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 American Translators Association st Annual Conference 51 Denver, Colorado October 27–30, 2010 NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY NSANSA DO YOU SPEAK THE LANGUAGE WE NEED THE MOST? Understanding the world and its many languages is what helps NSA solve the Nation’s most difficult challenges. As a Language Analyst with NSA, your language proficiency and the understanding of nuance, context, cultural overtones, and dialect will have a global impact in providing the fullest and most accurate intelligence to U.S. policy makers, military commanders, and Intelligence Community members. If you’re ready for the responsibility, join NSA, and secure tomorrow today. 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WHERE INTELLIGENCE GOES TO WORK® July 2010 Volume XXXIX American Translators Association 225 Reinekers Lane, Suite 590 • Alexandria VA 22314 USA Number 7 Tel: +1-703-683-6100 • Fax: +1-703-683-6122 Contents July 2010 E-mail: [email protected] • Website: www.atanet.org A Publication of the American Translators Association 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