ATA Oct07-SF.qxd 10/18/07 7:37 PM Page 1 October 2007 Volume XXXVI Number 10 The A Publication of the American Translators Association CHRONICLE In this issue: Business Practices Survey Highlights When Your Client Goes Bankrupt RSS Feeds ATA Oct07-SF.qxd 10/18/07 7:38 PM Page 2 Tips and Tricks for every SDL TRADOS user… Jennifer Abdel-Hadi Training Co-ordinator SDL TRADOS Technologies “ We are committed to helping all our customers make the Email: [email protected] most of their SDL TRADOS Technologies solutions. To achieve this, we have organised monthly free live web seminars, where all users can learn new tips and tricks to make the most of their software. These sessions are hosted by our Support engineers, who will endeavour to let you know the inside workings of our software to enhance your productivity. Topics that will be covered during our Tips and Tricks sessions include: • How to make the most of SDL TRADOS technology working with other packages • Practical application of the Create, Cleanse, Maintain Methodology • Handling different file types • Where to find help and community websites • Best practices and workarounds.” To register for one of our Tips and Tricks free seminars, please visit: www.sdl.com/events If you have any comments on our level of customer service, please email me at: [email protected] To improve is to change. To be perfect is to change many times. ATA Oct07-SF.qxd 10/18/07 7:38 PM Page 3 October 2007 American Translators Association Volume XXXVI 225 Reinekers Lane, Suite 590 • Alexandria VA 22314 Number 10 Tel: (703) 683-6100 • Fax: (703) 683-6122 Contents October 2007 E-mail: [email protected] • Website: www.atanet.org A Publication of the American Translators Association 14 Exploring Freelance Business Practices By Dorothee Racette Thanks to the 1,077 individuals who participated in ATA’s Business Practices Survey this spring, four specific areas of business performance were identified as top priorities for a majority of ATA freelancers. 14 18 Insult to Injury: When Your Client Goes Bankrupt By Mike Collins Bankruptcy is a fact of life in the business world. Companies fail for all sorts of reasons, and the personal and commercial repercussions are often wide-ranging. For suppliers to those companies, the disruption can be difficult or even crippling. 26 across: A Translation Environment Tool with an Attractive Price By Naomi J. Sutcliffe de Moraes If you do not yet use a tool because of the cost or because you are not accustomed to using tools other than MS Word, e-mail, and an Internet browser, give across a try. 32 RSS Feeds: Your Information on Your Terms By Michael Wahlster If you have been surfing the web regularly for information that changes on an unpredictable schedule, you can sit back and let RSS feeds do the work for you! 38 Out of the Shadows: Unionizing in Rome By Anne Milano Appel In Rome this year, literary translators participated for the first time at the XX Congresso of the Sindacato Nazionale Scrittori, one of several writers’ unions in Italy, demonstrating their determination to come out of the shadows and make their professional voices heard. 18 61 2007 Pro Bono Project By Kirk Anderson The beneficiary of this year’s ATA pro bono project is the San Francisco-based Center for the Art of Translation (CAT). Columns and Departments 32 6 Our Authors 46 Business Smarts 51 Members In the News 7 From the Executive Director 47 GeekSpeak 52 Upcoming Events 8 From the President 48 The Onionskin 53 Dictionary Review 10 Letter to the Editor 50 Success by Association 56 The Translation Inquirer 45 Certification Forum 51 New ATA-Certified Members and 58 Humor and Translation Active Membership Review 60 Directory of Language Services Cover photograph by Jeff Sanfacon 3 ATA Oct07-Final.qxd 10/22/07 3:02 PM Page 4 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. Periodicals postage paid at Alexandria, Virginia, and Look for coverage of ATA’s additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send th address changes to The ATA Chronicle, Stay 48 Annual Conference 225 Reinekers Lane, Suite 590, Alexandria, VA 22314. in San Francisco The American Translators Association (ATA) was Tuned in the January issue. established in 1959 as a not-for-profit professional society to foster and support the professional development of translators and interpreters and to promote the translation and interpreting professions. The subscription rate for a member is $43 (included in the dues payment). The U.S. subscription rate for a non-member is $50. Subscribers in Canada and Mexico add $25; all other non-U.S. subscribers add $45. Single copies are available for $5 per issue. Reprint Permission: Requests for permission to reprint articles should be sent Advertising to the editor of The ATA Chronicle at [email protected]. Editor Directory Jeff Sanfacon [email protected] Proofreader Sandra Burns Thomson across Systems GMBH Payment Practices Design 5 www.across.net 23 www.paymentpractices.net Ellen Banker Amy Peloff Beetext Productivity Systems Quantum Translations 55 www.quantumtranslations.com Advertising 64 www.beetext.com Matt Hicks McNeill Group Inc. CETRA, Inc. 2 SDL International [email protected] 23 www.cetra.com www.translationzone.com/ata (215) 321-9662 ext. 19 12 Fax: (215) 321-9636 Corporate Translations, Inc. 23 www.corptransinc.com Executive Director 17 Star Group America, LLC Walter Bacak Cybertec USA, Inc. www.star-group.net [email protected] 55 www.cybertecusa.com 24 Membership and HC Language Solutions, Inc. TechInput, Inc. General Information 31 37 Maggie Rowe www.hcls.com www.techinput.com [email protected] Translation Services, LLC website: www.atanet.org Japan Pacific Publications, Inc. 55 www.japanpacific.com 37 www.trb4.com Monterey Institute of 17 University of Denver Moving? 55 International Studies www.universitycollege.du.edu Find an error with www.miis.edu your address? 23 WordFinder Software Send updates to: 63 National Security Agency International The ATA Chronicle www.nsa.gov/careers www.wordfinder.com 225 Reinekers Lane Suite 590 Alexandria, VA 22314 Fax (703) 683-6122 [email protected] 4 The ATA Chronicle I October 2007 ATA Oct07-SF.qxd 10/18/07 7:39 PM Page 5 ATA Oct07-Final.qxd 10/22/07 3:02 PM Page 6 Our Authors October 2007 Anne Milano Appel, Ph.D., a former library Dorothee Racette works as a full-time director and language teacher, has been trans- freelance translator from her home in lating professionally for over 10 years. In addi- upstate New York. She is an ATA-certified tion to ATA, she is a member of the American (German↔English) translator specializing in Literary Translators Association and the PEN medical and biomedical texts. She served as American Center. Several of her book-length the administrator of ATA’s German Language translations have been published, and shorter Division from 2000 to 2004. She is an ATA works that she has authored or translated have director and co-chair of the Business Practices appeared in other professional and literary venues. Her translation of Stefano Education Committee. Contact: [email protected]. Bortolussi’s novel, Head Above Water, was the winner of the 2004 Northern California Book Award for Translation, and her translation of Giulio Leoni’s novel, Naomi J. Sutcliffe de Moraes is an ATA-certified Portuguese¡English free- Mosaic Crimes, was published simultaneously in the U.S. and U.K. in 2007. lance translator based in São Paulo, Brazil, where she recently completed a Ph.D. in linguistics at the University of São Paulo. Originally from the U.S., she Mike Collins is the president and co-founder of Global Translation Systems, earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering and an M.S. in physics from the Inc. He has over 20 years of technical translation experience. He currently serves University of California, Los Angeles. She specializes in engineering, legal, and as the president of the Carolina Association of Translators and Interpreters. medical translations. Contact: [email protected]. Contact: [email protected]. Michael Wahlster is a technical English¡German translator with over 25 years of experience. He was co-founder and long-time manager of a photo type- setting and design company in Tokyo, Japan. He has been offering desktop pub- lishing services for more than 15 years, and web development services since the introduction of the Mosaic browser. Contact: [email protected]. We Want You! The ATA Chronicle enthusiastically encourages members and non-members to submit articles of interest. For Submission Guidelines, log onto www.atanet.org/chronicle. The ATA Chronicle is published 11 times per year, with a combined November/December issue. Submission deadlines are two months prior to publication date. 6 The ATA Chronicle I October 2007 ATA Oct07-SF.qxd 10/18/07 7:39 PM Page 7 From the Executive Director Walter Bacak, CAE [email protected] Changing of the Guard Thanks Marian: With this Welcome Jiri: ATA has been fortu- on the Board as Directors Dorothee year’s elections, ATA will see a nate enough to have highly qualified Racette and Tony Roder have decided change in leadership. First, ATA members willing to serve as president. not to run again. Dorothee will stay on President Marian S. Greenfield fin- The run continues. On November 2, to serve as chair of the Business ishes her two-year term. It has been an President-elect Jiri Stejskal will begin Practices Education Committee (which honor to work with Marian.