In This Issue: New Client Outreach Newsletter: the ATA Compass Does Translation Matter? Overcoming the Mot Juste Syndrome

July 2010 Volume XXXIX Number 7 The A Publication of the American Translators Association CHRONICLE

In this issue: New Client Outreach Newsletter: The ATA Compass Does Translation Matter? Overcoming the Mot Juste Syndrome

With this issue:

PreliminaryA Supplement to The ATA Chronicle Program

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12 Andrea Ondak Wins Naming Contest: New Client Outreach Newsletter Dubbed The ATA Compass By Lillian Clementi Andrea Ondak, a French→English translator and English copywriter based in Connecticut, won the naming contest for ATA’s new client outreach newsletter, The ATA Compass. 15 Does Translation Matter? By Susan Welsh Edith Grossman’s Why Translation Matters is a thoughtful and hard-hitting argument that literary translation is something a civilized society simply cannot do without. So why do most large English-language publishers—unlike 15 their counterparts in continental Europe—refuse to issue more than one or two such translations per year? Report on ATA/Delaware Valley 19 Translators Association Finance Seminar By Timothy A. Brinkley This skill-building seminar—geared toward translation and interpreting in the new economy—presented an opportunity to learn finance from the experts. 25 Translatability and Untranslatability in Simultaneous 19 Interpreting (Or Overcoming the Mot Juste Syndrome) By James Nolan Why do translators and interpreters need to employ different tactics to render meaning? The answer could lie in an examination of the encoding process that takes place during every interpreted encounter.

Columns and Departments

6 Our Authors 37 Certification Exam Information 7 From the President 37 New Certified Members and Active Member Review 8 From the President-Elect 38 Success by Association 9 From the Executive Director 39 Upcoming Events 32 The Entrepreneurial Linguist 40 Dictionary Review 33 Blog Trekker 42 The Translation Inquirer 34 GeekSpeak 44 Humor and Translation 36 Member News 46 Directory of Language Services

3 The ATA Chronicle (ISSN 1078-6457) is published monthly, except bi-monthly in November/December, by the American Translators Association, 225 Reinekers Lane, Suite 590, Alexandria, VA 22314 USA. Periodicals postage paid at Alexandria, Virginia, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The ATA Chronicle, We Want You! 225 Reinekers Lane, Suite 590, Alexandria, VA 22314 USA. The American Translators Association (ATA) was established in 1959 as a not-for-profit professional The ATA Chronicle enthusiastically society to foster and support the professional development of translators and interpreters and to encourages members and nonmembers promote the translation and interpreting professions. to submit articles of interest. For Submission The subscription rate for a member is $43 (included in the dues payment). The U.S. subscription rate for Guidelines, visit www.atanet.org/chronicle. a nonmember is $65. Subscribers in Canada and Mexico add $25; all other non-U.S. subscribers add The ATA Chronicle is published 11 times per year, $45. Single copies are available for $7 per issue. with a combined November/December issue. ©2010 American Translators Association Submission deadlines are two months prior to publication date. Reprint Permission: Requests for permission to reprint articles should be sent to the editor of The ATA Chronicle at [email protected].

Editor Jeff Sanfacon [email protected] Advertising Proofreader Sandra Burns Thomson Directory Language Technology Solutions Art Directors 11 www.languagetechnology Ellen Banker solutions.com Amy Peloff MLG International Advertising 11 Administrative Offices of the Translation Services Jeanene Harris 11 Courts–Judicial Council www.mlginternational.net [email protected] of California +1-703-683-6100, ext. 3003 www.courtinfo.ca.gov/interpreters National Security Agency Fax: +1-703-683-6122 2 www.nsa.gov Executive Director 5 Bromberg & Associates, LLC Walter Bacak www.InterpreterEducation Star Group America, LLC [email protected] Online.com 35 www.star-group.net Membership and Landmark Audio Technologies The University of Texas General Information 11 www.LandmarkFm.com 35 Maggie Rowe at Brownsville [email protected] www.utb-translation.org website: www.atanet.org Please see these ads in our companion Preliminary Program

Moving? Administrative Offices of the New York University School of Find an error with Courts–Judicial Council of California Continuing and Professional Studies your address? www.courtinfo.ca.gov/interpreters www.scps.nyu.edu Send updates to: LSP.net GmbH Wordfast LLC The ATA Chronicle www.wordfast.com 225 Reinekers Lane www.lsp.net Suite 590 Alexandria, VA 22314 USA Fax +1-703-683-6122 [email protected] 4 The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 Reserve Spotyour Today Increase your For more information company’s about the courses or visibility to sign up, visit our website or call us at by placing 313-871-0080. an ad in The ATA Chronicle.

Contact: Jeanene Harris [email protected] Phone: +1-703-683-6100, EXT. 3003

Take Advantage of ATA’s Member-Provider Program Who knows what products and services you need to do your job? Your peers. ATA’s Member-Provider Program gives members the opportunity to offer their products and services to other ATA members. Here are a few highlights: • The program will showcase only those products and services developed by ATA members that are specific to the practice of translation and interpreting.

• Member-vendors will guarantee discounts or other favorable conditions of use to ATA members. Member providers include: — The Tool Kit — Payment Practices — Translate Write — The Translator’s Tool Box — Getting Started as a Freelance Translator

To learn how the program will work for you, please visit www.atanet.org/member_provider or contact ATA Member Benefits and Project Development Manager Mary David, [email protected].

The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 5 Our Authors July 2010

Timothy Brinkley is an attorney who Interpretation, Meetings, and Publishing Division of the United left the big law firm life to start a Nations; head of Linguistic and Conference Services of the freelance legal translation business. He International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea; chief of the UN spent the last six years of his legal Verbatim Reporting Service; UN senior interpreter; and practice in commercial real estate linguist/legal writer with The Garden City Group. A graduate of the transactions, handling purchases, sales, School of Translation and Interpretation of the University of Geneva and leases for office, retail, and and of New York Law School, he is accredited by the interpreting industrial properties across the U.S. His services of the UN, the European Union, the U.S. State language pair is Russian into English, and he learned his Russian Department, and the Canadian government. He is a consultant to during three semesters spent in Russia after college from 1988 to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the 1990, and from his work in Russia for the U.S. Department of National Center for State Courts, the Canadian Forces Language Commerce from 1997 to 1998. Contact: School, and the Canadian Language Industries Association. Contact: [email protected]. [email protected].

Lillian Clementi is a member of ATA’s Susan Welsh is an editor and Public Relations Committee and Russian→English and managing principal of Lingua Legal, a German→English translator in the translation practice based in Arlington, Washington, DC area, specializing in Virginia. She translates from French psychology, history, and political and German into English, specializing affairs. Contact: in law and business. Contact: [email protected]. [email protected].

James Nolan, a consulting linguist and legal writer, has 30 years of experience as a translator, interpreter, language services July 2010 Volu me XXXIX Number 7 A P manager, and trainer. He has served as deputy director of the ublication The of the American T ranslators Association CHRONICLE Send a Complimentary Copy

If you enjoyed reading this issue of The ATA Chronicle and think a colleague or organization would enjoy it too, we’ll send a free copy. With this issue:

Prelim A Supplement to Simply e-mail the recipient’s name and address The ATAinary Chronicle Program to Maggie Rowe at ATA Headquarters— [email protected]—and she will send the

American Translators Association magazine with a note indicating that the copy st A 51 nnual Conference Denver, Colorado is being sent with your compliments. October 27–30, 2010 Help spread the word about ATA!

ONLINE ATA’s 51st Annual Conference ATA’s Client Outreach Kit and Skill Modules NOW www.atanet.org/conf/2010 www.atanet.org/client_outreach

6 The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 From the President Nicholas Hartmann [email protected]

Divided We Stand

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said [...], “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass

ATA’s divisions—16 of them at last count, including the recently established Science & Technology Our divisions are doing much to hold us Division—give value to ATA members by providing a “gathering place” together and help us grow. for translators and interpreters who work in a particular language combination or subject area, or who have The divisions of ATA are essential flows not only from divisions to their pursued a particular business model. to this effort. Each division was estab- own members, but also, and perhaps The core responsibility of a division is lished in order to serve a particular even more importantly, from each therefore to function as a more inti- subset of our membership, allowing division to ATA’s volunteer leaders mate home, within what has become a members of that smaller group to and professional staff and to everyone very large and all-encompassing asso- communicate with and support one in the Association. ciation, for people who share a partic- another. Divisions also communicate In addition to having strong opin- ular common interest. beyond their own boundaries, how- ions about how he expressed himself, Mr. Dumpty would approve of the ever, and their special expertise ends Humpty Dumpty had a great fall and way in which we use the word “divi- up serving all of us. Each division could not be put back together again. sion” within ATA, because our divi- embodies a great deal of experience ATA, on the other hand, continues to sions do much more to unite than to about one particular aspect of our rise as a unified organization, and our divide. Each division is different— business—Slavic languages, for divisions are doing much to hold us that is why it exists—but it is in no example, or interpreting, medical ter- together and help us grow. way separate from ATA itself. First of minology, running a language serv- (Any ATA member can join any divi- all, division membership is a privilege ices company, and much more—and sion. Please visit www.atanet.org/divi enjoyed only by members of ATA, a that information in turn becomes part sions/division_admin.php to learn status that we all share. Second, of ATA’s overall “knowledge base.” more.) regardless of language, subject spe- Across every specialty and language, cialty, working mode, or business everyone benefits as information

approach, all of us must now live and M Vo arc lum h 20 e X 10 XX Nu IX A mb Pub er 3 lica tion of The A the mer Tra ican nsla Ass tors ocia work in the same environment of tion CHRONICLE rapid globalization, technological In this issue: Accent Modification Tips 009 May 2009 April 2 VIII Volume XXXVIII e XXX The Volum er 4 ControlledNumber Language 5 Numb The progress, and shifting attitudes toward ation A Publication lic Pub A of the Looking at ofRosetta the Stone and Pimsleur can American Ameri ors Translators anslat CHRONICLE Tr iation Association Assoc CHRONICLE knowledge and social interaction. We must face the same resulting chal- In this issue: Mining Patents for Terminology Machine Translation: lenges: outsourcing, price pressure, What Translators Want Remember: Becoming a Literary Translator commoditization, and the endless struggle to explain why our work is so ATA Members

icts In this issue:ial Conflicts important and should be valued In this issue:mmercercial Confl ing Comm ResolvResolving Co m of of Language Language ional Museum idation NatNational Museu idation mbasebase Trep Trep Can Access mingng Ter Term accordingly. Thanks to the work of OvercoOvercomi volunteers whose commitment is to The ATA Chronicle the profession as a whole, and of a All ATA members have access to complete issues of Headquarters staff dedicated to Online The ATA Chronicle, from 2000 to the present, on ATA's web- serving the entire Association, ATA is site. Each issue is posted there as a PDF. Just log onto the addressing these issues as a coherent Members Only section today and start reading! and unified organization.

The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 7 From the President-Elect Dorothee Racette [email protected] ATA Conference Program: A Reflection of National Trends

This issue of the magazine is being shipped together with the preliminary program for our Annual This year, greater emphasis was placed on offering Conference to be held in Denver, Colorado, October 27-30. This col- sessions and pre-conference seminars at the advanced orful program, with its neatly organ- ized session codes and scheduling level for seasoned professionals, but there are still announcements, is the distillation of a plenty of sessions catering to newcomers. great deal of work. Some 250 session proposals received from all over the world have been reviewed, ranked, and discussed in detail, with help from a number of volunteer reviewers number of proposals focusing on the Open House event shared by all ATA who take their obligations very seri- complex problem of machine transla- divisions, along with annual favorites ously. This year, greater emphasis was tion and the threats and opportunities such as the Welcome Reception, the placed on offering sessions and pre- this technology represents. We felt that Book Splash, the Job Marketplace, conference seminars at the advanced the discussion about these trends in our and the Speed Networking Session. level for seasoned professionals, but profession was so important that we If you would like to explore the there are still plenty of sessions added a new program category to this world of machine translation in much catering to newcomers. year’s conference schedule. The ses- more detail than our own conference Every year, the submitted pro- sions categorized as “Translation & offers, you may be interested to know posals show evidence of certain Interpreting Professions” (TIP) offer that the conference of the Association trends in the translation and inter- opportunities to analyze the future out- for Machine Translation in the preting industry. Just a few years ago, look of our industry and to discuss tech- Americas (AMTA) will also be held for example, ATA offered sessions on nical and business trends with national in downtown Denver this year, and is creating your own website and mar- experts. scheduled to open the day after our keting your services on the expanding Of course, the program still offers conference ends. To allow the mem- Internet. Judging by this year’s pro- many outstanding language-specific bers of the two organizations to make posals, this trend has been replaced by sessions and presentations in impor- the most of this unique opportunity, a focus on social media. As a result, tant specialty fields such as medicine, we have arranged for a certain amount our program offers multiple sessions law, and finance. Other exciting of program overlap between the two on blogging and effectively marketing events at the Denver conference conferences. ATA’s conference pro- your services through platforms such include hands-on tool tutorials offered gram for Saturday, October 30 will as LinkedIn and Twitter. We received a right in the Exhibit Hall and a free include several sessions that explore the impact of machine translation on the work and business conditions of human translators, while the first day of AMTA’s conference will be dedi- American Translators Association cated to so-called “tutorials” that st focus on practical applications. We Annual Conference have also arranged for members of 51 Denver, Colorado both organizations to attend the conference of the other organization at October 27–30, 2010 membership prices, and ATA mem- www.atanet.org/conf/2010 bers who attend AMTA’s conference can claim continuing education points. See you in Denver!

8 The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 From the Executive Director Walter Bacak, CAE [email protected]

Denver Conferences and the ATA Election

ATA Annual Conference: ATA’s 51st Annual Conference will be in Denver, Colorado, October 27-30. With the Rocky Mountains as a backdrop, this year’s This will be the first time the Annual Conference has been held in Denver. conference will offer a very special vibe. (The one previous ATA Annual Conference in Colorado was in Colorado Springs in 1996.) With the Rocky Mountains as a check out ATA’s conference page: newly expanded conference database, backdrop, this year’s conference will www.atanet.org/conf/2010. which not only streamlines communi- offer a very special vibe. ATA Special thanks to ATA Meetings cation with the conference presenters, President-elect Dorothee Racette’s Manager Teresa Kelly for her usual but also makes it easier to enter infor- column, on page 8, goes into more meticulous planning and execution mation on the conference website; detail about what is planned for one and for the Preliminary Program and and to Jeff Sanfacon, editor of of the largest translation and inter- conference website design; to ATA The ATA Chronicle, for reviewing and preting events in the world. In addi- Information Services Manager editing the presentation abstracts and tion, please take a look at the Roshan Pokharel for his work on set- speakers’ bios. Preliminary Program, mailed with ting up the “back end” of the web- this issue of The ATA Chronicle, and site—the programming—and the Continued on p.10

UPDATE: CANDIDATES ANNOUNCED ATA ELECTION | 2010 ANNUAL CONFERENCE | DENVER, COLORADO

ATA will hold its regularly scheduled election at the upcoming 2010 ATA Annual Conference in Denver, Colorado, to elect three directors. Candidate statements and photos of the candidates will appear in the September issue of The ATA Chronicle and on ATA’s website. Official proxies will be mailed to all eligible voters prior to the conference. Votes may be cast: 1) in person at the conference; 2) by proxy given to a voting member attending the conference; or 3) by proxy sent to ATA Headquarters by the date indicated in the instructions enclosed with the proxy. The candidates proposed by the Nominating Committee are:

Director (three positions, three-year terms): Alan K. Melby Gloria K. Quintana David C. Rumsey Caitilin Walsh Ted R. Wozniak

The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 9 From the Executive Director Continued from p. 9

Plan now to attend. Register online use machine translation to gain a better ATA Election Update: The Nomin- or by using the registration form understanding of each other’s work, and ating Committee has presented the slate included with the Preliminary Program. of the challenges and opportunities of candidates for the 2010 Election. facing the translation industry as a This year, there are elections for three Association for Machine Translation whole. director positions for three-year terms. in the Americas (AMTA): The 9th ATA members may register for The tentative slate was published in the Conference of AMTA will also be in AMTA’s conference at AMTA- June issue. Since that time, a fifth can- Denver, October 31-November 5. ATA member rates. Please note that while didate has been added. and AMTA have made arrangements for both groups are meeting in Denver, Thank you to Alan K. Melby, Gloria some joint efforts, including a panel dis- they are in different hotels. ATA is K. Quintana, David C. Rumsey, Caitilin cussion—”Man vs. Machine”—set for meeting in the Hyatt Regency at the Walsh, and Ted R. Wozniak for being Saturday, October 30 at ATA’s Annual Colorado Convention Center. AMTA willing to serve. Conference. ATA President Nicholas is meeting at the Westin Tabor Center. Hartmann notes that this co-location is For more information, please visit an excellent opportunity for human www.amta2010.amtaweb.org. translators and people who develop and

The English Department of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Translation is looking for high-caliber NOW linguists to join its team. The Commission’s translation service is one of the largest and most prestigious in the world. HIRING Translators not only work on EU legislation, but also on the day-to-day documents that keep the organization running— reports of member states, press releases, speeches, consulta- tion papers, and online information. The work covers all areas ENGLISH DEPARTMENT of EU activity, from energy to farming to humanitarian aid and consumer protection.

Yes, the job is challenging, but there are excellent language- EUROPEAN COMMISSION’S learning opportunities, competitive salary, health care, and DIRECTORATE-GENERAL many other benefits. With the ever-increasing demand for translation into English FOR TRANSLATION and the imminent retirement of translators who joined the Commission in the 1970s, the English Department has launched a competition to recruit new staff translators.

For more information, visit the European Personnel Selection Office’s website at www.eu-careers.eu.

Association for Machine Translation October 31–November 5, 2010 in the Americas "Machine Translation in the Production Pipeline" 9th Biennial Conference Denver, Colorado http://amta2010.amtaweb.org/

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We Welcome Vendors & Contractors Opportunities! Andrea Ondak Wins Naming Contest: New Client Outreach Newsletter Dubbed The ATA Compass By Lillian Clementi

After reviewing nearly 600 entries in its name-the-newsletter contest, ATA’s Client Outreach team The ATA Compass was the most versatile, appealing chose The ATA Compass as the winning name, based on an entry from title for our target audience—consumers of Andrea Ondak, a French→English translator and English copywriter spe- translation and interpreting. cializing in advertising. Andrea’s prize is free registration to ATA’s 51st Annual Conference in Denver, every vacation has been like a ménage department of Marine Midland Bank. Colorado (October 27-30). à trois between her, her husband, and After moving to Connecticut, she that year’s French-language travel continued to work with language, this Amazing Response destination. “I studied French in time for two publishing houses, a “Member response to the contest school, read it avidly, and sought out regional bank, and a marketing design was amazing,” said ATA Public every opportunity to meet and speak firm. “I was involved with interesting Relations Chair Corinne McKay, “and with native francophones,” she book projects and a number of we had a lot of really strong con- explains. It took her several years, Fortune 500 accounts, but chances to tenders. But many of them were however, to realize that her passion use my French were few and far already being used by other transla- could actually become a career. between,” she says. tion-related entities, and we had to be careful to avoid intellectual property New World of Opportunity A Real Epiphany issues. After consulting an informal “I spotted an ad in The New York Her employer’s decision to close up focus group and ATA’s attorney, we Times for New York University’s shop—together with her fortuitous dis- chose The ATA Compass as the most (NYU) translation studies program,” covery of the NYU program—marked versatile and appealing for our world- she recalls, “and as I read the smaller a turning point for Andrea. She began wide target audience—consumers of print, discovered that courses were studying translation and exploring translation and interpreting.” also offered online. Suddenly a whole business opportunities in the field. “I new world of opportunity opened up.” attended the 2004 ATA conference in Lifelong Love Affair Andrea began her career in Toronto and heard Anglocom owner Contest winner Andrea Ondak Buffalo, New York, working in adver- Grant Hamilton’s presentation on trans- admits to a lifelong love affair with tising and copywriting both for agen- lating for the advertising industry,” she the French language. So much so that cies and the in-house communication recalls. “I hadn’t realized that there

12 The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 The ATA Compass Your guide to translation in the global market

were people who made a living doing Talent and Street-Wise Sensitivity very impressed with her creativity and bilingual advertising. It was a real “I’ve always found that translators flexibility.” epiphany, and I came home convinced who are native speakers of American that this would be the perfect special- English offer a unique combination of Charting a New Course ization for me.” talent and street-wise sensitivity to the Andrea’s winning title was paired When she later learned that NYU spoken and written word,” says with the tagline “Your guide to transla- was offering a course in advertising Hamilton. “So I wasn’t surprised that tion in the global market.” ATA’s first and marketing translation, she signed one of Andrea’s submissions caught periodic publication aimed specifically up even though her certificate studies the eye of the contest judges.” at translation and interpreting clients, had been completed. And that decision “Andrea’s been with us since The ATA Compass offers consumer tips led to her current position as an in- 2007,” he adds. “She’s very adaptable and best practices in a brief, easy-to- house French-to-English translator and and works on a wide swath of digest electronic format. The newsletter English copywriter for Anglocom. accounts—fashion, agrifood, trans- joins Translation: Getting It Right, portation, beauty care, and more. I’m Translation: Buying a Non-Commodity, ·

The Right Motivation

When ATA announced a contest to name its new client newsletter and offered free registration to the Annual Conference as the prize, corporate member Anglocom challenged its translators to participate, offering to supplement ATA’s prize with airfare and hotel accommodations in Denver if one of its translators submitted the winning entry.

It worked. Anglocom translator Andrea Ondak submitted the winning name, Compass, joining her colleagues at Anglocom to submit a combined total of about 50 entries.

“We straddle the line between translation and copywriting,” explained Anglocom owner Grant Hamilton, “so this contest was a real opportunity to draw on our advertising expertise. I am very excited that Andrea has won.” Andrea Ondak submitted the winning entry in ATA’s name-the-newsletter contest.

The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 13 Andrea Ondak Wins Naming Contest: New Client Outreach Newsletter Dubbed The ATA Compass Continued and the forthcoming Interpreting: Getting It Right as a valuable tool that members can use to launch and enhance client relationships. The Compass features a profes- Andrea is very adaptable and works on a wide swath sionally designed logo, and Ellen of accounts. I’m very impressed with her Banker, the accomplished designer who handles The ATA Chronicle and creativity and flexibility. many of ATA’s other print materials, generously designed its layout free of charge. “As a freelance designer, I face the same issues as all of you— how to win clients, how to keep language-learning company Rosetta we’re recruiting members in both pro- them—and it was enticing to have the Stone, on the critical role of exports in fessions to contribute articles.” opportunity to communicate not just the U.S. economic recovery and the with ATA members but with their value of language and customer rela- Wanted: Guest Contributors clients. It gives me much more insight tions in international trade. The second Look for the inaugural issue of The into your needs.” issue, slated for later this summer, will ATA Compass on the home page of focus on interpreting, and the third, ATA’s website. If you have ideas on Rolling Stone which will appear shortly before the future topics, please contact ATA’s PR The first issue, which appeared in Annual Conference in Denver, will Committee at [email protected]. June, featured highlights from an inter- address computer translation. “The view with Tom Adams, chief executive Compass covers both interpreting and officer of the highly successful translation,” McKay stressed, “and

American Translators Association st Annual Conference 51 Denver, Colorado October 27–30, 2010 Advertising and Exhibiting Opportunities ATA’s Annual Conference is a once-a-year opportunity to let thousands of translators, interpreters, language services providers, and government agencies know about your company. In one place, at one time, your advertising will reach an audience of more than 11,000 professionals. There is no better way to target serious, qualified buyers in your market. Join the growing list of companies that have recognized the effectiveness of ATA conference marketing opportunities. For more information, contact ATA Public Relations and Marketing Manager Jeanene Harris at +1-703-683-6100 (ext. 3003), or visit www.atanet.org/conf/2010/advertise.htm.

14 The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 Does Translation Matter? By Susan Welsh

Edith Grossman is an award-winning thoughtful and eloquent case that lit- translator of Latin American and erary translation not only matters but is Spanish literature, ranging from Don something a civilized society cannot do Quixote and poetry of the Spanish without. After all, she writes, translation Golden Age, to contemporary works by “almost defines the European Gabriel García Márquez, Antonio Renaissance,” when the classics of Muñoz Molina, and Carlos Fuentes. ancient Greece that had been lost to Her most recent book is Why Christian Europe for centuries were Translation Matters, published by Yale translated into Latin and then the ver- University Press in 2010 (hardbound, nacular languages of Europe. These 135 pages with index, $24.00). works provided the springboard for the new discoveries of the Renaissance A young person who loves itself. languages and literature and is consid- Yet today, the U.S. is fighting two ering becoming a literary translator wars in countries that most Americans could get the idea from surfing the could not find on a map, and about translators’ blogosphere that: 1) this whose people, language, and culture “Translation not only plays its profession is poorly paid and even they know nothing. Former National important traditional role as the headed for extinction; and 2) human Intelligence Director John Negroponte means that allows us access to litera- beings are destined to be replaced by laments that in the American Foreign ture originally written in one of the computers or to spend their lives in Service, the “greatest challenge” is the countless languages we cannot read, drudgery, post-editing the slop that need for officers who can speak the lan- but it also represents a concrete lit- machine translation spits out.1 guages of the places to which they are erary presence with the crucial That person can take heart from deployed.2 capacity to ease and make more Edith Grossman’s book, Why Trans- Grossman views this gap as poten- meaningful our relationships to lation Matters, which makes a tially catastrophic. She writes: those with whom we may not ·

The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 15 Does Translation Matter? Continued

have had a connection before. English-language publishers are Translation always helps us to know, convinced that translated litera- to see from a different angle, to ture will not sell, and are attribute new value to what once seldom willing to go to bat for may have been unfamiliar. As a new translation, especially nations and as individuals, we have given that book sales overall a critical need for that kind of are declining. Grossman iden- understanding and insight. The tifies the insularity of both alternative is unthinkable.” U.S. and British cultures and “a deeply imprinted cultural For readers of The ATA Chronicle, dogmatism and linguistic iso- it goes without saying that translation lationism that may constitute “matters,” on some level, or we would the primary obstacle to lit- not be doing it. But here we are erary translation in the More than 100,000 copies of Gross addressing literary translation specifi- English-speaking world.” man’s translation of Don Quixote have sold cally, as Grossman does, which is But, then, how to understand the in the U.S. both so challenging and so poorly stunning success of both Grossman’s paid, except for those at the top of the Don Quixote (more than 100,000 day, on the other hand, there is a profession, that many are forced to do copies sold) and Seamus Heaney’s sizable number of people who long it only as a hobby. When I discussed translation of Beowulf (more than for books of substance. How else this with Grossman in an interview, 80,000 sold)? Or the popular explain [the success of] Don she said that too often translators “are Millennium Trilogy by the late Stieg Quixote? Why would anyone read treated the way librarians and school- Larsson? (The Girl Who Plays with a 400-year-old novel? Or the suc- teachers used to be treated: that this Fire was the first translated work in cess of Beowulf: I mean, it’s almost work was for ‘ladies who didn’t mind 25 years to get to #1 on The New York a thousand-year-old poem! I think genteel poverty’—and that is all in Times bestseller list for hardcover fic- there is an audience for it....Right quotation marks.” tion, and The Girl with the Dragon after [my] book came out, the pub-

A Paradox Grossman’s book addresses the “dire state” of publishing in the U.S. and the U.K. today, where, she says, “Poets are the unacknowledged legislators only 2-3% of the books published each year are literary translations, of the world.”— Percy B. Shelley whereas in western Europe and Latin America, the number is anywhere from 25 to 40%. Prestigious publishers put quotas on the number of literary translations—two in one case Tattoo has sold 764,000 in the U.S. lisher’s assistant called me and that Grossman mentions—and dis- alone.)4 said, ‘It’s #8 on Amazon!’ and I miss translators cavalierly, she writes, When I asked Grossman that ques- said, ‘What’s #8 on Amazon?’ And often omitting even to put their names tion, she replied: it was Don Quixote. That’s aston- “in legible size” on the cover. ishing!...I don’t think there’s a Reviewers often seem blind to the fact “I think there is a public hungry for resistance to translation as such.” that the words of the book they have those works. There’s no other way, read (or not read, as the case may be) to my mind, to account for that. So Is There a Solution? are those of the translator, not the even if, on the one hand, we can Still, even with sales of 100,000, we author, and the same “disconnect” is say that the number of people who are talking about a very small slice of prevalent in academia.3 Most large read seriously is diminishing every the American population, and, espe-

16 The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 Keats on Translation One of John Keats’s (1795-1821) best-known poems is about his experience in reading a translation On first looking into of Homer by George Chapman cially among the young, the number of (1559-1634). Chapman’s Homer people who read anything longer and Much have I travell’d in the realms of gold, more intellectually challenging than a And many goodly states and kingdoms seen; text message or a 140-character Tweet is declining precipitously. We obviously Round many western islands have I been confront a cultural problem that goes Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold. much deeper than the shriveled souls of Oft of one wide expanse had I been told certain English-language publishers. That deep-browed Homer ruled as his demesne; While I thought Grossman’s book Yet did I never breathe its pure serene was well-written and compelling, I Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold: wish she had addressed the question Then felt I like some watcher of the skies of what could be done. In our discus- When a new planet swims into his ken; sion, she said frankly that she does not Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes have a solution, which is why she did He star’d at the Pacific—and all his men not offer any. Her internalized audi- Look’d at each other with a wild surmise— ence is not publishers, since “pub- Silent, upon a peak in Darien. lishers will do what they will do.” It is, rather, “people who read, who read literature—poetry and so forth.” What about the rest? “Our education has failed, terribly,” she said, “and we continue to graduate semi-literate students. The access to images, as opposed to words, through television Most large English-language publishers are convinced and now the computer, has pulled people who have not been educated to that translated literature will not sell, and are seldom read even farther away from the book—any kind of book.” willing to go to bat for a new translation. My own view is that history shows—from the American Revo- lution to Pearl Harbor to the Civil Rights Movement—that deep cultural their nature, have little apparent tions; for it is less their spirit than change goes alongside political correspondence with that spirit of the spirit of the age. Poets are the change and inspired leadership, and good of which they are the minis- hierophants of an unapprehended that poet and translator Percy B. ters. But even whilst they deny and inspiration; the mirrors of the Shelley had it right when he wrote: abjure, they are yet compelled to gigantic shadows which futurity serve the Power which is seated casts upon the present....Poets are “The most unfailing herald, com- upon the throne of their own soul. the unacknowledged legislators of panion, and follower of the awak- It is impossible to read the compo- the world.”5 ening of a great people to work a sitions of the most celebrated beneficial change in opinion or writers of the present day without Political change and cultural institution, is Poetry. At such being startled with the electric life change can reciprocally reinforce one periods, there is an accumulation which burns within their words. another, as such periods of “the awak- of the power of communicating They measure the circumference ening of a great people” generate and receiving profound and impas- and sound the depths of human more hunger for great literature, and sioned conceptions respecting man nature with a comprehensive and also inspire its creation. and nature. The persons in whom all-penetrating spirit, and they are It is the generation of our young this power resides, may often, as themselves perhaps the most sin- would-be translator (or poet) who will far as regards many portions of cerely astonished at its manifesta- have to satisfy that need in decades ·

The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 17 Some Literary Publishers

Does Translation Matter? Continued Edith Grossman says that despite the attitude of most large publishing houses, “there are many more small presses that are publishing translations to come. And when young people decide now than there were even 10 or 20 years ago. They usually don’t put out that there must be more to life than a fast books with huge sales, because their budgets are very, very limited. buck, a cool car, the latest techno- Certainly, translated poetry and translated novels are being published more gadget, and a hookup—existence means than they have been in the past. They just don’t have the chance that a nothing if you leave nothing of value to commercial publisher would give them.” those who come after you—then the world’s great literature will have to be Here are a few such presses that I have run across; there are undoubtedly there for them. It will have to include more: excellent translations crafted by people who sweated over them for months or years, struggling to convey the author’s Open Letter meaning in the way most faithful to both Literary Translation at the University of Rochester sense and artistry, yet in the idiom and Rochester, New York form of the target language.6 http://openletterbooks.org Which brings me to Edith and Grossman’s concluding advice to www.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent aspiring literary translators: “You really have to love the work. You have to go into it the way a kid who goes Autumn Hill Books into the arts loves art. You have to be Iowa City, Iowa willing to be poor and you have to be www.autumnhillbooks.com willing, perhaps, to have a day job, In addition to these small publishers, on May 18, Amazon.com, Inc. and do the work you love at night. But you have to love it.” announced a new publishing imprint, AmazonCrossing, which will issue English translations of foreign literature, beginning with Tierno Notes Monénembo’s novel The King of Kahel, which was written in French. 1. I recognize that machine translation is getting better and better for some language pairs and can be useful in some contexts. But that is not the subject of this article and 3. See also: Howard, Jennifer. “Trans- countries, in all languages; a transla- has nothing to do with the transla- lators Struggle to Prove Their tion issued by a small publisher tion of literature. Academic Bona Fides.” The Chron - might sell 10-15,000 copies; and icle of Higher Education (January Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner 2. Davidson, Joe. “Language Pro fici - 17, 2010), http://chronicle.com/art (written in English, but long, chal- ency is Foreign Service’s ‘Greatest icle/Translators-Struggle-to-Prove/ lenging, and “foreign”) has sold 12 Challenge,’ Negroponte Says.” The 63542. million copies. Washington Post (April 8, 2010). The General Accountability Office says 4. The figures are from Nielsen 5. Shelly, Percy B. A Defence of that in Iraq, 57% of Foreign Service BookScan, but its data are only Poetry (1821), www.bartleby.com/ officers lack sufficient language available to subscribers. These num- 27/23.html. skills, while in Afghanistan, 73% bers come from online secondary cannot directly communicate with the sources, and may not be fully com- 6. Grossman presents numerous country’s people. See www.wash mensurable; they are intended only examples of how she does this in ingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/art to give the order of magnitude. For her translations, notably in poetry. icle/2010/04/07/AR2010040704503 comparison, the Millennium Trilogy .html?sub=AR. has sold 27 million copies in 35

18 The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 Report on ATA/Delaware Valley Translators Association Finance Seminar By Timothy A. Brinkley

ATA and the Delaware Valley Translators Association (DVTA) co- Do not assume that two terms that seem synonymous hosted the Finance Seminar on May 1-2 in Philadelphia. Translators gath- really mean the same thing. ered to hear the seminar speakers talk about translating for the financial industry and building a freelance translation business. This skill- tion-packed weekend. Make sure to district for over 20 years, including 13 building seminar presented an oppor- check out the box at the end of this years as translation services manager for tunity to learn finance from the article for additional references pro- JP Morgan. Given her long background experts. In sessions geared toward vided by the speakers. working as a translator for the financial translation and interpreting in the new industry, Greenfield was able to provide economy, attendees examined capital, Marian S. Greenfield: an excellent overview of the industry equity, and bond markets; developed Translating for the Capital Markets and the main types of documents and marketing and negotiating skills; dis- ATA Past President (2005-2007) financial instruments that translators covered how to use social media to Marian S. Greenfield chairs ATA’s encounter. She also provided helpful reach direct clients; and how to apply Professional Development Committee. hints for translators who work, or aspire best business practices to the business Prior to launching her current, suc- to work, in this field. of being a freelance translator. Here is cessful freelance translation business, In her discussion of the industry, a general overview of this informa- she translated in New York’s financial Greenfield described how com- ·

The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 19 Report on ATA/Delaware Valley Translators Association Finance Seminar Continued panies raise capital by issuing debt (bonds) or selling equity (shares) on the capital markets. She explained that governments also raise capital by There are no secrets or tricks to building a successful issuing bonds. Government bonds are sold to private investors as well as to freelance translation business. institutional investors such as banks or pension funds. Often these bonds are sold to investors located outside the country that issued them, so transla- emphasized that translators should not tion and information included are sim- tors are called upon to translate the assume that two terms that seem syn- ilar. Greenfield provided a thorough written material associated with the onymous really mean the same thing overview of the process of an initial new issue. (such as “yield” and “return,” or public offering in the U.S., as well as One example of this written mate- “tender” and “tender offer”). She also the documentation and terminology rial is a term sheet. Term sheets are strongly favored using monolingual associated therewith. typically issued for bonds, and they dictionaries over bilingual dictionaries Greenfield emphasized the need to include such things as the name of the when trying to arrive at the proper read the financial press in your target issuer, the amount of debt issued, the translation for financial terms, as most language, and to “read with a pencil” interest rate, the maturity date, and var- bilingual dictionaries are unreliable in when doing so. In other words, always ious covenants and restrictions. There her experience. jot down terms of which you are is a great deal of vernacular specific to In addition to bonds, Greenfield unsure and take the time to learn them. bonds, and Greenfield reviewed a large also covered the basics regarding ini- She also highly recommended the number of terms that a translator is tial public offerings of shares by com- Financial Translators Forum on Yahoo! likely to encounter in term sheets and panies. Specific requirements vary by (finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/ other bond-related documentation. She country, but in general the documenta- financialtranslators).

Related Links from the Presentations

Marian S. Greenfield Association of Corporate Treasurers Glossary New York Stock Exchange Euronext www.treasurers.org/glossary www.euronext.com Translating for the Capital Markets Charles Schwab Wall Street www.charlesschwab.com/glossary Morris, Kenneth, and Virginia B. Morris. The Wall Street Journal Guide to Understanding Money and Investing Financial Translators Forum on Yahoo! (Lightbulb Press: Revised and updated edition, August finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/financialtranslators 1999), www.amazon.com.

International Monetary Fund World Bank Glossary www.imf.org www.worldbank.org (Type in “capital market terms” in the search field.) Investopedia www.investopedia.com/dictionary

20 The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 Related Links from the Presentations

Stephanie All About Alpha Chartered Financial Analyst Institute Financial NewsBrief Tramdack Cash http://allaboutalpha.com/blog www.smartbrief.com/cfa A newsletter of alternative investment research and opinion. A very valuable free subscription. Once you sign up, you will New Directions receive, five days a week, an e-mailed newsletter with noth- in Finance Ancius Boethius ing but news of business and finance. It has many links to Boethius, Ancius (Translated by Victor Watts). The Reuters, Bloomberg, the Financial Times, etc. Consolation of Philosophy: Revised Edition (Penguin Classics, 1999), www.amazon.com. Financial Times www.ft.com/home/us Bookmarks: Traders A well-written, well-edited, entertaining six-days-a-week www.jamesgoulding.com/Bookmarks_Trading_.htm paper that keeps you up-to-date on world business news Contains Fibonacci trading rules, information on the effects and also provides some of the best analysis anywhere. of sunspot activity on investment markets, and much more. The Economist Chartered Financial Analyst Institute www.economist.com www.cfainstitute.org/pages/index.aspx A weekly magazine with a strong focus on business and This is the main page of the CFA Institute, which grants the economics, with extensive world coverage, in-depth special CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) charter. It is an excellent reports, and a trademark pithy style. source of good information on all aspects of finance.

Stephanie Tramdack Cash: In some ways, investment manage- Clients will differ in their sophisti- New Directions in Finance ment materials are more important cation, but most documents in the After working several years in the than the regulatory filings that are investment management field will male-dominated world of investment required by companies that want to contain a good deal of financial termi- management, Stephanie Tramdack launch an initial public offering. nology, and this terminology must be Cash earned the prestigious and diffi- People actually read these materials, learned by a translator. Cash gave an cult-to-obtain designation of Chartered primarily because they seek to read excellent overview of the primary Financial Analyst. between the lines of what companies terms that are used in English and When making a pitch on behalf of are saying publicly about themselves described some of the charts and her firm to institutional investors in through press releases or regulatory graphs frequently used by analysts. Montreal, she decided to take the oppor- filings, and such documentation pro- The jargon in financial analysis can tunity to use the French language skills vides context and analysis regarding a roughly be divided between termi- she had acquired earlier in life. That potential investment. Cash also finds nology associated with bonds and ter- decision set a series of events into this area of financial translation partic- minology associated with stocks. Cash motion that ultimately led to a move to ularly attractive because the work is covered several different types of Quebec, where she worked (in both not seasonal (unlike regulatory filings) bonds, as well as the terminology ana- English and French) for over five years. and the materials tend to be less tech- lysts use to explain the pros and cons Following a move back to the U.S. and nical and more interesting to read. thereof. For example, inflation analysis several years of teaching French, she Every document an analyst writes to a plays a central role in bond prices, and received a flyer for a translation studies client is an opportunity to deepen or she described the difference between course in Illinois and enrolled. Today, expand a business relationship, so ana- inflation-linked and fixed-rate bonds she happily runs a freelance translation lysts also use nontechnical words and and how analysts describe the risks business from home. styles in their writing. associated with each. Unlike ·

The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 21 Report on ATA/Delaware Valley Translators Association Finance Seminar Continued fixed-rate bonds, inflation-linked The most important thing to bear in tical topics such as accounting, record bonds offer inflation protection by mind is that there are no secrets or keeping, and effective e-mail signa- linking principal and interest payments tricks to building a successful free- tures, she also focused on the impor- to the rate of inflation. lance translation business. More than tance of having confidence in yourself Seemingly innocuous words like anything else, hard work is required to and enthusiasm for your business. She “duration” (which is sometimes used get good clients and keep them. Jenner believes strongly that a translator in the financial context to describe covered all aspects of running a trans- should not be intimidated when nego- interest rate sensitivity) have a specific meaning in financial analysis, so translators should be cautious and look at the context carefully. Cash said that doing both financial analysis and Most documents in the investment management field financial translation requires the use of “multiple intelligences,” including will contain a good deal of financial terminology. verbal, logical, interpersonal, and others, as well as patience and persist- ence. She even recommended that translators read (or re-read) Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy, written lation business, including selling your tiating with clients. A freelance trans- nearly 1,500 years ago. One of the services, using your time wisely, lation business is as legitimate as any most translated works of all time, acquiring the proper tools, communi- other business, and we should not be Cash believes that it can provide trans- cating well, and using good business shy when it comes to negotiating lators with the perspective they need practices to increase efficiency and price. Be confident that you offer a to persevere and succeed in the field of minimize risk. highly specialized service, know your financial translation. Translators naturally focus on bottom line, and be firm. Moreover, doing translations well, but they often have positive passion for your job—it Judy A. Jenner: Lessons from ignore other critically important helps you get and keep good clients, Business School: The aspects of their business. Making and it helps you achieve the compen- Entrepreneurial Linguist yourself known is a vital part of the sation you deserve. Well known to readers of The ATA translation business and requires a Chronicle through her “Entrepreneurial substantial investment of time and Networking and Marketing Linguist” column, Judy Jenner has built effort on the part of a freelance trans- Aside from the main presentations, on her multinational, multicultural, and lator. Jenner described numerous ways seminar organizers set aside time for trilingual upbringing, as well as her that translators can build their brand, networking activities, where attendees educational and business background, from blogs, websites, LinkedIn and could have a drink and get to know one to create a successful freelance transla- other online social media, to the another in a positive, collegial atmos- tion business that she shares with her harder work of direct marketing. She phere. They also provided the Job similarly multicultural and highly stressed the need to design good mar- Marketplace for the attendees to market accomplished identical twin sister. keting materials in PDF format that their services to colleagues and other Jenner obtained an MBA in 2001, and you can e-mail to prospective clients. potential customers. Overall, it was a has applied the lessons she learned in Potential customers usually do not productive and informative program business school to her translation busi- want your résumé (they are not inter- over a beautiful weekend in Phila- ness. She also has a consulting business ested in your college grade point delphia. Everyone in attendance took through which she shares the lessons average)—they want to know why away valuable tips on how to become she has learned with other translators they should use your services and more successful in the business side of through workshops and individual con- what value you offer them. translation and interpreting. · sulting sessions. While Jenner covered many prac-

22 The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 Related Links from the Presentations

Judy Jenner Alternate Phone Service Options Branding Skype Pole to Pole Consulting Lessons from www.skype.com www.poletopoleconsulting.com/about_us.html Business School: This site offers affordable logos from fellow entrepreneur The Entrepreneurial Jajah Sandra Busta (ask for the Entrepreneurial Linguist discount). Linguist www.jajah.com Google Standard Edition Vonage www.google.com/apps/intl/en/group/index.html www.vonage.com This is the $10 website courtesy of Google. It includes custom e-mail (i.e., [email protected]) and domain name With Skype and Jajah, you can use both of these via com- (hosting for a year). puter, but can also use your regular phone/cell phone. With Vonage, you can save on your regular phone by switching PDF Maker to VOIP, although it has some reception issues in some www.pdfforge.org/products/pdfcreator areas. Turn Word documents into PDFs (free).

Blogging Sites Wordpress Website Templates Blogger www.themes2wp.com www.blogger.com This is another option for setting up a website. They are a little more involved, but they look nicer Microblogging than Google Sites. Check out Judy Jenner’s website www.twitter.com (www.entrepreneuriallinguist.com) for an example. You can use Twitter to microblog in 140 characters or less It was built with Wordpress and then customized. (Judy Jenner’s Twitter account is “language_news”). Professional Networking Translation Times (Judy Jenner’s Blog) LinkedIn www.translationtimes.blogspot.com www.linkedin.com

Wordpress Xing www.wordpress.com www.xing.com

Blogger is very easy and user-friendly, and has templates. You can use LinkedIn and Xing to create professional Wordpress is also easy to use, and it has more options and profiles, join groups, get recommendations, and grow your looks nicer. network. Tip: include a good picture and complete information in your profile.

The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 23 CALL FOR The XIX World Congress of the International Federation of Translators (FIT), to be held in San Francisco, California, on PRESENTATION PROPOSALS August 1-4, 2011, will bring together translators, interpreters, terminologists, and other professionals from all over the world to discuss topical issues. Over 75 educational sessions will be offered in a variety of categories.

Presentation proposals are now being accepted in the following categories: Audiovisual Translation; Community Interpreting; Copyright; Human Rights; Language Standards; Legal Translation and Interpreting; Literary Translation; New Trends; Terminology; Training and Education; Translation and Culture; Translation Technology; Varia.

Bridging Cultures Proposals will be selected through a competitive peer-review process. Presentations may be offered in English and French only. XIX World Congress of the International Federation of Translators Deadline: December 10, 2010

Hilton San Francisco Union Square The FIT XIX World Congress will be hosted by ATA in coop- San Francisco, California eration with FIT. For more information, including the pro- August 1-4, 2011 posal form, visit www.fit2011.org/proposals.htm. www.fit2011.org

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24 The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 Translatability and Untranslatability in Simultaneous Interpreting

(Or Overcoming the Mot Juste Syndrome) By James Nolan

According to an anecdote that once made the rounds among United Nations (UN) interpreters, a young Simultaneous interpreting is as widely delegate attending his first UN General Assembly, upon hearing misunderstood as it is widely used. simultaneous interpreting in six languages for the first time, approached a conference officer and asked, “This translation system is wonderful, sequentially in all of the speakers’ involves “interpreting” the text, and where can I buy one?” While the various languages, as in the days of some of what an interpreter does anecdote may be apocryphal, it point- the League of Nations. Since most lis- involves “translating” the speech.) edly raises a persistent paradox: teners would understand only one of There is even speculation that simultaneous interpreting is as widely several versions they would have to machine translation combined with misunderstood as it is widely used. listen to, the stultifying effect on com- voice recognition technology may munication and dialogue is hard to someday lead to a form of machine Multilingual overstate.1 For an organization like interpretation.2 Of course, while Communication in Real Time the European Union, with 23 official machine translation is gradually The world relies upon simulta- languages, multilingual debate in real learning to do it a little better,3 the neous interpreting for international time would be impossible. human brain, the most powerful of all communication and decision-making. Yet, despite its importance, many computers, does it much better and has Without it, multilingual debates and still do not understand the purpose of been doing so for some 57 years, ever negotiations, already hampered by simultaneous interpreting and readily since simultaneous interpreting was many political and procedural hur- confuse or compare it with translation. introduced at the Nuremberg trials. dles, would slow to a crawl due to the (This is understandable given the fact However, the confusion about need for everything to be repeated that some of what a translator does “translation” and “interpreting” ·

The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 25 Translatability and Untranslatability in Simultaneous Interpreting (Or Overcoming the Mot Juste Syndrome) Continued goes beyond the everyday misuse of convey a speaker’s meaning and Performance Dimensions the two terms or the assumption that it intent by striving to reflect each and A concise definition of good inter- is a mechanical act that can be repli- every semantic nuance with “total preting and translation that is often cated just as efficiently by computers. accuracy?” The problem is not that cited, for example, in the codes of pro- The real confusion stems from not simple. Schuler goes on to offer an fessional conduct of court interpreters, appreciating that writing/reading and equally apt description of what good states that interpreters and translators speaking/listening are two different translation is and how it is shaped by should “faithfully and accurately ways of understanding, encoding, context: reproduce in the target language the decoding, and re-encoding ideas. One closest natural equivalent of the method works with visual/graphic “Moreover, the context of the source language message [emphasis symbols that are meant to be fixed or words in the sentence, the sentence mine].”9 Significantly, this definition permanent, and the other method in the paragraph, etc., that is being does not say “the nearest equivalent works with aural symbols—the translated, all within the context of word.” “Closest” refers to closeness fleeting sounds of the human voice— the inspiration and intent and audi- of meaning, not necessarily of words. which convey a vastly greater range ence are all relevant when trans- This is the first of three important con- of meaning, especially emotional lating.…Translation, therefore, is siderations regarding the performance meaning, and are constantly evolving. not a mechanical act, but a skilled dimensions of translation and inter- The fundamentally different nature of and empathetic re-rewriting or re- preting, outlined below. these two forms of symbolic communi- performing of a text or utterance or cation can be glimpsed when one con- intention in which an under- 1. One must be careful to distin- siders, for example, why it is that a standing of the two cultures being guish between meaning and words. libretto can be translated but an opera is bridged is essential.”6 Words are one means among many by almost never performed in translation.4 which speakers and writers express Because written words originate as Because the re-performing of the meaning. Should a simultaneous inter- graphic representations of spoken message requires empathy, it can only preter attempt to track the wording of words, we tend to focus on their be done by another human being. the original message? It can some- semantic resemblance rather than on Empathy helps the interpreter both to times be done, but the effort it the differences between the pen and the understand the speaker’s ideas and to demands of a simultaneous interpreter voice as a medium of communication. reflect faithfully the speaker’s intent can lead to omitting or distorting other For example, word choice, a key (as does contact with the speaker parts of the message, especially with concern in written composition, takes before the speech).7 How that complex syntax or when a speaker’s on different outlines when inter- empathy comes into play is an intu- intent differs from his or her literal preting. Interpreting is not so much a itive process that is difficult to meaning (as often happens in diplo- composition as an improvisational describe or explain, but which can be matic discourse), or when the connota- performance. As with any other art, learned through practice, like acting tions may be more important than the performers of simultaneous inter- or music.8 denotation (as sometimes happens in preting do not always do it perfectly, Perhaps the best way to gain a irony, allusions, or humor). As a but are nonetheless always expected better understanding and appreciation measure of completeness, a word to perform. As aptly put by Douglas of the simultaneous interpreter’s task count can be a rough indicator of Schuler, one of the co-authors is through a closer look at the whether the full text of a book has of Liberating Voices: A Pattern dynamic structure of the encoding been translated from the source lan- Language for Communication process that takes place during every guage into the target language, but it Revolution (MIT Press), “Totally interpreted encounter. This is also a does not tell us whether a speaker’s accurate translation is impossible but good way to explain why translation message has reached its intended audi- imperfect translation is ubiquitous— and interpreting require different tac- ence. and essential.”5 Still, if it existed, tics to render meaning. As Schuler would “totally accurate” translation or states, such a performance is anything 2. One must bear in mind the time interpreting be good translation or but mechanical. constraints under which the com- interpreting? Does an interpreter best munication takes place. Martin

26 The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 One must be careful to distinguish 1. between meaning and words.

One must bear in mind the time 2. constraints under which the Performance Dimensions communication takes place.

A linguist’s performance is anything but mechanical. Here are three important considerations interpreters and translators One should remember how the must keep in mind as they reproduce 3. meaning in the target language. content of the communication was created.

Luther took pride in the fact that, when translating the Bible, he often spent up to four weeks researching a single word.10 Such patience and intel- Interpreting is not so much a composition as an lectual discipline is commendable in a translator. But to a simultaneous inter- improvisational performance. preter with only seconds in which to produce an acceptable equivalent, obsessively searching for the most suitable word is a case of “the best is 3. One should remember how the through a dictionary is out of the ques- the enemy of the good.” Many novice content of the communication was tion. Hence the importance to an inter- interpreters fall victim to the mot juste created. Except in extemporaneous preter of a general education broad syndrome (the need to find exactly the remarks, speakers generally prepare enough at least to recognize any source right word or expression), but even an their speeches beforehand, memorize language utterance and/or to derive the experienced interpreter will some- them or at least think them through, or meaning from the context. The times falter in mid-sentence trying to speak from written notes. Therefore, the “speeches” with which interpreters retrieve the perfect target language structure and style of the oral material work are often writings read aloud, word from memory and still draw a the interpreter hears may bear a decep- which means they are more complex blank. Simultaneous interpreting is tive resemblance to writing. But readers and densely packed with meaning than expected to begin and end at the same are not generally expected to absorb spontaneous speech. time as the original speech so that par- intelligently what they read at rates of ticipants at the meeting can complete up to 170 words per minute, while inter- What is Translatable? their business and adjourn. In simulta- preters nowadays must sometimes keep Working with material whose trans- neous interpreting, time is of the up with speakers who deliver their latability is shaped by the performance essence, and the interpreter has to per- speeches at that rate. A word or expres- dimensions just mentioned, how much form his or her task within the time sion which might force a reader to semantic content should a competent limits dictated by the speaker and the pause momentarily to reflect upon the simultaneous interpreter be expected to setting. meaning cannot be processed in that render from the source to the target way by the interpreter. Thumbing language? Opinions vary. ·

The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 27 Translatability and Untranslatability in Simultaneous Interpreting (Or Overcoming the Mot Juste Syndrome) Continued

According to one thorough study, con- veying meaning from source to target accounts for about 60% of the work done by parliamentary interpreters.11 In some contexts, a “goal” of 90% com- The goal of complete accuracy in diction pleteness is used. In some simulta- is often illusory. neous interpreting examinations a passing performance is “getting 70% of the meaning across.” But what if the 30% that was lost in an interpreter’s “passing performance” contained more relevant point is that even apposite target language equivalent some of the speaker’s main points (for within the confines of one language, from memory.12 In the following example, because they came at the end we commonly call things by more example, the context makes it neces- and the interpreter fell behind while than one name or say things in dif- sary to use two target language verbs struggling with details)? That question ferent ways, depending on context for one source language verb: suggests how arbitrary quantitative cri- and usage. Also, there are often two or teria can be and prompts the following more interchangeable ways of saying “A través de una acción integral two propositions about simultaneous something (e.g., “How are you?” and basada en una estrategia de acom- interpreting techniques: “How are you doing?”; “onerous” and pañamiento social y educativo per- “burdensome”). An interpreter in the sonalizado, los menores aprenden 1. An interpreter should exercise habit of using a single target language castellano, practican actividades sound editorial judgment in equivalent is applying to the complex de ocio y tiempo libre, habilidades deciding what must be fully con- task of multilingual communication a sociales tales como resolución de veyed and what can be safely constraint not usually applied to the conflictos, comunicación y pen- edited while keeping pace with the simpler task of monolingual speech. samiento crítico…” speaker and respecting the original As a result, the interpreter will be meaning and intent; and hard-pressed if he or she forgets that [“Through a comprehensive action one target language equivalent. strategy based on social support 2. A simultaneous interpreter should and personalized education, chil- strive to convey 100% of the Contexts and Choices dren learn Castilian, engage in speaker’s meaning by focusing on Consequently, being mindful that recreation and leisure activities, the main ideas, even if it requires sys- memory is fallible, it is wise to start and practice social skills such as tematically condensing verbiage and from the assumption that for any conflict resolution, communication abridging or deleting details that are given source language item there may and critical thinking...”] obvious, redundant, or superfluous. be several possible equivalents in the target language, depending on the Because the verb “practice” does not We know that there is often no context. This means the interpreter work with the object “recreation and exact one-to-one correspondence will usually have choices. Having leisure” in this context, it is necessary between words and structures in dif- choices is an advantage, which is why to use two verbs in English, although ferent languages. This alone should interpreter training should include only one verb is used in Spanish. suffice to immunize interpreters practice on “widening the options.” against the mental blocks induced by The fact that context largely deter- 2. The context may make the the mot juste syndrome, since it shows mines meaning has many implications meaning more generic, making it that searching for the equivalent is for the interpreter’s choices. Here are possible to use any of several often futile. Whatever target language some examples. roughly synonymous target lan- equivalent is used, it will probably not guage items, thus making the task correspond completely to the source 1. The context may narrow the easier. For example: “The Mayor’s language item. The goal of complete meaning of the source language office was flooded/deluged/inundated accuracy in diction is often illusory. A item, making it harder to retrieve an with complaints.”

28 The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 3. The context may point to using a standard word or phrase, such as a How much semantic content should a competent common idiom or cliché. For example: arremangarse la camisa (“to simultaneous interpreter be expected to render from roll up one’s sleeves”). the source language to the target language? 4. The context may contain structures that rule out using some of the possible synonyms or equivalents, for example, because they will not or jargon. Delegates at international paraphrase, the best solution, if the fit grammatically. For instance, in the gatherings sometimes monitor the context allows, may be for the inter- following enumeration13 composed of interpreters, listening for the “right” preter to express the emotion asso- verbs, it would be awkward to include target language equivalents they ciated with saudade in his or her the last item as a noun, even though it expect to hear. Courts sometimes ask voice. is the best interpretation of capital de an interpreter to adhere to something inversión: like a “verbatim” interpretation, and • An abstraction: What is referred the interpreter may have no choice but to in one language using abstract Our company plans to: to comply.15 (However, as one court nouns may be referred to in • Expand market share; interpreter commented, “While inter- another language using concrete • Streamline management preting in the courtroom must admit- nouns (e.g., atención a la niñez y processes; tedly adhere much more closely to the adolescencia = “care of children • Capital investment. source, there is no reason why an inter- and adolescents”). Some source preter cannot utter an idiomatic and language abstract nouns may have 5. The general context (character of faithful rendition while interpreting at several more specific target lan- the audience, identity of the speaker, the stand if he or she has good note- guage equivalents. For example, nature of the subject, etc.) may taking skills to back up a good memory normas in Spanish usually corre- render some of the possible options and an intimate feeling and under- sponds to laws, rules, guidelines, inappropriate or “taboo,” as in the standing of the languages involved.”) or standards in English. It is best to case of politically correct speech, use the specific equivalent meant gender-neutral language, or in a Dealing with Untranslatability by the speaker, rather than to gen- speech to a specific age group. For Within any of these contexts, and eralize the term by interpreting the example, the following sentence from others, an interpreter may encounter word as “norms.” a discussion of EU affairs inadver- source language items that present tently uses a comical racial stereotype various forms of “untranslatability,” • The title of a person: Titles and by translating literally a French each of which may call for a different honorific words reflect social expression used in reference to approach. Dealing with seemingly status and their usage is a matter of English-speakers: “An internal docu- untranslatable utterances requires one custom, but they are not used in all ment…shows that 11 out of the 26 to bear in mind that the same idea or languages. For example, it is cus- spokespersons who have already been emotion may find expression in dif- tomary in Mexico to refer to all designated to the incoming European ferent ways from one culture to teachers and master craftsmen as Commission are Anglo-Saxon. Of another. It involves asking, for maestro or maestra, but in English these, seven are English and four example, whether an utterance is one no such honorific title is used. are Irish.”14 of the following:16 Similarly, the title maître is used in French when addressing or refer- 6. A given institutional context may • The expression of an emotion: For ring to lawyers and notaries, but in require the interpreter to follow example, the Portuguese word English no similar title is used. The additional constraints or stylistic saudade is roughly translatable as correct English equivalent of these preferences. Most organizations have “longing, yearning, nostalgia.” titles is the less deferential fixed conventions about terminology Rather than an awkward three-word “Mr.,” “Mrs.,” or “Ms.” (An ·

The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 29 Translatability and Untranslatability in Simultaneous Interpreting (Or Overcoming the Mot Juste Syndrome) Continued

interpreter can preserve the important for an interpreter to rec- discussion among sociologists missing nuance by giving a note of ognize the figure of speech poner el about family social services, a ref- deference to his or her voice.) dedo en la llaga as a common erence to mejorar la convivencia Governmental, academic, diplo- metaphor (roughly equivalent to familiar (translated as “improving matic, and military titles pose sim- “putting salt in the wound,” family coexistence”) would not ilar problems, particularly for an meaning “to make things worse”). mislead or confuse anyone. interpreter, since the person being If the interpreter fails to recognize addressed or referred to is often this phrase as a metaphor, he or she A Matter of Practice present in the audience. might otherwise take it literally and and Experience interpret it as “putting a finger into Dealing at high speed with a range of • The name of a cultural institution: the wound.” items that both present challenges while For example, the Scandinavian word interpreting and are shaped by context Ombudsman, having no satisfactory When dealing with these types of requires not only a high degree of lan- English equivalent that conveys the utterances an interpreter often has to guage proficiency and cultural compe- specific features of the institution, ask questions like: tency, but also versatile thinking, has simply been assimilated verbatim analytical judgment, and rhetorical apti- into English and other languages. To • Should I look for a different part tude—a combination of skills that is an audience unfamiliar with the insti- of speech? For example, many difficult to master.18 Relying on a “bilin- tution, a paraphrase such as “commu- ideas expressed in Spanish with a gual glossary” style of interpreting is not nity mediator” might be appropriate. noun are more normally expressed conducive to developing that set of in English with a verb: “La mejora skills. It is only through practice and • A technical term: Technical terms de nuestro sistema educativo experience that the simultaneous inter- acquire equivalents in different requiere mayores esfuerzos.” = preter develops a repertory of solutions languages through coinage and “We should try harder to improve that can be brought to bear immediately convention. Pending the adoption our educational system.” as problems arise. Examining the funda- of a target language equivalent, the mentals involved in the interpreter’s art, original source language term is • Is there anything in the target it becomes clear why interpreting is not often used for a period of time. For language culture that is thought synonymous with translating. It is also instance, the English term “soft- of or talked about in a compa- easier to understand why computers still ware” was used in French for years rable way? For example, the have a long way to go in their efforts to before the French term logiciel was English stereotype “yuppie” is catch up to their human counterparts. coined and introduced. For this untranslatable because it is a reason, interpreters need to be coinage based on an English Notes aware of recent technical coinages. acronym for “young urban profes- 1. Besides communication, inter- sional,” but in most contexts the preting supports specialization by • A figure of speech,17 such as a corresponding French stereotype enabling experts and representa- metaphor: For an interpreter, it is jeune cadre dynamique would tives to be chosen based on their just as important to identify an convey the correct image and the subject-matter expertise rather than utterance as a figure of speech as it right degree of irony. their knowledge of a particular lan- is to understand what it means. guage. This is an issue addressed Otherwise, the interpreter may • Does the context or the sub-text by Graham Fraser, Canada’s com- commit the misleading (and some- make clear the implications or missioner of official languages, in times ludicrous) mistake of inter- connotations? For example, there his article, “Our High Court Should preting figurative language is no good English equivalent for be Bilingual,” posted April 23, literally, thus losing the underlying the Spanish word convivencia 2010 by the editor of the message. For example, in a discus- other than “coexistence,” a word National Post, http://network. sion among doctors or emergency tainted by cold-war political con- nationalpost.com/NP/blogs/full medical technicians, it would be notations. But in the context of a comment/archive/2010/04/23/gra

30 The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 ham-fraser-our-high-court-should- dismissed the witness’s interpreter 2003), 18-22, http://isg.urv.es/cttt/ be-bilingual.aspx. after observing that the interpreter cttt/research.html. had watched the entire trial, 2a. Beaumont, Claudia. “NEC including jury selection and the 12. The interpreter’s grasp of the source Unveils Tele Scouter ‘Translation presentation of the state’s case the language message depends on short- Glasses,’” www.telegraph.co.uk/ previous day, and was speaking to term memory, but his or her target technology/news/6493869/NEC- Romani during the trial in a way language rendition also draws on unveils-Tele-Scouter-translation- that made the trial court doubt the long-term memory, that is, knowl- glasses.html. interpreter’s impartiality,” www. edge of the vocabulary and culture leagle.com/unsecure/page.htm? of the source and target languages. 2b. Lawson, Stephen. “Real-Time shortname=ingaco20100423159. Voice Translation Coming to 13. On handling enumerations, see: Mobile.” PCWorld (April 22, 8. For an interesting and insightful per- Nolan, James. op. cit., 33-38. 2010), www.pcworld.com/business sonal account of how this intuitive center/article/194847/realtime_ process comes into play, see: 14. On avoidance of stereotypes in voice_translation_coming_to_ Magalhães, Ewandro. “How Do You multicultural settings, see: Nolan, mobile.html. Do That?” Translated from the orig- James. op. cit., 169-72. inal Portuguese by Barry S. Olsen. 3. For a balanced and perceptive The ATA Chronicle (April 2010), 12. 15. In this regard, see: Mikkelson, review of recent machine translation See also related observations in: Holly. “‘Verbatim Interpretation’ developments, see: Bellos, David. Setton, Robin. Training Conference Revisited.” Proteus (National “I, Translator.” The New York Times Interpreters (Confer ence Interpreters Associ ation of Judiciary Inter - (March 21, 2010), www.nytimes Asia Pacific), www.ciap.net/web preters and Translators, Spring .com/2010/03/21/opinion/21bellos pages/news06.html. 2010, Volume XIX, No. 1). .html. 9. Canon 2, New Jersey Code of 16. See: Nolan, James. op. cit., 58. 4. Nolan, James. Interpretation Tech- Professional Conduct for Inter- niques and Exercises (Clevedon: preters, Transliterators and Trans - 17. See: Nolan, James. op. cit., 67-116. Multilingual Matters, 2005), 65-66. lators, www.judiciary.state.nj.us/ interpreters/codepub.htm. 18. For example, see: Clegg, Alicia. “A 5. Schuler, Douglas. “Translation” Matter of Interpretation.” Financial (Public Sphere Project), posted 10. “…Ich habe mich des geflissen im Times (February 1, 2010). “Culture January, 31, 2010, www.public Dolmetschen, dass ich rein und klar plays a huge part in the success or sphereproject.org/drupal/node/214. Deutsch geben möchte. Und ist uns failure of interpretation, because the oft begegnet, dass wir vierzehn cultural assumptions that come bun- 6. Schuler, Douglas. op. cit. Tage, drei, vier Wochen haben ein dled with words may literally not einziges Wort gesucht…” In Send - translate. Ms. Olivier was some- 7. Much can be learned from such brief vom Dolmetschen (1530). times told that a task would be contacts, not only about a Vogt-Lüerssen, Maike. Martin muzukashii. Her interpreter trans- speaker’s message but also about Luther in Wort und Bild (Die lated this as ‘difficult,’ which Ms. how he or she speaks (e.g., with an Deutsche Bibliothek, 2003), 50. Olivier took to mean tough but do- accent, in a dialect, in jargon, able. Only when her team repeatedly etc.). Judicial interpreters, unfor- 11. Nafá Waasaf, María Lourdes. “La missed deadlines did she begin to tunately, may be precluded from competencia retórica en las clases understand that muzukashii is a cul- such instructive contacts by rules de interpretación de lenguas: una tural euphemism for saying ‘It is regarding impartiality. See, for propuesta didáctica basada en dis- impossible and we cannot do it.’” example, Romani vs. State, Court cursos politicos parlamentarios” of Appeals of Georgia, decision of (Research Papers, Consor tium for April 23, 2010: “…the trial court the Training of Trans lation Teachers,

The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 31 Judy Jenner is a Spanish and German translator in Las Vegas, Nevada, where she runs Twin Translations with her twin sister. The Entrepreneurial Linguist Judy Jenner She is also the vice-president of the judy.jenner@ Nevada Interpreters and Translators entrepreneurial Association. She hosts the translation blog, linguist.com Translation Times (www.translationtimes. blogspot.com). You can also find her at

Photo by Ulf Buchholz Phone Calls: An Endangered Species www.entrepreneuriallinguist.com.

Business communication in the 9:52 a.m. 1:44 p.m. 21st century is easier than ever, or so Judy: Thank you for your interest in Potential client: Sounds good. See it seems. While I do not want to pic- our translation services. What is the attached. I will just go ahead and ask ture myself as a translator or inter- language combination? Could you you to proceed so we can save some preter without access to PCs or the please e-mail the document to be trans- time. I need this ASAP. Internet, these new communication lated? channels seem to have taken over 2:27 p.m. completely. This is much to the detri- 10:13 a.m. Judy: Thank you for the file. Before ment of a somehow old-fashioned but Potential client: It’s Spanish into we proceed, we must ask you to sign still highly useful device, the tele- German and it’s very short. the attached price quote agreeing to phone. Even though the phone can be our price and terms and conditions. a tremendous time saver, this classic 10:47 a.m. Please sign it, scan it, and e-mail it form of business communication is Judy: That is one of our language back to me. almost an endangered species. Today, combinations. Can you please send me I mainly communicate with our the actual document so I may evaluate 3:13 p.m. clients via e-mail, with the exception it and send you a detailed, non-binding Potential client: I understand. I just of a few clients who call on a regular quote for your approval? We prefer signed it, but I don’t have a scanner. basis. Using this method is supposed text documents over PDF documents, Can I fax it to you? to make one’s professional life easier, if at all possible. but sometimes writing e-mail actually 3:24 p.m. tends to complicate things and makes 11:45 a.m. Judy: Unfortunately, I fired my fax in conversations longer than necessary. I Potential client: Attached please find 2001. Since you are pressed for time, I frequently exchange many e-mails the document. When can you have this will make an exception for you. I will with potential clients before I have translation done? accept an e-mail reply saying “I accept even gathered all the information I the terms detailed in the quote sub- need to make a price quote. The fol- 12:38 p.m. mitted to me and agree to the payment lowing conversation is similar to the Judy: Do you happen to have the Word terms and conditions” in lieu of the one I had with a potential client who document that this PDF was based on? signed agreement. is now a customer. This would speed up the process and result in a cost savings for you. 3:32 p.m. Monday, March 29, 2010 9:35 a.m. Potential client: Okay, thanks. I agree Potential client: I need a translation. 1:15 p.m. with your terms. When can I have the How much does it cost? Potential client: I don’t understand. I document? already sent you the document. Do you need anything else? 3:45 p.m. Judy: Thanks for that. However, can 1:33 p.m. you please state “I accept the terms Yahoo! Business Judy: Yes, please send the Word file detailed in the quote submitted to me Discussion Group that the document was based on. If and agree to the payment terms and you don’t have it, that’s perfectly fine. Continued on p. 34 ATA members can discuss business issues online at the following Yahoo! group: http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/ You will group/ata_business_practices. This column is not intended to constitute legal, financial, or other business advice. Each need to register with Yahoo! (at no charge) if individual or company should make its own independent business decisions and consult you have not already done so, and provide your full name and ATA member number in its own legal, financial, or other advisors as appropriate. The views expressed here are order to join the group. not necessarily those of ATA or its Board of Directors. Ideas and questions should be directed to [email protected].

32 The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 Internet blogs are rich sources of information for translators and interpreters. They allow users to post questions, exchange ideas, network, and read news and commentary Blog Trekker Procrastination: on a specific subject. The topics featured in this column are actual blog postings concerning issues pertinent to your col- A Barrier to Success leagues in the field today. For more blog listings, visit www.atanet.org/careers/blog_trekker.php.

(Posted January 8, 2010 on Marcela Prepare a to-do list. Every day make a body will be “watching,” waiting for Jenny’s Blog, http://latitudescoach. to-do list and jot down the time it is the outcome. We have witnesses! Since wordpress.com) going to take you to complete the task. we do not want to disappoint others, Then prioritize each task according to we will strive to complete those goals. its importance. You can use a planner, a Initially, many of us are eager to notebook, or simply a piece of paper. Concentrate on the outcome, not on start new plans, ideas, and projects we What is important here is to write down the process. There is nothing more want to accomplish within a given everything you need to do. If you comforting than ticking off a task from time. However, as time goes by, we cannot complete all the tasks you your to-do list. While that is important, tend to leave those tasks that are going scheduled for a given day, do not panic. the feeling of accomplishment you will to help us reach our goals “for Move the tasks to the following day, get at the end will boost your energy tomorrow.” Unfortunately, tomorrow but move them to the top of the list. A and motivate you to move on to the next becomes today, so the procrastinator word of advice is to be conscious of the task. As you move forward, you will continues to set a new goal for amount of time a task is going to take to feel a step closer to reaching your goals. tomorrow—over and over again. Time accomplish. Do not try to accomplish runs out for all of us. So, if we continue too many things in one day. Plan for the Avoid perfectionism. Try to do your leaving for tomorrow what we are sup- “unplanned,” that is, any unexpected best and do not worry about any flaws posed to be doing today, our desired events that may occur during the day. you may notice after completing the goal quickly becomes a “never goal.” Keep that list in a very visible spot so task. As human beings, we have per- Most people who procrastinate do it you are constantly reminded that there mission to experience trial and error. to avoid tasks that are unpleasant, chal- are tasks impatiently waiting for you. What is not acceptable is to avoid lenging, or boring. These tasks are usu- something for fear of not getting it per- ally associated with negative feelings. Break tasks into manageable fect. Perfection is subjective, so what Psychologists believe that procrastina- chunks. Any tasks should be broken you may consider “not quite right,” tion may be due to a combination of into smaller, more manageable tasks. someone else may think is just great. emotional, biological, and experiential Concentrate on one step at a time. Do After completing the task, pat yourself factors. However, procrastination is not not focus on the big goal but on the on the back for trying your best. linked to poor management skills, lazi- small action steps you need to take to ness, irresponsibility, or lack of disci- reach the desired outcome. This way Reward yourself. As you move for- pline. It is more related to trying to be the task will not appear too over- ward, make sure you celebrate your perfect, avoiding being challenged, or whelming or challenging. little accomplishments with something simply fearing life. Procrastinators are you enjoy doing. These little celebra- usually unsure of their abilities, so they Set out realistic deadlines. When tions will help you recharge your bat- simply avoid using them to prevent any writing down your goals and correspond- teries to continue working very criticism in case they do not succeed. ing tasks, it is important to set very spe- diligently on your task. After all, you Procrastination can also be detri- cific and realistic deadlines. Do not put deserve it, don’t you? mental to our physical health. Some too much pressure on yourself to try to of the physical consequences that pro- reach ambitious or difficult goals. Be pre- Learn to say “no.” When working on crastination produces in our bodies pared to adjust your goals as you move our own goals, it is necessary that we are drinking, insomnia, gastric prob- along, but do NOT stop! Keep going. learn to say “no” to others’ requests lems, and higher chances of getting and demands that may distract us or viral infections. Share your goals with somebody. shift our direction. The good news is that procrastina- When we tell others about our plans tion can be managed by applying cer- and what we are trying to accomplish, I will leave you with the words of tain techniques. However, as with any we become accountable for the out- Theodore Roosevelt: “In a moment of change, this is a process and will not come. When we include others in our decision, the best thing you can do is happen overnight. If you “fall off the goal settings, the goal is no longer a the right thing to do. The worst thing wagon,” do not give up. secret. Now the world knows what we you can do is nothing.” are trying to accomplish and every-

The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 33 The GeekSpeak column has two goals: to inform the community GeekSpeak Jost Zetzsche about technological advances and at the same time encourage [email protected] the use and appreciation of technology among translation professionals. Jost also publishes a free technical newsletter for translators (www.internationalwriters.com/toolkit). Got Translation?

Forgive me for stepping over her charisma), and what she actually What does this mean for us? It my tech guy boundaries once again as said did not make much sense (but, means we need to strike while the iron I share something important but not again, there was the charisma). is hot and be vocal about ourselves primarily technical. (Yes, there are However, I cannot even begin to say and our profession. such things!) how much her presence meant to the Let’s write articles and have them I just got back from a trip to the Argentine translation community, and, published in major media outlets. great city of Buenos Aires and a gath- dare I say, by extension, the rest of the Let’s compose blog postings or other ering of 1,700 translators for the con- worldwide translation community. publications that are interesting not ference of the Colegio de Traductores I think—in fact, I know—that right only to the translation community but Públicos de la Ciudad de Buenos now translation is more in the public to the general public as well. Let’s be Aires. I was impressed with the high eye than ever before. Not a week goes proactive in online discussions and not level of many sessions and the atten- by without major stories about transla- shy (while still diplomatic) in sharing dees’ curiosity, but there was one tion (or interpreting) appearing in the our viewpoints. And let’s present at event that really took my breath major media. Agreed, these often focus conferences that are aimed beyond the away—the conference was opened by on failures, such as the poor, stumbling boundaries of our industry. Each none less than Argentine President interpreter for Mexican President person who speaks up clearly benefits Kirchner herself. Yes, you read that Calderón when he met with Obama in personally and professionally, but in correctly. There was a translation con- May, or the translation bloopers in a extension it benefits us all. ference in Argentina and it was per- long-standing series of articles in The We are fortunate. We did not need to sonally opened by a major world New York Times and many other media hire any ad agencies to create a “Got leader, the president of Argentina. outlets. But there are also many articles MilkTranslation?” campaign. Instead, Should you still have lingering doubts about machine translation, which make the attention of the world seems to have about how special this was, why don’t many of us feel uneasy but definitely just fallen into our laps (again). So let’s we ask President Obama to open represent the fascination that the general seize the day and go to work on edu- ATA’s upcoming Annual Conference public has with translation. There are cating that world toward a better under- in Denver and see what happens? stories like the one about Amazon’s standing of who we are and what we do. Now, Kirchner’s politics are not plans to release a series of books con- particularly popular with many of sisting only of translated literature. And, those attending translators (though of course, there are accounts of a state everyone there seemed to succumb to leader opening a translation conference.

The Entrepreneurial Linguist Continued from p. 32 conditions” in your e-mail response? quick call to firm up all the details? her confirmation, and started the Please see the quote for the detailed project the same evening. While date that we will deliver this transla- Total elapsed time: 7 hours, 2 min- e-mail is a powerful communication tion: April 3 at 5:00 p.m. PDT. utes. tool, and documents and contracts have to be e-mailed, many times a 4:12 p.m. Lesson learned: This could have been phone call is the ideal business partner Potential client: But I just told you I solved with a quick phone call, which to speed up the process, answer any agree. is what eventually happened. I called questions, and cover all your bases. As the potential customer, gave her reas- we say in Mexico: hablando se 4:37 p.m. surance regarding the process, dis- entiende la gente. Judy: Do you mind if I give you a cussed all outstanding issues, received

34 The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 INE 5*'*$""55& */ 41"/*4) 100%100% OONLINENL (3"%6"5&$&35*'*$"5&*/41"/*4)(3"%6""55& $&3 NG TRANSLATIONTRANSLTRAANSLAATTION"/%"/% INTERPRETINGINTERPRETI SES UPUPCOMINGCOMING CLCLASSESAS VSSDDPPVSTFVSTFTT UIUISSFFDSFEJUFFDSFEJUIIPVP COMPREHENSIVECOMPREHENSIVE OONE-YEARNE--YYEAR 5341 PPROGRAMROGRAM OOFF STUDSTUDYY HONESHONES '"--5341'"-- TTI5SBOTMBUJPOI 5SBOTMBUJPO &OHHMMJTI44QBOJQBOJ &OHMJTI MJTI5SBOTMBUJPOJTI 5SBOTMBUJPO 4QBOJTI&OHMTI&OH YOUR PRACTIPRACTICALCAL AND 4QBOJ 5FDIOPMPHJFT TSBOTMBUJPO5FDIOPMPHJFTSBOTMBUJPO BM 5SBOTMBUJPOTMBUJPO TTHEORETICALHEORETICAL TRANSLTRANSLATIONAATTION "VEJPWJ"VEJPWJTVBM5STV SKSKILLS,ILLS, CCULTURALULLTTURALT 5341 413*/(5341413*/( UJPO -JUFSBSZ-JUFSBSZ5SBOTMBUJPO5SBOTMB MEDMEDIATIONIAATTION COMPETENCECOMPETENCE FPSZ 5SBOTMBUJPO5I MBUJPO 5SBOTMBUJPO5IFPSZ E 'JOBODF 5SBOT AND PROPROFESSIONALFESSIONAL #VTJOFTT BO #VTJOFTTBOE'JOBODF5SBOTMBUJPO PG-FHBPG -F HHBBM5M 5FYUTFYYUUT 63346334 5SBOTMBUJPO5SBOTMBUJPO INTERPRETINGNTERPRETING CAPABILITIES.CAPABILITIES.

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44QPOTPSFECZB'FEFSBM(SBOUBXBSEFECZUIF'VOEGPSUIF*NQSPWQPOTPSFECZ B 'FEFSBM (SBOU BXBSEFE CZ UIF 'VOE GPS UIF *NQSPWFFNFOUPGNFOU PG 11PTU4FDPOEBSZ&EVDBUJPO 17 XXXãQTFBFEPSH PTU4FDPOEBSZ&EVDBUJPO 17 XXXãQTFBFEPSH KNOWLEDGEKNOWLEDGEEKN KNKNOWSOWSSN NNOO BBOUNDARIES.OUNDARIES. wwwwww.utb.edu.utb.edu 100% ONLINE GRADUATE CERTIFICATE IN SPANISH TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETING TheThe UniversityUniversity ofof TexasTexas atat BrownsvilleBrownsville aandnd TexasTexas SSouthmostouthmost CCollegeollege XXXXVUCUSBOTMBUJPOPSHXXVUCUSBOTMBUJPOPSH UJP!VUCFEVUJP!VUCFEV

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Looking for continuing education events in your area? November 5-6, 2010 Check out ATA’s online event calendar at Australian Institute of Interpreters & Translators www.atanet.org/calendar. Biennial National Conference: Synergise! Fremantle, Western Australia www.ausitconference.org

The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 35 Send your news to Jeff Sanfacon at [email protected] or American Translators Association, 225 Member News Reinekers Lane, Suite 590, Alexandria, VA 22314.

• Alexis Levitin, a professor of • Syntes Language Group has been Secretary: Kristin Quinlan English at the State University of ranked by ColoradoBiz Magazine as (Certified Languages New York Plattsburgh, is one of only one of Colorado’s top 100 Woman- International) six faculty in the 64-campus State Owned Businesses for 2010. University of New York system to be Treasurer: David Smith promoted to a distinguished profes- • The following individuals from ATA (LinguaLinx, Inc.) sorship in 2010. Levitin’s work— corporate member companies have largely comprised of English been elected to the board of directors Directors: Elisabete Miranda translations of Portuguese poetry— of the Association of Language (Translation Plus, Inc.) has appeared in 33 anthologies and Companies: more than 200 literary magazines. Camilo Muñoz He has earned more than two dozen President: Sandy Dupleich (Translation Source) awards and fellowships, including (Dynamic Language Center) the Fulbright Senior Lecturer Award, a Columbia University President’s Vice-president: Craig Buckstein Fellowship, and two National (Geneva Worldwide, Inc.) Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship grants.

Publications from the Localization Industry Standards Association

Journal of Internationalization and Localization The Localization Industry Standards Association (LISA) has published the inaugural issue of the Journal of Internationalization and Localization (JIAL), a new academic journal dedicated to providing research into the business and technical aspects of globalization. The journal is available free of charge as a PDF file from www.lessius.eu/jial, and may be ordered in hard copy. Globalization Insider Online Archives The archives of the Globalization Insider, LISA’s newsletter, are now open to the public without restriction. The archives contain 19 years’ worth of articles on all aspects of globalization and localization. The archives can be accessed at www.localization.org.

FOLLOW ATA ON www.star-group.net Twitter is a free service that lets you keep in touch with people through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What’s happening? ATA’s approach to Twitter is simple: translation and interpreting news and announcements you need when you need them. Become part of ATA’s translation and interpreting community. Follow us on Twitter today! The delta principle To learn how, visit http:// twitter.com/atanet. in technical authoring MindReader

36 The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 All candidates applying for ATA certification must provide proof that they meet the certification program eligibility requirements. Please direct all inquiries regarding general certification information to ATA Headquarters at +1-703-683-6100. Registration for all certification exams should be made ATA Certification Exam Information through ATA Headquarters. All sittings have a maximum capacity and admission is based on the order in which registrations are received. Upcoming Exams Forms are available from ATA’s website or from Headquarters.

California Georgia Tennessee San Diego Alpharetta Nashville September 11, 2010 August 28, 2010 September 12, 2010 Registration Deadline: Registration Deadline: Registration Deadline: August 27, 2010 August 13, 2010 August 27, 2010

San Francisco Michigan Wisconsin September 26, 2010 Novi Milwaukee Registration Deadline: August 14, 2010 September 12, 2010 September 10, 2010 Registration Deadline: Registration Deadline: July 30, 2010 August 27, 2010 Colorado Denver Nevada 2 Sittings Las Vegas October 30, 2010 September 10, 2010 Registration Deadline: Registration Deadline: October 15, 2010 August 27, 2010

Active and Corresponding New Certified Members Membership Review Congratulations! The following people have successfully Congratulations! The Active Membership passed ATA’s certification exam: Review Committee is pleased to grant active or corresponding status to:

German into English Japanese into English English into Chinese Todd R. Cornell Joseph L. Doherty Jonathan E. Michaels Jack Lian San Clemente, CA Boise, ID Kings Beach, CA Yangpu, Shanghai, China Maria Jose Mancini Buenos Aires, Argentina David A. Fairchild Tai Yamanaka English into Russian Planegg, Germany Napa, CA Halyna Field Gloria K. Quintana Longview, WA Chicago, IL Rene P. Fassbender Russian into English Bayside, NY Thais M. Lips Zenthon Paul Natkin English into Spanish Centennial, CO Seattle, WA Lourdes Martino Montevideo, Uruguay

The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 37 Success by Association Austrian Association of Certified Court Interpreters

The Austrian Association of Certified Court Interpreters (AACI) is a • Tel: +43-1-479-65-81 • Address: non-political, nonprofit organization Quick Fax: +43-1-478-37-23 Austrian Association of Certified Court Interpreters with more than 75 years of history. • Website: www.gerichtsdolmetscher.at PO Box 14 Currently, the association has 600 A-1016 Vienna, Austria members, whose names are published Facts • E-mail: in the List of Court Interpreters. AACI [email protected] is a member of the International Federation of Translators and the Austrian Association of Sworn and Certified Court Experts. • Nominates examiners for the certi- Additional Information fication examination. For complete information, please Mission visit www.gerichtsdolmetscher.at. • To promote the professional and • Organizes seminars on termi- business interests of sworn and cer- nology for applicants and discus- tified court interpreters in Austria. sion groups for members.

Activities • Publishes newsletters, printed fees ATA’s chapters and its affiliates, along with other groups, serve translators and inter- • Conducts negotiations with the forms, information on professional preters, providing them with industry infor- Austrian authorities on matters problems, as well as various work mation, networking opportunities, and related to court interpreters. sheets and study materials. support services. This column is designed to serve as a quick resource highlighting the • Maintains contact with all Austrian • Acts as an arbitration forum, valuable contributions these organizations authorities that have a direct or indi- hearing disputes concerning certi- are making to the profession. rect impact on court interpreters. fied translations.

Miss last year’s ATA Annual Conference? ATA Scholarly Monograph Series XVI Order the DVD-ROM! www.atanet.org/conf/ Testing and Assessment in Translation and Interpreting Studies 2009/dvdrom.htm Edited by Claudia V. Angelelli and Holly E. Jacobson John Benjamins Publishing Company

The latest edition in the ATA Scholarly Monograph Series examines issues of measurement that are essential to translation and interpreting. Topics include: the www.star-group.net theoretical applications of assessment instruments; the measurement of interac- tional competence in health care settings; standards as critical factors in assessment; the predictive validity of admission tests for interpreting courses in Europe; and meaning-oriented assessment of translations.

ATA members receive a 30% discount off the regular price of each hardcover copy in the collection. To order:

www.benjamins.com/cgi-bin/t_bookview.cgi?bookid=ATA%20XIV. Process automation in

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38 The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 Visit the ATA Calendar Online www.atanet.org/calendar/ Upcoming Events for a more comprehensive look at upcoming events.

August 5-7, 2010 September 25-26, 2010 November 6-8, 2010 Nebraska Association of Translators Atlanta Association of Interpreters Sixth International Federation of and Interpreters and Translators Translators Asian Translators’ Forum 11th Annual Regional Conference 4th Annual Conference “Translation and Intercultural Lincoln, Nebraska “Toward Excellence in Communication” www.natihq.org Multilingual Communication” Macau, China Atlanta, Georgia www.umac.mo/fsh/de/atf August 13-14, 2010 www.aait.org Texas Association of Healthcare November 11-13, 2010 Interpreters and Translators October 2, 2010 American Medical Writers Association 4th Annual TAHIT Symposium on Michigan Translators/ 70th Annual Conference Language Access Interpreters Network Milwaukee, Wisconsin Houston, Texas Regional Conference on Legal, www.amwa.org www.tahit.us Medical, Community Interpreting Novi, Michigan November 15-19, 2010 September 3-5, 2010 www.mitinweb.org Nevada Interpreters and International Medical Translators Association Interpreters Association October 8-10, 2010 Connecting Worlds: Training for Annual Conference California Federation of Interpreters Health Care Interpreters Boston, Massachusetts 8th Annual Continuing Education Las Vegas, Nevada www.imiaweb.org Conference www.nitaonline.org Santa Monica, California September 10-13, 2010 www.calinterpreters.org November 19-21, 2010 Tennessee Association of Professional American Council on the Teaching Interpreters and Translators October 20-24, 2010 of Foreign Languages Annual Conference American Literary Annual Convention and World Nashville, Tennessee Translators Association Languages Expo www.tapit.org Annual Conference Boston, Massachusetts Philadelphia, Pennsylvania www.actfl.org September 11, 2010 www.utdallas.edu/alta Midwest Association of Translators November 27-28, 2010 and Interpreters October 27-30, 2010 Mexican Translators Organization 7th Annual Conference American Translators Association XIV International Translation and Milwaukee, Wisconsin 51st Annual Conference Interpretation Congress www.matiata.org Denver, Colorado “San Jerónimo 2010” www.atanet.org/conf/2010 Guadalajara, Mexico September 25, 2010 www.omt.org.mx Upper Midwest Translators and October 31-November 5, 2010 Interpreters Association Association for Machine Translation Annual Conference in the Americas St. Paul, Minnesota 9th Biennial Conference www.umtia.org “Machine Translation in the Production Pipeline” Denver, Colorado http://amta2010.amtaweb.org/

The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 39 Compiled by Dictionary Review Peter A. Gergay [email protected]

Concise Hindi-English/ According to its promotional Example 1 English-Hindi Dictionary blurb, this little dictionary is designed It is only my first question and I am for “students, travelers, and business- immediately struck by the fact that a Author: people...a perfect guide to the world’s dictionary targeting tourists could do Todd Scudiere second-most spoken language.” with a couple of pages of simple Priced at a modest $14.95, you can phrasebook type entries, such as “How Publisher: indeed slip this compact and light- much does this cost?” or “How far is Hippocrene Books weight dictionary into your briefcase the hotel?” It appears that the dictio- www.hippocrenebooks.com or backpack. As you find yourself nary’s author also has another publica- slogging through the cramped little tion with Hippocrene Books entitled Publication date: alleyways of Old Delhi or climbing Hindi-English/English-Hindi Dic tion- 2010 steep sandstone steps to reach the ary & Phrasebook, which presumably ramparts of a hill fort in Rajasthan, addresses these issues, but this dic- Number of pages/entries: your shoulders or arms should be tionary would have also benefited from 355 pages; over 11,000 entries none the worse for wear. the inclusion of such phrases. Generally speaking, any non-sub- To wit, the dictionary entry for ISBN: ject-specific bilingual dictionary with “how” is , which would work well 978-0-7818-1167-5 (paperback) approximately 11,000 entries would be with “How are you?” but not with hard-pressed to cater to the require- “How far is the terminal?”—the Hindi Price: ments of professional linguists, and this for this being , , , $14.95 one is no exception. Indeed, it would be depending on the number and gender of unfair to assess this dictionary as a the object. Surprisingly, I could not find Available from: translation tool. Instead, I chose to this variant in the Hindi-to-English seg- Hippocrene Books review this dictionary through the eyes ment either. [email protected] of the student or traveler hidden deep inside all of us logophiles who find it Example 2 Specialty/field hard to resist the allure of new cultures The dictionary entry for “ham” is None. General dictionary and languages. Let’s see how our dic- given as , which actually means tionary would fare on a trip through the “rump” in Hindi. I doubt that any Reviewed by: National Capital Territory of Delhi and Indian waiter would understand this Sangeeta Sahaya Prasad Rajasthan. My comments correspond to word, and who knows what sort of the text in the travel itinerary in sandwich you would get. Two entries Examples 1-4. The underlined words in are given for “oranges”: and each of the boxes were checked. An (the former is correct, the latter “X” with a corresponding superscripted has a typo). The Hindi-to-English seg- number denotes a word with no or ment uses the correct spelling, . incorrect equivalents.

Example 1

Itinerary—3:00 a.m.: You are at Indira Gandhi International Airport in West Delhi and the long lines at the immigration counter show no signs of letting up. You are afraid of missing your connecting flight to Jaipur at 6:00 a.m. You catch the eye of an airline official and ask:

How1 far is it to the domestic terminal2 by taxi? Has our baggage arrived yet? 1 X2

40 The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 Example 2 see some emphasis on cuisine in general French-to-English dictionaries, a few extra words taken from subjects that Itinerary—10:00 a.m.: Petrol fumes and the cries of hawkers spiral lazily up to your hotel balcony. Though impassion Indians would be helpful to tired from the long flight, you cannot resist the sounds and smells coming at you from the bazaar across the foreigners traveling through India. street. As a savvy traveler well aware of the Delhi belly, you order a packed lunch to take along with you.

“Please pack boiled eggs, ham3 and cheese sandwiches, oranges, and some Indian4 specialties5 for me.” Additional Comments 3 4 5 Finally, a short note on noun gen- X X ders and the transliteration scheme. Like Romance languages, Hindi nouns are either masculine or feminine and Example 3 much of the surrounding sentence structure depends on this gender. The Itinerary—2:00 p.m.: After the blinding heat of the streets, the marble floors of the palace feel cool Hindi-to-English segment of the dic- beneath your feet and a soft breeze wafts in through the intricate fretwork shading the tall windows. Down tionary uses n. m. and n. f. to denote the the hall, an erudite looking gentleman is explaining the history of the palace to some Indian visitors. You step gender, but I am baffled about why the closer and listen. English-to-Hindi portion does not. The pronunciation guide used throughout is clear and easy to decipher despite some hard-to-pronounce Hindi sounds. The Hindi typeface is clean, the paper feels good, but a dictionary this size should 6 “Maharaja Jai Singh of Amber and the X (renowned) Bengali architect Vidyasagar completed the city of not have the number of typos I encoun- 7 Jaipur within eight years. The city’s construction was based on X (ancient) principles of architecture and tered while flipping through it ran- 8 9 Maharaja Jai Singh himself X (designed) the Jantar Mantar X (located) here. domly, e.g., instead of (page 129); instead of (page 306); and Example 4 instead of (page 211).

Itinerary—7:00 p.m.: Fortified and restored by some spicy Hyderabadi biryani and Rajasthani lal maans Overall Evaluation at the hotel restaurant, you amble over to the lobby where there is a lively discussion under way about the To conclude, I think this dictionary Indian cricket team. is intended more for students than for travelers or translators. It has entries like (to exaggerate), (to vibrate), and (urn), none of which are particularly useful to tourists or busi- nessmen. On the other hand, it does “Yuvraj has admitted that his X10 (self-confidence) has been X11 (shaken) and that he is not even fully X12 include a fairly comprehensive range of (sure about) his fitness. X13 (Opening batsman) Veerendra Sehvag did not perform well in the Indian mid-to-upper level vocabulary entries Premier League, and his X14 (colleague) Gambhir only played two good X15 (turns) at bat in 11 matches. that could be quite useful to serious students of the language on their travels through India. Overall, this is a good little reference guide for serious lan- Example 3 Example 4 guage learners. It is not quite so useful I upped the ante in this example by A couple of the underlined words for regular tourists or translators. including the slightly more formal Hindi above are admittedly special to the sport used in the gentleman’s description of of cricket, but this is the sort of conver- the palace. This is the sort of language a sation one can expect to encounter in student would encounter in a textbook. I cricket-mad India. Generalized diction- Sangeeta Prasad is an ATA-certified drew four blanks from a total of 10 aries targeted to students and tourists French→English translator who has been in the words checked, which is not bad for a would be much more helpful if they business for more than 20 years. She focuses pocket dictionary. included vocabulary from subjects that on legal and medical texts. She is also a are popular in the countries in question. certified wildlife enthusiast who assiduously In other words, just as I would expect to saves a percentage of each check to fund her next African safari. Contact: [email protected].

The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 41 The Translation Inquirer John Decker [email protected]

Knowledge among Americans of for understanding it is not there any- the events, literature, and lore of more. But yours truly compounded this Abbreviations ancient Greece is rapidly fading. Now, problem the other day by writing used with this column people are considered knowledgeable “eating worms for” as a substitute for in this area if they remember what the Greek expression above. Of course, Da-Danish G-German Greece was like before the financial this is not the same thing at all! The D-Dutch I-Italian crisis that drew so much of the world’s only thing that is the same in the two E-English In-Indonesian attention. As a result, a Greek expres- metaphors is that something difficult [E]-English N-Norwegian sion like “cutting the Gordian knot”— needs to be done. This goes to show acceptable as an Po-Polish solving a long-standing problem in one that localization is not just adapting to answer, the Pt-Portuguese simple swipe—will probably mean what is cool locally; it is adapting to original query did R-Russian very little to those reading it in print, what is cool and understandable now, not involve Sb-Serbian since the cultural background needed as opposed to in the past. English Sp-Spanish F-French

New Queries (F-E 7-10.4) Can encaustic ever be (G-E 7-10.6) How could the very (E-Pt 7-10.1) What about the concept used as a verb in English? If not, what common word Entsorgung apply to of “livability” in Portuguese? Here is is to be done in English with the word finance or business? In this query, it is the context sentence in English: “The in bold in this literary sentence: in the section regarding Abrechnung. United States encourages sustainable Dresser une carapace puissante, It is in the lines preceding Umsatz ID, urban development through the Smart marteler la douceur du plomb, ILN, and after Abrechnung: frei Lief. Growth Network, the Livability encaustiquer, déshabiller les What is to be made of this? Agenda, and the National Award for couleurs, laisser seulement subsister Smart Growth Achievement…” l’émouvant murmure d’une poly- (In-E 7-10.7) Welcome Indonesian to chromie incertaine. this column! The overall area is busi- (E-R 7-10.2) “Oil-wrench” proved to ness and finance, and the problem be the snag in this English sentence: (F-E 7-10.5) This is French, and the words are the two in bold in this context “In lifting the casing joint into the V- context is architectural—the first time sentence: Tahun ini, PTPN II belum door, the floor man can use the cat line in over 17 years of running this berencana memperluas lahan maupun or an oil-wrench, or a crewman can column that I have seen that combina- mengganggarkan dana untuk sejumlah use a hydraulic pick-up machine, if tion. Charpente is the problem term. investasi perusahaan. available.” How about some good “Timber framework” usually works in Russian for this? English for this, but in the instance (Po-E 7-10.8) This query involves busi- cited below, charpente is discussed in ness and financial language. The (E-Sp 7-10.3) It may be that a stan- contrast with the stone vault that problem term pożyczki syndykowane dard phrase exists in Spanish for the replaced it: Bien que transformée au appeared in the following sentence: reference to “price signaling” in anti- cours des siècles la chapelle constitue Prezentacja rynku kredytowego i wymi - monopoly law that appeared in the fol- un example typique d’art roman enione zostały: pożyczki syndykowane, lowing sentence: “However, beware if provençal. L’église initiale, construite club deals i kredyty bilateralne. How you think that your competitors are à la fin du XIe s. contre une construc- would you render these terms? publishing their confidential information antérieure (chapelle sud-est: tion via public sources without an VIIIe-XIe s.) était dote d’une charp- (Sp-E 7-10.9) Is ensayo de labora- obvious justification for doing so. This ente, remplacée à la fin du XIIe s. par torio an essay, a trial, a test, or some- may be a form of price signaling (or en voûte en pierre. “Timber frame- thing else in the scientific world? similar), or, in other words, a delib- work” could hardly be appropriate erate attempt to signal their future here! What is to be done? (Sp-G [E] 7-10.10) If one of the items intentions to their competitors, which offered during a wedding reception is could be illegal.” What is it? brindis especial, could this be some

42 The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 kind of toast? English is acceptable as articles of incorporation.” If the target (R-E 5-10.9) (Недостатка в людях): an answer for this query. language in the query had been Dutch, Jack McIntosh offers this for the entry the proper answer would have been on page 42 of the May issue: “While (Sp-R [E] 7-10.11) Entidad Urbanística statutaire boeken. Islamists are not finding themselves de Conservación refers to some kind of in short supply, in this meat grinder office, but how can the concept best be (F-E 4-10.6) (adonnaissants): In its only one in ten survive.” Meanwhile, expressed in Russian? The translator masculine form, Peter Christensen Natalia Erpenbach prefers: “The went part way with the associated idea asserts, this refers to preadolescents Islamists are never short on people, but of a Альтернатива товарищества under 10 years of age. So it could pos- on the other hand, those who survived собственников жилья. What shall we sibly be “early pre-adolescents.” this slaughterhouse are worth a dozen.” call this, either in Russian or English? By the way, 40 years ago this Spanish- (G-F [E] 2-10.6) (Bindungsbilder): (Sb-G [E] 2-10.9) (ujdurma): In Russian pair would have had a high According to Silke Haidekker, this is German, says Victor Rauschel, it is probability of originating in just one “weave diagram” or “weave pattern.” Machenschaften, Ränke, while in place: Cuba. These can be (mostly) analyzed upon English it is “machinations, under- closely studying the textile patch— handed shady deals, wheeling and Replies to Old Queries often with the help of a weaver’s dealing.” By the way, he asserts, this (Da-E 4-10.1) (KOM-møde): If this is glass—to find out whether the fabric is Turkish word crept into the Serbian the entity responsible for the recalls in woven or nonwoven. language. He says more acceptable question, Peter Christensen says the Serbian words exist. acronym might stand for “communal” (G-I [E]) (Trinkessig): Sasha Barbour (i.e., municipal or regional). says this is literally a “vinegar-based (Sp-E 3-10.11) (politica de acogida e digestif.” Some versions of this integración): Acogida is “taking in,” (E-D 2-10.1) (Don’t count your product are made from apples and may says Sasha Barbour, and this would chickens before they hatch): Angele be considered to fit within the spec- apply to refugees. Another sub-context Niewland-Helou prefers Men moet de trum of digestifs between apple cider is for orphans. He believes the most dag niet prijzen voor het avond is. vinegar and rancid wine. likely context is the refugee one. Therefore, the best translation is (E-I 4-10.5) (casing insulators…casing (Po-E 5-10.7) (opracować ofertę): “policy of shelter and integration.” insulator elements): Laura Meucci Piotr Graff defines oferta as a “bid for simply calls them isolanti della tender.” Opracować means “to As we get into the lazy depths of guaina. “Casing” is either guaina, develop.” The sentence in English is summer, please do not forget to keep carter, or alloggiamento. She would “I received support documents…to this column healthy by supplying both have liked to have seen a picture. develop the bid.” But Piotr feels that queries and responses. For both, I say Indeed, one of the challenges with the jargonish word podkłady, included in advance: thanks so much! these types of queries is that there are in the context sentence on page 42 of no images. Stefano Crivellaro offers the May issue, is a more worthy sub- Address your queries and responses to The Translation elementi isolanti esagonali, isolatori ject for a query. It means “supporting Inquirer, 112 Ardmoor Avenue, Danville, Pennsylvania esagonali della protezione, del coper- documentation,” such as receipts and 17821. E-mail address: [email protected]. Please make chio, dell’involucro, or dell’alloggia- cost estimates. your submissions by the first of each month to be included mento for “hex casing insulators.” in the next issue. Generous assistance from Per Dohler, (R-E 4-10.7) (ухаживать поэтапно): proofreader, is gratefully acknowledged. (E-N 3-10.2) (statutory books): Dick Alex Lukoff likes “multiphased Lodge admits he rarely looks at lan- (polyphased) courting (courtship)” or guages other than Dutch, but by “step-up courting (courtship)” for this. analogy, this might end up being the For the whole sentence, he offers: “In Norwegian equivalent to the Dutch wooing his chosen ladies he preferred statutair, meaning “pursuant to the to utilize a ‘step-up’ approach.”

The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 43 Humor and Translation Mark Herman [email protected]

Graecum Est

“Graecum est,” wrote medieval comments from viewers that supple- Greek. And, as has been mentioned in monks in Latin in the margins of Greek ment, and occasionally contradict, the this column previously, many Slavic texts they could not translate. “It was information given on the map itself. words for German, such as the Greek to me,” says Casca of Cicero’s For example, German speakers, not Russian немецкий, are related to speech in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, mentioned on the original map, are said words meaning “unable to communi- Act I, Scene 2. And, indeed, anything to call incomprehensibilities Spanish or cate,” such as неметь (to become incomprehensible to an English Chinese. The suggested reason for dumb), and are sometimes used as speaker can be “Greek.” So too, to a speakers of German and other pejoratives for anything foreign. Norwegian, Swedish, Persian, Spanish, European languages calling gobblede- But the ultimate put-down of a lan- or Portuguese speaker. Except that gook “Spanish” is that they once had to guage may be the claim that even Spanish and Portuguese speakers will contend with Spanish-speaking Habs- omniscient God cannot comprehend it. also call utterances they cannot under- burg rulers (Spanish was once the offi- That is why, say some Basques, they stand “Chinese.” And “Greek” to a cial language of the Bavarian court). swear only in Spanish. And, supposedly Greek is of course not Greek, but And the Germanic languages have during the nineteenth century, some Chinese or Arabic. words for incomprehensible sounds Polish Catholic priests used a similar At least that is the situation that may be related: German kauder- argument to convince Lithuanian peas- according to an online map, probably welsch, Dutch koeterwaals , and ants to pray in Polish. · more anecdotal than scientific, English “caterwaul,” though some pointed out to me by Isabel Rincón, believe any relationship between these which may be viewed at http:// words to be merely coincidental. Herman is a librettist and translator. strangemaps.wordpress.com/2009/02/ The English phrase “It is Greek to Submit items for future columns via e-mail 26/362-greek-to-me-mapping-mutual- me” probably does not imply any dis- to [email protected] or via snail incomprehension. That map has been paragement of Greeks or Greece. But mail to Mark Herman, 1409 E Gaylord adapted by Ronnie Apter into the dia- some references to “foreign” lan- Street, Mt. Pleasant, MI 48858-3626. gram on the next page, printed here guages are definitely pejorative. Discussions of the translation of humor with the kind permission of Frank Some are built right into ordinary and examples thereof are preferred, but Jacobs, the creator of the website words. For example, the English word humorous anecdotes about translators, above. In the diagram, arrows point “barbarian” comes from a Greek root translations, and mistranslations are also from a language spoken to the lan- referring to people who do not speak welcome. Include copyright information and permission if relevant. guage or languages regarded by speakers of the first language as the quintessence of incomprehensibility. Below the map on the website are Scam Alert Websites www.star-group.net

Federal Bureau of Investigation/ National White Collar National White Crime Center Collar Crime Center The Internet Crime www.nw3c.org Global and Complaint Center collaborative www.ic3.gov terminology management WebTerm

44 The ATA Chronicle n July 2010 Greek To Me: Mapping Mutual Incomprehension The following diagram is an adaptation by Ronnie Apter of an online map found at http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/362-greek- to-me-mapping-mutual-incomprehension. In this diagram, arrows point from a language spoken to the language or languages regarded by speakers of the first language as the quintessence of incomprehensibility. It is printed here with the permission of Frank Jacobs, the creator of the Strange Maps website (http://strangemaps.wordpress.com).

Latvian

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