-loving, and dynamic membership. Now, for the year 2000, we are both capable and ready to take advantage of the opportunity to play a leading global role in the interpreting profession. Translating for Interpreters By Cynthia Migueléz ...... 20 This article, written for novice interpreters with little or no formal train- Focus on: ing, provides a basic overview of some well-established translating strategies that, when learned and routinized, can enhance general inter- Interpreting preting skills. Featured Language: Arabic Insights on Conference Interpreting By Lucia Conti ...... 24

Illustration: The Granting of Wishes This article includes a technical description of the working conditions and techniques used in conference interpreting. Also discussed is the Monthly Columns importance of professionalism and ethical conduct and communication with conference organizers. From the Executive Director ...... 7 From the President ...... 8 Interpreting Evidentiary Tape Recordings: The Toughest Job You’ll Ever Love, or Maybe Not…. Letters to the Editor ...... 10 By Diane E. Teichman ...... 26 ATA Activities ...... 11 The transcription and translation of foreign-language tape recordings is Upcoming Conferences and one of the duties included in the scope of legal interpreting. It is difficult Educational Programs ...... 12 work, as it is extremely time-consuming, requires serious concentration, ATA Chapters and Regional Groups . . . . 34 and the source tape is often of questionable quality. I must be nuts Miss Interpreter Speaks ...... 42 because I have loved this work ever since, when over 12 years ago, I was In this, her fourth column, Miss Interpreter handed my first whisper-ridden, undercover tape with the audio quality discusses the relationship between the of a Victrola phonograph record. interpreter, message, and meaning, and the philosophical implications thereof. The Role of Medical Interpreters By Cecilia Garcia ...... 30 Dictionary Reviews ...... 56 Multicultural Spanish Dictionary Today’s medical interpreter must be multi-faceted in order to respond Reviewed by Tom West effectively when the medical staff says “just fix it, please.” The Translation Inquirer ...... 57 Towards Meaningful, Appropriate, and Useful Assessment: Compiled by John Decker How the False Dichotomy Between Theory and Practice Humor and Translation ...... 60 Undermines Interpreter Education By Mark Herman By David Burton Sawyer ...... 32 Display Advertising Index ...... 60 In interpreter education programs for the spoken languages, much work Classified Ads ...... 61 remains to be done to establish meaningful, appropriate, and useful forms New Active and Corresponding Members . . 63 of assessment. Since not all interpreter trainers are familiar with research Accreditation Exam Sites ...... 63 and may not be aware of what it has to offer, the potential of measurement and testing theory to improve assessment practices remains under- appreciated. In this article, the author reiterates the centrality of an inte- Mark Your Calendars! grated assessment regime in a system of instruction, and discusses cornerstones of these practices in the context of interpreter education. ATA’s 41st Annual Conference is Widespread problems that undermine interpreter assessment are present- September 20-23, 2000 ed in an attempt to heighten awareness and stimulate discussion. The AN EASY REFERENCE TO ATA MEMBER BENEFITS Your ATA membership has never been more valuable. Take advantage of the dis- Chronicle counted programs and services available to you as an ATA member. Be sure to tell A Publication of the American Translators Association 1999 FIT Best Periodical Award Winner these companies you are an ATA member and refer to any codes provided below. 225 Reinekers Lane, Suite 590 Collection Services/Receivables Management Alexandria VA 22314 Dun & Bradstreet Tel: (703) 683-6100; Fax (703) 683-6122 Ask for Ian Erlandsen E-mail: [email protected] (800) 333-6497 ext. 6887 Website: www.atanet.org (610) 882-6887 Editor [email protected] Jeff Sanfacon [email protected] Conference Travel Advertising Manager Conventions in America Dee Warwick-Dias Reference Code: 505 [email protected] (800) 929-4242 ¥ (619) 453-3686 Executive Director e-mail: [email protected] Walter Bacak http://www.stellaraccess.com [email protected] Credit Card Acceptance Program/Professional Services Account Design/Layout MBNA America/NOVA Information Systems Ellen Banker/Amy Peloff Reference Code: HCDA Editorial Advisors (888) 545-2207 ¥ (770) 649-5700 R. 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4 ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 Features Continued Strong Men Coldly Slain: A Machine Translation Case Study Need a membership By Neil L. Inglis ...... 44 form for a colleague? How machine translation interprets Rudyard Kipling. When Silence is not Golden Want the latest list By Salma Zakaria ...... 47 of exam sites? Translation and the case of EgyptAir Flight 990. Call ATA’s Document on Arabic Websites on the Internet Request line, available By Salma Zakaria ...... 51 Here is a list of helpful online resources for those interested in the Arabic 24-hours a day: language. In God We Trust By Jackie Murgida ...... 53 Colloquial Arabic has dozens of formulaic expressions—set phrases 1-888-990-3282 that are used in a wide variety of situations. They are often misinter- preted or translated in a misleading way, and translators must be extra vigilant to avoid knee-jerk, literal renderings of these sayings, some of The Call is toll-free and user-friendly... which have religious components that can be overstated. One of them simply follow the voice prompts was the subject of intense media speculation after the crash of and have the ATA documents EgyptAir Flight 990 last year. you need faxed to you.

Here’s the current list of documents that are available and VISIT ATA’S their document numbers: WEBSITE AT WWW.ATANET.ORG Menu ...... 1 Membership Brochure ...... 20 Membership Application ...... 21 Alternative Routes to Active or Corresponding Membership . . . . .22 A Guide to ATA Accreditation . . . .30 ATA Accreditation Practice Test Request Form ...... 31 ATA Accreditation Examination Registration Form ...... 32 Request for Accreditation Review . .33 List of Publications & Order Form ...... 40 Editorial Guidelines ...... 50 Chronicle Advertising Rates ...... 51 1994 Chronicle Index ...... 52 1995 Chronicle Index ...... 53 1996 Chronicle Index ...... 54 1997 Chronicle Index ...... 55 1998 Chronicle Index ...... 56 ATAware Order Form ...... 60 Chapters, & Other Groups ...... 70 Proposal for Conference Presentation ...... 80 Model Contract for Translators . . . .90

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ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 5 About Our Authors...

Lucia Conti holds a conference interpretation degree from translator. She is the founder and operator of Intex Translations Scuola Interpreti (Italy), and interprets from English/Italian/ in Los Angeles, California. Prior to serving as the chair of the French into English/Italian at U.S. Department of State con- ATA Public Relations Committee, she was a two-term member ferences and in the private sector. She can be reached at of the ATA Board of Directors. She can be reached at [email protected]. [email protected].

Cecilia Garcia is a medical interpreter/translator David Burton Sawyer (Diplom-Dolmetscher, Diplom-Über- (Spanish/English) and a supervisor of the setzer) is a freelance conference interpreter who has worked Language Assistance Department for M.D. extensively in private industry and government in Europe and Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, where the United States. A graduate of the University of Mainz in she has been a staff member for six years. She can Germersheim, he taught interpretation and translation at his be reached at [email protected]. alma mater before joining the faculty of the Monterey Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California. He is assistant Neil Inglis is an author and translator based in Washington, professor and head of the German Program in the Graduate D.C. He is currently researching a history of children’s televi- School of Translation and Interpretation. He is currently sion. He can be reached at [email protected]. preparing the defense of his doctoral dissertation on curriculum design, expertise, and assessment in translator education Jackie Murgida has a Ph.D. in Arabic and lin- programs. He can be reached at [email protected]. guistics from Georgetown University and is a computational linguist with L&H/AppTek, a com- Diane E. Teichman has been interpreting and translating pany that develops foreign-language software professionally for the legal profession for over 20 years. As tools. She has worked in the translation and lan- president of Linguistic Services in Houston, Texas, she also guage services field for many years. She edited a qualifies and trains contract staff interpreters and translators, newsletter for U.S. government translators, No Uncertain Terms, provides consultation, and is an expert witness. She lectures and and has conducted workshops on translation techniques for vari- has authored several articles on working with interpreters. She is ous organizations. She can be reached at [email protected]. the administrator of ATA’s Interpreters Division and a member of the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Dr. Cynthia Miguélez teaches interpreting at both the under- Translators. She balances all this as an avid hot air balloonist. She graduate and graduate levels at the University of Alicante can be reached at [email protected]. (Spain). She has also given numerous workshops in Spain and the U.S. on topics related to skills development for both trans- Laura E. Wolfson is a Russian interpreter and lating and interpreting, and has been involved in programs assistant editor of the Slavfile, the newsletter of designed to train interpreter trainers. At present, her research ATA’s Slavic Languages Division. She can be interests lie in examining the tumultuous state of affairs of reached at [email protected]. court interpreting and legal translating in Spain. She can be reached at [email protected] or [email protected]. Salma Zakaria is a full-time translator and Manouche Ragsdale is a graduate of the Université des interpreter living in New York City. She can be Lettres in Toulouse, France. She has lived continuously in the reached at [email protected]. U. S. since 1969, and is an ATA-accredited (French<>English)

ATA BOOK ON TRANSLATING AND INTERPRETING PROGRAMS AVAILABLE

Translating and Interpreting Programs in America, A Survey is now available from ATA. Compiled and edited by Bill Park, this 68-page publication gives the contact names and course offerings for degree and certificate programs given by schools throughout North America. This is the updated and expanded version of Park’s Translator and Interpreter Training Programs in the U.S. The cost is $20 to members and $25 to nonmembers. For more information or to order, contact ATA Headquarters at (703) 683-6100; fax: (703) 683-6122; or e-mail: [email protected].

6 ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 Conference Presentations

he educational sessions are the founda- Once you have completed the form, send it to tion of each ATA Annual Conference. ATA Headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. The T Volunteers—members and non-mem- information, including the electronic files of the From the bers alike—conduct these sessions. abstracts and bios, are entered into the confer- In St. Louis, we had 189 sessions and 205 pre- ence database, copied, and then forwarded to Executive senters. Some sessions had multiple presenters; Tom for his review. Director some presenters gave more than one presentation. In addition, Tom works with the division This year, the September 20-23 conference in administrators or their designees to develop Walter Bacak, CAE Orlando is taking place six weeks earlier than division-related presentations. He will also [email protected] usual. ATA Conference Organizer and President- strive to fill voids in the presentations, such as Elect Tom West has been working with President soliciting more technical sessions or certain lan- Ann G. Macfarlane and the Headquarters staff to guage-specific sessions, as well as add sessions plan accordingly for the changes in the schedule. that he thinks will be of interest to attendees. For example, the conference Preliminary In April, Headquarters will be working with Program will be published in early June versus Tom to notify those who have submitted pro- mid-July, while the “early-bird” registration posals as to whether their proposals have been deadline has been moved up to August 15 from accepted or not. If you have any questions about October 1. (For more conference information, the process or the form, please contact ATA please see page 59.) Headquarters. To meet these earlier deadlines, Tom has Thank you in advance for submitting a pro- been encouraging those submitting presentation posal and for sharing your knowledge and proposals to get them in by March 1. (If you are expertise with your peers. See you in Orlando! unable to make the deadline, please submit your proposal anyway. Since we have cancellations Dues Renewals throughout the year, the late proposals may be If you have not renewed your dues, please considered for these vacant slots.) do so as soon as possible. If you need another The presentation forms are available from dues renewal form or did not receive one, ATA Headquarters, (703)683-6100; the Website, please contact Maggie Rowe at ATA www.atanet.org/conf2000/abstract.htm; and ATA Headquarters, (703)683-6100; fax: (703)683- Documents on Request line at 888-990-3ATA 6122; e-mail: [email protected]. (-3282), request document #80.

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This is a publication you will not want to miss. To order, contact: Translation and Interpretation ATA, 225 Reinekers Lane, Suite 590, Alexandria, VA 22314; fax: (703) 683-6122 Services Survey

ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 7 On Becoming a “FITier”

By Ann G. Macfarlane

ast summer I had the privilege of attend- from the Vancouver Board of Trade, the Governor ing the 15th Open Congress of the of British Columbia, and even Prime Minister From the L International Federation of Translators. Jean Chrétien! The Canadian Translators and The Federation is an international association of Interpreters Council, working together with its President associations of translators and interpreters, regional group, the Society of Translators and abbreviated as “FIT” from its French name, the Interpreters of British Columbia, will arrange a Ann G. Macfarlane Fédération international des traducteurs. fine conference, I am sure—only the second to [email protected] Individuals do not belong to FIT in their own take place on the North American continent since right, but may belong, of course, to the associa- FIT was founded 46 years ago. I hope that you tions that make up the FIT membership. Those will mark your calendars now for this event. who are active in FIT are jocularly known as The most interesting aspect of the Congress “FITiers.” This column gives some informal from my personal point of view was the cast of observations on the Congress.* characters one got to meet. President Gentile, FIT Congresses are held every three years, in Italian by background, has a splendid Australian two parts. The first part, the Statutory Congress, is accent and occasionally exhorted us to “put our open only to official delegations; the second, the hands together” to applaud. Florence Herbulot, Open Congress, is open to all who wish to attend. who has served as FIT president since the last Our then-President, Muriel Jérôme-O’Keeffe, Congress in Melbourne, chaired the Opening headed our delegation to the Statutory Congress; Ceremony with aplomb, despite the hazards of Henry Fischbach and Peter Krawutschke, both the heat, wayward musicians, and a somewhat former ATA presidents, were the other members. restive audience. I had fascinating conversa- The Congress took care of a number of internal tions with Russian, Finnish, Argentinian, and administrative changes that had been proposed, South African colleagues, and met old friends and also elected the new Council and Executive from England, Canada, and, of course, the Committee for the next three years. Peter United States. Krawutschke was elected secretary-general. He We had very strong representation from the will work with Adolfo Gentile, the new president, ATA at the Open Congress. Eleven ATA members to take the minutes, issue memoranda and reports, made presentations, and I identified over 40 ATA and keep the day-to-day business of the associa- members in attendance (out of some 420 attention in order. dees). Steve Sachs has ably served as ATA’s rep- In addition to this exciting development, which resentative to FIT for the last nine years. He will improve our communication with FIT, the described to me how, when he took office, there Congress produced two other pieces of very good seemed to be relatively little awareness of FIT news. As readers know, the ATA Chronicle was and its work within the ATA. It was clear from the given the prize for Best Periodical. I had the plea- warm reception Steve received at the Congress sure of accepting the prize on behalf of the ATA. that he has made a substantial difference in In presenting this award, Jean-François Joly, chair increasing ATA’s visibility within FIT, as well as of the Committee and former president of FIT, informing ATA members about FIT activities. stated that the award would be given to a periodi- Within the Congress, the literary and technical cal which represented the profession well to the sessions were particularly valuable, but interpre- outside world, as well as to those within our ranks. tation also was very well represented, with a dis- He cited the informative articles, the use of humor, cussion on community interpreting that filled an and the unusual covers as special points consid- entire 90-minute session. Liese Katschinka, who ered by the Committee. Clearly the Chronicle is has served with FIT since 1982 and as secretary- valued highly by colleagues in the translation and general for the last six years, was active both in interpretation profession all over the world. chairing the Interpretation Committee and in the In addition, Vancouver’s bid to host the next affairs of the Regional Council for Europe (RCE). FIT Congress, in the year 2002, was accepted. I She has clearly been one of those “landmark” understand that the delegation made an outstand- officeholders who, by energy, organizational ing presentation, undergirded by letters of support skills, and sheer hard work, has helped set the

8 ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 organization on a steady path for the future. found I had to scramble a bit. On the other hand, The RCE session that I attended was chaired we were provided with four-course lunches, by Jeannette ¯rsted, serving at that time as presi- including wine and beer in abundance, as a part dent of the Danish Association of Business of our conference fee. And the evening meals Graduates. The Danish delegates had just hosted that were arranged, in particular the gala closing our Nordic Division study tour, and reported that dinner on the grounds of a ruined Cistercian the attendees were pleased, though exhausted, by abbey, were spectacular! I decided early on that their week’s stay in Copenhagen. the key was to accept a looser approach to orga- I would like to mention two significant nization than we are used to in the U.S., and to motions passed by the Open Congress. One was enjoy the historic and cultural riches that this a motion in support of Karin Krieger, an Italian provincial capital had to offer. translator who, in the view of the Literary FIT was founded with support from the United Translation Committee, is being deprived of the Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural proper fruits of her labors by her publisher. The Organization (http://www.UNESCO.org), and in other was a motion to urge the United Nations, the past has been rather Eurocentric. It was good NATO, and all other responsible parties to ensure to see the global spread of countries with proper protection for interpreters who are work- representatives at this conference, and to talk ing in war zones or other strife-torn areas. The about the many issues that we, as translators and attendees could only be grateful that these seri- interpreters, have in common, as well as to learn ous matters were reviewed, and steps taken by about the specific problems facing colleagues in FIT to try to remedy the losses. other parts of the world. I was very pleased at the This Congress was held south of Brussels in warm welcome our delegation received, and at the city of Mons (also known as Bergen). Jean- the individual kudos given to the Chronicle in Marie Vande Walle, a graduate of the University addition to the Best Periodical Award. It will be of Mons/Hainaut, served as the tireless confer- interesting to see how the role of FIT evolves, in ence organizer. Mons was a true walled city until our changing professional milieu, as nations the last century, and though the walls have been become closer through the Internet and taken down, the medieval pattern of streets and colleagues get to know one another better, ramparts is still very evident. I found the venue whether “online” or in Mons, Melbourne, or an interesting (and occasionally frustrating) mix Vancouver. of history and modernity. The lecture halls of the university were modern and well-equipped, but *For more detail, see Peter Krawutschke’s not designed for use in 85-degree August weather. column, “FIT in Mons at 46,” in the September, No meals except breakfast were available in our 1999 Chronicle (page 16), as well as Eric hotel, since in August, “les vacances,” the chef is McMillan’s account, “The FIT Invasion of on holiday from Friday to Monday—and in typ- Mons,” in the October, 1999 Capital Translator, ical European fashion, the shops close at noon the newsletter of the National Capital Area on Saturday. As someone who needs to fuel up Chapter of the ATA. regularly to do well in a conference setting, I

It’s Not Too Early to Plan! Mark Your st Calendars! ATA’s 41 Annual Conference is September 20-23, 2000.

ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 9 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough... making Ricky Martin look like a clumsy Microsoft Blues Update Wow. Talk about people who love to elephant on the dance floor. Step after For those of you who might remember party! Life is a balance, and the ATA Annual step and song after song, everyone was my tribulations with Microsoft Arabic Conference was balance personified. right behind me (no pun intended). products about which I wrote last As a group of immensely talented pro- Seriously, y’all were good! February (page 43), I have an update! At fessionals, we slaved the days away at the But THREE parties in row? I’ve never one point in that article, I questioned the conference in our efforts to keep our seen any group of people so hungry for decision of the technician to delete every- answering machines and inboxes full of great music and dancing! That’s my kind thing on my hard drive (a process which translation jobs. Pumping out the resumes of crowd! And it was simply incredible to caused me five weeks of continuous and flashing the business cards to all in be able to experience such a wild, ener- trouble with my system). Back then, I sight was the norm. But all work and no getic, and supportive group of dancers thought, “I’d never know for sure” if it play makes for very stressed out and non- and singers. was the right solution. Well, I know now! smiling translators. I have always believed that music is Recently, I have been having new prob- I lugged around my CDs on this trip pure emotion. The only reason we choose lems with Microsoft (my e-mail stopped with the hopes of maybe playing for an to listen to music is so that we can feel a working out of the sheer blue sky, so please hour or two at some local dance club. particular sentiment—the crazy spon- note the change in my e-mail address). I Well, we tried that, and they made us feel taneity of our youth, the aching nostalgia called the help-line again. The first thing I like we were asking them to donate of our first love, the inspiring hope for the heard from a technician was “the only money to the hungry, starving children of future. And during those three wild solution is to reinstall everything.” Beverly Hills. So what then? Mmmmm. nights, we let the música do Brasil whisk Looking back, I realized that every time I Where, oh where, can we have some us away to those exotic places where each had any problem with a Microsoft product, fun??? How about we try looking under of us loves to escape. the first technician who answered would our noses? In a lightning flash, whadda It was a tremendous pleasure and priv- almost invariably say: “delete all and rein- ya know, up popped a Brazilian dance ilege to share the Brazilian spirit of music stall all anew!!” This time, I decided to try party. and dance with all of you, and I would do an experiment. I thanked the technician, Now, the music was there. All that was it again in a heartbeat. hung up, and immediately called the same needed was the crowd. And boy did we Keep on dancing... number again, got another technician who get a crowd. Of course, the perennially had another solution that was much simpler wild Brazilians were there, but we were and did not require such radical measures! lucky enough to have the lively support of Jeffrey Adrian Oliveira Platts I found out that the formula: “remove people from all over the mundo—Japan, Translator, everything and reinstall it again” is the Mexico, Germany, Bosnia, Argentina, Portuguese/Spanish to English standard that many a technician delivers! If and Minnesota. And what about those hip DJ “Funky J” – Ganzá Entertainment anything like this happens to you, just hang new Brazilian dance choreographies we [email protected] up and call again. Chances are, in most did? After the first practice, everyone was cases, you won’t need such radical surgery. All you need is to reach a technician who knows their job!

P.S. My problems with Microsoft are not over, so if you try to reach me via computer and get no response, please try my phone, as I never know what could happen to my system!

Salma Zakaria New York City [email protected]

VISIT ATA’S WEBSITE AT WWW.ATANET.ORG

10 ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 ATA ACTIVITIES

Accreditation Form and send it to ATA Headquarters. Public Relations ¥ An exam was held in Washington, DC. (Copies of the form are available from ¥ ATA Executive Director Walter Bacak ¥ Exam sittings have been added in ATA (703)683-6100; fax: (703)683- worked with writers and editors from Boston, Massachusetts; St. Louis, 6122; or e-mail: [email protected]; the the Orlando Sentinel, Dayton Daily Missouri; Pinehurst, North Carolina; San Website: www.atanet.org; and ATA News, and Crain’s Business Report. Antonio, Texas; and Washington, DC. Documents on Request Line: 1-888- ¥ ATA continues to work with the 990-3ATA (-3282), and request docu- American Foundation for Translation Conference ment #80.) and Interpretation, the Fédération ¥ Proposals for presentations are now Internationale des Traducteurs, the being solicited for the September 20- Membership ASTM Translation User Standards 23, 2000 Annual Conference in ¥ Final membership renewal notices Project, and the Localisation Industry Orlando, Florida. If you would like to have been mailed. (If you have not Standards Association. submit a proposal, please complete the received your notice, please contact Proposal for Conference Presentation ATA Headquarters.)

ATA’S DOCUMENT Need a membership form for a colleague? Want the latest list of exam sites? ON REQUEST LINE Call ATA’s Document on Request line, available 24-hours a day. For a menu of available documents, please press 1 at the prompt, 1-888-990-3ATA or visit ATA’s Website at http://www.atanet.org

ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 11 Upcoming Conferences and Educational Programs

TRADOS Workshops TRADOS Corporation offers one-day training workshops each Institute of Translation and Interpreting Conference 2000 month for Translator’s Workbench, MultiTerm, and WinAlign at “Do We Speak Science?” its site at 803 Prince Street, Alexandria, Virginia. Attendance is Translation, Interpreting and the Sciences, Technology and limited. For more information, contact: Tracy Calvert at Tel: (703) Medicine 683-6900; Fax: (703) 683-9457; E-mail: [email protected] or April 8-9, 2000 www.trados.com. Imperial College, London, England Call for Papers “Global Links, Linguistic Ties: Forging a Future The 14th ITI International Conference will take place in for Translation and Interpreting” London at Imperial College in the Sir Alexander Fleming Building March 23-26, 2000 on April 8-9, 2000. The theme will be science technology and New York University’s School of Continuing medicine. ITI invites translators, interpreters, and specialists from and Professional Studies higher education and industry to contribute papers on any subject New York, New York pertaining to this theme. Here are a few subjects which will be Topics include: translation in film, medical translation/inter- covered at the conference: specialization and training (there will preting, interpreting and legal systems, translation and culture, be a special workshop for new translators and those moving to translation/interpreting and international crises. For more infor- technical translation); pharmaceutical and medical translation and mation, please contact: NYU Translation Studies, 48 Cooper interpreting; research and terminology; patents; the translation of Square, Room 107, New York, NY 10003; Fax: (212) 995-4139; scientific research papers for major scientific communities; the E-mail: [email protected]. application of technology to the translation process; and the localization industry (translation as part of the industrial process). There will be tours of the Science Museum and Natural History Museum. All suggestions for papers and themes for sessions are welcome.

VI Spring Meeting • ATA Portuguese Language Division March 24-25th, 2000 • Ramada Emily Morgan Hotel • San Antonio, Texas

he ATA Portuguese Language Division is pleased to announce its 6th Annual Spring Meeting, to take place at the Hotel TRamada Emily Morgan in San Antonio, Texas, March 24-25, 2000. The preliminary agenda includes: Tradução técnica: a teoria na prática, Renato Beninatto (seminário de um dia) Translating the Subjunctive: English and Portuguese Equivalents, Dr. John Jensen Legendagem de filmes, Kátia Iole Interpretação: estudo e prática, Tereza Braga and Paulo Lopes Nas entrelinhas das manchetes: desafios da tradução jornalística, Clarisse Mello and Lúcia Leão Breast of Judge and Costumed Morals: An Exploration into Sources for Legal Terminology, Dr. Arlene Kelly Tradução comercial, Tim Yuan We are also planning to hold an ATA accreditation exam sitting on the morning of Sunday, March 26th. Please contact ATA Headquarters to register for the exam. For hotel reservations, please call the Ramada Emily Morgan Hotel at (800) 824-6674 or (210) 225-8486, or visit their Website at http://pw1.netcom.com/~ramadaem/index.html. Mention group “Portuguese Language Division.” Rates: $91 per day (single, double). Fees: Members: Early-bird (by February 25), $75; February 26-March 17, $95; One-day, $50. Non-members: Early-bird (by February 25), $90; February 26-March 17, $110; One-day, $65. Note: Fees include lunch, coffee breaks, and all presentations. Roommate Coordinator: Margarete Marchetti, [email protected]; Tel. (954) 430-9429. For more information, including registration form, please contact Vera Abreu, Portuguese Language Division administrator, at [email protected].

12 ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 For more information, please contact: Jane Hibbert or Maria international level since 1990 and is head of the Center for Cordero, Institute of Translation & Interpreting, 377 City Road, Translators and Interpreters at the University of Turku in London EC1V 1ND, United Kingdom; Fax: +44 171 713 7650; Finland, will discuss the skills needed in multimedia translation. E-mail: [email protected]. Correspondence should be In the second session, Daniel Gouadec (University of Rennes), clearly marked ITI Conference 2000. who is director of CRAIE (Research Center on Linguistic, Multimedia, and Documentary Engineering) and has a research Research Models in Translation Studies interest in the application of information technology to transla- April 28-30, 2000 tion, will examine the implications of multimedia translation for University of Manchester Institute of training. In the third session, Ida Mori, translation manager for Science and Technology Berlitz Dublin, will discuss localization. Four roundtable discus- Manchester, England sions have also been planned for the afternoon sessions. Hosted jointly by the University of Manchester Institute of For more information, please e-mail multimedia.con- Science and Technology and the University College of London, the [email protected] or visit www.mix.it/aiti. conference seeks to foster critical awareness of current research methods in all areas of translation and interpreting, and to evaluate Rennes 2000 International Symposium on Specialist the significance of both traditional and new theoretical models for Translation Teaching/Training Methods and Practices, practical research. For more information, please contact: Depart- Professional Practice mental Events Secretary, Department of Language Engineering, Université de Rennes 2 UMIST, P.O. Box 88, Manchester, M60 1QD, United Kingdom. September 22-23, 2000 The conference organizers can be reached via e-mail at: Mona Open to professional associations, students, translator train- Baker, [email protected]; Theo Hermans, t.hermans@ ers, employers, and organizations. The event is designed: to pro- ucl.ac.uk; and Maeve Olohan, [email protected]. vide an overview of the best professional practices; to identify proposals, initiatives, and models for specialist translator train- The Society for Technical Communication ing along truly professional lines; to discuss the aims and the 47th Annual Conference implementation of courses designed to train specialist transla- May 21-24, 2000 tors and translation managers - specialization being understood Orlando, Florida to imply domain, product type (software localization), technical The Society for Technical Communication will hold its 47th constraints (subtitling), or type of translation tools (computer- Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida, May 21-24, 2000. The assisted translation and automatic translation software); and to conference will feature more than 250 technical sessions cover- describe course content requirements in light of identifiable and ing technical writing, editing, management, Web design, multi- model-based professional practices. media, and other subjects of interest to technical communica- Submissions for workshops or papers should be half a type- tors. Information on the conference is available on the STC script page in length. Please enclose a short C.V./resume of the office Website at http://www.stc-va.org. A copy of the confer- author (half a page), along with the author’s e-mail address or ence Preliminary Program, including a registration form, can Website. Submissions should be forwarded to the organizing be obtained by calling (703) 522-4114 ext. 200. committee no later than June 20, 2000. Please send them to: D. Gouadec, 6 avenue Gaston Berger, F35043 Rennes Cedex, Multimedia 2000 - Translation and Multimedia: (tel/fax: +33 02 99 33 13 37). All persons submitting papers or From the Monitor to the Big Screen registering for the Symposium will automatically be added to an June 6-8, 2000 e-mail list and kept updated with the latest developments. Capomulini (Sicily, Italy) For more information, including registration, please The keynote speakers will be Yves Gambier, Daniel contact Nathalie Collin at [email protected]; Tel: +33 02 Gouadec, and Ida Mori. 99 14 16 06; Fax: +33 02 99 14 16 06. Please also visit During the first morning session, Yves Gambier, who has http://www.uhb.fr/langues/craie. been conducting research in translation for the screen at the

A Note of Dear Colleagues: I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you who kindly helped me with my Thanks from research on the survey I conducted at the conference in St. Louis. I also want to Claudia announce that the winner of the Macy’s gift certificate (given out in appreciation of your time) is Maria Micaela Novas from Kent, Ohio. You may contact me at Angelelli [email protected] or (650) 723 0967 (tel), (650) 725 9255 (fax). Thanks again! — Claudia

ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 13 Alexander Gode Medal — Call for Nominations

he Alexander Gode Medal, ATA’s most prestigious award, is presented to an individual or institution for outstanding ser- Tvice to the translation and interpretation professions. This award may be given annually. Individuals or institutions nominated do not have to be members of ATA. However, a history of constructive relations with ATA and the language professions in general is desirable. Nominees do not have to be U.S. citizens. Petitions and letter cam- paigns are not encouraged. Nominations should include a sufficiently detailed description of the individual’s or institution’s record of service to the translation and/or interpretation professions to enable the Honors & Awards Committee to draw up a meaningful short list for approval by the Board of Directors.

Nomination Deadline: May 1, 2000

2000 Lewis Galantière Award Nominations Now Open

he American Translators Association invites nominations for the 2000 Lewis Galantière Award. This award is Tbestowed biennially in even-numbered years for a distinguished book-length literary translation from any language, except German, into English published in the United States. (A German translation prize is awarded in odd-numbered years.)

To be eligible for the award, to be presented at the ATA Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida in September of 2000, the published translation must meet the following criteria:

¥ It must have been translated from any language, except German, into English ¥ It must have been published in the United States in 1998 or 1999. ¥ The published translation must list the translator’s name on the title page and preferably also on the dust jacket. Preference will be given to published works that include biographical information on the translator. ¥ The translator need not be an ATA member. However, the translator must be a U.S. citizen or resident in the United States. ¥ The nomination must be submitted by the publisher of the translated work.

The nomination must include the following:

¥ A cover letter with complete publication information for the work being nominated, together with a brief vita of the translator. ¥ At least two copies of the nominated work, plus one extra copy of the dust jacket. ¥ Two copies of at least 10 consecutive pages from the original work, keyed to the page numbers of the translations. This item is essential!

Nomination Deadline: May 1, 2000. Publishers are encouraged to submit nominations early!

Award: $1,000, a certificate of recognition, and up to $500 toward expenses for attending the ATA Annual Conference.

All nominations and materials for all three of these awards should be addressed to:

Courtney Searls-Ridge Chair, ATA Honors & Awards Committee American Translators Association 225 Reinekers Lane, Ste 590 Alexandria, Virginia 22314 Phone: (703) 683-6100; Fax: (703) 683-6122; E-mail: [email protected]

14 ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 2000 Student Translation Award Applications Now Open

n 2000, the American Translators Association will award a grant-in-aid to a student for a literary or sci-tech translation Ior translation-related project. The award, which will be presented at the ATA Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida in September of 2000, is open to any graduate or undergraduate student or group of students attending an accredited college or university in the United States. Preference will be given to students who have been or are currently enrolled in translator training programs. Students who are already published translators are, however, ineligible. No individual student may submit more than one entry.

The project, which may be derived from any facet of translation studies, should result in a project with post-grant applicability, such as a publication, conference presentation, or teaching materials. Computerized materials are ineligible, as are dissertations and theses. Translations must be INTO ENGLISH from a foreign language; previously untranslated works are preferred.

Applicants must complete a form (available from ATA Headquarters) and submit a project description not to exceed 500 words. If the project is a translation, the description must present the work in its context. It must also be a substantive statement of the difficulties or innovations involved in the project and of the post-competition form the work will take. The application must be accompanied by a statement of support from the faculty member who is supervising the project. This letter of support should demonstrate the faculty supervisor’s intimate familiarity with the student’s work, and include a detailed assessment of the project’s significance and of the student’s growth and development in translation.

If the project involves an actual translation, a translation sample of not less than 400 and not more than 500 words, together with the corresponding source-language text, must accompany the application. The translation sample may consist of two or more separate passages from the same work. For poetry, the number of words must total at least 300.

Application Deadline: April 15, 2000

Award: $500, a certificate of recognition, and up to $500 toward expenses for attending the ATA Annual Conference. One or more certificates may also be awarded to runners-up.

ATA CONFERENCE SESSIONS APPROVED FOR CONTINUING EDUCATION CREDITS BY CALIFORNIA AND WASHINGTON

The Judicial Council of California and the Washington Court Interpreter Certification Program have approved continuing education credits for some of the sessions presented at ATA’s 40th Annual Conference, which was held in St. Louis, Missouri, November 3-6, 1999. Here are the sessions that were approved by the Judicial Council of California’s Continuing Education Approval Subcommittee (valid through December 27, 2001):

CIMCE# Contact Hours Course Title 897 1.5 hours Translation for Interpreters 898 1.5 hours Four Types of Interpretation 899 1.5 hours Self-Training for Simultaneous Interpreters/Interpreting in a Cross-Cultural Setting: A Closer Look at the Role of the Interpreter 900 1.5 hours What Does the Federal Court Interpreters Act Really Say? Interpretation Needed!/Meaningful, Appropriate, and Useful Assessment in Language Interpreting: Criterion-Referenced Testing as a Case in Point

The State of Washington Court Interpreter Certification Program approved the following hours for interpreting-related sessions: Wednesday, November 3: six hours; Thursday, November 4: three hours; Friday, November 5: four and a half hours; and Saturday, November 6: six hours. If you have any questions, please contact ATA Headquarters, (703)683-6100; fax: (703)683-6122; [email protected].

ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 15 A House Without Mirrors

By Manouche Ragsdale

uring our last ATA Annual given to every translator for his/her translation.” It would be silly Conference in St. Louis, I and impractical to demand credit for every time an interpreter is D had the pleasure of partici- interpreting at depositions or business meetings, or credit a pating in a panel discussion on public translator for translating a sign that says “No Trespassing” into relations, sponsored and coordinated Spanish or Chinese. But there are so many other cases where by Kevin Hendzel of ASET, which credit should be given and is not, and occasions where the trans- included very distinguished ATA lator/interpreter should rightfully be identified in order to create members, foreign guests, and Dee an “image.” Dee Myers, former press secretary to To do so, we must first educate the user. The lack of recog- President Clinton. Perhaps the most nition, or “image,” stems mainly from a lack of awareness by significant exchange during the the users. There is an abyss of misconception, ignorance, and forum was her retort to a participant indifference on the part of most of the users of T&I services. And we, the service providers, have accepted this status quo for as long as the profession has existed, since prehistoric grunts ...We all have lived in a house without evolved into more than one form of verbal communication. mirrors for ages and have accepted Education, information, and “training” of T&I users is what ATA will endeavor to do this year. The ATA Board of Directors that we have no image... will be working closely with the ATA Public Relations Committee on a number of possible options. Through programs concerned about the translator’s of seminars, the careful placement of articles in the media, and “image.” “You have no image,” said perhaps an educational video, we will strive to enhance an Myers. understanding of our profession by T&I users. Not only will we This in itself, was to me the biggest work to dispel existing misconceptions, but to create an “image” insight in my 30-plus years as a trans- for ourselves. Large and medium-sized companies could receive lator/interpreter. We all have lived in a concise and comprehensive educational materials enlightening house without mirrors for ages and them as to who we are, what we do (and cannot do), and how have accepted that we have no image. I long it will take us to do it. We can join forces with ATA chap- guess that we all take it for granted that ters and other local groups to offer public information and pub- we “have to” stay in the shadows. We lic awareness programs so that we may finally come out of the take it for granted that it is normal that darkness and bask in some overdue limelight. we do not author our translations (with The ATA Public Relations Committee is planning to prepare the exception of published literary a feasibility study for the production of a video “infomercial” work), and we dutifully hide from the on T&I services directed at the users. After an evaluation of the photographer’s lens during high- budget necessary to produce such a video, the Committee will powered interpreting sessions. In other present it to the Board for approval. It is hoped that, thanks to words, we accept that we are “instru- the enormous talent of ATA volunteers who have come forward ments” of communication unworthy of to offer their writing and coordinating services, we could pro- credits. We accept being reduced to the duce a good educational and informative tool which will then role of machines. be made available to the T&I users. Should we accept this state of Meanwhile, there are other things that we, members at large, affairs because it has always been this can do to promote the profession and give us an “image.” way, or should we slowly try to intro- Obviously we all need to uphold the highest professional stan- duce the notion of “authoring” to the dards. Ethical and professional conduct can help us get the recog- users of our services? nition we deserve. Beyond the basics, however, there are some The scope and range of translation very useful tips available in the handouts that were provided by and interpretation services is so vast that the organizers of the public relations forum in St. Louis. Copies we could not issue a blanket statement are available from ATA Headquarters giving suggestions about stating, “yes, let’s revolutionize the T&I industry by demanding that credit be Continued on p. 18

16 ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 Parlance in the European Union

Submitted by Louis Korda

(Note: The following is an excerpt from an article by Gy. reduce costs, they would not provide Kocsis. It originally appeared under the same title in the simultaneous interpretation in all 11 October 16, 1999 issue of the Hungarian publication HVG— languages during the CM’s informal Weekly World Economy.) meetings (usually held in the country assuming the presidency). Moreover, annelore has been working for decades as the German the ministers would be restricted to translator at the European Union’s highest decision- speaking only in one of the designated Hmaking organ, the Council of Ministers (CM). She and working languages (i.e., English and 18 of her colleagues have been studying Hungarian since last French) and in the language of the host spring. At the same time, 23 other co-workers have begun to country—in this case Finnish—and struggle with Polish, another 20 of them with Czech, 16 with would have their words interpreted. Slovene, and 9 with Estonian. All 87 of them have signed up Germany and Austria rejected the for instruction in the languages of the countries that are Finns’ verdict and their delegates presently conducting official talks regarding prospective EU boycotted several of the informal membership. meetings. Thereupon the Finns gave in The translation service of the CM now employs about 550 and included German among the translators, and the 15-member European Union now recognizes “approved” languages. But in doing so, 11 official languages (English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, and Greek). The goal is to pick three translators from each of the linguistic sec- ...it is a cardinal rule at the EU that tions and have them attain a level of proficiency within the next couple of years which will enable them, with acceptable each translator be permitted to accuracy, to translate documents from the languages of the new translate only into his or her native members into the presently-used languages. The reason for having the currently employed translators tongue... learn the new languages is that it is a cardinal rule at the EU that each translator be permitted to translate only into his or her native tongue. Once the candidate states become full-fledged they let the genie slip out of the bottle: members of the EU, and the language of each becomes one of Spain and Italy also began to insist on the official languages, there will be an opportunity for transla- their linguistic “equal rights.” Thus, at tors of Hungarian nationality and mother tongue to join the the informal meeting of the ministers EU’s linguistic service. of education, held on September 24 in The linguistic service of the EU is rather disunified. The Tampere, interpretation was made CM’s translation bureau is practically dwarfed by the 22,000- available from six languages. person translation department of the European Commission, In addition, the linguistic practice where about 60 translators are studying the languages of the of the EU is sometimes influenced by states expecting to become members. The EC employs 1,300 the dominant personalities involved. full-time translators, but roughly one-fifth of the work load is For example, this year will be the first still passed on to contract linguists, since the Council’s trans- since 1981 that the president of the EU lation output is a mere 600,000 pages, and that of the is not a French native, but the Italian Commission runs to twice as much. Romano Prodi, inaugurated on Completely apart from the translation bureaus’ functions September 15th. It is obvious that the are the CM’s and the EC’s joint interpretation service, as well “professore” prefers to speak English as the EP’s interpretation division: 400 full-time interpreters rather than French, and so does his are employed at the former, and 180 at the latter; another Italian spokesman, Riccardo Levi. contingent of a thousand men and women work as part-time It is questionable whether a minister contract interpreters. In accordance with the rules at the meet- can be expected to take up a verbal ings of the Council of Ministers, made up of representatives of duel with his foreign counterparts the member states, the ministers are free to deliver their about delicate and professional matters speeches in their individual native tongues. Consequently, using a language other than his native simultaneous interpretation is done in 11 languages back and tongue. One thing is sure: in the EU it forth, i.e., in 110 linguistic combinations. Recently a near scandal resulted when the Finns, who took Continued on p. 18 on the presidency of the EU this past June, declared that, to

ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 17 Parlance in the European Union Continued

is held that it is the civic right of the European directly-elected representatives to speak in their native tongues and to follow the discussions interpreted in their native tongues. Therefore, the European Parliament cannot even consider reducing the number of official languages or the volume of interpretation which, on any given day of plenary session, requires the mobi- lization of roughly five hundred simultaneous interpreters— even though the EP is in dire need of interpreters of “small languages.” There are, for example, not enough Greeks who know Finnish or Portuguese, and thus they are frequently forced to insert a bigger intermediary language (i.e., the second interpreter doesn’t listen to the speaker, but to the English interpreter). Therefore, part of what is said is unavoidably lost (or gets transformed). It is said that this is why, for example, it’s always the Greeks who are the last ones to laugh at the speakers’ bons mots. The Eastern expansion, which, by making the five new languages official, would increase the number of language combinations to 240, is expected to cause the interpretation service extraordinary difficulties. An interpreter scarcity is already a foregone conclusion, which is why it would seem that the above-mentioned two-step interpretation would have to be extended to the new languages. This might occur, for example, in the case of Polish. Poland, having a population about the size of Spain’s, presumably will have 64 representatives in the EP, the same number as Spain’s. Consequently, at least one of them will wind up in every committee and establishment. Hungary's anticipated 24 Euro-representatives will obviously contribute less to the demand for interpreters. “The Eastern European governments face an immediate need to get started on an intensive EU interpreter training program, which we would wholeheartedly support, because acquiring the skills of a simultaneous interpreter requires a A House Without Mirrors considerably longer time than those of a translator.” This was Continued from p. 16 the comment of Olga Cosmidou, head of the EP’s interpretation service, to HVG. ways for individuals to write letters, correct wrong impressions, and improve media awareness. It will take all of us pulling together to bring about the changes that are needed. We will keep you posted on our progress and hope that the new year, CHRONICLE the new century, and the new millenni- ADVERTISING WORKS um will bring us closer to getting some mirrors in our house so that we may finally get “an image.” Call (703) 683-6606 to find out how to make the Chronicle work for you! Please send your comments to Manouche Ragsdale at Manouche@ intextrans.com or to ATA’s e-mail (ata@ atanet.org) or fax (703-683-6122).

18 ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 Bright Horizons for the Interpreters Division

By Diane E. Teichman

he first year as an established division, 1999, was dedi- online resources. This committee cated to taking stock of who we were, how we work, and encourages members to play a bigger T what our needs were. The result was the establishment of role in the benefits that the ATA pro- a sound structure from which to build on within the ATA. Our vides its members, such as The division meeting and reception at the St. Louis conference Translation Services Directory and showed a cohesive, fun-loving, and dynamic membership. the ID Directory. We will strengthen We have doubled our membership in one year, rising from the representation of our interests by 300 members in November of 1998 to 600 members in actively participating in the develop- November of 1999. Our all-inclusive approach to membership ment of conference workshops and has attracted a wide range of interpreting professionals, from presentations. freelancers in all languages all the way to agency management. We have established a quarterly newsletter covering perspec- tives on each of the four fields of interpreting, with a dose of ...Now, for the year 2000, we are both humor thrown in for good measure. In a continuing series capable and ready to take advantage called “The Interpreter’s Experience,” ID members describe their work environments and reveal the most and least favored of the opportunity to play a leading aspects of their work. We also provide a valuable service with global role in the interpreting a listing of training opportunities available worldwide. Now, for the year 2000, we are both capable and ready to take advan- profession... tage of the opportunity to play a leading global role in the interpreting profession. We have already started down this road by forming subcommittees which will focus on the following Issues and Concepts four areas. As old as our profession is, there are many inherent problems and obstacles Professional Education that remain unresolved around the The highest volume of requests for information that I world today. These problems affect the receive from interpreters relates to a desire for further training. work environment of the freelancer, Our industry is sorely lacking in accessible and affordable the full-time employee, and the agency training and other means of professional development. The ID director. There are also pockets of is taking an active role in developing further education and interpreters benefiting from perfor- training. The committee dedicated to this task identifies mance improving concepts and proce- sources of workshops and training opportunities in a broad dures, which they apply to their work, geographic spectrum. We also encourage the development of and this information needs to be shared more and easier access to these programs, and collect informa- with the rest of us. The members of tion on the tools and services that assist us in our work. this committee are identifying any blockades that interpreters face while Outreach: Education and Membership Development trying to provide efficient and accurate A large barrier to an interpreter’s ability to provide efficient work. They also identify new concepts work is an unenlightened market. Even entities that govern us that could help us improve our ser- are not fully informed as to our practices and procedures. vices. These issues and concepts are Through lecture opportunities, introductory meetings, regional then presented in the ID newsletter. social gatherings, and the publication of articles, we will promote and provide valuable information on both our profession and the ATA Interpreters Division around the world. This includes reaching out to the many interpreters that are not aware VISIT ATA’S of the benefits of membership in the ATA and our division. WEBSITE AT ATA Interaction We are paving the way to easier access to the ID and to WWW.ATANET.ORG each other with the development of a Website and additional

ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 19 Translating for Interpreters

By Cynthia Migueléz

ttendance at a workshop given “instruction” in what are considered strictly “interpreting” on this topic at the last ATA skills, in other words, those skills that are exclusive to inter- A Annual Conference in St. preting and not related to those needed by translators. For con- Louis challenged the old belief that secutive interpreting, these include memory-enhancement, translators often try their hand at inter- public speaking skills, note-taking skills, and so on, while for preting after reaching a certain level of simultaneous they include being able to listen and speak at the professional competence, and that the same time (dual task and dual processing skills), comprehend- “normal” progression in this field is ing a wide range of registers and varieties of spoken language, from translator to interpreter. It used to and successfully mastering speed and complexity. be relatively infrequent to hear of indi- Participants in these courses dedicate a large portion of their viduals who began as interpreters and time to the actual practice of interpreting, sometimes with the then moved into the field of translating. guidance and feedback of the instructor, and sometimes in a less structured, small group practice approach which depends on the participants themselves monitoring their own output for ...although much has been written on quality and accuracy. Many times these programs do not address underlying linguistic issues or language transfer strate- the differences that exist between gies per se, and assume that participants somehow already pos- translating and interpreting, the basic sess this kind of knowledge. strategies used in the translating In addition to those aspiring or novice interpreters who seek out and find these courses, there are many who do not have process...are also used in the access to any type of training whatsoever. They often try to interpreting process... “teach” themselves, making honest attempts to analyze their own output and discern ways to improve their own performance. This produces a situation where individuals new to the However, this reality is changing, and field of interpreting are engaged in a continual reinvention of more and more people enter the com- the wheel—in Spanish we would say they are “rediscovering bined profession of translating and the Mediterranean” (redescubrir el mediterráneo). interpreting through the latter. This They are destined to make the same mistakes that those who may be partly due to the burgeoning preceded them made and waste precious time in the process. need for community and court inter- This is because they do not have the resources with which to preters, and partly to practices that understand why one rendition is better than another. They are press virtually anyone who is perceived not familiar with the established approaches and methods of to be even moderately “bilingual” into language transfer. They have no theoretical background or service as an ad-hoc interpreter. frame of reference to help them avoid carrying out the task of Many people find that their first language transfer in a merely intuitive manner. In a nutshell, interpreting experiences, while daunt- they do not have the tools they need to understand why it is ing, are very satisfying, and they dis- inappropriate to render the phrase redescubrir el Mediterráneo cover an unknown talent for, and a fas- as “rediscovering the Mediterranean”—which means nothing cination with, the interplay of ideas to a monolingual English speaker—and that the appropriate and skills that interpreting entails. choice would be “reinventing the wheel.” Those individuals When this happens, a decision is often who come into the profession without any formal study or made to become a professional inter- training in translation are lacking these basic tools, and preter, and then a frantic search begins although much has been written on the differences that exist for instruction or training to enhance between translating and interpreting, the basic strategies used skills and gain confidence. That search in the translating process to transfer meaning from one lan- usually produces a few special courses guage to another are also used in the interpreting process. designed for novice or aspiring inter- Transcoding written and oral texts from source language to preters, often in a specific area of spe- target language shares certain commonalities, and the tech- cialization such as court interpreting. niques acquired initially for the generally slower processing of Many of these short courses offer written text can eventually be spontaneously transferred to the

20 ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 processing of oral texts. In other words, there are issues com- writer might have regarding the subject mon to both translating and interpreting, and the more thought- matter, and so on, allows a translator to ful, intentional processes used in translation can be routinized make some assumptions as to the mean- and made available for the more immediate needs of interpre- ing and purpose of the text and why the tation. Translation allows time for thought, reflection, study, writer chose certain words and expres- research, consultation, and for conscientious choices to be sions. Similarly, by knowing some of made. These choices can then be stored in our memory banks. these aspects, an interpreter is better They become part of our general knowledge and can be called prepared to predict and recognize spe- upon when more spontaneous access to that information is cific language usage, which allows for a needed. Furthermore, the habits acquired through the more more accurate reproduction of the dis- time-consuming, intentional process employed during transla- course in the target language. tion are extremely useful for interpreters. Although the time Having carried out this preliminary factor is the most frequently cited issue when discussing the step, the challenge for the novice trans- differences between translating and interpreting, it is true that lator/interpreter then becomes to suc- the time, and techniques, used to research, craft, and polish a cessfully navigate the muddy waters of translation should also be employed by interpreters, especially the translating process per se. One of novices, in the preparation of an interpreting assignment. the biggest challenges is to define the One sign of a good interpreter is knowing when to turn fine line that exists between a transla- down an assignment due to lack of familiarity with the field tion that is too literal and one that is too coupled with a lack of preparation time and/or materials. liberal. Many newcomers to the field err Especially early on in an interpreter’s career, it is important to on the side of a too literal translation, prepare carefully for each conference or assignment by study- making the all-too-often touted claim “I ing materials provided by the client or related texts obtained simply translated what the author said.” from libraries, bookstores, the Internet, or other sources. Interpreters, especially in the simultane- During preparation, the interpreter should study the text or ous mode, are faced with the same available materials; research the concepts, consult colleagues, dilemma, and must have excellent lin- specialists, and even the client if necessary; grapple with and guistic resources and the ability to call resolve challenges found in the text; and develop glossaries upon them immediately in order to and strategies that will ensure success when interpreting actu- avoid either extreme. These resources ally takes place. In other words, many of the techniques include knowing how to deal with employed when translating a text are also useful when prepar- idiomatic expressions (redescubrir el ing for an interpreting assignment. Mediterráneo above), culturally-bound What, then, are the basic techniques or strategies that are items, proper names, interference from most often identified with the translating process, and how can another language (anglicisms or his- they enhance interpreting performance? The second part of the panisms, for example), metaphorical or question is relatively easy to answer. By becoming familiar figurative language, and jokes or with recognized approaches to translating and accepted prob- humorous language, among others. lem-solving strategies, and by understanding the underlying Some of the standard techniques processes involved in language transfer, novice interpreters which are useful to interpreters include will be better able to make appropriate decisions by employing transference, transposition, modula- them in a systematic way. That leaves the first part of the question, insertion/omission, compensation to address: the fundamental techniques and strategies tion, synonymy, and functional or employed in translating that are useful to interpreters. descriptive equivalency. By under- First of all, interpreters should employ some of the basic dis- standing these techniques and routiniz- course analysis techniques used by translators when dealing ing them through practice, an inter- with a written text. These include identifying, to the extent pos- preter can enhance his/her overall sible, any external factors that might contribute to a more com- interpreting skills. plete understanding of the subject matter in general, as well as the speaker’s personal approach to that subject. Understanding factors such as world events, time frame, any possible bias the Continued on p. 22

ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 21 Translating for Interpreters Continued

Transference, or borrowing as it is “Las dotaciones de infraestructura y equipamiento para la sometimes called, is simply the use of investigación” as “The infrastructure and facilities available a word from the source language in the for research...” is an excellent example. The word dotaciones target language. Examples in English presents a significant challenge if a literal approach is used and include cappuccino, glasnost, macho, an equivalent term sought. However, a very suitable solution and junta, to name a few. There are was found that achieved meaning transfer through modulation, some basic guidelines as to the trans- as the word “available” serves the same semantic function in ferral of SL terms. For example, names the English version as does dotaciones in Spanish. of people, except the Pope, royalty, and so on, should be maintained in the SL. Insertion/Omission refers to adding or deleting elements (words Guillermo Clinton or Antoine Blair or phrases) to clarify meaning or ensure precision during lan- would not be acceptable. guage transfer. For example, the restatement of a proper noun or of a referent is often necessary in English when it is understood Transposition in music refers to a or implied in Spanish: Por sus dimensiones y estructura ha change in key, and is often used to alcanzado el nivel deseable de expansión… (Literally, “Given its accommodate an individual’s voice dimensions and structure, it has reached the desired level of range. In translating, the underlying expansion”). English version: “As a result of its size and struc- concept is the same: a change in syntax ture, our University has reached the desired level of expansion...” or structure to enhance meaning and to reflect correct usage in another code, Compensation is a very important concept for interpreters i.e., another language. Example: Origi- because it is often a necessity, especially in simultaneous internal: “…la Universidad de Alicante se preting. Compensation is the term used when some part of the caracteriza de manera fundamental por meaning or effect of the SL utterance is lost, but is then com- su dinamismo…” (literally, “the Univer- pensated for in another part of the utterance. sity of Alicante is characterized in a fundamental way by its dynamism”). Synonymy is also very important for interpreters, as it refers English version: “dynamism has to situations in which there is no full equivalent in the TL for become a fundamental characteristic of a SL word, and so a close synonym or partial match is consid- the University of Alicante...” ered appropriate. This is usually acceptable when the term in question is not one of the key terms or concepts. Modulation refers to changing the conceptual approach to a unit of mean- Functional/Descriptive Equivalency refers to the use of dif- ing. There are several types of modula- ferent phraseology in the target language to achieve language tion, such as changing the perspective transfer. This strategy is frequently used with culturally-bound from positive to negative (or vice items, for example, rendering licenciatura as “a four-year versa). For example, saying shallow undergraduate degree” when translating an academic creden- water is not very deep or saying “Hold tial from Spain for a U.S. audience. your breath” instead of “Don’t breathe.” Other commonly cited types Understanding these concepts is only the first step in making of modulation include substituting an use of them to improve skills. There are two practical methods abstract term for a concrete one (sit by which can be used either in group situations, such as classes or the fire/sentarse junto a la chimenea), meetings, or individually by independent interpreters attuned to substituting one part for another (from the translated word. The first is error analysis. This is simply the cover to cover/desde la primera hasta process of trying to identify what it is that makes a translation la última pagina), and so on. wrong. We have all seen examples of translation “bloopers,” and However, well-achieved modulations although we often shake our heads in amazement, we don’t are not always so easily and neatly always take the time to determine what exactly is wrong. For categorized, and not always so easily example, identifying if the problem is lexical (“Please leave your recognized or achieved. The English values at the front desk.”); grammatical (“There will be a translation of the Spanish original Moscow Exhibition of Arts by 1,500 Soviet Republic painters

22 ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 and sculptors. These were executed over the past two years.”); cos, programas de conocimientos bási- semantic (“Please do not feed the animals. If you have any cos), all with well-achieved descrip- suitable food, give it to the guard on duty.”); or a combination tive/functional equivalents; and the of the above. Trying to determine what needs to be done to translation of “100 off-campus loca- “correct” or improve the translation is an exercise worth doing tions,” which provides an excellent on a regular basis. example of modulation by using The second type of exercise that can be done to enhance “además de los cinco planteles, Sun skills is contrastive analysis. This is done by taking a text that Creek cuenta con 100 localidades.” is already translated and comparing the original and the target- On the questionable side, we might language versions to identify examples of both good and bad list the use of colegio for college, since translations, ranging from flashes of brilliance to embarrassing colegio in most Spanish-speaking gaffes. Most translated texts, whether really excellent or dis- countries refers to a pre-university, and mally poor overall, have some specific examples of both good often elementary, level of education; and bad. By examining the work of other translators, an inter- the use of clases de interés general for preter can expand his/her own repertoire of options and avoid general studies courses, as this changes becoming repetitive and unimaginative. The following is a the meaning of the original; and of short text taken from the Website of a community college in asiste a más de for “opens its doors to,” the United States. The names have been changed. as the use of the asiste in Spanish is incorrect and appears to be a calque of English Original: the English word “to assist.” Sun Creek Community College is a two-year institution that Finally, there are a few items which serves residents of Potsdam and Fredonia counties. Each year, require careful consideration. One the College opens its doors to more than 53,000 credit and example is the use of the word plantel non-credit students. Sun Creek has five campuses that offer for “campus.” This lexical choice, university transfer programs, occupational and developmental which at first might be considered an education, and general studies courses. Classes, workshops, error by some Spanish speakers, must and seminars are held at more than 100 off-campus locations. be recognized as a regionalism, and is therefore acceptable for the intended Spanish Translation: audience. Another example is the use Sun Creek es una institución de educación superior, que pres- of institución de educación superior ta sus servicios a la comunidad de los condados de Potsdam for “two-year institution” in this con- and Fredonia. Cada año el colegio asiste a más de 53,000 text. This is a culturally-bound item, estudiantes en clases de crédito a nivel colegial y clases de representing university-level education interés para la comunidad. Sun Creek cuenta con cinco plante- in some educational systems in the les que ofrecen programas de estudios que son acreditados en Spanish-speaking world, but not in all las universidades. También cuenta con programas técnicos, of them. programas de conocimientos básicos y clases de interés gen- It is hoped that this brief overview eral. Además de los cinco planteles, Pima cuenta con más de of some of the well-established tenets 100 diferentes localidades en las cuales se ofrecen clases, sem- of translating will spark the interest of inarios y talleres. interpreters who have had no formal training in translating. May it encour- Through contrastive analysis of this translation, several age them to seek out courses in trans- examples of translations worth emulating are found, as are sev- lating or texts with which to further eral others worth avoiding. Among items that were well-done, their understanding of the translating we can mention the rendering of terms like “credit and non- process, in order to apply what they credit students” (en clases de crédito a nivel colegial y clases discover to developing a systematic de interés para la comunidad), although the word colegial is approach to language transfer to misused; the rendering of “university transfer programs” (estu- enhance their interpreting skills. dios que son acreditados en las universidades) and of “occupational and developmental programs” (con programas técni- Continued on p. 41

ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 23 Insights On Conference Interpreting

By Lucia Conti

(Note: An earlier version of this article thought, the interpreter must generate the target-language ver- appeared in Interpreter News, the sion of the first thought while processing the speaker’s second newsletter of the ATA Interpreters thought, and so on. The longer the interpreter is able to wait Division, Volume 2, Issue 1, Spring before beginning the target-language version, the more infor- 1999, page 1.) mation the interpreter will have and the more accurate her/his target-language rendition will be. onference interpreting has It is important to be aware of the fact that we are speaking in been part of my training (in terms of thoughts rather than words, because it is the inter- C Italy) and of my professional preter’s task to convey the meaning of the original message. And experience (in the U.S.). The following since every language organizes meaning differently, trying to article will address some of the aspects find a direct equivalent in two languages often leads to awkward of this field. results. Hence, it is necessary to have a thorough understanding of the speaker’s message before beginning an interpretation, as opposed to simply repeating their words verbatim into the target ...To be successful, an interpreter must language. This is what differentiates a good and poor simultane- not only be perfectly bilingual in ous interpretation. To be successful, an interpreter must not only be perfectly bilingual in the source and target languages, but the source and target languages, but must also develop analytical and cognitive skills. must also develop analytical and Preparation cognitive skills... Topics for conference proceedings are always quite diverse and can include any subject field. Of course, because of the As an introduction to ATA profes- paucity of conference work available in the same language and sionals who are primarily translators, it subject matter, it has been my experience that it is impossible is probably important to briefly outline to specialize in only one field, since doing so amounts to finan- some specifics about the professional cial suicide. Thus, I do not need to emphasize how important it working standards and the techniques is for a conference interpreter to be familiar with the subject used by the conference interpreter. matter of the specific assignment. It is also imperative to obtain background reference material prior to interpreting. Simultaneous Interpretation Adequate working conditions and preparatory work are essen- Simultaneous interpreting is the tial if the conference interpreter is to produce an accurate and pre- technique most often used for confer- cise rendition of the speaker’s words. As I mentioned above, the ence proceedings. It is usually per- sheer variety of subject matter requires that interpreters be given formed by a two-person interpreting information about the project for which they are going to be team who are located in a booth hired. Unfortunately, direct clients or interpretation agencies equipped with a microphone and ear- often try to hire interpreters without giving them materials from phones for themselves, the speaker, which to study and create glossaries. I have shared my thoughts and the audience. with several colleagues, including those who work for the United The adjective “simultaneous” is Nations and the European Parliament, and it seems that this situ- actually a misnomer, in that it suggests ation is common. It is an ongoing frustration of the profession, that the interpreter is interpreting a because people who organize interpretation events incorrectly message as she/he hears it. In fact, expect interpreters to be omniscient in any field without seeing there is a delay (known as décalage, or the need for further elucidation on the subject matter. time lag) between when the interpreter Users of conference interpretation services ought to be more hears a thought and the moment she/he familiar with what interpretation really entails. I have had clients renders that thought into the target lan- answer my adamant requests to receive additional information guage. This is because it takes time to with replies like: “I thought that you knew that language? Why understand the original message and do you need to know in advance what the meeting is all about? generate a target-language rendition of You just repeat what they say in the other language!!” Answers it. As the speaker goes on to the next like these are a serious threat to our professionalism. It is obvious

24 ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 that a conference/meeting speaker is usually an expert in a certain which I heard language professionals field who has spent days, sometimes months, researching the spe- say that they would like to try some cific issue to be discussed in a meeting. Therefore, the interpreter interpreting assignments, and that if a needs to give significance to each point mentioned in order for person is bilingual, they can interpret the essence of the speaker’s message to come through clearly. As simultaneously, or at least give it a try. I mentioned above, since interpreting entails “processing” infor- But unfortunately, this is not a profes- mation, a major task for the interpreter is to render the equivalent sional way to go about getting experi- meaning into the target language. How can the interpreter give ence as a conference interpreter. It the best rendition of the speaker’s words if she/he has not even takes time and dedication to become had a chance to look at the paper being presented? good at what you do, like in any other Organizations like AIIC (International Association of profession, and it is recklessly irrespon- Conference Interpreters) and TAALS (The American sible for a language specialist to accept Association of Language Specialists) have been instrumental conference assignments if he/she does in fighting for acceptable conference working conditions. The not have experience. minimum requirements are: to have a team of two interpreters It has been my experience that more and a booth (hopefully soundproof) with equipment that works and more conference interpreters are located in a position that allows interpreters to see the speak- being hired by agents who are at the ers (hopefully) and any projected images (mandatory), such as end of a chain of various “brokers” films, slides, or transparencies, to be interpreted. Specific with the end-user clients at the other working hours, team shifts, and, of course, background mater- end. This type of situation means that ial are a prerequisite for any meeting or conference. In the real there is not a direct exchange between business world, these conditions are not often met, resulting in the interpreters and the actual users of a disservice to the audience and to the interpreting profession their services. Good interpretation can as a whole. only happen if the interpreters and organizers are working together Importance of Ethical Conduct for Conference toward one and the same goal: excel- Interpreters lence and precision. All too often, Since a conference interpretation assignment always involves because of time constraints or unwill- a team of two interpreters, both team members have to realize ingness on the part of clients to make that their success is dependent upon their working together. This copies of materials, interpreters walk means that an individual must never jeopardize the performance into a meeting or seminar with nothing of the team as a whole on the basis of unprofessionalism, since more than the title or subject of an it is not a solo performance, but a team effort. event (although such materials, and Recently, I had yet another experience in which a nonÐcon- even brochures, are made available to ference interpreter accepted a highly specialized medical participants beforehand). assignment without having enough experience as a conference It is essential that, as professionals, interpreter, let alone in the medical field. The end result of this we really give priority importance to being that the entire assignment had to be carried out by the educating the organizers and users of second interpreter, to the detriment of performance and quality as conference interpreting. We want a whole. All the difficulties were due to the fact that it was not a clients to understand the reasons why team effort any more, but a salvaging effort to keep that being bilingual is not a sufficient skill interpreting team away from a sub-standard quality level. This to be a simultaneous interpreter. We situation could have been avoided if the interpreter in question want the prospective conference inter- had simply been honest enough to say that she/he was not preter to be aware of the necessary professionally ready for that type of assignment. Instead, the training required to work as a simulta- individual jeopardized the success of the conference and, to a neous conference interpreter, and that larger extent, the credibility of the interpreting profession. this skill takes a long time to develop. It may sound amazing, but the reality is that there is a wide- As an independent interpreter, I have spread reluctance on the part of certain interpreters to admit their limits in specific sectors. I have had many experiences in Continued on p. 31

ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 25 Interpreting Evidentiary Tape Recordings: The Toughest Job You’ll Ever Love, Or Maybe Not….

By Diane E. Teichman

he transcription and translation be presented as evidence in all areas of litigation, from family of foreign-language tape re- law, to criminal law, to civil law. The contents of the tapes are T cordings is one of the duties as different as the fields of law. They can range from simple included in the scope of legal recorded statements taken over the phone for an insurance interpreting. It is difficult work because claim on a vehicular accident, to the undercover recordings it requires tedious time consumption of made on a body wire in a sting operation. The courts are very serious concentration and a repetitive accustomed to attorneys offering tape recordings as evidence. operation all based on a source tape that Tapes are popular with attorneys because they represent active is often of questionable quality. I must as opposed to passive evidence. And if it is at all possible for be nuts because I have loved this work tapes to be played at the trial, they make a more memorable ever since, when over 12 years ago, I impact on a jury than written exhibits ever could. was handed my first whisper-ridden, But a foreign-language tape recording loses all of its appeal undercover tape with the audio quality and credibility as evidence if the tape has not been correctly of a Victrola phonograph record. I have transcribed and translated. More and more judges are throwing since completed hundreds of hours of out evidentiary tapes that are riddled with errors and omissions. tapes, both audio and video, and serve as And now, after so many experiences with poor work, litigators an expert witness on translated tape tran- have discovered how to challenge such tapes as inadmissible. script quality. In order to lighten the bur- The result of a successful challenge is not only the loss of that den of difficulty for my fellow inter- specific evidence, but if it was a key piece (such as a confession), preters, I am continuously striving to then the entire case can be thrown out. You will also have angry educate our market on the need for judges who will take it out on the attorneys, who will then take audio quality guidelines. it out on whoever hired the interpreter. The result to the legal interpreter is a seriously damaged reputation that could result in him or her never being hired again. The repercussions reach out ...Legal interpreters are subject to the to the rest of the profession as well, since more often than not we interpreters seem to be judged as equal in caliber. Omissions in penalties of perjury, since changing or legal interpretation have strict implications that interpreters in paraphrasing what is originally said is other fields don’t have to concern themselves with. Legal interpreters are subject to the penalties of perjury, since changing or the same as altering testimony, which paraphrasing what is originally said is the same as altering testi- is considered lying under oath... mony, which is considered lying under oath. The notion that the contents of a tape will essentially con- stitute a simple conversation makes this work and the pay very attractive to novice interpreters. However, they soon face the Knowledge of A Client’s Needs inherent challenges of conversations that have often been Makes Your Work Easier recorded under the conditions of emotional stress of fear and The primary concern to the inter- panic. Then there are factors like drunkenness, arguing, and preter is twofold: the audio quality of many more audio surprises that affect the clarity of the words the tape and the terms of the assign- heard. Often words and syllables are drowned out by back- ment to be agreed upon with the client. ground noises. And then there is the delightful discovery of a The more informed an interpreter is on poor quality audio. When I am assigned to serve as an expert the conditions and implications set on on a tape transcript and learn that the interpreter had little or no evidentiary tapes, the easier it will be experience, I fear finding faulty work. I don’t enjoy being the to deal with the client and to evaluate source of censorious judgement, but I believe that it is unethi- the job. The clients won’t tell you why cal to accept a job that one is not qualified to perform. Here are the deadline is inflexible nor will they a few tips to follow that will help you eliminate the risks admit to not really caring about the involved when working with tape-recorded evidence. poor audio quality. They will only ask when can you get it back to them and Highly Demanding and Difficult Work how much you will charge. Tapes can First, out of respect for the judicial system and the guarantee

26 ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 of a fair trial to all participants, only accept this work if you are follow, or it will lose credibility. When qualified. You will be affecting a person’s life and, in certain presented to the judge or jury as an states, in criminal cases you can be involved in a death penalty exhibit, more than likely only one sec- ruling. Only a qualified interpreter can perform this work and tion will need to be read, but the whole withstand a challenge in court. It is a complete myth to think that transcript has to be admitted. You don’t a person can interpret, much less do quality tape work, simply want the lawyer standing in court fum- because he or she can speak another language. The job involves bling around trying to find that one transcribing and translating an audio or audio/video tape, but we section. And the evidence can be actually combine both procedures into one. Since you are hear- thrown out in its entirety if there are ing the spoken word, you will rely on your interpreting experi- errors in only one section. ence. So, essentially a legal interpreter has the best experience to The format should be in transcript do this work. You will need to draw on your experience in serv- form and double-spaced. It should be ing at trials, hearings, depositions, and listening to sworn state- printed on plain paper, and not on let- ments—everyday work in judicial interpreting proceedings. In terhead. Each page should be titled with this way you will become used to the common and slang lan- the words “Tape Transcription and guage used by a variety of people. You will also not be caught off Translation” along with any additional guard by speech patterns that are influenced by the setting and tape identification. This information can the speaker’s focus on their testimony. You will need experience consist of the case style, the case num- with interpreting for witnesses that are upset and emotional when ber, or however the investigation has you work with interrogation and confession tapes. All tapes can been identified. If there is more than include legal terminology, so know your “legalese.” one tape, the tape number along with the side (for example, “Tape 3, Side B”) Present Yourself Professionally that the transcript comes from should be Present your qualifications in a concise and written form. identified on each page. As a personal Remember that they will be presented in court, so make no false preference, I start a fresh page for each or unverifiable claims. Then educate your client on your proce- new conversation if they occur at later dure, the format of your work product, as well as your terms and times or dates, even if these conversa- fees. Advise your client not to send you the only original tape. tions are on the same tape. This is Part of your procedure will be to have your client attach your because each new conversation can be qualifications to your final work product when it is entered into considered different evidence, and is evidence. I also suggest that you attach a signed, dated, and nota- often referred to separately in court. rized certificate of accuracy consisting of our court interpreter’s oath. Advise your client not to send you the only original tape. Identifying the Speakers on Tape Never accept a deadline or assignment without listening to The transcript of simple recorded the tape first. Take as little or as much time as you need in order statements can identify the speaker and to know how much work and time will be involved. (But if you investigator, but it should be noted that take too long in this process you can lose the job, so know when these names were provided to the you are in over your head.) Legal procedures are time sensitive, translator by said investigator. I never so be ready to be very flexible up to the point that your work identify speakers on a tape by name if the quality will be affected. You have to be willing to turn down a tape is being submitted or considered for job if the deadline means you will not provide accurate work. trial. Translators and interpreters cannot Dividing a job with another person heightens the risk of error, so know and prove that a voice on a tape is I don’t recommend that. If the deadline is truly unreasonable, the that of a specific person. This is consid- judge can be notified of the factors and reasons and may be able ered hearsay. Many litigators today hire to grant a continuance. In this case, provide your client with a voice experts to identify a person on a professionally written presentation of the factors and reasons tape, or to prove that it wasn’t said that will be the basis of the request for more time. person, and they will also use these experts to challenge anyone identifying The Format It is important that the printed product be clear and easy to Continued on p. 28

ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 27 Interpreting Evidentiary Tape Recordings Continued

their client based on hearsay. Unintelligible is used when the words were heard as spoken, but To avoid any possible misidentifica- cannot be specifically deciphered. This can be caused by human tion, I prefer to list the speakers on a sounds that interrupt or coincide with the spoken word, such as tape as Male Voice One, Female Voice coughing, sneezing, crying while talking, choking or gagging, Two, and so on. The enumeration is screaming, and mumbling. A body wiretap microphone can also according to when they came on the rub against clothing and muffle parts or complete words. tape as a speaker. I do not try to distinguish between child and adult. Mixed Language is a term indicating that the sentence includes words already spoken in the target language or even Identifying the Limitations of the another secondary language. You can request that these words Tape Itself be underlined to demonstrate the person’s use of certain words In this work, it is recognized that in the target language. even top professionals will inevitably come across limitations to being able to Broken Language indicates words that are not acceptable as provide a true and accurate interpreta- correct usage in either language. When speakers are not yet tion of the words spoken. That’s the fluent in the target language but forget their source language, good news. The bad news is that your the result is broken language. For example, a speaker will client may expect miracles from you revert to broken Spanish by adding a Spanish prefix or suffix anyway. The advance presentation of the to a verb in English to force it to translate (“pushear” for to format will help you educate your client. push). If applicable, you can explain this limitation in your Even if a couple of syllables are translator’s notes. Again, I hold true to the rule of not guessing, missed from a word, the interpreter and such broken language can be very vulnerable in court. would have to guess or estimate what Don’t make your work vulnerable as well. the person meant to say. A legal interpreter cannot do this at any time. This Standard Procedure is not an option for tape work, and will The procedure is to listen to each sentence repeatedly until come under the scrutiny of the court. what is said is clear. Sometimes even one or two words will The oath we swear to indicates that we have to be replayed before the rest of the sentence falls into will interpret to the best of our ability, place. An entire section will have to be replayed whenever a therefore we must inform the court and speaker talks very fast, when two or more people talk over our client of any limitations. each other, or when they speak in whispers. Do not shy away The following terminology is used from whispering, since a whispered sentence can be under- within the transcription to indicate that stood if the volume can be turned up and the speed slowed a word or group of words could not be down. I have uncovered key evidence in a whispered sentence. identified. Develop a key or glossary It is even possible to separate what is said when two people are page to attach to each presentation of talking over each other, as long as the two voices are distin- your final work product. guishable and are speaking at the same decibel level. It is actually more difficult to identify one word by itself than it is to Inaudible is used when words cannot be decipher a group of words. People inflect more and speak more heard. This can be due to sounds or clearly when saying several words. noises that drown out the speaker, for Do not fall victim to the temptation to make assumptions example, slamming doors, car horns about what the rest of the sentence was or what a person would honking, anything crashing, gun shots, say in such a circumstance. Do not allow preconceived notions explosions, squealing tires, and sirens. It of a response or reaction to filter into what you hear. Don’t count is also used when the tape recorder fails on a speaker to be consistent. Right when you are confident that or cuts off temporarily. Speakers at a dis- you have the words down, just play it one more time and you tance may not be heard, although they will hear something completely different. I have found this to be will be responded to by other voices. This especially true if I allow a day to lapse between replaying a dif- term is also used when a speaker’s voice ficult section. Also, the less you know about the case the better. trails off at the end of their sentence.

28 ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 Your Working Environment an interpreter were thought to be bilin- This will be critical to the quality of your work. You will need gual, but they didn’t have a full com- a comfortable setting. You will need to shut off the phones and all mand of the target or source language, other possible sounds like the radio, chiming clocks, and music. much less any training and experience. Use a transcribing machine that allows you to slow down the tape I like to call them “throw down inter- and replay it, or use a high-quality tape player. Work healthy: lack preters.” These people can range from of sleep and low energy will affect your listening abilities, and available employees at a sheriff’s you will suffer from what is known as “audio mirage.” department to an entry-level clerk with When time is not a factor, some people transcribe the tape a foreign last name. Once they start to directly from the source language and then translate the face the tedious difficulties of interpre- written transcript into the target language. Others, including tation, in frustration they will invent myself, prefer to translate the audio directly into the target lan- words, paraphrase, or actually use guage while listening. I will still replay and review my work totally incorrect terms. This will ruin from beginning to end before handing it to a proofreader. Once the interpretation of a sentence that completed, the transcripts are proofread and printed up. In otherwise makes perfect sense. It is order to protect the integrity of the evidence, a proofreader also common for such individuals to should only review it for typographical errors, not grammar. skip parts because they do not under- People don’t always use correct grammar while speaking, stand long-winded or rapid-fire especially in tape evidence. responses. On a more serious note, I Here are the factors that affect your ability to produce an accurate often see the incorrect translation of rendition when you do have intelligible and audible speakers. “to deny” and “to refuse” substituted with “don’t really want to.” Deadline and Turnaround Time One of the reasons why people use As a rule, an eight-minute segment of a good quality record- “throw down interpreters” is that sec- ing can take at least an hour to transcribe and translate. Keep ond or third generation immigrants in this in mind if you are asked to give a quote in advance. this country are often expected by employers to have the same interpreting The Audio Quality of the Tape Itself skills as a professional. The culprit is Certain kinds of tapes are more reliable than others. For the confusion with the term bilingual example, micro cassettes and copies of copies can reduce the and the skill of interpreting and translat- song “Mary Had A Little Lamb” to undecipherable dribble. ing, which is all too common in our However, this kind of tape is more efficient for undercover sur- market. Either out of fear of demotion veillance purposes. If given a choice, choose standard size tapes. or a desire to not make waves in the company, the “throw down” will take Reviewing the Work of Others on the task without any training. After There are two ways to proceed if you are hired to review tape the product is proven to be riddled with work done by another interpreter. One is to review the tape audi- mistakes and the case possibly lost, bly while reading their transcript in the target language. I find time and time again I hear the same fee- this causes me to be swayed by the inference of words I may not ble excuse, “I never had done that kind immediately hear, and I fall into the trap of pre-existing mis- of work before.” takes. The most efficient way is to perform your own individual So, if you apply the same respect for interpretation and then compare the two final transcripts. the professionalism of your interpreta- Don’t play judge and jury over a fellow professional inter- tion to this tedious task, you can produce preter. You may not find any errors in a transcript. Often we are work that you will genuinely be proud pitted against each other by the opposing parties. Let’s not of. And maybe, just maybe, you will lower ourselves to that level. Many people don’t realize that grow to love tape work, like I do. legal interpreters are unbiased and disinterested in the outcome of the case. By acknowledging a fellow professional’s creden- tials and excellent work, you are helping to educate our market. VISIT WWW.ATANET.ORG Quite often I come across tapes on which persons serving as

ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 29 The Role of Medical Interpreters

By Cecilia Garcia

oday’s medical interpreters wear professional medical setting? First, to be an effective communi- many hats, the most significant cator, the interpreter must have a thorough knowledge of med- T being that of communicator. ical terminology and procedures in both languages. They need Secondly, they also serve as advocates the ability to easily interpret what is being said in a clear and of complete communication, making understandable manner, neither adding nor subtracting from sure that patients not only understand what the speaker says. To ensure effective communication and the information they are given, but that that a patient’s needs are being met, the interpreter must have a their cultural needs are also being greater sensitivity to what is going on with the patient. They also addressed. Finally, and most dramati- need to know how to use this knowledge to assist the medical cally, is the medical interpreter’s role as staff in dealing with the patient (for instance, when there is a communication breakdown due to cultural misunderstanding). The last role, the “fixer,” requires someone who is a prob- ...they also serve as advocates of lem solver, someone who can act independently within established guidelines, and certainly someone who can focus on complete communication, making customer service and has the desire to ensure that there is a sure that patients not only understand positive outcome. the information they are given, but Obviously, an interpreter who is part of a hospital team has different parameters than one who is a freelancer. The free- that their cultural needs are also lance interpreter is more limited in how he can act, since his being addressed... exposure to the patient is more likely to be on a one-time basis. On the other hand, the hospital staff interpreter has built relationships with the staff and has become very much a part the “fixer.” All too often we hear “just of the caregivers group. They are often drawn into staff dis- fix it, please” from the medical staff. We cussions about patients, and are privy to all pertinent informa- are asked to “fix it” if the patient is dis- tion. For example, doctors often review radiological studies ruptive, if the family creates problems, and lab results with the interpreter prior to seeing the patient. or if the patient needs any type of help, This allows the interpreter to be better prepared during the whether it’s financial, scheduling actual interpreting session with the patient and to avoid unex- appointments, or arranging for help pected pitfalls. from the social worker or case manager. It is advantageous to receive a briefing from the medical Truly, it seems that we are called upon staff prior to entering a patient’s room. This is especially true more frequently to “fix it” when the if bad news is to be delivered. The interpreter is often required staff is dealing with troublesome to provide emotional support, but this may vary with different patients. At other times, it’s a question cultures. In this type of situation, the doctor may draw on the of facilitating or arranging to get the interpreter’s cultural knowledge when deciding just how to proper people together to effectively present the information. deal with a situation. As the interpreter becomes more a part of the team, he may Interestingly enough, it is this latter also be included in patient-doctor conferences. This is often role that has made the interpreter indis- the case with difficult patients or patients who are very ill, or pensable and so much a part of the when end-of-life decisions must be made. It is in these situa- medical team. Of course, that is not to tions that the interpreter may be seen as “the bad guy,” and say that the medical staff does not often becomes the target of repressed anger borne of the respect the interpreter’s language patient’s helplessness of the situation. In some cases there may expertise, because they do, but it is the be a physical threat, and it is up to the interpreter to “fix it” and problem-solving skills that have find ways to circumvent this if he is to continue to be effective earned interpreters a very special niche in his role. Sometimes the situation can be diffused by some- among their co-workers. thing as simple as the tone of voice or an expression of sincere So what qualifications does this concern. It is up to the interpreter to determine what works best multi-faceted person have to bring to at that given time. And, it is in this type of situation that the the table to effectively participate in a medical staff looks to an interpreter to resolve the problem.

30 ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 If interpreters are going to draw on their cultural knowledge the terminology and treatments of that to assist with an approach in dealing with the patient, it is clinic. Second, there is continuity, and a essential that they recognize that each situation is unique and much better rapport develops between that they must not depend on stereotypes. It is not always true the interpreter and the medical staff. that a patient from a certain culture is going to react in a cer- It is important to continue to build tain way. There are also times when beliefs differ among fam- upon the positive relationship between ily members. For example, recently a patient’s wife adamantly interpreters and medical staff members. insisted that her husband not be informed that he had a serious Having medical staff participate in “in- life threatening brain tumor. After being told that doctors service” presentations for interpreter operate under a guideline of informed consent, she continued groups can lead to a better understand- to insist that the information be withheld. The only response ing of the interpreter’s role in the med- was that the doctor would be made aware of her request, but ical setting. Educating the medical staff that it would be his decision to make. Wisely, the doctor came will also contribute to the interpreter in to interview the patient and asked “What do you know about feeling more like a partner of the group. your disease?” and when the patient said nothing, the doctor It truly is an effective tool. asked, “What do you want to know?” To this the patient The effectiveness of an interpreter answered “Everything,” and when he had all the information, starts with good training, with including the unfavorable prognosis, he thanked the doctor for demanding standards, and continuing telling him because now he would have the time to take care of education. So it’s important for med- his affairs. Hence, two people from the same culture with two ical departments to make continuing different sets of beliefs. education available, and to get inter- A broader role for an interpreter requires the involvement of preters more involved in sharing skills all parties. This works best in an institution where the inter- and helping each other to excel. But preter has the opportunity to be with the patient on many occa- when all is said and done, it is the sions, knows the history, and has become more of a partner in interpretation skills that are most the caregiving process. important, and that is what we must To this end, it can be very productive to have one interpreter focus on in order to complete our mis- assigned to a single clinic. There are two advantages. First, the sion of providing communication for interpreter becomes more knowledgeable and more proficient in those desperately needing it.

Insights on Conference Interpreting Continued from p. 25 slowly, but firmly, come to the conclusion that a serious client accept that solidarity in the quality of or an organizer hiring interpretation services has an obligation our services is a sine qua non condition. to make background subject materials available to the inter- Finally, I believe that, as a profession, preting team. If these professional needs are not met, my we have to make the end-user client policy is to decline the assignment. understand that interpreters are knowl- We are now living in a business and professional environment edgeable and skilled professionals, but that is highly global. This translates into the fiercest quality chal- they are not experts in all subjects. So it lenge, since there are too many self-styled conference inter- is important for the client to give the preters willing to accept assignments for lower fees without interpreter a briefing before a confer- upholding any of the quality standards that the profession has ence event. For the purpose of a smooth been fighting for since its inception. Even though we live and coordination of the interpretation event, work in a fast-paced world, basic standards and common sense there should be a liaison person available must remain our trait milestone, even though there might be a to consult with the interpreting team. deceiving temptation to accept an assignment for a quick buck. More emphasis should be placed in To keep our profession alive and prospering, all those who define upholding working conditions and client themselves as conference interpreters should, at a minimum, education about interpreting.

ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 31 Towards Meaningful, Appropriate, and Useful Assessment: How the False Dichotomy Between Theory and Practice Undermines Interpreter Education

By David Burton Sawyer

he assessment of performance in greater awareness of the fundamental principles of assessment language interpreting is a ubiq- that have emerged in the field of measurement and testing over T uitous activity. Assessment the past 50 years. begins with diagnostic testing for inter- The failure to incorporate test theory into interpreter educa- preter education in CIUTI1 and non- tion is a clear case of opportunity missed, perhaps due to the lack CIUTI institutes, and continues with of openness to what is regarded to be “unproductive theory” intermediate testing aimed at degree- (i.e., the scholarly discussion of topics of translation and inter- track selection. Final testing to exit pretation that many practitioners-cum-trainers perceive, by defi- degree programs precedes entry-level nition, as being far removed from the reality of the workplace). testing in governmental ministries, While translation and interpretation studies may have sometimes failed to inform practice, it is important not to allow this discrepancy to degenerate into the misperception that all theory ...For, as ubiquitous an activity as is useless. Such thinking contributes to the perpetuation of the commonly held myth that “theory” and “practice” by defini- performance assessment in tion have little relationship with one another, and even work at interpretation may be, it is, for the cross purposes in translator and interpreter education and the most part, poorly done... workplace. This misconception is widespread, despite the fact that it has been exposed and refuted by writers in the past (Hönig, 1995, p. 25). Indeed, theory and practice do not vie agencies, international organizations, with, but rather inform, one another in a well-designed inter- and multinational corporations. Hence, preter education program (Moser-Mercer, 1994). formal testing accompanies the inter- Somewhat ironically, it was a practitioner par excellence preter at least into the intermediate who first directed my attention to the problematic aspects of stages of her career. Testing in the strict testing in interpreter education programs and the workplace. I sense falls into the broader category of was attending one of my first conferences devoted to interpre- assessment, which also follows the tation studies and searching for a research topic when a veter- interpreter, in one form or another, an interpreter with many years of experience in the classroom throughout her working life. In the pro- and dedicated work in professional associations remarked to fessional context, we mentally “rate” me, with deep concern in her voice, that we do our students one another while working in teams; we and graduates a grave injustice in how we conduct our tests. listen to junior colleagues to provide Anything we could do to remedy the situation, she thought, sponsorship for membership and lan- would be a most welcome development in our field. I needed guage ratings in professional associa- some exposure to testing and measurement theory from col- tions; and we express our views on the leagues in the field of language teaching and testing before I quality of the interpretation from which became aware of the full import of her statement. And some- we take relay. We also pass judgment all time later, I came to the realization that, with the call for inter- too readily in many of these situations, disciplinary studies as the conditio sine qua non of progress in without fully contemplating the conse- interpretation studies and the urgent need for a dynamic sym- quences of our actions from both a pro- biosis of theory and practice, there was no better place for a fessional and academic standpoint. For, mindful interpreter educator to begin than in the field of mea- as ubiquitous an activity as performance surement and testing. assessment in interpretation may be, it Some practitioners and interpreter trainers may neverthe- is, for the most part, poorly done. This less feel that interpretation differs as a field so substantially situation could be remedied through from all others, particularly language education, where much research on assessment is currently being done, that con- 1 Conférence internationale permanente des structs from the field of measurement and testing cannot be institutes universitaires de traduction et d’in- applied. Nothing could be further from the truth, as colleagues terprétation. In this discussion I do not have in court interpretation have demonstrated (Gonzalez, Vasquez, one particular training institute in mind, but rather am referring to interpreter education in and Mikkelson, 1991). I argue in the following that viewing general. interpretation as a “special case,” to which many widely

32 ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 accepted principles of academia supposedly bear little rela- tual framework underlying interpreter tionship2, undermines not only the credibility of our field education must be defined: within the educational setting, but also the very goals that we strive to achieve. [I]f professional education is the Through a review of the meager literature on assessment, test- vehicle for such a better way, then it ing, and, in particular, validity in the field of interpretation, it behooves educators in our field to becomes readily apparent that current testing practices are grossly identify the criteria that differenti- inadequate in many programs for spoken language interpreters, ate it as a mode of entry and as a professional associations of translators and interpreters, and the standard-setting mechanism in the marketplace. It is insufficient, for example, to simply hand a stu- profession. Educational programs dent a text, as is sometimes still done in diagnostic testing, and must prove both worthwhile and ask him or her to translate it without much thought given to text meaningful. In addition, testing of selection, criteria for performance assessment, and use of the student performance must, of neces- test results. In interpretation, it is reprehensible that inconsisten- sity, be more comprehensive within cies in examination procedures create an uneven playing field the educational framework than for participants (examiners as well as examinees), and that the testing of performance within the lack of clear assessment criteria lead strong-minded individuals job market. (pp.116-117; emphasis to sway jury votes. Nor is it defensible that the criteria for mine) assessment not be transparent to test-takers, which may be an indication of a lack of consensus in the testing regime. Such sit- A full 15 years have elapsed since uations are contributing factors to the “unease felt by many at Etilvia Arjona drew attention to the need the unsystematic, hit-and-miss methods of performance evalua- to apply constructs from measurement tion which, it is assumed, are still in operation in many institu- and language testing to interpreter edu- tions” (Hatim and Mason, 1997, p.198). cation. As the above quotation of Hatim This article aims to highlight the urgent need for the applica- and Mason illustrates, little discussion tion of well-established testing constructs to interpretation, and to of these principles has occurred in inter- inform the practitioner and the interpreter trainer in this regard. pretation studies in the meantime. Its primary assumption is straightforward, yet perhaps for some readers not yet a matter-of-course: that the education of inter- The Centrality of Assessment in preters is a professional activity appropriately situated in the aca- Education demic setting of any professional school. Secondary to this Assessment is present throughout a assumption is the following statement by Etilvia Arjona (1984b): well-designed instructional system. In her development of a comprehensive Colleges and universities that offer professional programs theory of educational assessment, Gipps must ensure that the training they offer does, in fact, distin- recognizes the role of assessment in this guish the academically trained practitioner by a level of per- broader context, one which allows edu- formance and professionalism that attests to the existence of cators to “understand, explain, and pre- a body of knowledge, a basic set of techniques, and deonto- dict” and to “have a better understand- logical principles [ethics] that ensure appropriate profes- ing of the design, functioning, impact, sional standards for the field. (p.117) as well as inappropriate uses, of assessment” (p.2). This role has been recog- Furthermore, Arjona stresses that, if training in an academ- nized in one form or another in the mea- ic setting is to reach its full potential, and hence produce bet- surement community for nearly a half ter, more qualified interpreters than the marketplace, a concep- century. As Tyler succinctly noted in 1951, educational measurement is not 2 Barbara Moser-Mercer, for example, made a strong case against such an “a process quite apart from instruction, approach in her keynote presentation on “Tradition and Innovation in but an integral part of it” (p.47). In Interpretation” at the 30th Anniversary Conference of the Graduate School their landmark text Measurement in of Translation and Interpretation: Tradition and Innovation in Translation and Interpretation at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, in January 1999. Continued on p. 36

ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 33 CHAPTERS,AFFILIATED G ATA Chapters

Atlanta Association of Interpreters and Translators (AAIT) P.O. Box 12172 Seattle Atlanta, GA 30355 WA Tel: (770) 587-4884 MT Carolina Association of Translators and Interpreters (CATI) ND 604 W. Academy Street OR Fuquay-Varina, NC 27526 Tel/Fax: (919) 577-0840 ID SD [email protected] ¥ http://www.ncgg.org/CATI ¥ Local group meetings held in Asheville, Charlotte, and Research Triangle Park, NC; and WY Columbia and Greenville/Spartanburg, SC. NV NE ¥ 1999 membership directory, $10; CATI Quarterly subscription, $12. Provo

UT Eldorado Florida Chapter of ATA (FLATA) Springs Berkeley P.O. Box 830632 CO Miami, FL 33283-0632 CA KS Tel/Voice: (305) 274-3434 ¥ Fax: (305) 387-6712 [email protected] ¥ http://members.aol.com/flata2 Santa Clarita

Albuquerque Mid-America Chapter of ATA (MICATA) AZ OK P.O. Box 144 NM Shawnee Mission, KS 66201

Attn.: Meeri Yule Dallas Tel: (816) 741-9441 ¥ Fax: (816) 741-9482 http://www.mwis.net/~owls/micata.htm El Paso TX Austin National Capital Area Chapter of ATA (NCATA) Map Key P.O. Box 65200 Hou Washington, DC 20035-5200 ✪ ATA Headquarters Tel: (703) 255-9290 ¥ E-mail: [email protected] ATA Chapter ¥ The Professional Services Directory of the National Capital Area Chapter of the Affiliated Group American Translators Association (NCATA) has gone online. It lists NCATA members Other Group and the services they offer, together with additional information that enables translation and interpretation users to find just the right language specialist for their projects. Bookmark http://www.ncata.org and check out the NCATA directory. If you maintain language-related Web pages, you may want to include a link to the directory. NCATA ¥ NCTA General Meetings for 2000: is always interested in comments and suggestions. Place: University of California Extension, 55 Laguna Street, San Francisco ¥ April 1, 2000: Accreditation exam workshop, Cleveland Park Public Library. Contact Harvey Fergusson at [email protected] for more information. Dates: May 20, September 16, December 9 New York Circle of Translators (NYCT) Southern California Area Translators and Interpreters Association (SCATIA) P.O. Box 4051, Grand Central Station P.O. Box 802696 New York, NY 10163-4051 Santa Clarita, CA 91380-2696 Tel: (212) 334-3060 ¥ E-mail: [email protected] Tel: (818) 725-3899 ¥ Fax: (818) 340-9177 http://www.nyctranslators.org [email protected] ¥ http://www.scatia.org Northeast Ohio Translators Association (NOTA) Affiliated Groups 1963 E. Sprague Rd. Seven Hills, OH 44131 Michigan Translators/Interpreters Network (MiTiN) Tel: (440) 526-2365 ¥ Fax: (440) 717-3333 P.O. Box 852 E-mail: [email protected] ¥ http://www.ohiotranslators.org Novi, MI 48376 Northern California Translators Association (NCTA) Tel: (248)344-0909 ¥ Fax: (248)344-0092 P.O. Box 14015 E-mail: [email protected] Berkeley, CA 94712-5015 Utah Translators and Interpreters Association (UTIA) Tel: (510) 845-8712 ¥ Fax: (510) 883-1355 P.O. Box 433 E-mail: [email protected] ¥ http://www.ncta.org Salt Lake City, UT 84110 ¥ Telephone/online referral service. See searchable translator database on Website. Tel: (801)583-1789 ¥ Fax: (801)583-1794 ¥ 2000 NCTA Membership Directory available in print version for $25 or on diskette E-mail: [email protected] for $10. To purchase, mail remittance to the above address, or fax/telephone Master- http://www.stampscapes.com/utia Card/Visa number and expiration date. ¥ A Practical Guide for Translators, 1997 revised edition available for $10. To pur- Other Groups chase, mail remittance to the above address, or fax/telephone MasterCard/Visa number and expiration date. American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) Box 830688 Richardson, Texas 75083-0688 Tel: (214) 883-2093 ¥ Fax: (214) 833-6303

Note: All announcements must be received by the first of the month For more information on chapters or to start a chapter, please contact ATA Headquarters. Send updates to Christie Matlock, ATA Chro GROUPS, AND OTHER GROUPS El Paso Interpreters and Translators Association (EPITA) 1003 Alethea Pl. El Paso, TX 79902 Fax: (915)544-8354 [email protected]

ME Fédération Internationale des Traducteurs/International Federation of Translators (FIT) VT 2021 Union Avenue, Suite 1108, Montreal, Canada MN Tel:+1 (514) 845-0413 ¥ Fax: +1 (514) 845-9903 NH WI Weston E-mail: [email protected] NY MA RI MI CT Houston Interpreters and Translators Association (HITA) Novi 3139 W. Holcombe, Suite 140 New York City PA Houston, TX 77025 IA Seven Hills Chicago West Chester NJ Tel: (713) 661-9553 ¥ Fax: (713) 661-4398 OH MD IL IN DE E-mail: [email protected] Washington, DC✪ WV Kansas City Metroplex Interpreters and Translators Association (MITA) VA 7428 Summitview Drive MO St. KY Louis Irving, TX 75063 Raleigh Tel: (972) 402-0493 NC TN http://www.users.ticnet.com/mita/ AR SC Nebraska Association of Translators and Interpreters (NATI) Atlanta 4542 South 17th Street MS AL GA Omaha, NE 68107 Tel: (617) 734-8418 ¥ Fax: (617) 232-6865 LA E-mail: [email protected] New England Translators Association uston FL 217 Washington Street Brookline, MA 02146

Miami Tel: (617) 734-8418 ¥ Fax: (617) 232-6865 E-mail: [email protected] New Mexico Translators and Interpreters Association (NMTIA) P.O. Box 36263 Albuquerque, NM 87176 Tel: (505) 352-9258 ¥ Fax: (505) 352-9372 Austin Area Translators and Interpreters Association (AATIA) [email protected] ¥ http://www.roadrunner.com/~nmtia P.O. Box 13331 ¥ 1999 Membership Directory available for $5. Please make check payable to Austin, TX 78711-3331 NMTIA and mail your request to the address listed here, or contact us by e-mail. http://www.aatia.org Northwest Translators and Interpreters Society (NOTIS) Chicago Area Translators and Interpreters Association (CHICATA) P.O. Box 25301 P.O. Box 804595 Seattle, WA 98125-2201 Chicago, IL 60680 Tel: (206) 382-5642 Tel: (773) 508-0352 ¥ Fax: (773) 508-5479 [email protected] ¥ http://www.notisnet.org E-mail: [email protected] Saint Louis Translators and Interpreters Network (SLTIN) Colorado Translators Association (CTA) P.O. Box 3722 P.O. Box 295 Ballwin, MO 63022-3722 Eldorado Springs, CO 80025 Tel: (314) 394-5334 ¥ Fax: (314) 527-3981 Tel: (303)554-0280 ¥ Fax: (303) 543-9359 [email protected] The Society of Translators and Interpreters of British Columbia (STIBC) ¥ For more information about the online directory, newsletter, accreditation exams, Suite 1322, 808 Nelson Street and professional seminars, please visit http://cta-web.org. Vancouver, BC, Canada V6Z 2H2 Tel: (604) 684-2940 ¥ Fax: (604) 684-2947 Delaware Valley Translators Association (DVTA) E-mail: [email protected] ¥ http://www.vcn.bc.ca/stibc 606 John Anthony Dr. West Chester, PA 19382-7191 The Translators and Interpreters Guild [email protected] Local 32100 of the Newspaper Guild/Communications Workers of America 8611 Second Avenue, Suite 203 ¥ 1999-2000 Membership Directory available for $10. Please make check Silver Spring, MD 20910-3372 payable to DVTA and mail your request to the above address. Tel: (301)563-6450/Toll Free: (800)992-0367 ¥ Fax: (301)563-6451 E-mail: [email protected] or [email protected] http://www.trans-interp-guild.org

h prior to the month of publication (September 1 for October issue). onicle, 225 Reinekers Lane, Suite 590, Alexandria, VA 22314; Tel: (703) 683-6100; Fax: (703) 683-6122; e-mail: [email protected]. Towards Meaningful, Appropriate, and Useful Assessment Continued

Learning and Instruction, Glaser and masks the degree of success or failure of the instructional sys- Nitko remarked in 1971 that “testing tem as a whole (Glaser and Nitko, 1971). and measurement represent one of the While a thorough discussion of key concepts in assessment critical components of the educational and the application of their subtypes to interpreter education is environment—they provide the essen- beyond the scope of this article, I would nevertheless like to tial information for the development, provide brief definitions of the cornerstones of sound assess- operation, and evaluation of this enter- ment practice—validity and reliability—by drawing on the prise” (p.625). Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing of the Therefore, the ramifications stem- American Psychological Association (APA, 1985) and key lit- ming from a lack of meaningful, erature in the field of measurement. I will then conclude with appropriate, and useful assessment a brief discussion of widespread assessment problems in spo- clearly transcend the level of the indi- ken-language interpreter education programs. vidual learner, as crucial as that impact may be. Assessment data form Cornerstones of Sound Assessment the basis upon which the success of a Validity has long been regarded as the touchstone of educa- program of instruction is evaluated— tional and psychological measurement. The central issue with educational objectives defined and the regard to validity is whether a test measures what it is intend- attainment of those objectives deter- ed to measure (see discussion of Garret’s early definition in mined. For this process to take place, Angoff, 1988, p.19). In the Standards (1985), validity is however, it is essential that instruc- defined as “the most important consideration in test evaluation. tional goals be explicit: The concept refers to the appropriateness, meaningfulness, and usefulness of the specific inferences made from test scores” In an educational system, the speci- (p.9). Furthermore, the Standards stipulate that, although “evi- fication and measurement of the dence may be accumulated in many ways, validity always outcomes of learning in terms of refers to the degree to which that evidence supports the infer- observable human performance ences that are made from the scores. The inferences regarding determine how the system operates. specific uses of a test are validated, not the test itself” (p.9). In Vague statements of the desired other words, the purpose for which a test is to be used is the educational outcomes leave little key consideration in the process of designing, administering, concrete information about what the and updating it. A guiding question in this process is whether teacher and the student are to look the test is appropriate for its intended use. for and what the designers of the system are to strive to attain. Reliability, simply stated, concerns itself with whether test (Glaser and Nitko, 1971, p.632) scores are accurate. Without reliability, there is no validity. As defined by the APA Standards, reliability “refers to the degree A clear definition of what is to be to which test scores are free from errors of measurement” tested and how these constructs are to (1985, p.19). The Standards clarify that “errors of measure- be tested should find its way into cur- ment” refer to inappropriate fluctuation between scores (p.19). riculum documents. This educational In order to properly evaluate the reliability of a test, it is nec- philosophy can then become the essary to identify the: underlying rationale for a course of study, thus clarifying how interpreter major sources of measurement error, the size of the errors trainers and their students set goals in resulting from these sources, the indication of the degree of terms of skill levels and subdomains in reliability to be expected between pairs of scores under par- the classroom and in the field. There- ticular circumstances, and the generalizability of results fore, it should come as no surprise that across items, forms, raters, administrations, and other mea- the neglect of such fundamental princi- surement facets. (Standards 1985, p.19) ples of instruction and assessment has its consequences: lack of clarity in the Gipps’ definition (1994) highlights a slightly different measurement of educational objectives aspect—consistency in scoring: reliability is “the extent to

36 ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 which an assessment would produce the same, or similar, score Clarity concerning the nature of on two occasions or if given by two assessors. This is the subjective and objective testing and “accuracy” with which an assessment measures the skill or the recognition of this distinction in attainment it is designed to measure” (p.vii). measurement science may also leave much to be desired. Assessment in How Validity and Reliability are Undermined general, and language testing in partic- Several factors contribute to problems of validity and relia- ular, does not present itself as a “hard bility in interpreter education programs, including: science,” purportedly immune to variation stemming from the nature of the ¥ Fluctuation in test method facets (parameters of a test), task itself (Gipps, 1994, p.167). ¥ Use of inappropriate measurement scales, and This is also reflected in the distinc- ¥ A lack of clearly defined test constructs and criteria for tion between subjective and objective assessment. testing. The former is by no means a dirty word. In an objective test, “the In the following, I discuss each area succinctly. But before correctness of the test taker’s response doing so, I would like to turn briefly to two conditions that is determined entirely by predeter- must be met in order for assessment to be meaningful, appro- mined criteria, so that no judgment is priate, and useful. They are: required on the part of scorers,” whereas in a subjective test, “the scorer must ¥ The integration of all forms of assessment into a program make a judgment about the correctness of instructional as a whole, and of the response based on her subjective ¥ Clarity concerning the nature of subjective and objective interpretation of the scoring criteria” testing. (Bachman, 1990, p.76). Therefore, a prime example of an objective test is a A lack of integration of all forms of assessment in a pro- multiple choice exam that is graded gram of instruction leads to a discrepancy between course- using a key. No qualitative analysis of work, examinations, and professional practice. As Arjona rec- the answers is necessary; the test can ognizes, “[c]urriculum design and planning in T/I…are inex- even be scored by a computer. Hence, tricably linked to evaluation and assessment, and the curricu- testing in language interpreting is nec- lum planner in designing the program must not overlook this essarily subjective, as the only manner crucial relationship” (1984a, p.7). Therefore, full recognition in which to utilize objective criteria, as of the various types of assessment and their interrelated roles defined by test theory, would be to is required. In general, there are three forms of assessment: match the transcription of the test ipsative, formative, and summative. Ipsative assessment is taker’s output against a (subjective) equivalent to self-assessment, in which a student reviews her translation of the original speech, work inside and outside of class, for example, by watching thereby eliminating all interpretation tapes of performances and keeping a practice log. Formative of the scoring criteria on the part of the assessment is the means through which instructors and peers scorer. The Catch-22 is evident. provide ongoing feedback aimed at development over time. It Additional problems arise due to begins with diagnostic testing and accompanies the student the fact that various types of errors throughout a program of instruction, e.g., as part of formal and confound one another, e.g., meaning, informal performance critique during class and intermediate grammar, and word choice. Resolving testing for degree-track selection. Finally, summative assess- these issues may be possible, but the ment is a form of final, cumulative assessment at a specific prerequisite would seem to be a thor- point in time, e.g., comprehensive testing in order to review ough discussion of acceptable solu- what a student has learned through an entire course of study tions to specific translation problems and thus exit the degree program. Combinations of these types by all jury members before test admin- of assessment are as inevitable as they are desirable, e.g., in istration. Implementing this approach action research projects (de Terra and Sawyer, 1998) and port- folio assessment. Continued on p. 38

ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 37 Towards Meaningful, Appropriate, and Useful Assessment Continued

is an enormous challenge when high surement scales are sometimes chosen. This haphazard, intu- volumes of text and/or impromptu itive (i.e., impressionistic) approach to grading jeopardizes the speeches are in play. reliability, and hence the validity, of examinations and other A further widespread problem is assessment instruments. Illustrating this point in the context of fluctuation in test method facets, in rating speaking ability, Bachman (1990) writes: other words, the parameters of the test. Bachman (1990) identifies test method [p]ractically anyone can rate another person’s speaking facets as “potential sources of error that ability, for example. But while one rater may focus on pro- can be equally detrimental to the accu- nunciation accuracy, another may find vocabulary to be the rate measurement of language abilities” most salient feature…Ratings such as these can hardly be (p.160). They include, for example: the considered anything more than numerical summaries of the testing environment (familiarity with raters’ personal conceptualizations of the individual’s place and equipment, personnel, time speaking ability. (p.20) of testing, physical conditions); the test rubric (test organization, time alloca- There is a scientific basis for the use of scales and resulting tion, instructions); the form of input averaging practices. Therefore, a rater should not arrive at a (format, nature of language); the numerical score after the fact, perhaps even by adjusting the expected response (format, nature of final number of points based upon a holistic impression of a language, restrictions on response); and given performance. For example, if a rater feels that the num- the relationship between input and ber of points assigned to each type of error cannot be deduct- response (reciprocal, nonreciprocal, ed consistently because too many students would fail the test, adaptive) (p.110). These parameters an internalized, problematic process of adjustment is under- need to be defined and standardized, way. I am not stating that a holistic approach is an undesirable because interpretation is an extremely practice, but merely that the use of a numerical scale and complex cognitive and social task that weighted errors tends to imply a different, supposedly more is difficult to measure. objective procedure. Nor is interpretation unique in this In any well-designed testing regime, three types of scales regard. These “limitations in observa- are distinguished from one another: nominal, ordinal, and tion and quantification” stem from “the interval. A nominal scale “comprises numbers that are used to fact that all measures of mental ability ‘name’ the classes or categories of a given attribute” are necessarily indirect, incomplete, (Bachman, 1990, p.27). For example, “native language” or imprecise, subjective, and relative” “pass”/ “fail.” Code numbers may also be assigned to these (p.32). Therefore, it is necessary to attributes, but the categories are not ordered in relationship to focus on the clearly defined constructs one another, i.e., a ranking is not established. With an ordinal we wish to measure and “to either scale, in contrast, the levels of the scale are ordered with exclude or minimize by design the respect to one another (p.28). A typical example is the scale effects of factors in which we are not “high pass, pass, borderline fail, fail,” in which the levels of the interested” (p.31, emphasis mine). attribute are ranked and can be characterized as “greater than” Bachman provides a detailed frame- or “less than” one another. Most assessment scales used in inter- work of test method facets over which pretation (and translation) probably fall into this category. we potentially have control (p.119). Finally, in an interval scale, the distance between the individual Through greater consistency in these levels of the scale is equal (p.28). As an example, think of a mul- parameters, we are in a much better tiple choice test for which there is only one correct answer to position to assess the ability of a test- each question. For such a test consisting of 100 questions, each taker to interpret in the context that we worth one point, you end up with a 100-point scale in which choose. each level, or number of points, is equidistant from the next. To date, little distinction is made Such a clear-cut, objective distribution of points is rarely, if among different types of measurement ever, the case in interpretation. scales in the assessment of interpreta- The distinction between ordinal and interval scales is par- tion. As a result, inappropriate mea- ticularly salient, as interval scales allow numerical averaging

38 ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 and ordinal scales do not. To my knowledge, no assessment In reference to criteria, the distinc- regime established in interpretation to date is based upon an tion between norm-referenced and cri- interval scale, despite the widespread use of numerical scales, terion-referenced testing, which has even down to decimal points, and a wide variety of averaging been prevalent in the measurement practices. It is also doubtful at best whether an interval scale community since Glaser’s introductory can be established, as language testing is inherently subjective article “Instructional Technology and and characterized by limitations in specification, observation, the Measurement of Learning Out- and quantification (Bachman, 1990, pp.30-40). comes” (1963), is indeed a useful one A further lacuna is the failure to define test constructs and that the community of interpreter train- criteria. Of the many subtypes of validity and reliability, con- ers should recognize. In criterion-ref- struct validity deserves special mention here. A construct is the erenced testing, students’ performance attribute, or ability that we want to assess. This type of valid- is measured against an absolute stan- ity is recognized as a force unifying all types of validity evi- dard of quality, whereas in norm-refer- dence (Messick, 1988, p.40). Several examples of constructs in enced testing, students are rated an interpreting test include the ability to: against one another. In the latter case, the standard is relative, which is equiv- ¥ Interpret with faithfulness to the meaning and intent of alent to grading on a curve (Glaser, the original; 1963, p.519). This distinction is ¥ Interpret in a manner linguistically appropriate to a given relevant to interpretation precisely communicative situation; because, as Arjona states: ¥ Apply world knowledge and knowledge of subject matter; ¥ Perform with resilience under stress; and what is of essence…is that…the ¥ Demonstrate acceptable platform skills. student…can routinely translate or interpret the message accurately According to the APA Standards, construct validity “focus- and appropriately…How well a es on the test score as a measure of the psychological charac- given student can do this in relation teristic of interest” (1985, p.9). Furthermore, “[t]he construct to the group is of secondary impor- of interest for a particular test should be embedded in a con- tance…To say this another way, ceptual framework…The conceptual framework specifies the what is of paramount importance is meaning of the construct, distinguishes it from other con- whether the professional or the structs, and indicates how measures of the construct should graduation candidate can, in fact, relate to other variables” (pp.9-10). ‘routinely and safely fly the This type of conceptual framework is precisely what Arjona plane’—not whether he/she can identifies as necessary for the professional education of inter- ‘almost’ or ‘more or less’ fly the preters, as mentioned above. Such a framework defines how plane.” (1984a, pp.6-7) test constructs should be demonstrated through performance in an examination. Such a framework can be established by mak- Although Arjona recognized in ing reference to domain, criteria, and standards (Gipps, 1994). 1984 that criterion-referenced testing In reference to the domain of interpreting, it no longer seems is a more meaningful approach to test- sufficient to say that we are simply testing “interpretation” ing in interpretation than norm-refer- unless a set of core skills common to all subdomains of inter- enced testing, too little has been done preting is defined. In this light, the debate on whether all inter- to identify what these criteria actually pretation is the same (e.g., that a day-long simultaneous con- are. This issue should be addressed in ference on wood processing is equivalent to an emergency doc- much greater detail and thoroughly tor-patient telephone call due to the allergic reaction of a child) documented for all areas of assess- is pointless. The objective should be to identify and meet the ment—at the course level, program needs of a given setting, rather than to equate or not equate all level, and for the profession as a types and modes of interpretation. These needs should then be whole. reflected in the definition of test constructs for a specific exam, i.e., they define the needs of the exam. Continued on p. 40

ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 39 Towards Meaningful, Appropriate, and Useful Assessment Continued

Standards are still difficult to refer- those barriers within the education of competent professionals. ence, as they are few and far between. This process is part of the professionalization of our field, A notable exception is the National which implies that we are working toward common goals Interpreter Education Standards for despite differences in supply and demand in the marketplace. signed language training programs in In conclusion, I remain convinced that interpreter educators the United States (Conference of have always had the best interest of their students at heart, as Interpreter Trainers, 1995). Standards they have invested much time, energy, and thought into their also exist on the national level for com- testing regimes over the years. What is now required is a new munity interpreting in Australia era in assessment and testing, for, unfortunately, we have more through the National Accreditation often than not failed to articulate and document assessment Authority for Translators and practices systematically in the pursuit of transparency, integra- Interpreters (NAATI), and are being tion, and coherence in educational practice. It would be a con- developed within the American Society structive step for interpreter educators to begin by recognizing of Testing and Materials (ASTM) for that, in order to make the implicit explicit, the false dichotomy all types of interpreting within the of theory and practice must be overcome. The reason why this United States (Sawyer, 1998). None of dichotomy is a false one lies in the fact that explicitness entails these standards, however, deals specifi- a discussion of clearly defined constructs that have been cally with testing. A clear set of assess- grounded in a terminology that all participants share. ment standards, including the definition Otherwise, we cannot be sure that we are all taking about the of test constructs, is desirable so that same thing. Such a body of constructs and related terminology they can be referenced in curriculum is offered by the field of measurement and testing, which as a documents as part of an overarching result can hardly be seen as a discipline far removed from the conceptual framework. The ability to reality of the T&I professions. perform to these standards would then be the objective of training. References Angoff, W. H. (1988). “Validity: An Evolving Concept.” In H. Conclusion Wainer and H. I. Braum (Eds.), Test Validity (pp.19-32). In this article, I discuss several rea- Hillsdale: Lawrence Earlbaum. sons why assessment procedures in Arjona, E. (1984a). “Issues in the Design of Curricula for the interpretation should be reviewed with Professional Education of Translators and Interpreters.” In an eye towards reform, and argue the M. L. McIntire (ed.), New Dialogues in Interpreter need for the application of basic princi- Education. Proceedings of the Fourth National Conference ples of test theory to assessment prac- of Interpreter Trainers Convention (pp.1-35). Silver Spring: tices in interpreter education programs. RID. I hope that the rationale behind this line Arjona, E. (1984b). “Testing and Evaluation.” In M. L. of thinking is evident at this point in the McIntire (ed.), New Dialogues in Interpreter Education. discussion. It would remain incom- Proceedings of the Fourth National Conference of plete, however, without a reference to Interpreter Trainers Convention (pp.111-138). Silver the multiple levels of ethical responsi- Spring: RID. bility shared by interpreter educators— Bachman, L. F. (1990). Fundamental Considerations in a responsibility to students, colleagues, Language Testing. Oxford: Oxford University Press. and potential employers. In my view, Conference of Interpreter Trainers. (1995). National this ethical responsibility outweighs the Interpreter Education Standards. December 16, 1999. role of “academic culture,” i.e., prefer- http://www.cit-asl.org/standard.html. ences stemming from institutional or de Terra, D., and Sawyer, D. B. (1998). “Educating cultural factors, or (perceived) market Interpreters: The Role of Reflection in Training.” ATA differences. As representatives of a pro- Chronicle, March, 22-24. fession that has as its mission commu- Gipps, C. V. (1994). Beyond Testing: Towards a Theory of nication across cultural and linguistic Educational Assessment. London and Washington, DC: barriers, we should be able to overcome Falmer.

40 ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 Glaser, R. (1963). “Instructional Technology and the Measurement of Learning Outcomes.” American Psychologist, 18, pp.519-521. Glaser, R., and Nitko, A. J. (1971). “Measurement in Learning and Instruction.” In R. L. Thorndike (ed.), Educational Measurement (pp.625-670): American Council on Education. Gonzalez, R. D., Vasquez, V. F., and Mikkelson, H. (1991). Fundamentals of Court Interpretation: Theory, Policy, and Practice. Durham: Carolina Academic Press. Hatim, B., and Mason, I. (1997). The Translator as Communicator. London and New York: Routledge. Hönig, H. G. (1995). Konstruktives Übersetzen. Tübingen: Stauffenburg Verlag. Messick, S. (1988). “The Once and Future Issues of Validity: Assessing the Meaning and Consequences of Measurement.” In H. Wainer and H. I. Braum (eds.), Test Validity (pp. 33-45). Hillsdale: Lawrence Earlbaum. Moser-Mercer, B. (1994). “Training and Research: The Foundation for Conference Interpretation.” ATA Chronicle, June, pp.14-15. NAATI: National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters. September 23, 1999. http://www.naati.com.au. Sawyer, D. B. (1998). “Standards for Language Interpretation: Establishing National Guidelines in the United States.” LISA Newsletter, VII(3), n.p. Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. (1985). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Tyler, R. W. (1951). “The Functions of Measurement in Improving Instruction.” In E. F. Lindquist (ed.), Educational Measurement. Washington, DC: American Council on Education.

Translating for Interpreters Continued from p. 23 References Hatim, B. and Mason, I. (1990) Discourse and the Translator. London: Longman.

Larson, M. (1984) Meaning-Based Translation, London, University Of America Press.

Newmark, Peter. (1988) A Textbook of Translation. London: Prentice Hall.

ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 41 MISS INTERPRETER SPEAKS By Laura E. Wolfson

in her interest to make liberal use of this lations, eye-rolling, and expressions of Laura E. Wolfson is a freedom over the long haul. To maintain ecstasy and dismay. She may even be Russian interpreter and assistant editor of the herself in the top form required to do the convinced that she is experiencing the Slavfile, the newsletter job well, restraint and circumspection— meaning as it goes through her. She feels of the ATA’s Slavic which involve a certain degree of dis- possessed, she feels on the verge of Languages Division. tance from the commodities she deals falling writhing upon the floor, she feels She can be reached at [email protected]. with every day—are in order. She samples capable of handling poisonous snakes, of her goods sparingly, sucking from the speaking in tongues in all senses of that pointed tip of a silver dessert spoon in phrase. Such delusions are clear indica- miniscule portions designed to keep the tion that she is too close to the source of The author thanks her good friends and palate clear and minimize the subsequent the message. Exorcism is called for. She colleagues, ATA members Lydia Stone digestive burden, tasting only to the extent cannot pace herself properly, and she, her and Julia Poger, for their helpful pre- necessary to verify that the formula is professional performance, and the mes- publication comments on this column. correct and is being faithfully adhered to. sage all suffer as a result. It is impossible She remains aloof. to be so theatrical without obscuring the On Meaning, Meaninglessness, and There is a principle in interpreting message or adding to it, and in the end, an Emptiness which has never, as far as Miss end which in cases like this generally ccasionally, after a long day Interpreter knows, been described, only comes rather quickly, such performances spent trudging back and forth experienced inchoately by many inter- lead to nausea, giddiness, migraines, and O across the language barrier tot- preters, a principle analogous to the hysteria, with nervous collapse following ing words loaded to a greater or lesser Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle in close behind. (Reader, Miss Interpreter degree with semantic cargo, Miss physics. It goes something like this: if an knows this to be true; she remembers.) Interpreter sets down her burden, interpreter gets too close to the meaning And then comes a crucial moment in straightens her back, and turns her mind, or non-meaning of what she is interpret- the life of the interpreter, when she real- in a sort of post-exertion cooling-down ing, she has a distorting impact on the izes that she is supposed to function not exercise, to the issues of meaning and shape and behavior of the message, as it as an impersonator (see previous para- meaninglessness, their relation to does, in turn, on her. She needs to stand graph), but rather as a pane of glass, speech, and the significance of all of this back in order to see the whole thing clear- clear, transparent, not re-constituting the for the interpreter. ly. The greater her vocabulary, and the message, but simply allowing its outlines Miss Interpreter does this, she repeats, more interjections, exclamations, subjects, and then its entire shape to become visi- only occasionally, because long ago she suffixes, prefixes, predicates, particles, and ble through her. learned that, paradoxical as it may sound, other articles in her arsenal, the more With that realization, everything it does not do for the interpreter to engage likely she will be able to hit her target changes fundamentally, including the with meaning and its opposite too inti- squarely on the bulls-eye while standing at interpreter’s relation to the message. The mately or too frequently, or to get too a safe distance. Put another way, a large interpreter-as-impersonator tries to close to the white-hot smithy where mes- vocabulary equipped with rapid search plumb the meaning of every utterance sages are actually forged. That is outside capacity (the ability to fit the right word to she interprets and act it out, at times her bailiwick. a concept even if she cannot, in the broadly, as we have seen. The transpar- The relationship between the inter- moment, be precisely sure of the concept’s ent interpreter understands that not preter and the wares she purveys, i.e., implications) is a sturdy footbridge every utterance makes sense nor is meaning, talk, and language, should be allowing her to pass safely and speedily intended to. Some painstakingly-assem- characterized by caution and distance, over seemingly boundless swamplands of bled and beribboned packages of words, like the relationship between the assem- abstraction. What do community organiz- unwrapped, are revealed to be empty of bly line worker at an ice cream factory ers do? What is consensus-building? meaning, and in such cases it is nonethe- and the mocha chip crunch, rocky road, Opinion-leader buy-in? Empowerment? less the interpreter’s task to convey the and raspberry swirl which pass in front of Don’t even try to unpack them while you package as if it does have a semantic her in numbing quantities hour after hour. are in the interpreting booth, it’s too crowd- load, similar to the way a mime sags and For both the interpreter and the ice cream ed in there as it is—just know how to trans- staggers under the weight of an imagi- packer, the opportunity to overindulge is late them. And keep moving. nary or invisible box. The transparent omnipresent, but after a few weeks on the Early in her career, a typical inter- interpreter knows that statements have job, each one of them learns that while preter may view her function as that of an many purposes besides conveying mean- gorging may even be allowed by the man- impersonator who appears to generate or ing: they may be meant to draw speaker agement and may carry with it certain regenerate the meaning issuing from the and listener closer together, drive a fleeting and superficial rewards, it is not original speaker, complete with gesticu- wedge between them, pass time, fill

42 ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 silence, evoke laughter, build a reputa- ence, and that is how she likes it. She up the burden, the better. She must empty tion, create an atmosphere, or fulfill an even gets a bit disconcerted when well- herself of every thought and emotion obligation. intended, respectful clients ask her to which may interfere with her work, both There are even statements which the introduce herself to the meeting partici- those whose residence within her pre- transparent interpreter herself cannot pants as a job gets under way, for this dates the given interpreting job, and those fully grasp, but which she can nonethe- blows her cover, drags her temporarily which are residue from the present job, less transmit so that the listener does into the visible range of the spectrum, building up inside her as she works. understand, causing listener and speaker renders her earthly, corporeal. Interpreting is an activity which toler- to lock eyes over the interpreter’s head in Often, this shift from interpreter-as- ates no impurities, no superfluous perfect comprehension—the interpreter impersonator to transparent interpreter is thoughts or feelings. If there is so much as monkey-in-the-middle. Ditto another triggered by the following experience: the as a trace of yolk in the initial mixture, it situation which occurs with mystifying interpreter is working for two parties who will not beat up white and fluffy. On the frequency—contrary to popular belief, are at loggerheads due to differing goals or other hand, if done properly, it leaves no more often than its opposite—in which cultural misunderstandings. As a result, the waste products behind; when the action is an unfunny joke, seemingly devoid of interpreter finds herself directly in the line complete everything should be fully con- any punch line, is interpreted, sending of fire, with expressions of blame and sumed, burned off in a sheet of lavender the listener off into gales of anger (usually politely veiled, but not flame like the rum from a skillet of merriment. The interpreter, meanwhile, always) whistling by at dangerously close bananas flambe. furrows her brow and replays the joke range, or even penetrating her and then Each chunk of information is silently in both languages, in a vain whizzing out the other side. The whine of received, stored in short-term memory— attempt to figure out where the humor these verbal bullets is, of course, distract- which is just another way of saying long- was and how she managed to convey it. ing; the entry and exit wounds keep her term oblivion—passed on, and dumped. After a day of interpreting, the inter- from functioning at the top of her form. Ideally, interpreting is an egoless activity; preter-as-impersonator falls into bed This is particularly true if she herself finds the interpreter is one member in a bucket exhausted, having lived every emotion fault with the way the side which is paying brigade, passing water from the well (the expressed by her principals, unable to her is treating the other side, making her source) to the person waiting to drink. change channels, groping in vain for a feel guilty and responsible for missteps not That is why the more seasoned inter- nonexistent off switch on the side of her in fact her doing. preter, the transparent one, can drop off to head, muttering to herself and endlessly In this situation, in the natural process sleep after a day’s work without reliving replaying salient exchanges like some of self-preservation, the interpreter may everything she has witnessed. It is all obsessive-compulsive bilingual lunatic. take a figurative step to one side, distance gone. The jottings on her steno pad, deci- Meanwhile, the transparent interpreter herself emotionally from the remarks fly- phered in tranquility, no longer make takes herself off to a little hideaway with ing at her from both directions, breathe sense—their animating moment has a good band, sips champagne, dances the evenly, drop her gaze, and render the passed. They are as useless as last year’s tango, and thinks not at all about the messages with the utmost simplicity of butterflies. This is why our profession words that have passed through her that manner and without any air of ownership does not have the status we would like it day. She is a window; all she needs is the (for she no more owns the utterances she to have—because interpreters are con- metaphysical equivalent of a few swipes delivers than the postman owns the mail). stantly engaged in divestiture, emptying with a Windex-dampened rag to keep her After all, raised voices, upset expres- and giving rather than accumulation, clear. The transparent interpreter and the sions, and gestulations will make it actions at odds with everything the world interpreter-as-impersonator perform the across the language barrier just fine with- teaches us about the importance of get- same acts, but the former does them more out an extra push from her. If she takes all ting and keeping. efficiently, burns fewer calories and of these actions in the order described, Interpreting is about learning quickly sweats less. The interpreter-as-imperson- she will find that she sustains far fewer and forgetting even faster in order to clear ator is a wild-haired Romantic, banging injuries and does her job far better. space for the next item, soon to be oblit- away at the keyboard; the transparent This is what Miss Interpreter means erated in its turn. In the end, interpreting interpreter eschews rubato. The inter- when she speaks of not engaging too is about un-knowing, about receptivity preter-as-impersonator follows her pas- often or too closely with meaning. succeeded by emptiness, with only an sion; the transparent interpreter is the For interpreting is the ultimate act of ephemeral intervening moment of full- soul of fidelity. The interpreter-as-imper- giving, of relinquishing meaning, of for- ness. The interpreter constructs a pas- sonator believes herself to be the center getting. As soon as the interpreter sageway inside herself that is open at of attention, she mounts a one-woman receives something, she passes it on, both ends, like the culvert through which vaudeville show; the transparent inter- retaining little or nothing for herself. The preter is a ghostly, indiscernible pres- more quickly and thoroughly she offers Continued on p. 46

ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 43 Strong Men Coldly Slain A Machine Translation Case Study

By Neil L. Inglis

My soul! I’d sooner lie in jail for mur- His detractors label him “imperialist” and “supremacist”— der plain and straight, but in The Grave of the Hundred Head it is the Burmese sol- Pure crime I’d done with my own hand diers who honor their fallen lieutenant, rather than the time- for money, lust, or hate servers in London. Critics sneer at such lines as “There’s a Than take a seat in Parliament by fel- widow in sleepy Chester who weeps for her only son” (the fall- low-felons cheered, en lieutenant in the poem). Kipling’s verse welcomes such While one of those “not provens” scorn. What his adversaries imply, if they do not quite say, is proved me cleared as you are that no man of the Right can be truly creative… cleared. (“Cleared,” 1890) But Kipling was never the Colonel Blimp of popular imag- ination. His words were scarcely those of a conformist. In s we enter a new millennium, it England and yet not of it, Kipling’s reverence for history and is well to remember the poems for pets meshed well with his homeland’s customs, but his red- A of Rudyard Kipling, author of hot emotion nauseated stiff upper lips across the political spec- The Jungle Book, whose life bestrode trum. His bellicosity and sensitivity would soon ensnare him in the end of the 19th century (1865-1936). a gintrap of misery when he packed his son off to war from which the poor lad would never return. Kipling belonged to a generation of Edwardian public fig- ...Think this is unfair? Well, it’s only ures (including Edward Elgar and Arthur Conan Doyle) who under duress that MT enthusiasts will worked through their war grief in public. So, Kipling’s mourn- ing gives us a chance to observe cultural inhibitions giving acknowledge limitations in their way. Let’s deconstruct his anguish further and run programs... Mesopotamia, one of his most poignant expressions of misery and rage, through a popular machine translation program (Systran), forward and backward, and check out the results. Much of Kipling’s poetic output is Think this is unfair? Well, it’s only under duress that MT trash, a mix of failed experiments and enthusiasts will acknowledge limitations in their programs. queasy sentiment. A baker’s dozen of Please don’t jump to conclusions though, since my article is not his poems endure; miniatures of great intended as an anti-MT screed, as you will see if you read on. power, startling in their effect. Read his masterpiece “Cleared,” and consid- Mesopotamia er how seldom writers dare lambaste (1917) the violence of terrorists and the cow- ardice of their supporters. Why do so They shall not return to us, the resolute, the young, few have the guts to speak out? The eager and whole-hearted whom we gave: Tragedy of tragedies—the terrorist But the men who left them thriftily to die in their own dung, sympathizers were on Kipling’s side. Shall they come with years and honor to the grave? Kipling yearned to be a standard- bearer for the British Crown, but he They shall not return to us, the strong men coldly slain never stood quite as far inside the impe- In sight of help denied from day to day: rial ramparts as he would have liked. But the men who edged their agonies and chid them in their pain, All around him, Albion’s grip on its Are they too strong and wise to put away? dominions was loosening. And, while Our dead shall not return to us while Day and Night divide— the warfare Kipling gloried in ram- Never while the bars of sunset hold. paged far and wide, the motives for the But the idle-minded overlings who quibbled while they died, massacres were murky, the outcomes of Shall they thrust for high employments as of old? battle often unexpected. The solemn patriotism of earlier generations was Shall we only threaten and be angry for an hour? beginning to erode, and Kipling found When the storm is ended shall we find himself cold-shouldered, a backward- How softly but how swiftly they have sidled back to power looking prophet in his own country. By the favour and contrivance of their kind?

44 ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 Even while they soothe us, while they promise large amends, les barres du coucher du soleil se tien- Even while they make a show of fear, nent. Mais les overlings de veille-occupés Do they call upon their debtors, and take counsel with their friends, qui ont chicané tandis qu’elles mouraient, To confirm and re-establish each career? doivent-elles pousser pour des emplois élevés en date de vieux? Devons-nous Their lives cannot repay us—their death could not undo— seulement menacer et être fâchés pendant The shame that they have laid upon our race. une heure? Quand l’orage est-il terminé But the slothfulness that wasted and the arrogance that slew, nous trouvent-ils comment doucement Shall we leave it unabated in its place? mais comment vite ils ont sidled de nou- veau à la puissance par la faveur et * * * l’adaptation de leur sorte? Même tandis qu’elles nous calment, alors qu’ils Consider the shock effect of this bloodbath of youth. Interred promettent de grands dédommagements, beneath the crosses and headstones were young men (resolute, même tandis qu’ils font une exposition de eager) with their talents snuffed out—a generation robbed of la crainte, ils invitent leurs débiteurs, et their potential. As youths, they had little else than their strength prennent des avocats-conseils avec leurs (repeat “strong men coldly slain” several times and you shan’t amis, pour confirmer et rétablir chaque soon forget it). You would have to travel several centuries back in carrière? Leurs vies ne peuvent pas nous time, to the era of the Black Death, to ponder the illogic of such rembourser—leur mort ne pourrait pas slaughter and its shattering impact on contemporary convictions. défaire—la honte qu’elles ont étendue sur Kipling’s poem senses, however, that this 20th-century carnage notre unité de feuillets magnétiques. will usher in no renaissance, no reform, no enlightenment, only Mais le slothfulness qui a gaspillé et l’ar- more of the same dotty bureaucratic decision-making. “Shall we rogance qui pivotent, nous la laisse-t-elle leave it unabated in its place?” is a rhetorical question, for noth- inchangée dans son endroit? ing will be done. War graves were sacred to Kipling—he spent much time (Back-translated into English) trying to find his own son’s. There’s a touch of the Christian They will not return us, not solved, passion narrative here, but for the fact that resurrection is to the young people, eager the and enjoyed by Pontius Pilate and his men (how softly but how sincere one who we gave: But do the swiftly…). Kipling guesses that he and his shrinking band of men who left them thriftily with the kindred spirits may flag in their attempt to keep the flame matrix in their clean shit, have to burning (shall we only be angry for an hour), or worse, that come with years and the honor to the they may become infected with the disease of the temporizers tomb? They will not return to us, the in London (notice how “an hour” is a nice, convenient unit of strong men coldly massacred for bureaucratic time). The jacks-in-office are polar opposites of denied assistance of daily newspaper: the lads in the field; they are above all phonies (show of fear), But are the men who sharpened their slippery and indirect (how softly they have sidled). The raw anguishes and chid they of their pain, emotion of the soldiers contrasts with the “idle-minded over- too strong and wise to put far? Our lings who quibbled,” the enemies at home. deaths will not return to us while day and night divide—never while the (English-French) bars of laying down sun are held. But Ils ne reviendront pas à nous, le résolu, les jeunes, le the overlings of day before-occupied désireux et sincère qui nous avons donné: Mais les hommes which baffled while they die, have to qui les ont laissés thriftily à la matrice dans leur propre dung, push for the employment raised in doivent-ils venir avec des années et l’honneur à la tombe? Ils date of old man? Do we have only to ne reviendront pas à nous, les hommes forts froidement mas- threaten and annoyed during one sacrés en vue d’aide nié de quotidien: Mais les hommes qui hour? When the storm is finished find ont affilé leurs agonies et chid ils en leur douleur, sont-ils us how gently but how quickly they trop forts et sages de mettre loin? Nos morts ne reviendront pas à nous tandis que jour et nuit se divisent—jamais tandis que Continued on p. 46

ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 45 Strong Men Coldly Slain Continued

again have sidled with the power by I must confess to having helped things along—the program the favour and the adaptation of their didn’t recognize “dung” (funny that, isn’t it?), and so I kind? Even while they calm us, engaged in a touch of post-editing (albeit far less than the whereas they promise great compen- hours and hours of soul-destruction which MT post-editors sations, even while they make an must face). exposure of fear, they invite their And yet once again, I urge you not to prejudge the purpose debtors, and take legal consultants of this exercise. This is not meant as an anti-MT diatribe. “Les with their friends, to confirm and hommes forts froidement massacrés” is pleasingly alliterative, restore each career? Their lives cannot to say the least, although to be frank, one can’t say a good deal refund us—their death could not more (Kipling’s phrasing is better). But take a closer look at demolish—the shame which they the entire poem and you will find a surprising number of hits, extended on our mass storage subsys- along with the misses. tem. But the slothfulness which wast- The point is that while these machine translations are bad, ed and the arrogance which swivel, us it is not possible to say that they are, by a different order of does it leave it unchanged in its place? magnitude, worse than the poorest work available on the mar- * * * ket. I’m not talking about the efforts of talented translators who bring intelligence, insight, and subject expertise to bear upon Far be it for me to deny Chronicle their work; they will prosper. But how much of today’s com- readers the joy of reading this back- mercial translation these days is word substitution—seat-of- translation for themselves, so I shall the-pants stuff, with vocabulary left untranslated in brackets, pass over its idiocies in silence. This is creaky phrasing, and hits achieved through guesswork rather the acid test, if any were needed, that than planning? If that’s the only kind of translation you can do, online translation software is not trans- then MT can do it too, only much cheaper and faster. lation, but word-substitution software.

Miss Interpreter Speaks Continued from p. 43

a river flows until it finds—resumes— hear primarily combinations of words she has heard many, its proper channel. Through this many times before. And Miss Interpreter must work her culvert, its inside walls polished alchemical transformations on all of these agglomerations of smooth by communication’s ceaseless verbiage, regardless. She knows as no one else does the truth flowing, information and words tum- of Nietzsche’s remark that language is a heap of dead ble in an infinite arc, constantly metaphors. It is all so familiar that meaning is nearly irrele- spilling out at the far end. vant—not infrequently, all she needs to do is scan her toolkit What does this mean for the inter- for the appropriate template—a concept conveyed in some lan- preter, caught in an endless cycle of guages by the word “cliché.” Her profession forces these filling and emptying? It means that the dispiriting facts on her attention to a degree verging at times on longer she works, the more evidence the stupefying. she accrues in support of the notion Oh, it is sad, this work of ours whose only constant is that we live in a world in which lofty evanescence, this work in which an excess of meaning, often words far outnumber lofty deeds and obscure, often elusive, achieving a certain mass, is qualitative- empty words far outweigh meaningful ly transformed into overwhelming meaninglessness. And the ones, a world in which the quantities of interpreter is always the midwife, always the midwife. But is words and meaning in a peroration there any worthwhile profession which delivers unmitigated often stand in inverse proportion to happiness? Miss Interpreter thinks not. each other. It means that the longer she works, the more likely it is that she will Continued on p. 61

46 ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 When Silence is not Golden

By Salma Zakaria

What really happened? “Tawakkalt ‘ala Allah” is a phrase his is a question translators have to ask not only regard- which, when translated into English, ing the reasons for the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990 on means “I rely on God” or “I put my T October 31, 1999, but also regarding the released trans- faith in God.” The fact that the copilot lation of the cockpit voice recorder. This translation left out the uttered these words shortly before the most important aspect of the meaning, namely, the cultural con- plane started falling was considered an text of the words uttered, leaving them open to misinterpreta- indication that what happened next tion and pointing to false trails. The end result has left transla- was a deliberate action on his part in tors righteously vulnerable to the accusation of the famous order to commit suicide. On the basis Italian saying: “traduttore, traditore” (translator, traitor!). of logic alone, and without possessing The reasons for the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990 may take any cultural understanding to interpret a long time to emerge, as the investigation may last years. Yet, long before any facts emerged, speculation went on in the media about the alleged “cause” of the crash, based on one ...the cultural dimension of his words sentence heard on the cockpit voice recorder (CVR), a phrase described as: “a prayer of some sort.” was totally absent from the translation, Before entering into details about the cultural context of that resulting in a massive distortion which “prayer of some sort,” I would like to clarify my premises to the opened the door for all sorts of reader. I am not about to indulge in either a “conspiracy” or “cover-up” theory: partly because I do not have sufficient outlandish theories about “his information on either, and partly because I prefer not to adopt intentions”... the “victim stance.” Relegating the misinterpretation of the copilot’s words to “an intentional conspiracy” would mean that we, as translators, can do nothing to promote accurate under- this “religious phrase,” to conclude standing between the people of the different cultures we trans- that someone would invoke God and late for, and I do not believe that. Instead, I believe that trans- then commit suicide is ridiculously lators can do a lot in that respect, and it is out of this premise illogical. It would be the equivalent of that I would like to examine what may have gone wrong in the someone saying “in the name of the case of the “translation” of the phrase on the CVR. Through Holy Spirit,” and then going on a this examination, I hope to try to help the reader gain a better “Harakiri” spree! It is a well-known understanding of where those errors of interpretation were fact that suicide is considered a sin in made, and to make suggestions for avoiding them in the future. all religions, so it is unlikely that a per- During our training as translators, we learned repeatedly son about to commit this act would pray that words have to be translated in their cultural context, and for a blessing invoking God’s help in that being sensitive to, as well as being able to explain, the order to violate His orders! However, we specific nuances and situations in which a word is used is what are not going to linger on the reasons for makes for a good translation. Most importantly, translation is the “cessation of logic” in this particular not merely about picking a word’s literal equivalent in the case, but will continue to examine the dictionary. In the case of the ill-fated phrase spoken by the phrase in question within its cultural copilot of EgyptAir Flight 990, the cultural dimension of his context. words was totally absent from the translation, resulting in a The words “tawakkalt ‘ala Allah,” massive distortion which opened the door for all sorts of as well as many other words of reli- outlandish theories about “his intentions.” gious origin, have long become parts of everyday speech, and are used as Who is responsible for this: the translators, the expressions which sometimes do not investigators, or the media?? indicate a religious intent. They can be Before going into detail about how this distortion may used in a variety of situations. The have happened, I would like to quote the copilot’s phrase, a world “Allah” itself is used to mean phrase which was used as “evidence of a deliberate criminal act” to crash a plane with 217 passengers aboard. Continued on p. 48

ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 47 When Silence Is Not Golden Continued

different things, and very commonly it The three variations on that phrase, which were used as a is used as an exclamation expressing basis for the suicide theory are: awe at the sight of something, as in the English exclamation “WOW!”. An 1. The phrase itself, “Tawakkalt ‘ala Allah,” which is the only exclamation of “Allah?” with a raised one confirmed to have been uttered on the CVR. tone of voice could mean surprise or even irritation, meaning something like 2. The phrase, “I have made my decision now,” which in some “now what?” or even “what on earth versions was put after the first phrase, but was later declared is going on?” etc. It was said that the not to have been heard on the CVR at all (by an official copilot uttered the phrase “tawakkalt source who did not wish to be recognized—see ABC News’s ‘ala Allah” when he took command of crash coverage). The matter was explained away afterwards the plane. This phrase could be used by as the result of “confusion on the part of investigators.” someone who is about to do something that could prove to be a difficult task, 3. The “shahada,” which is a religious expression confirming like taking an exam, or something very one’s covenant with God which is uttered either at times of simple, like going to buy some gro- hardship and crisis, or at various other occasions, such as ceries! The cultural context of the surprise (equivalent to some uses of the English expression phrase is this: an expression used all “Oh my God!”). It can also be used to invoke one’s the time by everybody, Moslems and resources of patience in front of a tiring or boring situation, Christians alike, the origin of which or is sometimes uttered in place of a simple sigh (which may stem from the belief that “any- could also be intended to mean different things, according thing can go wrong at any moment” to the situation at hand). and so one has to rely on God for everything, big or small. If that expres- In reality, the second phrase, “I have made my decision now,” sion is commonly used by people for is actually nothing but the secular translation of that self-same any task no matter how simple, wouldn’t phrase “Tawakkalt ‘ala Allah.” What may have happened was it make sense that someone would use it that two different translators handled the same phrase, and one when he was taking charge of an entire gave its literal religious meaning, “I rely on God,” while the other airplane? gave the secular interpretation of its meaning, which indicates What happened in the so-called being about to do something, for which the translator chose the “translation” of the copilot’s words words “I have made my decision now.” As a matter of fact, no was that three different variations were native speaker would say both sentences in a row! Whoever given to the above phrase. The investi- edited the translations in the end may have put both versions of gators seemed to have devoted their the same phrase in a continuum, with results similar to that entire focus on these words alone, obtained by children playing the game “telephone.” This would excluding what was said afterwards, explain how the phrase came to “exist” in the media before offi- such as the copilot’s exclamation about cial sources denied it was ever heard on the CVR. However, in what was happening and his cry for the brief period when this phrase did exist in the media, and help. For some reason, what came before the “confusion” was cleared, the result of the two phrases afterwards was deemed less significant side-by-side made the sequence sound, in the English translation, than the “prayer of sorts” first uttered like a clear case of “premeditated action.” by the copilot, a phrase spoken possi- As for the third variation, the “shahada,” the invocation often bly even before there was a sign of a used when someone is faced with a crisis (which the Egyptian crisis. What we were told was that “he press office told me they had not heard of, and to their knowl- uttered a prayer when he took charge edge was not even uttered), there is a simple explanation. The of the plane” and “then the plane cockpit crew members were witnessing the plane nose-dive, and started plunging soon afterwards,” their efforts to save it were apparently failing. Under such cir- which led to the conclusion that “he cumstances, any person (even an atheist) would, most probably, had the intention of crashing the plane, utter the shahada anyway (psychology 101)! To assume that and that’s why he uttered the prayer.”

48 ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 such a prayer is “evidence” and that what was taking place was “silence is golden,” and that they an act of deliberation is to put the cart before the horse. were better off just giving the literal meaning of the words and watching If the copilot was intent on crashing the plane, why didn’t clueless others do the “interpreta- he take the trouble to lock the cockpit door to make sure tion.” that nobody would alter his plan? 3. That the translators did their job, If a people habitually invoke the help of God for matters explaining the cultural context of as simple as going out to buy groceries, wouldn’t they the words, but either the investiga- repeatedly, and frantically, invoke it when faced with tors or the media simply ignored real danger and what looks like impending death? them.

Let’s take a look at the three parties involved, the transla- If it is either of the first two cases, tors, the investigators, and the media, in order to see who might then those translators have betrayed have gone wrong and where. In doing so, we might learn the mission of their profession by con- something which will help us in the future, so that we, as trans- tributing to ignorance instead of help- lators, can try to safeguard our work from distortion and ing clear it away by doing their job further “educate our clients” no matter who they might be. properly. In that case, the choice of As for the media, I do not wish to elaborate on their possible translators assigned to issues of such role in the distortion of facts. In my opinion, the media has long importance seems to be surprisingly been presenting its subject matter in a manner to compete with reckless, and the absence of any back- the best and worst of action movies. However, for those readers up staff that might remedy any initial who wish to investigate the role of the media further, they would errors is a sign of serious negligence be well-served to take a look at some of the writings of “Noam on the part of the authorities conduct- Chomsky,” such as his book “Manufacturing Consent,” or bet- ing the investigations (but then, maybe ter still, “Necessary Illusions.” the investigators did not know that For those readers who suspect that the crash was caused by there was an error involved?). Boeing-related issues that had something to do with the strike of If, however, the third scenario is the Boeing workers in October of 1989 (some two weeks after the pro- real one and the assigned translators duction of the EgyptAir plane), I suggest visiting http://abcnews. completed their job properly, but their go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/egyptboeing991101.html as well words were either ravished or ignored, as various search engines to review what is known about recent then we, as translators, must think of crashes like flight TWA 800, SwissAir 111, or ValuJet flight 592. some forum or monitoring mechanism What is the possible role of the remaining two parties, whereby we can follow up in cases of translators and investigators, in legitimizing the hypothesis such violations and make the necessary about a “deliberate criminal act” taking place? corrections so that a truthful translation can be heard. Translators: A Case of Silence, or Silencing? As far as translators are concerned, there are three possible Investigators: Bulls in a China scenarios for the misinterpretation of the copilot’s phrase: Shop? The error in translation could have 1. That the translators selected for the job were of the “talking- also been the responsibility of the dictionary” type, regarding their duty as simply a matter of investigators themselves. (I call it an pulling words that seem to match out of the dictionary and error, because when words are stripped delivering this as the final translation. Incidentally, this type from their cultural context, the result is of translator represents the most “professionally chal- a distortion in meaning equivalent to a lenged” in our business. grave error). I propose three scenarios: a short-circuit, in which genuine con- 2. That the translators were fully aware of their role as “cultural interpreters,” but decided in this particular case that Continued on p. 50

ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 49 When Silence Is Not Golden Continued

fusion and a panic mechanism led to a 2. The Template distortion of meaning, and the other By this, I mean the stereotyping made possible by precon- two in which stereotyping and a false ceived ideas about a people or a culture. These stereotypes may objectivity contributed to ignorance have led/misled investigators into their “do-it-yourself” interpre- that should not be present at such a tation. According to the “template,” the Arab culture is deemed as level of responsibility. some form of “time bomb” by virtue of its people “being themselves” and having religious sentiments. In the eventuality of any 1. The Short-Circuit crisis, “the template” can easily explain away the situation. Any It is possible that investigators, having information that supports the template is kept, and any informa- dealt with a lot of issues regarding terror- tion that disrupts it is ignored. ism (which often involve militant religious groups), have been trained to see 3. The Illusion of Objectivity anything related to a religious utterance It is also possible that the investigators requested that the as likely evidence of criminal activity. It translators give them “only the exact words uttered without any could be a sheer panic mechanism, a interpretation,” because they considered any cultural context to “conditioned emotional reflex” whereby be some form of “personal opinion” or “value judgment” on the reason stops at the sound of certain part of the translators. It is possible that they believed they would words. Or, with a slight variation, it could be better able to determine the truth if they were given just the lit- be a mechanism that operates like the one eral meaning of the words and investigated the rest for them- which motivated an infamous politician selves, regarding “anything else” as “nonobjective explanations.” of bygone days to make the statement In this case, the remedy, if it would be admitted, is “client edu- “When I hear the word culture, I want to cation” of the longest type. The cultural dimension to words is reach for my gun.” Only in the case of part and parcel of their meaning. This aspect of language is not investigators, the words can be replaced just some “side dish” to be dispensed with in order to get to the by “When I hear the word Allah, I fetch real thing: without it, there is no “real thing.” Until investigators for the gun.” recognize this fact, they will continue to have the luck of bulls in The fact of the matter is that most peo- a china shop. ple in the Middle East are religious, they have always been religious, and even the What can we, as translators, do? few who aren’t still use the same forms of ¥ We can insist on some system whereby the translation of speech and expressions because these are highly important issues be delegated to a number of trans- part of the language itself. Assuming that lators with high levels of competence to safeguard against any of these expressions provide evi- mediocre results and falsifications. dence of criminal acts would really mean that the entire culture is made up of ¥ We can do our work as translators with conscience and com- potential criminals (sounds pretty irra- petence to help “peel off” the many layers of ignorance tional, right? And yet, this is not so far regarding the cultures we translate for. from what is actually happening). Whether this attitude is the result of an ¥ We can create a monitoring mechanism so that when blatant unintentional short-circuiting of logic due violations to the basic rules of translation do happen, we can to panic or is the result of ignorance, we answer back in such a way that our words will be heeded. are dealing with a level of responsibility that should not be governed by shallow ¥ We can be aware of the fact that “client education” needs to psychological mechanisms, nor afford to extend itself to some of the highest levels of authority, which, operate from a premise of ignorance. Not albeit constant involvement with affairs related to other in the 21st century! nations and cultures, may still be many layers away from a true understanding of those cultures.

Continued on p.52

50 ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 Arabic Websites on the Internet

By Salma Zakaria

he following is a list of some Websites in Arabic and plus a search engine with the great also Arab-related sites written in English. The list is by name of “magic carpet.” T no means exhaustive, and every Website contains, nat- urally, many hyperlinks to other sites with related topics. www.Aljazeera.net An excellent place to start with in Arabic is: Live broadcasts in Arabic. You will need to download a software program www.ayna.com that is available from the site. This is a page that leads to an endless array of other related pages on a variety of topics, and also offers free e-mail service http://members.spree.com/education/ in Arabic. alkhawarizmi/ A great site to visit early in the morn- Another very useful page with an English interface is: ing to set the mood for the day. Although it focuses on software engineering and www.ionet.net/~usarch/WTB-Services/MiddleEast/ computer-related articles, it plays this WTB-MiddleEast.shtml fun music that really gets you going! Please do not get discouraged by the fact that their home page says they were last updated in January of 1900, since this http://mishmish.aucegypt.edu/~ali/ site is rich with hyperlinks on a wide variety of subjects (for This is a very helpful site for those example, see “computer-related resources” section at the reading Arabic. It contains excerpts bottom of their home page). from the writings of some of the best authors around, with glossaries giving www.arabic2000.com the meanings of difficult words in This site contains a search engine, language tutors, and English. links to Web directories with Arabic focus. For those who are looking for dic- www.1001sites.com tionaries and references: This site has an Arab Internet directory as well as a daily English translation of the Middle Eastern Press. http://www.Ibcbooks.com and www.schoenhofs.com www.konouz.com As for the first site, I recommend This is another search engine. checking the price list before you order, as until recently they had not www.maktoob.com updated the prices given on their This is another Arabic e-mail program that will find you no Website. They may have updated them matter how you misspell the word! (I had written “maktoub,” now, but I recommend a check to avoid since it is a transliteration of an Arabic word—there is no fixed unpleasant surprises! However, they rule—and received this really sweet message saying “you proba- have an excellent collection of Arabic bly meant ‘maktoob’” and directing me to the correct address!!) dictionaries. www.planetarabia.com www.arabiclibrary.com/arabic An English interface. An Arabic library on the Web. www.awo.net www.ahram.org.eg Arab World Magazine online. This is the site of the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram. It is in Arabic, of www.iawmag.com course, and you can access (free of Internet Arab World Magazine. charge) any issue starting from July 18, 1998 through its archives. www.arab.net This site contains an Internet directory and online resource, Continued on p. 52

ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 51 Arabic Websites Continued

www.ahram.org.eg/weekly This is an English weekly publication of the same newspaper.

www.beetaqa.com This is a site for electronic postcards.

Those of you who have America Online can punch in the keyword “Arab culture” or “Arabic” or other variations, and another “magic carpet” will be opened to you, which includes chat rooms on Arab culture and all kinds of links! Once again, this list is by no means exhaustive, but just a good place to start. I would be most grateful to any readers who could send me the addresses of additional Arabic-related Websites they have found helpful! Happy surfing!

When Silence Is Not Golden Continued from p. 50

¥ We can, whenever possible, expose the “templates” which lead to stereotyping, until more and more people learn to mold their thought to reality instead of molding reality to their thoughts.

¥ We can speak up when the reasoning and logic of “professionals and experts” operates on a selective basis or under- goes periodical blackouts.

The mission of translators as mediators between cultures is not just to translate one language into the other, but to translate one culture to the other. To fulfill this mission properly, translators need to be competent. They also need to be left alone to do their job without editing on the part of clients who know little about the culture involved, or worse, who have their own preconceived ideas which they are determined to read into every situation related to that culture. The conditions that were in existence in the case of the translation of the EgyptAir cockpit CVR violated the basic ethics of the translation profession, leading to results that were below the level of any self-respecting translator. This led to a distortion of facts that obscured the way to the truth about what actually happened to the plane. The case of the investigation of Flight 990 was a resounding display of cultural misunderstanding and, sadly, a further contribution to the perpetration of that misunderstanding.

52 ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 In God We Trust

By Jackie Murgida

gyptAir Flight 990 plunged into the Atlantic on discussing mundane daily events. For October 31, 1999, and for a few weeks media specula- example, there is a set exchange for E tion swirled about what was said and done in the cock- beginning and ending a meal, receiving pit as the plane descended. A lot of the speculation focused on food made by someone else, and hav- an Arabic phrase, tawakkalt ‘ala allah, “I trust in God,” report- ing and giving someone else something edly uttered by one of the people in the cockpit, and there was to drink. Many such expressions have a a lot of verbiage about this so-called “short prayer” and what religious reference, but some do not, it meant. such as sufra dayma, “May your table Since that time, I have been thinking about this and other endure,” an expression of thanks for a such phrases—conventional or formulaic expressions—and meal. And, yes, the response, damit what they mean literally and convey in conversational terms. I hayatak, “May you live forever.” have talked to Arab friends, including several Egyptians, about the meaning of tawakkalt ‘ala allah and other common phrases used in colloquial Arabic. We all were concerned about the ...One of the first things that strikes an media spin given to this one phrase and about misleading statements that were made about it. This article addresses the chal- English-speaking American learning lenges of translating such colloquial expressions and is, in part, colloquial Arabic is the number of based on those discussions, but mostly on my own observa- different formulaic expressions...that tions throughout many years of studying and working with the Arabic language. occur frequently in everyday speech... As this article goes to press there has been no official public statement from the U.S. or Egyptian governments on what they believe happened in the cockpit of the EgyptAir plane. The dis- My first Arabic teacher in college cussion here deals only with linguistic and translation issues included a long list of these conven- related to common formulaic expressions in Arabic, especially tional phrases in our vocabulary Egyptian phrases containing religious references, and not with lessons, and I was extremely grateful the events leading to the disaster, whatever may unfold. when I arrived in Egypt for the first time and already knew so many. All of Formulaic Expressions in Arabic these sayings would have been bewil- First, some background. One of the first things that dering if I only knew the words they strikes an English-speaking American learning colloquial contained and tried to understand their Arabic is the number of different formulaic expressions, full significance on that basis. Later on both religious and non-religious, that occur frequently in when I started working in the transla- everyday speech. It seems there is a set phrase for every tion field, I realized how crucial it is to occasion or situation and a set response to it, no matter how know not only the primary referential mundane the event may seem. The Egyptians, whose dialect meaning, but also the connotation and I studied before I learned Modern Standard Arabic, are not contextual conversational (or pragmat- content just to have formulaic expressions for greetings like ic) import of any words, but especially “How’s it going?—Fine, how about you?” They have some- these conventional colloquial terms. thing scripted by conventional usage to say to someone who emerges from having a bath or a haircut: na ìman, “May How to Translate Them? you feel comfortable.” Not only that, but you have a set Translating these phrases into reply, allah yin ìm àleyk, “May God comfort you.” When English poses real challenges, includ- you visit someone’s house you are told: nawwart il-beyt, ing the danger of conveying misleading “You’ve brought light to the house.” Your response: kifaya ideas about the Arabic language and the nurak, “Your light is sufficient.” people who speak it. Even if the trans- There are dozens of these conventional phrases: for arriving lation is not misleading, it can seem and leaving; inquiring about the health and well-being of oth- nonsensical or bizarre if peppered with ers; hearing and telling good and bad news; discussing major events such as death, birth, and marriage; and, as seen above, Continued on p. 54

ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 53 In God We Trust Continued

too many set phrases translated too lit- ¥ These expressions must be translated. In other words, if some- erally. Experienced translators always thing is there in the Arabic text, something corresponding to it have to deal with the problems of liter- must be there in the English text. Wrong, in my opinion. al and figurative usage in the source Depending on the type of text, the target audience, and the language, context, irony and sarcasm, purpose of the translation, the best solution may be to leave it colloquial and written differences, and out altogether, if nothing comparable would be said in the walking the fine line between a transla- same situation in English. More on this below. tion that is too literal and too liberal. My experience with Arabic-English So, how should we deal with these common, everyday translation is that all of these problems expressions? Let us take a look at three phrases: are exacerbated with formulaic colloquial expressions, especially those con- insha’ allah “God willing”: said whenever discussing any plans taining religious words. or expectations for the future, whether there is a strong Using a literal translation of these commitment to do something or the speaker is merely conventional sayings or making facile expressing a casual intention to so something. A person can assumptions about them is dangerous, even say insha’ allah just to appear cooperative, even though which was evident at times in the wake there may be no actual intention of carrying out the plan. of the EgyptAir incident: Sometimes it can be translated simply as “yes.”

¥ The sayings with religious reference il-hamdu lillah “Praise God”: used in many situations, espe- are interpreted as prayers, and peo- cially when a speaker mentions his or her own good fortune. ple who use them seem unusually For instance, if someone asks “How are you?” this phrase religious or even to be religious by itself can be used in response. However, it can be said fanatics. Furthermore, the speaker even in instances where the speaker’s health is not good. must be espousing a political cause. Not true. They are everyday say- ma sha’ allah “It’s the will of God”: said when the speaker ings, part of the language, and they comments on or admires someone else’s good fortune or are said by people who aren’t par- gives a compliment, such as, “My, your little boy has a good ticularly religious or politically appetite,” or “You really have beautiful eyes.” I was told involved. For instance, the phrase that the idea here is to assert that this good health or beauty allahu akbar, “God is most great,” is part of the divine plan and averts the evil eye and the while it can be said when embark- work of Satan. This phrase can also be used sarcastically or ing on a religious or political ironically, when the speaker finds someone doing some- endeavor, is also said routinely as thing considered wrong or unacceptable. an exclamation indicating surprise or admiration. If context and situation are paramount in translation, then these three phrases epitomize why that is so. Each one can ¥ The assumption is that if the word mean something quite different, depending on who says it and allah is there in Arabic, it is an under what circumstances. The translator has to “listen” to the Islamic saying or prayer, or even a text, analyze the situation, and try to hear a speaker saying the Koranic verse. False. Sure, some same meaning in English. If an Arabic character in a novel are Islamic, but many, including says, “God willing, I’ll be over tomorrow for coffee,” it could tawakkalt ‘ala allah, are said by be rendered, “Hopefully…” or “I plan to be…”—or it might be Christians. The phrase tawakkalt a good idea to just leave out “God willing.” On the other hand, ‘ala allah, itself, is said when if the translator wants to try to convey some feeling of the cul- embarking on any activity, even a ture and the tone of the original language, “God willing,” very routine one, such as getting out might be the best way to do it. What I would caution against is of bed in the morning to begin the translating this phrase explicitly and literally each time it day or making tea. occurs if the character is not an exceptionally religious person, so that the reader of the English translation would not get an

54 ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 erroneous picture of the personality of the character. munications. The matter is compound- Similarly, “Praise God” has to be handled on a case-by-case ed if there is not much context to help basis. In some cases, English speakers say “Thank God” when interpret the speaker’s meaning, or if the they speak about danger avoided, and it often can be used as a speaker’s tone of voice is not available translation for “il-hamdu lillah.” I recently heard a U.S. because of the quality of the recording television sports commentator talk about an accident and say, or because there is only a written text. “Thank God, no one was hurt.” However, the phrase occurs so Translators who want their transla- frequently in Arabic that the translator usually has to at least vary tions to be accurate and on the money the translation, using rough synonyms such as “fortunately” and when tackling Arabic formulaic “we were lucky that...” When il-hamdu lillah is the answer to expressions might do well to take their “How are you doing?” and the person addressed is actually in motto from the Arabic language and dire health, even dying, you often have to reject translating it from U.S. currency: In God We Trust. as “Thank God” in favor of, perhaps, “As well as can be expected,” or “Hanging on.” Again, in some situations an Notes: acceptable solution might be just to leave it out. Work consulted: A Dictionary of The third phrase, ma sha’ allah, “it’s the will of God,” is, in Egyptian Arabic; Arabic-English, by my opinion, the most difficult one to deal with. In my experi- El-Said Badawi and Martin Hinds. ence as a native speaker of English, a person giving a compli- Beirut: Librairie du Liban. 1986. ment or expressing admiration does not usually say anything like this to qualify the compliment. An exception is that people Transliterations are according to collo- in certain ethnic and religious groups, including some of my quial Egyptian pronunciation. Italian-American relatives, routinely say “God love him” or “God bless her” when talking about a child’s good fortune. I am grateful to Sana Basily Thompson, This seems to me to be similar to the usage of ma sha’ allah, Shuckran Kamal, Amin Bonnah, and but the Arabic saying is used in a greater variety of situations. Michele Durocher Dunne, who con- The motto here has to be “Proceed with Caution,” and the tributed examples and discussed with translator has to be alert to the possibility of facetious, sarcas- me the usage of formulaic expressions tic, and ironic use of the phrase. Again, this is similar to the sit- and their nuances in colloquial Egyptian uation in English when we might say, “God bless him. He was Arabic. right there to correct me every time I opened my mouth,” where we are really complaining about his being an overbear- ing know-it-all. All three phrases are often repeated several times in one conversation. One speaker says something, the other responds with the formulaic expression, then the first one repeats it, and the other one echoes it again. In such cases, the translation on the second and third go-round had better be something like “Yes, that’s right.” “For sure.” In addition, these phrases are used very frequently, much more than similar phrases are in English. The watchword of caution applies here, as well. If each phrase with “God” and “Our Lord” in it is used in an English translation, the reader can get the impression that the speakers are ranting zealots when they are nothing of the kind. To paraphrase Will Rogers, I only know what I read in the papers, hear on the radio, and see on television, and I do not have any direct knowledge of the transcript of EgyptAir Flight 990’s voice or data recorders. What I do know is that Arabic-English translators have a daunting task when faced with conventional colloquial expressions in texts such as court transcripts, film dia- logue, and literary materials, not to mention cockpit voice com-

ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 55 DICTIONARY REVIEWS Compiled by Albert Bork

“wrong,” most of the informants said throughout the Spanish-speaking world. “equivocado,” but the person from This is not a case of regionalisms, but of Bork is chair Colombia said “erróneo,” and the infor- the informants understanding the English of the ATA mants from Puerto Rico and Spain said word in two different ways. Yet another Dictionary “incorrecto.” The book implies that example is “jacket,” which some infor- Review “incorrecto” is a Puerto Ricanism for the mants took to mean “a garment you wear Committee. standard “equivocado,” but in fact, all when it’s cold” (chaqueta), while others three of these words are used throughout took it to mean what we also call a the Spanish-speaking world. They are “sports jacket” (saco). The dictionary simply synonyms. “Delicious” is another implies that chaqueta and saco mean the Multicultural Spanish Dictionary example. The dictionary suggests that same thing, but they do not. As far as I Publisher: Argentines and Puerto Ricans say “rico,” know, there are no speakers of Spanish Schreiber Publishing Peruvians say “exquisito,” and everyone who refer to a jacket in the sense of the Publication Date: else says “delicioso.” Again, this is non- garment used for cold weather as “saco,” 1999 sense. All three terms—rico, exquisito, which always means the jacket that is ISBN: and delicioso—are synonymous and are part of a suit. 1-887563-45-8 used in all Spanish-speaking countries. The next problem with the book is Price: “Tasty” is given as “rico” in Argentina, very poor editing. Here are some exam- $24.95 Colombia, and Spain, and as “sabroso” ples of the spelling errors found: “hecha- Reviewed by: everywhere else—but in reality everyone do a perder” (should be “echado a Tom West uses both terms. The list could go on and perder”); “clauadista” (should be on. This failure to distinguish region- “clavadista”—apparently someone’s The Multicultural Spanish Dictionary alisms from synonyms makes the book handwriting was hard to read); “enagüa” is a wonderful idea gone badly awry. It practically useless to a nonnative speaker (should be “enagua”); “crecimeinto” purports to be a guide on how Spanish of Spanish, who will not always know (should be “crecimiento”); “beterraga” differs from country to country. For whether terms are synonymous or region- (should be “betarraga”). What is worse example, the cover shows the word “gro- alisms in Spanish (which is precisely is that sometimes the book implies that a cery” and allegedly tells how this is said why he needs a reliable “multicultural Spanish word is spelled one way in one in Spanish in Mexico, Cuba, Spain, Spanish dictionary”). country and another way in another, Venezuela, etc. The author apparently However, the errors do not stop there. when in fact, one of the informants sim- compiled the book by submitting a list of The next problem is that the author failed ply made a spelling error. For example, English terms to one speaker of Spanish to ensure that all informants understood “spine” is given as “espinazo” in from each Spanish-speaking country, the English term in the same way. Take Colombia and “espinaso” in Spain (the except Nicaragua, Honduras, El the word “vest,” for example. All of the correct spelling is “espinazo”). “Armpit” Salvador, and Paraguay. Although it is informants but one understood “vest” to is given as “zobaco” in the Dominican questionable whether a lexicographer mean “an article of clothing that men Republic and “sobaco” in Panama (the should rely on a single native speaker wear in a three-piece suit,” which is what correct spelling is “sobaco”). “Yellow from each country and omit four coun- it means in American English, and trans- jacket” is given as “avispa” everywhere tries that have unique terminology of lated it as “chaleco.” The Argentine infor- but Cuba and Panama, where it is sup- their own, if these problems in methodol- mant, on the other hand, understood it to posedly “abispa” (in fact, however, the ogy were the only problems with the mean “undershirt,” which is what it correct spelling is “avispa”). book, it would still be enormously useful. means in British English, where our Then there are some flat-out transla- Unfortunately, however, the manner in “vest” is called a “waistcoat.” Accord- tion errors. “Carjack” (spelled “car jack” which it was compiled is simply where ingly, she translated it as “camiseta, mus- in the dictionary, which makes it look this book’s problems begin. culosa.” The Multicultural Spanish like the tool used to lift a car when a tire In the first place, the author appears to Dictionary implies that “vest” in the goes flat, rather than the crime where a have overlooked the fact that if you ask American sense is “chaleco” everywhere car is stolen while the owner is in it— two native speakers, each from a different but in Argentina. Another example is the which is what the author means) is trans- country, how to say something in word “iris,” which the book suggests is lated as “asaltar con violencia” Spanish, their answers may vary simply “lirio” everywhere but Venezuela, where (Mexico) and “raptar” (Bolivia), neither because the answers are synonyms, not it is “iris.” In fact, however, the flower of which conveys the real meaning of “to regionalisms. This is precisely what hap- “iris” is called “lirio” throughout the carjack.” “Stuntman” is awkwardly trans- pened on many occasions in this book. Spanish-speaking world, whereas the part For example, when asked how to say of the eye that is called the “iris” is “iris” Continued on p. 58

56 ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 THE TRANSLATION INQUIRER Compiled by John Decker

tioned pooling the accounting of various heading for a paragraph in a financial Decker, an active international subsidiaries. It used the document. It follows the explanation of member, phrase “nivellement” to refer to that the postings in the annual report. What on is a freelance process: “transferts automatiques de niv- earth could it be? technical ellement.” It sounds like clearing to him, (P-E 2-2000/10) Wickerbasket worked translator but he cannot document this anywhere. on a pharmaceutical package insert for a in Danville, Has anyone else encountered it? morphine-like analgesic, and found a Pennsylvania. (E-F 2-2000/3) Robert Bononno problem word—“acometido.” The imme- found a term, “taches blanches,” normal- diate context was as follows: “contra-indi- ly used in astronomy, for the large, white, cado em pacientes acometidos ou que Address your queries and responses to unknown regions depicted on maps made apresentem suspeita de ileo paralytico.” The Translation Inquirer, 112 Ardmoor before the world was fully mapped. He found that the problem word carried Avenue, Danville, Pennsylvania 17821, or He is looking for a term specifically the meaning of overcome, overwhelmed fax them to (570) 275-1477. Internet from the field of cartography for rather than the severely debilitated, address: [email protected]. Generous these. Incidentally, queries relating to old comatose, paralyzed he was expecting in assistance from Roy Wells (weststar@ technologies or to conditions that do not this context. totacc.com) is gratefully acknowledged. exist this century tend to be the toughest. (R-E 2-2000/11) Bill Keasbey had a Please make your submissions by the (F-E 2-2000/4) Peter Wheeler needs brochure on Y2K in Russian, and it con- 25th of each month to be included in the help with (4.a) “véhicule de service” and tained (11.a) crdjpyjt ntcnbhjdfybt, next issue. (4.b) “véhicule-outil” on a Quebec dri- (11.b) ntvfnbxtcrbt epks (a heading), and ver’s license. Both of these fall within the (11.c) KF"C, where F"C is probably n this democratic era, any individual category of regular passenger cars, but nuclear power plant. Here is a bit more con- is free to attempt to redefine how the the latter possibly looks like any self-pro- text for (x.a): Vbybcnthcndj 'ythutnbrb I sheep will be separated from the pelled machine such as a road-roller. CIF> bycnherwbz gj crdjpyjve ntc- goats. But columnist Diana Nelson Jones (F-E 2-2000/5) Silke Rausch was puz- nbhjdfvb/ Y2K - cjjndtncndbz. of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette found a zled by TNG as a type of car insurance. (Sp-E 2-2000/12) Joan struggled with unique linguistic approach to this during a She located it in a list of types of coverage “teoría de imprevisión” in a legal context. recent visit to Puerto Rico that included for automotive insurance: theft, fire, third Specifically, a provision stating that if cir- much bar-hopping. In one watering hole party damage, windshield breakage, etc. cumstances change drastically from what she encountered a woman who, “with dra- (G-E 2-2000/6) A ProZ query came to they were at the time the parties entered matic pauses and eyes watering with emo- me, unbidden, on the subject of into an agreement, the contract could be tion...told me in Spanish that the world is “Auslagerblock,” which the correspondent invalidated. Some of the English choices made up of two kinds of people, those tentatively translated as unloading station she considered were lack of foresight the- who [will] try to speak Spanish, and those trestle. Context: “Die Einlagerung der ory and foreseeability theory, preferring who won’t.” The Translation Inquirer sur- Bleche in ein freies Regalfach erfolgt the latter because it has to do with mises that Spanglish was invented by peo- automatisch durch ein Regalbediengerät... whether or not the event was foreseeable. ple who have tried, with limited success, Bei der Auslagerung mit dem Befehl (Sp-E 2-2000/13) Rob Croese got to sit on the fence of this great divide. “Start” wird die Palette automatisch zu involved in dairy farming economics, and dem gewünschten Platz gebracht und dort needs a sure solution for “ingresos en [Abbreviations used with this column: auf den Auslagerblock vom Regalbedi- tranquera,” in the context of milk prices DÐDutch; EÐEnglish; FÐFrench; GÐ engerät übergeben.” and subsidies to dairy farmers in the German; PÐPortuguese; RÐRussian; SpÐ (G-E 2-2000/7) Eve Hecht wants a Mercosur area. Could it be income from Spanish.] good translation for “Bevollmächtiger,” the pre-processed milk or gross income? person who holds the power of attorney. Is (Sp-E 2-2000/14) We next take up the New Queries her suggestion of principal acceptable? matter of the academic title “catedratico (D-E 2-2000/1) In the field of Dutch (G-E 2-2000/8) Another ProZ puzzler numerario y secretario de la faculdad,” as building and flooring, Noreen van der was an effort to find decent English for the found by Gerard Mryglot in a transcript of Slikke discovered that (1.a) “welfsels” often-encountered “erfindungsgemäß,” as grades from Spain. Does “numerario” appeared to be concrete floor elements. seen in patents. The Translation Inquirer indicate that the person is a full professor? Another problem term for her was (1.b) has an idea about this, but will not spoil the (Sp-E 2-2000/15) Brent Lunger was “balkbodem,” used in making a balk. fun at this point with his own suggestion. working on an assignment relating to the What are these? What do readers think? bottling industry in the Dominican (F-E 2-2000/2) Gerard Mryglot had a (G-E 2-2000/9) One ProZ correspon- Republic. The following terms were banking document from France that men- dent found “als-ob-Betrachtung” as the problematic and he is seeking help: (15.a)

ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 57 “datos fijos”; (15.b) “contadores de (G-E 10-99/7) (“Luftlinie”): Andrea- found by Hans Fisher in K.-H. Seidel’s envase”; (15.c) “medidores analógicos”; Ingrid Schneider believes that straight line Handwörterbuch Technik, but the entry (15.d) “mermas”; and (15.e) “acceso is preferable for this instead of as the crow provides no further information. In one’s controlado por llave secreta.” flies. Hans Fisher reports that air-line still mind’s eye, one can imagine so many of appears to be acceptable as a present-day these bits of paper being issued by the Responses to Old Queries translation of this, at least from the view- onboard computer that the floor of the (E-F 10-99/1) (corporate manufactur- point of German writers. As recently as the locomotive cab becomes littered with ing, tactical marketing): Catherine mid-1970s, H. Wernicke’s Dictionary of them, all crumpled and begrimed with Bellier answers her own question from Electronics, Communications, and Electri- mud and cinders from the boots of the page 71 of the October issue with cal Engineering lists it, and the 1999 crew. Or doesn’t that happen in well- “Service central fabrication” and “mar- Langenscheidts Fachwörterbuch Tele- ordered societies like Germany? keting tactique,” respectively. kommunikation by J. P. Rehahn gives a (F-E 9-99/4.d) (“chambre syndi- variant of it: “Luftlinienentfernung” (air- “Na’ar,” the Hebrew word for lad as cale”): Dario Cavalieros found that Le line distance). found in Genesis 22, the so-called Robert du Management defines it as an (G-E 10-99/9) (“Vollschranke”): “Binding of Isaac” story, continues to employers’ federation. Ulrike Walter, Hans Fisher, and Andrea- make waves. David Goldman reports that (G-E 10-99/6.a) (“Traumeel-Injektionen”): Ingrid Schneider all point out how easy in modern Israeli Hebrew, it is confined Ulrike Walter reports that “Traumeel” is the problem becomes when the root mostly to youth. However, commentaries the brand name for a homeopathic drug, “-schranke” is referenced, meaning a from the 14th and 17th centuries show that and in this case we are talking about barrier. The “Vollschranke” is simply a the term refers to a servant, especially a injections of this drug. It is marketed in gate that extends all the way across a prophet’s servant. “Na’ar” became the the U.S. as an ointment. Andrea-Ingrid road, preventing road traffic from coming word of choice for Joshua while his master Schneider calls it a homeopathic tincture onto an active track. Wulf-D. Brand Moses was alive, even though Joshua was combination. reminds us that “Schranke” is a boom. in his 60s. An Aramaic translator working (G-E 10-99/6.d) (“Traubensilber- (G-E 10-99/10) (“Bremszettel”): on the “Binding of Isaac” episode translat- kerze”): Again from Ulrike, we learn that Wulf-D. Brand makes a guess that this ed “na’ar” into Aramaic as “uleima,” the Web is a good source when the scientif- refers to a printout, much like a super- meaning an unmarried male (“bachur” in ic name is given. She learned that the term market receipt, which contains informa- Hebrew). “Na’ara” is an unmarried female is known as silver torch in English. Andrea- tion on a train’s braking action subject to as well as a youth. Ingrid Schneider prefers black cohosh. measurement. (Train) brake form was

Dictionary Reviews Continued from p. 56 lated as “aquel que realiza los trucos.” Among the transla- Mark Your Calendars! tions of “to encrypt” in the computer sense is “ocultar,” ATA’s 41st Annual Conference is which is certainly a suspicious translation of that word (nor- September 20-23, 2000. mally “cifrar” or “codificar”). Finally, the book omits many terms that do vary widely from country to country (such as the words for “drinking straw” or “cheat sheet”), while including others that do not (such as the adjectives discussed above). It also fails to alert a native speaker to the sexual overtones that a perfectly innocent word in his country can have elsewhere. In short, this book is far too shoddily compiled to be of much use to anyone. Fortunately, ATA members have access to the meticulous research that Andre Moskowitz has done in this field. He has been publishing his findings in the proceedings of our conferences for the past four or five years. We can only hope that Andre’s work will eventually be compiled in dictionary format, and that his book will replace the one under review.

58 ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 American Translators Association 41st Annual Conference Wyndham Palace Resort • Orlando, Florida September 20-23, 2000 Plan now to attend ATA’s Annual Conference. Join your colleagues for an exciting educational experience in Orlando, Florida. ATA’s 41st Annual Conference in Orlando will feature: ¥ Over 120 educational sessions offering something for everyone; ¥ A Job Exchange area for individuals to promote their services and for companies to find the translators and interpreters they need; ¥ Exhibits featuring the latest publications, software, and services available; ¥ Opportunities to network with over 1,200 translators and interpreters from throughout the U.S. and around the world; and ¥ Much more!

The Registration Form and Preliminary Program will be mailed in May to all ATA members. The conference rates are listed below— with no increase for 2000. As always, ATA members receive significant discounts: Conference Registration Fees ATA member Nonmember Student Member Early-Bird (by 8/15/2000) $185 $275 $70 One-day $95 $140 n/a After 8/15/2000 $230 $345 $80 One-day $115 $170 n/a On-Site (after 9/15/2000) $290 $430 $90 One-day $145 $215 n/a

Note: Students and one-day participants do not receive a copy of the Proceedings. All speakers must register for the conference. Hotel Accommodations The Wyndham Palace Resort, the host hotel, is conveniently located in the Walt Disney World Village Resort. The hotel, which is 20 minutes from Orlando International Airport, is within walking distance of many Disney attractions. Conference attendees can register at the discounted rate of $138 single/double per night. This rate is good until August 27. To make your hotel reservations, contact the Wyndham Palace Resort at 1-800-327-2990. Be sure to specify that you are attending the ATA Annual Conference. Mark Your Calendar Today! September 20–23, 2000

Once Again, ATA Offers the Services of Conventions In America GET THERE To Help You with Your Travel Arrangements. FOR LESS! Conference Attendees Are Eligible for the Following: ¥ On American Airlines and Delta, save 5% - 10% off the lowest applicable fares; take an additional 5% off with minimum 60-day advance purchase. Travel between September 15-28, 2000 on America or September 18-25, 2000 on Delta. Additional information, such as optional tours, ¥ Call Conventions in America, ATA’s official travel agency, for the lowest available fares on any air- pre-conference semi- line and discounts on the official carriers. Plus, receive free flight insurance of $100,000. nars, and various net- working events, will ¥ As for car rentals, conference attendees are eligible for discounts through Alamo Rent A Car. Rates appear in the ATA start as low as $28/day for economy models or $120/week, with unlimited free mileage. Check with Chronicle as it Conventions in America personnel for more information. becomes available. Call Conventions in America at 1-800-929-4242, ask for ATA group #505. Outside the U.S. and Plan now to attend the Canada, call (619)232-4298; fax: (619)232-6497; Website: http//www.stellaraccess.com; E-mail: flycia@ largest gathering of stellaraccess.com. Reservation hours: Monday-Friday 6:30am - 5:00pm Pacific Time. translators and interpreters in the U.S. If you call direct or use your own agency: American: 1-800-433-1790, ask for Starfile #8690UE Delta: 1-800-241-6760, ask for File #159252A Alamo: 1-800-732-3232, ask for ID #252553GR

ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 59 HUMOR AND TRANSLATION By Mark Herman

Try some of our other quality bird products Birdie Bloomer Seed Guards Birdie Bloomer Lite Nylon Mesh Seed Guards Herman is a Birdie Bloomer Matched Set librettist and Birdie Bloomer Seed Catchers translator. The Birdie Bloomer company kindly translated all of the above into “Spanish” (without accents) for the benefit of those unable to read English: Three Bits and Pieces ill Keasbey sent in this mistranslation, “a verbatim excerpt BIRDIE BLOOMER JAULA PORTADAS B from a manual for a large industrial system”: Guarda su pajaro a salvo de conscripciones Lavable en maquina FILLING THE MOTOR CASING BY OIL Emos hecho desde la calidad alta telas para coordinar con Rotate the motor by hands to the position where the air decoraciones de hoy bleeeding screw is in the upper position. Open the bleeding screw about half a turn. Fill the motor cacing with oil trought Trate alguna de nuestra otra calidad productos de pajaro drain port by 1 bar pressure until the oil gomes out from Birdie Bloomer Siembra Resguardos bleeding screw. Close the bleeding screw and rotate the Birdie Bloomer Lite de Nylon Encaja Resguardos de Semilla motor slowly by the hydraulic 10 revolutions and repeat the Birdie Bloomer Equiparo Conjunto filling process twice. Birdie Bloomer Siembra Catchers

Miguel Carmona saw a sign outside a social service center in I leave it to the reader to determine all the howlers in the San Diego which read “Center for Abused Women” in English above. For those who do not read Spanish, I will paraphrase and “Centro para Mujeres Abusadas” in Spanish. Unfortunately, Judy Crabtree’s comments and only say that the first descriptive “abusado/a,” though it can mean “abused,” has the more common line in Spanish makes it clear that the drafts your bird will be meaning of “alert, clever, attentive.” Mr. Carmona speculates: kept safe from are not the ones that give him/her a cold, but the ones that send him/her to war. Probably they intend to get together abused English-speaking women with clever Spanish-speaking women so the lat- Submit items for future columns via e-mail to her- ter can explain to the former how to avoid abuse. [email protected] or via snail mail to Mark Herman, 5748 W Brooks Rd, Shepherd MI 48883-9202. Examples of Finally, here is a set of statements about a birdcage cover translations of humor are preferred, but humorous anecdotes sent in by Judy Crabtree: about translators, translations, and mistranslations are also welcome. Include copyright permissions if relevant. Unless sub- BIRDIE BLOOMER CAGE COVER mitters request otherwise, material submitted may be shared Keeps your bird safe from drafts with Robert Wechsler of Catbird Press ([email protected]), Machine washable who is planning an international collection of humor in English Made from high quality fabrics to coordinate with today’s translation. decors

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60 ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 CLASSIFIED ADVERTISEMENTS

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Miss Interpreter Speaks Continued from p. 46

The hour is late and these thoughts are getting to be more than she can bear. Enough. Early on in this disquisition she said that only rarely does she permit herself such flights of fancy, and here, if nowhere else, meaning and words coincide. She stoops, hoists her burden onto her shoulder once more, and trudges onward, toward the language barrier glimmering on the horizon. In the middle distance, she sees the lights of a village reflected off the low-lying nocturnal clouds. Perhaps someone there will give her a place to lay her head for the night. Tomorrow she will continue on her way.

CHRONICLE CLASSIFIEDS WORK Call (703) 683-6606 to find out how to make the Chronicle work for you!

ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 61 accreditation exam. The only requirement was that the person Behind the Scenes of an ATA proctoring the exam be ATA-accredited. Since I am ATA- accredited (English-into-Spanish), we were on our way. Thus, Accreditation Exam Lingo Systems became one of the first translation agencies to offer the ATA accreditation exam in the United States. We are offering the first exam sitting ever to be held in Portland, By Mercedes Edgerton, Co-owner and Co-founder, Lingo Systems Oregon on Saturday, February 26, 1999, from 9:00 am to 12 noon. Thirteen candidates took the exam. wo things prompted me to explore the possibilities of a The accreditation exam is a very rigorous, three-hour, open- translation agency sponsoring an ATA accreditation book exam. Candidates can utilize any printed reference mate- T exam. One was the never-ending search for qualified rials, but electronic devices of any kind are not allowed. The translators, and the second was the realization that translators in passing rate is less than 20 percent. It is strongly recommended Oregon who wished to become accredited by the ATA had to that all candidates take a practice exam prior to the accreditation travel far and wide in order to take the exam. I decided to do exam. This gives candidates the opportunity to acquaint them- something about it. selves with the level of difficulty of the exams. Candidates also Traditionally, ATA chapters and affiliates located throughout receive feedback from the exam evaluator on their practice test, the U.S. sponsor accreditation exam sittings. However, there are which they do not receive when they take the actual accredita- no groups located in the Portland, Oregon area. Efforts have tion exam. Advanced planning is necessary to take full advan- been made by several groups to form associations and/or soci- tage of practice tests, because it can take six to eight weeks from eties of translators and interpreters. Since the main emphasis of the time ATA Headquarters receives a completed practice test groups such as the Court Interpreters Association of Oregon until the candidate receives a graded response. (CIAO) is in the court interpretation field and not the translation The next exam sitting in Portland, Oregon, also sponsored by field, translators have typically stayed away from these groups. Lingo Systems, will be offered on Saturday, February 26, 2000 The majority of these groups are primarily interested in from 9:00 am to 12:00 noon at the Lingo Systems offices, locat- sponsoring activities that will prepare interpreters for their state ed at One SW Columbia, Suite 300, Portland, OR 97258. certification. Others, such as Cathy Rhodes, Esq., executive In the future, ATA and Lingo Systems hope to collaborate on analyst for the Oregon Court Administration Office, and other activities. These activities, which will greatly benefit the Gloriela Webster, interpreter supervisor for the Portland Tri- translation community in Portland, also include a second exam County Area, do a fantastic job presenting seminars and work- sitting to be held on August 12, 2000. This sitting will be pre- shops for interpreters who wish to become state-certified. ceded by an “informational presentation,” offered on July 29, Unfortunately, no such concerted effort exists in Oregon for the 2000. It is also our goal to offer not only informational presen- translator community. tations, but workshops in the future as well. In order to do something about this situation I contacted ATA Questions concerning presentations and/or workshops should Accreditation Program Manager Terry Hanlen to inquire if be directed to Terry Hanlen at ATA Headquarters. Also contact exam sittings were the purview of translation associations, or if him if your agency would like to follow the lead of Lingo a translation agency could sponsor a sitting. The answer from Systems and make an ATA exam sitting available in your area. Hanlen was that our agency could sponsor a sitting for the

2000 ATA Editorial Calendar

Here is the Chronicle editorial calendar for the coming year. Letters and articles are encouraged. You can find submission information on page 4.

March June September November/December Focus on Medicine Focus on the Client Focus on Agencies, Focus on Training and Language: German Languages: Nordic Bureaus, and Pedagogy Corporations Languages: Limited April July Language: Japanese Diffusion Focus on Terminology Focus on Science and Language: Chinese Technology October Languages: Slavic Focus on the Law and May Translating/Interpreting Focus on Literary August Language: Italian Translation Focus on Freelancers Language: Spanish Language: Portuguese

62 ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 Upcoming Accreditation Exam Information Upcoming Accreditation Exam Information

California Florida May 20, 2000, San Francisco March 18, 2000, West Palm Beach New Mexico Puerto Rico Registration Deadline: Registration Deadline: May 20, 2000, Albuquerque April 1, 2000, San Juan May 5, 2000 March 3, 2000 Registration Deadline: Registration Deadline: May 5, 2000 March 17, 2000 September 23, 2000, Orlando Colorado Registration Deadline: May 13, 2000, Boulder September 8, 2000 New York Texas Registration Deadline: May 6, 2000, New York City March 26, 2000, April 28, 2000 Registration Deadline: San Antonio Massachusetts April 21, 2000 Registration Deadline: May 20, 2000, Colorado Springs April 30, 2000, Boston March 10, 2000 Registration Deadline: Registration Deadline: North Carolina May 5, 2000 April 14, 2000 June 4, 2000, Pinehurst Washington Registration Deadline: April 29, 2000, Seattle District of Columbia Michigan May 19, 2000 Registration Deadline: May 13, 2000, Washington, DC April 8, 2000, Kalamazoo April 14, 2000 Registration Deadline: Registration Deadline: April 28, 2000 March 25, 2000 Registration for all accreditation exams should be made through ATA Headquarters. All sittings have a maximum capacity and admission is based on the order in which July 15, 2000, Novi registrations are received. Forms are available from the ATA Website or Registration Deadline: from Headquarters. June 30, 2000 Please direct all inquiries regarding general accreditation information to ATA Headquarters at (703) 683-6100.

CONGRATULATIONS

Congratulations to the following people who have successfully completed accreditation exams: The Active Member Review Arabic into English Spanish into English English into Portuguese Committee Maher M. Awad Timothy E. Hippert Adriana A. Oliveira is pleased to grant active Boulder, CO Miami, FL Marietta, GA or corresponding status to:

Catherine Jagoe English into Spanish French into English Abigail Clay Madison, WI Amparo Ortiz Martin Barbara J. Collignon Zion Avdi Tucson, AZ Shorewood, NJ Amanda Beth Ennis English into Hungarian Ludmila Lantsuta-Davis Philip H. Sandt Andrea I. Nemeth- Maria M. Michelet de Hackensack, NJ Newhauser Simone Chapel Hill, NC Neuquén, Argentina German into English Doris Wagner Corrales, NM

ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000 63 Sony Electronic, Inc. Offers Year 2000 Sony Symphony Learning System Grant for Innovative Language Program and Use of Technology in Education

ony Electronics, Inc. announced the call for entries for its stations. Installation of the system will be arranged and paid SYear 2000 Sony Symphony LLC-8000A Learning for by Sony and handled by a local authorized Sony reseller System Grant. Sony intends to award one eligible school or of Sony’s choosing. The grant will not include the purchase college with a 10-station Symphony Learning System. of furniture, software and peripherals, or the cost of For the second consecutive year, Sony will provide U.S. room/facility construction to house the Sony Learning public and private schools with the opportunity to obtain top- System. of-the-line technological learning tools on a grant basis. In 1999, Sony awarded a Sony Symphony LLC-8000A Sony’s Symphony LLC 8000A Learning System allows Learning System Grant to St. Joan of Arc Catholic Elementary teachers to more closely monitor each student’s progress in School in Aberdeen, Maryland, for its unique language pro- language acquisition. At the same time, the system has the gram. St. Joan of Arc is one of only a handful of schools in the potential to increase the rate and level of information absorp- Baltimore area with a foreign language requirement for stu- tion and retention on the part of students by offering them dents in kindergarten through eighth grade. more time to speak per class. “We are using the Sony Symphony Language Learning sys- “This grant enables schools with otherwise insufficient tem to move our Spanish classes beyond the purely academic funding to take advantage of the learning system technology level to the experience of a living language,” said Kathy Casey, where they may not have that opportunity otherwise,” said development director for St. Joan of Arc. “We can customize Ron Remschel, marketing manager of education systems for our lessons, such as self-monitoring activities for the advanced the Broadcast and Professional Company of Sony student or reinforcement for the less confident student.” Electronics. “With school budgets growing tighter each year, The Symphony LLC-8000A Language Learning System it’s a challenge for administrators to invest in the latest is designed to increase interactivity with expanded multime- technology.” dia capabilities. The Symphony LLC-8000A system pro- The grant is open to all U.S. public and private K-12 state- vides easy component integration for random pairing and certified schools, schools for the disabled, and both public multiple student conference capability, along with audio- and private state-certified colleges, in the 48 contiguous based functionality and a built-in video switcher. The system states and Alaska with foreign language programs or ESL. is a sophisticated, Level IV multimedia language learning Schools with existing learning systems are also eligible, and system for audio-visual language classes or for utilizing no purchase of any Sony systems are required. computer graphics and multimedia instruction. Sony will announce the grant recipient in May of 2000. For more information on Sony’s Year 2000 Sony The grant consists of a 10-station Sony Symphony Learning Symphony LLC-8000A Learning System Grant or to obtain System with a choice of audio active student panels or a grant application, please visit the Website at Soloist virtual digital audio recorders for each of the student www.sony.com/education, or call 1-800-686 SONY.

he American Foundation for Translation and Interpretation was established to help the T translation and interpretation professions to preserve their past history, to assist in their Help present work, and to stimulate future research through grants. Plans are underway for awarding the first national scholarship to students planning to enroll in studies leading to entry into our professions and for underwriting the first and much needed yourself by research project on our professions. Your financial support in AFTI’s initial stages of development is particularly important. Give something back to the professions: Please make a tax-deductible contribution to AFTI supporting today. Send your check, payable to AFTI, to: American Foundation for Translation and Interpretation, Western Michigan University, your 335 Moore Hall, Kalamazoo, MI 49008-5093; or American Foundation for Translation and Interpretation, c/o ATA, 225 Reinekers Lane, Suite professions 590, Alexandria, VA 22314 For more information, contact AFTI President Peter Krawutschke at (616) 387-3212; fax: (616) 387-3103; e-mail: peter.krawutschke@ wmich.edu or contact ATA Headquarters at (703) 683-6100.

AFTI is an independent, 501(c)(3) charitable organization.

64 ATA Chronicle ¥ February 2000

AMERICAN TRANSLATORS ASSOCIATION OFFICERS President President-Elect Secretary Treasurer Ms. Ann G. Macfarlane Mr. Thomas L. West III Ms. Courtney Searls-Ridge Mr. Eric Norman McMillan P.O. Box 60034 Intermark Language Services German Language Services 1824 S Street NW, #304 Seattle, WA 98160-0034 1175 Peachtree St., NE, Ste.850 2658 48th Avenue SW Washington, DC 20009-6137 Tel: (206) 542-8422 Atlanta, GA 30361 Seattle, WA 98116 Tel/Fax: (202) 332-6093 Fax: (206) 546-5065 Tel: (404) 892-3388 Tel: (206) 938-3600 [email protected] [email protected] Fax: (404) 892-1166 Fax: (206) 938-8308 twest@ courtney@ intermark-languages.com germanlanguageservices.com

DIRECTORS Mr. Allan W. Adams Ms. Beatriz Bonnet Dr. Gertrud Graubart Champe Prof. Alan K. Melby Mr. Timothy Yuan Adams Translation Services 7465 E. Peakview Avenue 521 Melrose Avenue 1223 Aspen Avenue Queens Village, NY 10435 Burnet Road, Suite 125 Englewood, CO 80111 Iowa City, IA 52246 Provo, UT 84604 Tel: (718) 776-8139 Austin,TX 78758 Tel: (303) 779-1288 Tel: (319) 335-2002 Tel: (801) 378-2144 Fax: (718) 776-3589 Tel: (512) 821-1818 Fax: (303) 779-1232 Fax: (319) 335-3417 Fax: (801) 377-3704 [email protected] Fax: (512) 821-1888 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Mr. Scott Brennan Dr. Jo Anne Engelbert Ms. Izumi Suzuki Mr. Kirk Anderson 10005 Cairn Mountain Way 789 Captains Drive P.O. Box 852 2455 Flamingo SDrive, #401 Bristow, VA 20136-3009 St. Augustine, FL 32084 Novi, MI 48376 Miami Beach, FL 33140 Tel: (500) 447-7407 Tel: (904) 460-1190 Tel: (248) 344-0909 Tel: (305) 532-7252 Fax: (703) 393-0387 Fax: (904) 460-0913 Fax: (248) 344-0092 Fax: (305) 532-0885 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

COMMITTEE CHAIRS Accreditation Chapters Ethics Professional Development Terminology Shuckran Kamal Kirk Anderson Vacant Marian S. Greenfield Sue Ellen Wright Vienna, VA Miami Beach, FL Honors and Awards South Plainfield, NJ Kent, OH Tel: (703) 242-0740 Tel: (305) 532-7252 Courtney Searls-Ridge Tel: (212) 648-8421 Tel: (330) 673-0043 Fax: (703) 242-0750 Fax: (305) 532-0885 Seattle, WA Fax: (212) 648-5732 Fax: (330) 673-0738 Active Membership Review [email protected] Tel: (206) 938-3600 [email protected] [email protected] Vacant Dictionary Review Fax: (206) 938-8308 Public Relations Training Budget Albert G. Bork courtney@ L. Manouche Ragsdale Gertrud Graubart Champe Austin, TX germanlanguageservices.com Los Angeles, CA Iowa City, IA Eric Norman McMillan Tel: (512) 437-8772 Tel: (319) 335-2002 Washington, DC Interpretation Tel: (310) 275-9571 Fax: (512) 836-9440 Christian Degueldre Fax: (310) 271-1319 Fax: (319) 335-3417 Tel/Fax: (202) 332-6093 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Pacific Grove, CA [email protected] Divisions Tel: (408) 647-4179 Special Projects Translation and Computers Timothy Yuan Fax: (408) 647-4199 Alan K. Melby Queens Village, NY [email protected] Vacant Provo, UT Tel: (718) 776-8139 Tel: (801) 378-2144 Fax: (718) 776-3589 Fax: (801) 377-3704 [email protected] [email protected]

DIVISION ADMINISTRATORS French Language Hebrew Language Japanese Language Portuguese Language Slavic Languages Joan Bond Sax [being established] Jon Johanning Vera Abreu Natalia Kissock Weston, MA Batya Reichman Ardmore, PA San Jose, CA Morris, MN Tel: (781) 237-9697 Houston. TX Tel/Fax: (610) 642-1902 Tel: (408) 266-5832 Tel: (320) 589-3975 Fax: (781) 237-9704 Tel/Fax: (713) 721-7799 [email protected] Fax: (408) 266-5892 Fax: (320) 589-3289 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Literary [email protected] German Language Interpreters Clifford E. Landers Science and Technology Spanish Language Helge L. Gunther Diane E. Teichman Montclair, NJ Nicholas Hartmann Alicia Marshall West Chester, PA Houston, TX Tel: (201) 200-3239 Milwaukee, WI Evanston, IL Tel: (610) 430-0646 Tel/Fax: (281) 445-3119 Fax: (973) 744-4822 Tel: (414) 271-4890 Tel/Fax: (847) 869-4889 Fax: (610) 430-8623 [email protected] [email protected] Fax: (414) 271-4892 [email protected] [email protected] Italian Language Nordic [email protected] Translation Company Roberto Crivello Edith M. Matteson Steven P. Iverson Salt Lake City, UT Ballwin, MO Milwaukee, WI Tel: (801) 278-7757 Tel/Fax: (314) 207-7256 Tel: (414) 271-1144 Fax: (801) 278-4211 [email protected] Fax: (414) 271-0144 [email protected] [email protected]

ATA REPRESENTATIVES To International Federation To Joint National Committee To Regional Center for To ASTM Translation User of Translators (FIT) for Languages (JNCL) North America (RCNA) Standards Project Peter W. Krawutschke Vacant Vacant Rosalie P. Wells Kalamazoo, MI West Grove, PA Tel: (616) 387-3212 Tel: (610) 869-0920 Fax: (616) 387-3103 Fax: (610) 869-9320 [email protected] [email protected] FIT: http://www.fit-ift.org