DE TRANSFERENDO

Englisch in 100 Wörtern und der Zauber von Bath

2011-12-11T17:51:00.012Z

Eine Wörterfundgrube für Wörterpersonen: Am 28. November 2011 hielt Sprachwissenschaftler und Autor David Crystal einen Vortrag zu seinem neuen Buch „The Story of English in 100 Words“ im Toppings Bookshop in Bath. Der sympathische Buchladen war wie geschaffen für einen Vortrag zu einem Wortthema, denn die Zuhörerschaft saß inmitten von Bücherregalen. David Crystal ist mir aus meinen Unterlagen zur Übersetzungstheorie bekannt, daher habe ich mich gefreut, ihn einmal in natura zu erleben. Er hatte die Herausforderung angenommen, die Geschichte der englischen Sprache in exakt 100 repräsentativen Wörtern darzustellen. Der Vortrag dauerte genau 1 Stunde; in dieser kurzen Zeit war ein weiter sprachgeschichtlicher Bogen zu spannen. Ich gehe hier nur auf das erste und das hundertste Wort in seinem Buch ein.

Das erste Wort ist roe (bzw. raihan nach der lateinischen Schreibweise), weil es vermutlich das erste im Englischen niedergeschriebene Wort ist. Es stammt aus dem 5. Jahrhundert und wurde 1929 bei Ausgrabungen ungefähr 3 Meilen auf einem angelsächsischen Friedhof südlich von Norwich gefunden, eingeritzt als Runeninschrift auf einem Fußknöchel in einer Urne. Heute wird angenommen, dass sich roe auf roe deer (Reh) bezieht.

Als hundertstes Wort hat es Twittersphere in David Crystals Buch geschafft. Die Twittersphäre ist sozusagen die gesamte Twitterwelt. Anhand des Konsonantenclusters tw in Twitter wurden Hunderte neuer Wörter gebastelt, u.a. twictionary, twidentity theft, twaddiction, twitterhea, twitterati, twitterholic und celebritweet. Auch bemerkenswert ist der Begriff Twitterscore, der aussagt, wie viele Tweets während eines Vortrags gesendet werden. Zu solch fantastischen Wortneuschöpfungen ist die englische Sprache in der Lage! Aber nicht nur ihre Wortneuschöpfungs-, sondern auch ihre Wortsaugkraft ist beachtlich: Pro Tag kommen 3 Wörter neu in der englischen Sprache hinzu.

Bath – für mich einer der ganz besonders schönen Orte auf unserem Erdenrund – war gestern Abend erneut Ausflugsziel, diesmal anlässlich des Weihnachtsessens der regionalen Übersetzergruppe WRG (Western Regional Group). Diesmal trafen wir uns nicht wie sonst im Pub The Bull in Hinton, einem Dorf versteckt östlich von Bristol, sondern erstmals im italienischen Restaurant Aio günstig gelegen in der Innenstadt von Bath. „Rundum wertvoll“ lautet mein Prädikat für diesen Abend: Intensive Gespräche über Berufliches und Privates, weihnachtliche Gaumenfreuden und nicht zuletzt das zauberhafte Flair von Bath ließen diesen Ausflug zu einem gelungenen Vorweihnachtserlebnis werden.

(Nachbemerkung: Den eingangs verwendeten Begriff Wörterperson gibt es im Deutschen nicht, soweit ich weiß. Er erschien mir aber passend als direkte Übersetzung des Begriffs word person, der im Englischen gerne verwendet wird, um auszudrücken, dass sich eine Person viel mit Wörtern beschäftigt.)

Venturefest Bristol 2011

2011-11-23T11:01:00.005Z

Translation is sometimes perceived as an ivory tower activity, far removed from the realities of technological innovation and social interaction. But quite the contrary is true: translation is very much grounded in reality and constantly reaches out to the worlds of modern technology, science and business.

This blog article is about a business event which took place right on my doorstep. On 3 November the new Bristol & Bath science park opened its doors to Venturefest Bristol 2011. Organised by Science City Bristol, it brought together local businesses, investors, academics and the business support community, and was promoted as a catalyst for accelerating the growth of new ventures. I instantly knew this was a must-go event: the science park is within walking (or for me cycling) distance from where I live in Emersons Green. Attendance was free, and I made sure I wasn’t overly busy work-wise that week.

It was a flying, but worthwhile visit: I had a good look around, picked up some leaflets and brochures, made a few new contacts, took and gave away business cards – I even had the honour of being shown around the premises by Richard Pitkin, director of the science park Innovation Centre. The Innovation Centre with its hot-desking spaces, high-tech labs and bespoke buildings is a stylish, modern place with a very pleasant feel to it indeed. With economic prospects generally looking gloomy, it was refreshing to mingle with locals and feel that overall sense of business optimism!

The event focussed on demonstrating new business ideas, for example a new piece of software called Poetiks. It was explained to me by its developer Greg Garrad. Poetiks is designed as an e-learning tool for the classroom. It’s a web application that accelerates poem analyses via an easy-to-use interface, taking the tedious, repetitive work out of the analysis process. More information can be found at http://www.poetiks.com/. Funnily enough, poetry, like translation, is sometimes pidgeonholed as an unprofitable art, but this isn’t why I’ve picked out Poetiks for this blog article. (Translation, by the way, is not an unprofitable art.)

I’ve picked out Poetiks for this blog article because of its striking similarities to translation software. Translation software too takes some of the dull, mechanical work off translators’ shoulders. This frees up room for the intricate component of the translation process which requires human intellectual – and often inspirational − input. In general terms, translation software speeds up the translation process by storing previously translated words, phrases and sentences packaged as so-called ‘translation units’.

As I mentioned, translation constantly reaches out to the worlds of modern technology, science and business. Translation and technology are inextricably linked. I’m convinced that translation quality nowadays is better across the board than it was in the pre-internet era. It seems odd to think that such a wealth of research possibilities didn’t exist not that long ago. Translators today work in a very computerised, internet-integrated, highly networked environment. Here’s something that may be worth checking out: one of the latest, intriguing developments is that memoQ 5.0, as the first translation tool to do so, now features an integrated GoogleMT machine translation plugin.

iENA 2011: Im Kontakt mit Erfindern

2011-11-05T21:55:00.010Z

Lässt sich Putzmotivation mit einem neuartigen, auf einer erfinderischen Tätigkeit beruhenden, freundlich lächelnden Marienkäfer steigern? Oder mit einem über den Stand der Technik hinausgehenden Putzroboter?

Die iENA, die internationale Erfindermesse am 29. Oktober im Nürnberger Messezentrum, bot eine anregende Abwechslung zum Übersetzeralltag, in dem Patente ja immer nur in nüchterner PDF-Verpackung auf meinem Schreibtisch landen. Anschaulich und zum Anfassen waren dort verschiedenste Erfindungen ausgestellt. Nicht zuletzt auch deshalb, weil ich den letzten Monaten gemerkt habe, dass die Nachfrage nach Übersetzungen im Patentwesen erheblich zugenommen hat, wollte ich mich einmal mitten auf die Drehscheibe des internationalen Erfindungswesens begeben!

Im Mittelpunkt der iENA stand natürlich der Erfinder. Beim Symposium diskutierten Vertreter aus Wirtschaft und Politik mit Erfindern über die Probleme der richtigen Vermarktung und Herangehensweise von der kreativen Idee bis hin zum marktreifen Produkt. Mehrmals wurde betont, der Erfinder selbst müsse auf diesem Weg ein Allrounder sein (indem er etwa auch Geschäftssinn zeige und sich mit Vermarktungsideen auseinandersetze); nur so könne er mit seinem neuen Produkt letztlich auch Erfolg haben. Ferner sei es wichtig, auch schon die Jugend für die Technik zu begeistern und an technische Berufe heranzuführen.

Sehr praktisch waren an dem Tag nicht nur meine eigenen Infofaltblätter mit einer Übersicht über Elisabeth Hippe-Heisler Translation Services, sondern auch diese Hefte, die ich mir von meinem britischen Berufsverband ITI hatte zuschicken lassen. (Auf Englisch sind sie bekannt unter dem Titel „Translation – Getting it right“.)

Die Hefte enthalten Einkaufshilfetipps und -informationen rund um die Vergabe von Aufträgen über Übersetzungsdienstleistungen. In kurzen Kapiteln wird darin u.a. auf Themen wie Kosten, Stilfragen, Fachwissen oder maschinelle Übersetzung eingegangen. Bevor ein Auftrag erteilt wird, sollte zudem immer überlegt werden: Ist die Übersetzung wirklich erforderlich? Ganz allgemein sollen die Hefte der Stressvermeidung dienen! Auch wird zum Beispiel darauf hingewiesen, dass im Rahmen der Übersetzungsarbeit gestellte Fragen zum Ausgangstext ein Zeichen für die Gewissenhaftigkeit und die Professionalität des Übersetzers oder der Übersetzerin sind. Denn Fragen ist Gold.

Zum Schluss einige bemerkenswerte Erfindungen, die auf der iENA vorgestellt wurden:

- Eine elastische, sich der Körperform anpassende Bade- und Wellnesswannenliege – wassersparend und auch als Gästebett verwendbar

- Ein Toiletteneinsatz mit dem Namen „POO-STOP“ zur Sicherung der Stuhlprobe − in einen Briefumschlag passend − und zur Erleichterung der Darmkrebsvorsorge

- Eine elektronische Zigarette mit langer Batterielebensdauer und USB-Ladegerät – beworben mit dem Slogan „no ash, no fire, no butts = no waste“

- Ein Putzroboter − geeignet für mehr als nur kleine Räume oder nur den Haushalt

- Ein auf einem Besenstiel aufzubringender Aufsatz zu dem Zweck, dass der Besen nicht mehr umfallen kann, sobald man ihn an die Wand lehnt – originell aufgemacht als freundlich lächelnder Marienkäufer (jawohl: zu dem Zweck, die Putzmotivation zu steigern!)

Thank you for your feedback

2011-11-02T12:24:00.006Z

Thank you to all who wrote to me with positive feedback on my last two blog entries! It also was a great buzz for me to receive a tweet from Susan Cain, who I mentioned last time, and to hear that she too liked my blog entry about "Here’s my story: Why I became a translator".

Thank you also to my native English-speaking colleagues for taking the time to read through the final drafts of my English blog posts and for checking that my English sounds okay. I do appreciate it very much.

Here’s my story: Why I became a translator

2011-10-14T22:12:00.005+01:00

By the time I turned twenty I had already been to almost 150 funerals. As a teenager I supplemented my pocket money by working as a church organist, mainly for funerals because they fitted in perfectly with school days. However I never considered music for a minute as something that I would want to pursue as a career.

This is because I enjoy quiet activities. I therefore ruled out both music and teaching as career options, which obviously are not quiet activities. Translation, by contrast, is carried out unobserved, in the background. It gives me ample room to think a thought through to the end, and the time for tweaking and polishing the text. Only at the end of it all do I present the final product. This is what appeals to me about translation.

Can you remember your reply to the question of what you wanted to be as an adult? Susan Cain, formerly a Wall Street lawyer, now a negotiations consultant and author of “QUIET: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking”, makes the excellent observation that as children we could probably judge much better what type of career would suit us than later in life as adults. Susan’s blog article, which includes more illuminating insights, can be found here: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/quiet-the-power-introverts/201104/5-tips-finding-work-you-love. I remember that at primary school I aspired to become an author of children’s books. It is clear that that type of work is close to what has become my bread-earning career. Translation is after all a writing activity.

I also remember an incident later at grammar schooI which with hindsight shows that the course for my becoming a translator was set. I didn’t mind Maths too much, but I never was overly excited about it − except on one occasion: I asked my Italian pen-friend to send me her calculus exercises so that I could compare the Italian in them side by side with the German in my own calculus homework. It may seem weird to become excited about such a thing, but it is exactly what fascinates linguists.

The idea of working with languages in some way or another had always appealed to me. A huge number of jobs nowadays involves an exposure to foreign languages to a greater or lesser degree. If, however, you are striving for full immersion in a foreign language, there are, strictly speaking, only 3 career options to choose from: teaching, interpreting, and translation.

You might think it’s obvious that because I have two translation degrees I always knew I wanted to be a translator, but it wasn’t as straightforward as that. My two translation degree courses had not taught me much about the practical aspects of working as a translator. After completing my studies, I was not sure whether translation really was for me. I also found it hard to break through the catch-22 situation of “no experience no work”, which naturally affects many newcomers to the profession. What in the end − almost miraculously − helped my business get off the ground was the PSG, the business skills course for translators run by the ITI. I could suddenly see very clearly where I was heading! May I take the opportunity to say another big thank you to my mentors on the PSG 2007 for their advice and tremendous support.

I think music is nice as long as it is enjoyed in moderation − to help you unwind after work, for example. I have not played the organ for a while now, but am planning to take it up again in a couple of years from now. Oh, and by the way, in my free time I listen to good German rock music, with Herbert Grönemeyer among my favourites. I attended the Grönemeyer concert at the Munich Olympic Stadium in June this year!

Top 10 misconceptions about translation and the translation profession

2011-09-16T12:54:00.003+01:00

Many misconceptions exist regarding translation and the translation profession. Given that they are so widespread, I wonder if they are ineradicable? Below are 10 of the most common misunderstandings and misconceptions about translators and translation.

1) "Translation is just word-for-word substitution." Nothing could be further from the truth; translation is all about taking the meaning behind the words and expressing this clearly in the target language.

2) "All you need is a computer and some software to become a translator." Quite the contrary; to be a good translator you must possess actual linguistic skills. The computer does not (and cannot) do the job for you.

3) "A dictionary is all that is needed for someone to begin working as a translator." Far from it! With their snippets of information, dictionaries are helpful for getting you on the right track to figuring out the meaning, but nothing more than that.

4) "A translation, when it is finished, is something that is set in stone." Please note: A translation, in theory, is never complete. It may seem perfect after checking it 50 times, but you will still change at least one thing when you check it the 51st time. Also, no translation is exactly like another: Give a text to 100 different translators, and you will get back exactly 100 different translations.

5) "To be a translator you must have a degree in translation." Not necessarily; a translation degree is not a sine qua non for becoming a translator. There is no set career path in translation.

6) "As a medical translator you must have a degree in medicine." No one doubts that having such a degree is useful. In practice, however, many medical translators have not necessarily studied medicine. If a medical translator had studied medicine (law, engineering, etc.), she would probably be working as a doctor (lawyer, engineer, etc.), not as a translator.

7) "Translators are willing to work for peanuts." While some translators are indeed willing to work for peanuts, others prefer to earn a decent income. Ultimately, it is a matter of where you position yourself on the market, what type of work you accept, and who your clients are.

8) "Translation is an intellectual and lonely pursuit." Intellectual – yes, lonely – no. Translators never work in complete isolation because they are in ongoing contact with clients and fellow translators – often to a much greater degree than most people may think! These communications can take place via e-mail or phone, on online forums, and in person.

9) "As a translator you can speak and translate between many different languages." Contrary to popular belief, having just one language combination is absolutely sufficient and will generate enough work for a full-time occupation. Translating from a foreign language into your mother tongue (or language of habitual use) is the norm.

That translators don’t necessarily have to be able to chatter away in the language from which they translate is another matter and leads me right to my next, and probably the most classic, misconception about translation:

10) "Being a translator means you either get dumped into an interpreting booth or you showcase your language skills in face-to-face interaction, out in the business world, all day long." Let me set the record straight and repeat what must have been said umpteen times before: A translator works with the written word; an interpreter handles the spoken word.

Ineradicable? – We shall see!

Buchempfehlung: „Deutsch für junge Profis“ (Wolf Schneider) – Guter Sprachstil auf den Punkt gebracht

2011-07-20T20:19:00.007+01:00

Wer wie wir das Textschmiedehandwerk ausübt, muss gut schreiben können, aber wie schreibt man eigentlich gut? Stilführer mit Anweisungen dazu, wie sich sprachliche Werkstücke in Formgebung, Gefügestruktur und Oberfläche schmieden lassen, gibt es zuhauf, und sie alle geben irgendwo etwas her. Doch richtig vom Hocker gehauen hat mich kürzlich der Stilführer „Deutsch für junge Profis“ von Wolf Schneider. Ihn lege ich besonders denjenigen ans Herz, deren Hauptwerkzeug im Beruf die deutsche Sprache ist.

Warum? Weil Wolf Schneiders Sprachrezepte einleuchtend sind. Weil er gekonnt formuliert und dabei genau das umsetzt, was er seinen Lesern als guten, starken Stil empfiehlt. Weil er stilistische Missstände aufdeckt. Weil jeder seiner Sätze selbst wie ein Pfeil ist. Denn wie Pfeile sollten Hauptsätze seiner Meinung nach sein, ab und zu unterbrochen von Nebensätzen, die Kaskaden gleichkommen. Wolf Schneider, „Sprachpapst“ und Bestsellerautor, beschreibt in 32 Rezepten, was die Kunst ausmacht, Texte so zu formulieren, dass sie beachtet werden, ja vielleicht sogar Sympathie stiften.

Denn nicht nur Präzision und Geschicklichkeit werden Übersetzern und Übersetzerinnen abverlangt, sondern eben auch Stilempfinden; wie wir es schärfen können, erklärt uns Wolf Schneider. Er schreibt über Satzlawinen, über Phrasen-Leimer, über Luther und Twitter. Er räumt auf mit unheilvollen Sprachregeln, die uns im Deutschunterricht einst eingebläut wurden, aber keineswegs guter Stil sind. Allein mit korrekter Grammatik ist es nämlich nicht getan. Schlimmer noch: Mit korrekter Grammatik wird der Leser sogar oft schnell vergrault. Und wer die Aufmerksamkeit des Lesers nicht nach spätestens 20 Sekunden erregt hat, hat es sich meist mit ihm schon verscherzt. Das Schicksal, nicht zu Ende gelesen zu werden, ereilt vor allem Blogs, Zeitungsartikel, Pressemitteilungen und Werbetexte, die – so Wolf Schneider – „blind in einer mäßig oder gar nicht interessierten Welt landen“.

Das Buch empfiehlt: Weniger Geschwätz sollte angestrebt werden, stattdessen wohlüberlegte, klug bemessene sprachliche Redundanz. Gerade im Internet ufern die Mitteilungsbedürfnisse mancherorts aus: Gemailt, gesimst, gebloggt, getwittert wird viel, oft zu viel, manchmal zum Reißausnehmen. Besonders populär, so stelle ich fest, ist heutzutage die Kommunikationsaktivität des Facebookens. Nebenbei angemerkt: Dass auch schon der Name des virtuellen Treffpunkts Facebook verbalisiert daherkommt, ist zwar haarsträubend, dürfte aber eigentlich keinen mehr sonderlich verwundern. (Siehe Duden http://szenesprachenwiki.de/definition/facebooken, Neues Wörterbuch der Szenesprachen, Wortart: Verb, Bedeutung: sich auf der Website facebook.com herumtreiben, Beispiel: Ich facebooke drei Stunden täglich.)

„Deutsch für junge Profis“ ist meine Buchempfehlung an alle, die attraktiv schreiben wollen. Um zu meinem Bild der Textschmiede zurückzukehren, das ich für diesen Blogartikel geformt habe: Wer sich das nächste Mal dranmacht, vorliegendes Sprachmaterial mit dem Schmiedehammer auf dem Amboss zu kneten, sollte sich an diesem Stilführer orientieren. Darin werden nämlich die Grundtechniken der Textschmiedekunst erklärt. Er ist eine Muss-Lektüre für alle, die geschliffene Sprache lieben. Für alle, die ihren Sprachstil zurechthämmern wollen. Inspirierend und unterhaltsam. Auf den Punkt gebracht.

Face-to-Face-Marketing: Vom weiten Sprung über den eigenen Schatten

2011-06-29T19:08:00.003+01:00

Am wohlsten fühlen wir uns und am liebsten feilen wir an unserer Ich-Marke in der heimischen, heimeligen Cyberwelt. Bietet sie uns doch all die unumschränkten Möglichkeiten, uns elektronisch zu profilieren, und noch viel mehr. Wie aber steht es um Face-to-Face-Marketing? Also einmal unter Leute gehen, um zu erzählen, was Übersetzer/-innen eigentlich machen? Darüber informieren, dass es diesen Beruf wirklich gibt? Face-to-Face-Marketing bedeutet einen weiten Sprung über den eigenen Schatten, aber es zahlt sich aus. Zwar hatte ich mir vorher keine Illusionen darüber gemacht, dass ich bei dieser Gelegenheit tatsächlich neue Kunden finden würde, doch allein die Erfahrung war durchweg positiv.

Am Freitagabend des 24. Juni machte ich mich also auf den Weg nach Bath ins vornehme Bailbrook House Hotel, ein bisschen nervös, doch mit der nötigen Beherztheit, eigenes Business und die Branche einmal so zu repräsentieren. Obwohl die Networking-Veranstaltung den Namen „Ladies' Night“ trug, waren auch Gentlemen herzlich willkommen und zahlreich vertreten. Ausgerichtet wurde sie von der Small Business Focus Ltd., einer gemeinnützigen Organisation, welche die Interessen von Kleinbetrieben in Bath and Northeast Somerset (BANES) fördert und vertritt.

Die Variationsbreite der präsentierten Geschäftsideen und Produkte reichte von Floristik über Farb-/Typempfehlungen bis hin zu konkreter Unternehmensberatung. Für professionelle Hilfe bei der Lebenslaufgestaltung warb eine Dame neben mir am Stand, an dem ich meine eigenen Hochglanzbroschüren, Kugelschreiber, Blöcke und Visitenkarten auslegen durfte. Computerreparatur gegen Babysitterdienste? Beim Gemeinschaftsprojekt BathLETS werden seit 1992 solche und andere Leistungen unentgeltlich gegen sog. Olivers-Scheine ausgetauscht. Auch verblüffende Parallelen traten zutage: Wörter sind nicht nur das Hauptwerkzeug meiner Branche, sondern auch von Yvonne le Grys mit Words that Work©. Sie bietet Consultingleistungen an zu der Frage: Wie drücke ich mich beim schriftlichen oder mündlichen Formulieren optimal aus, um das, was ich sagen will oder muss, effektiv zu vermitteln? Bei einem unverhofften Beratungsgespräch mit ihr unter vier Augen bot sich mir eine super Gelegenheit, einen genaueren Einblick in meine eigene Branche zu geben. Die perfekte Chance, Selbstmarketing zu üben − jenseits der Cyberwelt!

Mein Fazit:
1. Einmal nicht Schreibtischperspektive
Gerade weil die Veranstaltung nicht im Sprachenfokus stand, vermittelte sie neue Perspektiven und Impulse, gab mir Denkanstöße für meine weitere unternehmerische Marschroute und bewirkte nicht zuletzt eine gegenseitige Befruchtung der Branchen. Und als weitere neue Perspektive eröffnete sich mir außerdem ein fast schon pittoresker Blick hinab auf Bath! Abwechslung ist eben auch die Würze des Übersetzerinnenlebens.
2. Feuer und Flamme
Was Selbstmarketing betrifft, können wir von anderen, die für ihre Geschäfte die Werbetrommel rühren, noch viel lernen. Denn mit Begeisterung und Hingabe präsentieren lässt sich jeder Geschäftsbetrieb, und sei er noch so klein. Gerade wir in der Übersetzungsbranche müssen uns wirklich nicht verstecken. Feuer und Flamme für das, was wir tun, ist durchaus nicht unangebracht und sollte die Devise sein.

Your online presence as a shop window

2011-06-15T20:28:00.002+01:00

Imagine a potential customer, maybe a customer that you have always wanted to work for, strolling about in the sprawling, over-populated internet megalopolis and then by chance turning into your street − about to walk past your shop window! Yours will be just one among innumerable other shop windows of translators offering their products to the world. What does it look like? Are you pleased with it? In what ways have you exploited the available on-line communication channels to build your web presence and identity?

Anne Besnier’s presentation on 4 June 2011 offered attendees a structured approach to on-line marketing and communication for translators and interpreters. It was based on the dissertation of her Masters in Translation, which she has recently completed at the University of Bristol. Anne brought up a number of facts to keep in mind: Nowadays with the internet, and especially social media, you can easily get lost in no time at all. Social media are often regarded as sources of gossip, a waste of time, and sometimes even throw up confidentiality issues. Anne noted that for this reason two-thirds of UK businesses have banned employees from using these platforms. On the other hand − and this is where self-employed linguists can gain immensely − they offer ways of low-cost marketing and of staying connected with other language industry members. To avoid social media overwhelming you, effective planning is key. You might, for example, include a social media plan within your marketing plan. By the way, I found out by chance, and think this is amazing, that Birmingham City University now runs an MA in Social Media, designed to further an understanding of how social media can support a business’s aims.

A professional website can be compared to a shop window which embodies a translator's professional brand. Anne recommended a simple and easy-to-navigate design. Overloaded websites, i.e. cluttered with too much content, should be avoided. To come back to my question in the scenario above ("Are you pleased with your shop window?"), it is interesting that the majority of respondents in Anne's survey said they did not like their own websites. An on-line shop window does not necessarily have to be a website, but can also take other forms, e.g. having a profile on LinkedIn, Facebook, ProZ, Translator’s Cafe, or blogging.

Anne’s presentation gave me the impetus to explore new ways of presenting the human face of my own business. Joining Twitter (though not addressed by Anne specifically) has actually been on top of my to-do list for a while.

I actually had a personal interest in learning about Anne's research results as I had participated in the survey and interview for her dissertation. I featured as the respondent who said that she did not publish blog posts regularly due to lack of time, but used her blog merely for offering an insight into her life as a translator. I think a blog is also a great tool for clearing up a few of the widespread misconceptions about the translation profession. Anne mentioned that a typical blogger publishes around 100 blog entries per year. She defined blogs generally as personal on-line journals, which offer an excellent way of creating connections with other like-minded people.

Despite the sheer number of zealous bloggers already out on the web, there is still most definitely a niche market for new blogs, for example if you work in a very specialised area and want to offer some insight into it.

Anne’s presentation was run as a professional event of the ITI's Western Regional Group (WRG) in the YHA conference room on Bristol’s harbourside, just by Pero's Bridge. It was followed by a ProZ powwow at the Watershed, the ever-popular, perfect place for eating, drinking and socialising in the centre of Bristol.

ITI Conference 2011 (continued): Insularity, an incomprehensible dialect, T-shirts, and lots more stimulation

2011-05-23T09:50:00.005+01:00

Before I expand on the aspects in the title of my second conference blog post, a few words on the venue would be in order. The original, chosen venue in Birmingham due to be provided by Conference Aston was, as it turned out, too close to two student accommodation tower blocks that were to be blown up on the conference Sunday! In response to the demolition plans, ITI had managed to secure exclusive use of the Gallery conference suite on the first floor of the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) instead. Exclusive use meant it allowed for staging multiple parallel sessions. (By the way, the conference also included a number of sessions relevant to interpreters only. Because I exclusively translate and never interpret, I did not attend any of them, and they are therefore not covered in my blog posts.) The Gallery offered excellent facilities and was overall, as everyone agreed, a first-class venue. The NEC as a whole, on the other hand, to me seemed a slightly weird place. I was having a little wander around to get my bearings on the pre-conference evening, only to find out that the NEC was a huge, sprawling, and seemingly deserted complex. In fact, the only places where I could find a bit of bustle in the area surrounding the venue was Birmingham Airport nearby and the various hotels. One of the nice sides of having a little wander around: I bumped into, made friends with and walked back to the hotel with another translator who had had the same idea of having a dry run!

This leads me to another popular part of the weekend: the conference fringe with plenty of opportunities for socialising and networking. Like a lot of other conference attendees, I was staying at the Ramada NEC. The Ramada also was the setting for a relaxed and friendly dinner as part of an informal pre-conference get-together on the Friday evening.

I am now going to provide a round-up of two particularly stimulating conference sessions:

Betti Moser and Isabel Hurtado de Mendoza’s practical workshop aimed at the bottom line that working alone does not mean that we can develop an insular mentality. No freelance translator is an island. Human interaction plays an important part in our lives as well, especially in our relationships with our TC or direct clients, project managers, colleagues, revisers, accountants, family members, childminders or others. The following metaphor had been chosen for the conference programme: We cannot just raise the drawbridge and lower the portcullis when the odd bit of interaction looms! The workshop also addressed a number of awkward or difficult-to-handle situations that can come up in a freelance translator’s work life, including: ways of approaching group translation projects; criticism management; handling dubious job offers; midway cancellations of projects; being asked to carry out free test translations; etc. Betti and Isabel had put a lot of thought and preparation into the workshop. Being practising translators themselves, they were well placed to offer knowledgeable input.

Jonathan Downie’s presentation was about the extraordinary story of his recruitment as the world’s first interpreter of Glaswegian to assist business clients baffled by the local dialect. It sparked an avalanche of media attention and put him high up Google rankings. The title "Maw, Ah’m Oan the Telly!" in Glaswegian, incomprehensible to me and probably a few others as well, was without doubt an excellent hook for the presentation. Have I whetted your appetite? To read the full story see the relevant BBC article at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/8306582.stm or simply google "Glaswegian interpreter". (By the way, it would not surprise me at all if one day a similar story hit the headlines in the region in Germany where I come from. Readers of this article who are familiar with the Central Franconian dialect will know what I am talking about.) Jonathan went on to share his lessons learnt from the experience: Opportunities can come from anywhere. This means you can make yourself known without having to spend thousands. Jonathan also probably posed the biggest challenge of the whole conference for anyone to take away and have a good think about: What is it that makes YOU special so that it would fit on a T-shirt? What is your USP? Jonathan recommended presenting this USP in the best possible way.

To conclude, I totally agree with Mike Hanson, a French to English translator, who says: “I found it a very sociable and stimulating conference. I really enjoy going to ITI conferences and other events − it gets you out of the office and reminds you that you are a professional doing a real job, and there are plenty of colleagues out there doing exactly the same. You also catch up with colleagues who you may not have seen for years, as well as meeting new ones!”

"Expanding Horizons": ITI Conference 2011

2011-05-14T10:29:00.009+01:00

The ITI’s 25th Anniversary Conference, which was held over the weekend of 8th and 9th May at the NEC Gallery in Birmingham, promised a wide range of topics and speakers and a fabulous opportunity to hear about the latest trends, ideas and techniques across the translation and interpreting professions. But did it live up to this promise? I very much believe it did. "Expanding Horizons" was a very apt conference title indeed as the conference set out to broaden participants' horizons in terms of, for example, what makes a truly professional, committed and sought-after translator. In many respects it also addressed the question: how do we as translators build and maintain the image that we want to convey?

As for new trends, there were, unsurprisingly, several references to machine translation (MT). Machine translation, as is clear to anyone inside and outside the sphere of translation, is gaining more and more ground; at the same time, it is also clear that human translators will never be outdone by MT. Terry Oliver, in his talk on the upsides and downsides of translators being human, highlighted a number of qualities that human translators typically bring to the job: they possess language skills; they are able to consider the wider context; they can make associations; they are capable of lateral thinking; they read between the lines; they spot errors; etc. They are, to add my two cents, the most prominent reasons why machines will never replace humans. I think that these qualities should be part of our response to the widespread "I-can’t-believe-you-have-just-told-me-you-earn-a-living-being-a-translator-when-there-can’t-be-a-demand-for-this-I-mean-with-everything-that-computers-can-do-nowadays" attitude. Several more hints on how to benefit and ultimately prosper in light of the rising importance of MT were also available over the course of the weekend.

Nicholas Ostler, in the conference keynote speech on the topic "English: The Last Lingua Franca?", even floated the question of whether MT is capable of disrupting our whole world language system. In future, interlingual contacts will presumably no longer be through traditional intermediaries. Nicholas touched on the likely decline of the phenomenon of "native-speakerism", and he envisages World English possibly turning into a sort of "Wimbledonized English", to draw on a metaphor popular in the financial world. To use a sentence from the conference programme, which featured in the keynote speech conclusion: Will the fall of English as a shared language of communication be followed, not by the dominance of another, stronger tongue, but by a return to Babel in which technology rather than human language facilitates communication?

Other noteworthy trends addressed at the conference were those subject areas most in demand at the moment, as outlined by Sarah Griffin-Mason. According to recent figures, technology, medicine, and marketing, in that order, are the areas where most translation work is currently placed. Tourism also is on the rise as tourism industry members have become aware of the importance of how they present themselves to potential customers.

I also gleaned from the speaker/audience comments that the traditional role of the translator is undergoing change. It seems that in the future, translators, much more than ever before, will be regarded as writing experts, style professionals, or language consultants. Jonathan Downie emphasised that translators have to be excellent communicators. (More on his presentation to follow.) I feel that target language competence will more and more be viewed as the essential skill that a translator will have to bring to the job. And while certainly not a new trend, an indispensable part of the changing translation environment that was nicely put in the conference programme: Gone are the days of working alone at home or at the back of the garden, hunched over a typewriter or a word processor. The Internet is here to stay and be part of our lives. We now work and live on the web.

My disappointment about Richard Delaney not being able to lead the session on "Translating Legislation" was quickly outweighed by the announcement that Chris Durban would step in. She seized this opportunity to present her eye-opening study for which, taking on the role of a mystery shopper, she commissioned a number of translations from various translation companies and also looked at the result produced by Google Translate. Chris advocates, as she puts it, acknowledging maternity or paternity for your work; in other words, ideally you should sign your work. As LSPs we’re in for the long haul; there simply are no quick fixes. For an interesting read of her experiment, see Betti Moser’s blog post at http://www.apriltext.co.uk/translation/the-thorny-issue-of-quality.

This inevitably leads to the issue of quality in translation. Ensuring such quality is, first and foremost, about constantly fine-tuning and improving the style of your target language. Sarah Griffin-Mason's advice on how to achieve this was valid and simple: Read, read, read, read, read, read, read and write. Or, as an alternative, use search engines in a sophisticated manner. This, by the way, linked in with Andy Walker’s practical presentation on "Better Web Searching for Translators". He explained how to find and check (sometimes obscure) terminology and locate background information on the internet by illustrating the huge variety of Google search operators. I, for one, took away a lot of new knowledge from his presentation. Quality in translation work can also shine through in other ways. According to Chris Durban, putting meaningful questions, if necessary, to the client is a sign of quality and commitment. I agree this should be a habit for whenever ambiguities or obscurities arise in the source text.

When I started out, my experienced fellow colleagues who acted as mentors explained that the language product that translators sell to clients, rather than anything else, is this: a language solution. This solution should be seen as something tailored to the client's needs. I admit I initially found it hard to reconcile myself with thinking along those lines. But, over the years, that idea has helped me tremendously in creating my language products. The fact that clients wish to be provided with a source of language solutions was also put forward by Terry Oliver. This goes hand in hand with the notion of "seeing things through the client’s eyes", as he put it. Terry remarked that the Germans refer to this as "Mitdenken"; he noted there is no proper English equivalent for this term. It is what clients appreciate and what they are willing to pay for. Relationships with clients ultimately stand or fall based on communication, respect and trust.

More on the ITI Conference to follow…

Recent developments in patent translation

2011-03-25T22:43:00.002Z

On 16 March I listened in to a webinar on patent translation co-presented by Paul Clarke, MITI and Charlotte Couchman, MITI. Paul and Charlotte have spent their whole working lives working in translation. In 1997 they set up a partnership, Lodestar Translations, which specialises in IP and technical translations. The webinar was mainly directed at beginners, but also included tips for more experienced translators. Paul and Charlotte described general patentability requirements, talked us through the anatomy of a patent and pointed out useful resources for translating patents.

The webinar also addressed recent developments in patent translation. In the last few years, patent translators have felt the severe impact of the London Agreement, which came into force on 1 May 2008. The London Agreement set out to cut down considerably on translation costs for the filing of patents where patent protection is sought across Europe. (For more information see http://www.ipo.gov.uk/pro-p-londonagreement.htm.) In practice this means that patent translation volumes have decreased considerably. These are the facts that I, for example, have had to face in my language combination English to German: I would previously be asked to provide a translation of both the claims and the specification; nowadays, it is usually the claims only. Note that the claims only make up a small portion of what in the past would sometimes turn out to be juicy (read fairly lucrative) translation projects. At the time, I considered them to be juicy even though I only ever worked for patent translation companies, rather than direct clients. The implication arising from these recent developments is that patent translators have been required to branch out into new areas or (like me) concentrate more on their other, existing subject fields. It is true there is no longer a lot of work around in patent grant procedures. Yet there is still most definitely a certain requirement for patent translations either purely for information purposes or in patent opposition proceedings. Charlotte pointed out that the latter, due to the hybrid of technical and legal argumentation, can be very heavy-going.

Claims-only jobs can present various challenges. They often are so short in length that they only attract the minimum charge. Not all of them, admittedly, are short. I recently translated a set of claims comprising more than a whopping 6,000 words. This, however, seems to be an exception rather than the rule. Pricing for claims-only jobs should take account of the fact that working out the context is sometimes time-consuming. This particularly applies to mechanical engineering contexts where the appended drawings are often vital for understanding the text and therefore need to be examined closely. Patent translators often have to pull out all their syntax-mastering stops: In my last German blog post, I mentioned a patent claim that was longer than 1 page. According to Charlotte, who looks back on many years of translating patents, it is not at all unusual for a claim to be several pages long.

Paul and Charlotte, apart from explaining some important differences between UK and US claims wordings, also made a few general comments on the characteristics of patent speak. Although the patent jargon takes some getting used to, it is clearly ideal for TM systems as set phrases tend to occur repeatedly. Patent translation is perhaps the most literal type of translation imaginable. According to Paul, "literal" in this respect does not mean literal word-for-word translation, but rather the aim of completely and accurately reflecting the content of the text. This means that a patent translator has much less latitude to rewrite as s/he must never be more specific than the original.

Only a few days before the webinar was held, there was another setback for plans to establish a pan-European patent court because, according to the ECJ (European Court of Justice), it would conflict with the EU constitution. Introducing a unified European community patent would seem to imply that translation volumes in this field will fall even further.

Bath Literature Festival 2011: Abstecher in die Welt der literarischen Übersetzung

2011-03-05T22:30:00.004Z

„Übersetzt du denn auch Romane?“ Diese Frage wird mir oft im Freundes- und Bekanntenkreis gestellt, und ich beantworte sie stets mit nein, um anschließend zu erklären, womit ich mich tatsächlich befasse. Und es mag verrückt klingen, ist aber tatsächlich so: Selbst der trockenste Wirtschaftstext kann aus dem Übersetzungsblickwinkel betrachtet unglaublich spannend und faszinierend sein, ebenso das Recherchieren eines juristischen Fachausdrucks, dessen Übersetzung sich nicht einfach aus dem Ärmel schütteln geschweige denn einem Rechtswörterbuch entnehmen lässt, oder gar das syntaktische Strukturieren eines sich über eine ganze Seite erstreckenden Patentanspruchs. Die Welt der literarischen Übersetzung hingegen ist mir völlig fremd. Nichtsdestotrotz statte ich ihr sehr gerne ab und an einen Besuch ab.

So auch am vergangenen Mittwoch, als sich eine Gruppe literaturinteressierter Mitglieder der Western Regional Group anlässlich des Bath Literature Festival zu einem gemeinsamen Besuch einer Veranstaltung verabredet hatte, bei der die Literaturübersetzerin Anthea Bell − bekannt für ihre Übersetzungen klassischer und zeitgenössischer Belletristik − interviewt wurde und einen exklusiven Einblick in ihre Übersetzung von Stefan Zweigs Memoiren „The World of Yesterday“ gewährte. Dass Zweig einen Monat, nachdem er das Manuskript für dieses Buch bei seinem Verleger eingereicht hatte, 1942 im Exil in Brasilien, wohin er vor den Nazis geflohen war, zusammen mit seiner Ehefrau Selbstmord beging, erforderte ganz besonderes Einfühlungsvermögen und Fingerspitzengefühl in der Herangehensweise beim Übersetzen des Werks. Eine enorme Übersetzungsherausforderung, so Anthea Bell, sei es außerdem, wenn wie in diesem Fall der Autor, der ja auch nie vom Holocaust erfahren habe, nicht mehr zu interpretationsbedürftigen Textstellen befragt werden könne. Zur Erheiterung des Publikums trug sie auch Textauszüge vor, die zeigten, wie unaufgeklärt manche junge Leute im Wien an der Wende des 19. zum 20. Jahrhundert waren. Mit dem Statement, Übersetzen sei eine besonders eingehende Form des Lesens, brachte Anthea Bell eine Erfahrung auf den Punkt, die wohl alle Übersetzer/-innen nachvollziehen können. Der Applaus, den sie zur Würdigung ihrer Übersetzungsleistungen zum Abschluss erhielt, war laut, sozusagen um einen Gegenpol zur landläufigen Vorstellung von der Tätigkeit des Übersetzens zu schaffen, die, so der Interviewer, oft mit den Eigenschaften „still“ und „nicht gebührend gewürdigt“ assoziiert werde.

Nach dieser bereichernden und kurzweiligen einstündigen Veranstaltung, die in der Guildhall unweit der Römischen Bäder und der Bath Abbey stattfand, bot sich mir die günstige Gelegenheit, noch ein paar nicht minder bereichernde und kurzweilige Stunden im Restaurant Hall & Wood House in der Old King Street mit meinen sehr netten Kolleginnen der Western Regional Group bei einem gemütlichen Mittagessen zu verbringen. Und als ich am späten Nachmittag bei klirrender Kälte und strahlendem Sonnenschein meine ungefähr einstündige Heimfahrt auf dem Fahrrad antrat, dachte ich wieder einmal, dass es doch lohnend wäre, der reizvollen georgianischen Stadt Bath noch öfter einen Besuch abzustatten – ließen dies berufliche und familiäre Pflichten nur zu!

The past six months: What has changed for me and my business?

2011-02-09T17:13:00.003Z

Visitors to my blog will have noticed that I do not blog on a regular basis, but rather just occasionally. Today I shall take the opportunity to look back at the past six months and review what has changed for me and my business.

In August I had a new addition to my office equipment. After suffering from RSI symptoms in the neck/shoulder area earlier that year (extremely painful, but effectively cured in the end by my Chinese doctor), I decided to buy a new ergonomic desk chair. I went for the Swopper® by German manufacturer Aeris, designed for dynamic ergonomic seating that is good for both the spine and the whole body. It’s an amazing chair and worth every single penny. (If you decide to get one yourself, bear in mind that it will take a while to get used to, as it will take one to two weeks before you can sit on it longer than just few hours per day.)

Later the same month I gave my existing business plan a good revamp or, to be more precise, drew up a new one – in German this time. (Hello to you if you are an ex-PSG mentee like me and were taught on the business plan module.) I recommend having a business plan. It is a good exercise because afterwards you can see much more clearly where you are heading with your business. Putting something in writing has a psychological impact. It usually has the amazing effect that you tend to follow it – merely because it is there in black and white. In all likelihood you will achieve what you have told yourself you want to achieve because you have written it down. I admit mine is not a super-professional business plan, but it works very well for me. I recommend the book "Business Plan For Dummies" by Paul Tiffany and Steven Peterson for reference.

In September I entrusted my bookkeeping to an accountancy firm. It was one of the best decisions that I made last year. One of the reasons for that decision was that juggling different currencies was starting to get a bit over my head. The accounting side of the business is now much less of a chore, and I can deal with it more speedily and efficiently than before. I have been provided with proper cash books in Excel format exactly tailored to my business. Moreover, I now benefit from lots of useful accounting and tax advice. By the way, the fact that my accountants are based in Portishead brought with it two worthwhile trips to this lovely seaside resort, with lunches with my family at the Windmill Inn right on the seafront and breathtaking views across the Severn Estuary and the Welsh coast on the other side.

In October I joined the BDÜ Landesverband Bayern in Germany with a view to networking with translators, possibly finding more clients, and attending CPD training in my home country. The BDÜ („Bundesverband der Dolmetscher und Übersetzer“), the Federal Association of Interpreters and Translators, is Germany's largest association of professional linguists. Individual members belong to one of its constituent associations, which work at a regional level. I grew up in Bavaria (Central Franconia, to be more precise), so joining the Bavarian association was a natural choice.

Have you heard of Time Stamp? It‘s a free program that enables you to track the time that you spend on projects at your computer. Obviously, it’s a useful tool for stopping the exact time when you carry out assignments for which you apply an hourly charge. In January I started using it in my everyday work. It’s a simple and efficient tool for helping me ensure I don't overdo it. In other words, I am now reminded when I go over the limit and work too much. Time Stamp even includes a clever, little feature telling me when I can "go home". Although motivating myself for work is not usually a problem - if it were, I would certainly not be in this line of trade - I find it actually increases my motivation even more. Another useful feature lets you build in slack time for phone calls or breaks.

Vorsorgen für das Alter - am besten privat

2010-11-13T21:15:00.009Z

Am Tag der Veranstaltung der ITI Western Regional Group an der University of Bath am 16. Oktober fand im Anschluss an den Workshop über Work-Life-Balance (oder – für diejenigen, denen ein deutscher Ausdruck hierfür lieber ist – das ausgewogene Verhältnis zwischen Berufs- und Privatleben) noch ein Vortrag über Altersversorgung für Freiberufler statt. Über dieses stets hochaktuelle Thema informierten Sarah Neale und Sally Moore von Morgan Stone Independent Ltd., einem Finanzberatungsunternehmen aus Thornbury. (Thornbury, nebenbei angemerkt, ist ein wunderschönes Örtchen nördlich von Bristol mit atemberaubendem Blick auf den Bristol-Kanal zwischen England und Wales!) Obwohl ich seit ziemlich genau fünf Jahren monatlich Beiträge in meine private Rentenversicherung in Deutschland einzahle, war es lehrreich, über das britische Rentensystem einmal gründlich ins Bild gesetzt zu werden.

Hier ein paar wissenswerte Fakten aus dem Vortrag: Man sollte sich stets vor Augen halten, dass die gesetzliche Rentenversicherung umlagefinanziert wird. Das heißt, die Sozialversicherungsbeiträge (National Insurance), die wir jetzt einzahlen, werden sofort wieder zur Finanzierung der Leistungen an die Personen verwendet, die derzeit einen Rentenanspruch besitzen. Ferner sind die Aussichten, was den Bezug staatlicher Rentenleistungen in Großbritannien betrifft, alles andere als rosig. Dafür, dass ein Berufsleben lang regelmäßig Sozialversicherungsbeiträge abgeführt wurden, steht momentan einer alleinstehenden Person eine wöchentliche Rente in Höhe von nur GBP 97,65 zu, während ein Ehepaar Anspruch auf eine Summe von gerade mal GBP 156,15 pro Woche hat. Dazu kommt: Es ist heutzutage durchaus Realität, dass Menschen ein Drittel ihres Lebens im Ruhestand verbringen! Die durchschnittliche Lebenserwartung beträgt nämlich nach neuesten Berechnungen 79 Jahre, während sie 1908 noch bei 50 Jahren lag. Wie der dritte Lebensabschnitt finanziell gestaltet sein wird, hat jeder bzw. jede von uns selbst in der Hand.

Nicht nur das Abschließen einer Rentenversicherung dient in den Augen vieler als Altersvorsorge, sondern auch das Bilden finanzieller Rücklagen (etwa als Einlagen auf den hierzulande so beliebten, weil steuerfreien ISA-Konten). Oder Investitionen auf dem Immobilienmarkt, dem – wie ich einmal gelesen habe – belebtesten Immobilienmarkt in ganz Europa, werden in der Ruhestandsplanung häufig als Option erwogen. Daneben ist es hierzulande nicht unüblich, nicht nur eine Immobilie zur eigenen Nutzung, sondern noch eine weitere als Anlageobjekt zu dem Zweck zu erwerben, diese anschließend zu vermieten (Stichwort Buy To Let). Und gerade mit Blick auf die spätere Altersversorgung ist ein oft gehörter Ausspruch „I’ll downsize my house“. Dies bedeutet, die eigene Immobilie im Ruhestand veräußern und im Gegenzug eine kleinere erwerben zu wollen. Aber ob dies die optimale Altersabsicherung darstellt, da mit vielen Risiken und Unwägbarkeiten verbunden, sei dahingestellt.

Lange Rede, kurzer Sinn: Am ratsamsten ist es zweifellos, als Selbständige(r) eine private Rentenversicherung abzuschließen – je früher, desto besser. Sie lässt sich meist problemlos auf die individuellen Bedürfnisse perfekt zuschneiden und bringt eine Reihe unbestechlicher Vorteile mit sich. Diese Vorteile bestehen u.a. darin, dass erst bei Erreichen eines bestimmten Alters auf die Ersparnisse im Pensionsfonds zugegriffen werden kann, diese im Todesfall automatisch an die Erben übertragen würden, keine Erbschaftssteuer anfiele etc. Die Altersvorsorge für uns freischaffende Übersetzer(innen) erfolgt also ideal privat.

Siobhan Soraghan: How to achieve self-sustainability

2010-11-07T21:09:00.003Z

Following Siobhan Soraghan’s well-received paper at the ITI Conference in May 2009 in London, ITI’s Western Regional Group was pleased to welcome her to its main professional autumn event on a chilly, but gloriously sunny day in the pleasant surroundings of the Esther Parkin Residences on the Bath University campus.

In the introduction round it soon became obvious that almost each one of the 13 workshop participants believed that something was not quite right in his or her approach to achieving a healthy work-life balance. As my own work-life balance sometimes goes worryingly off-course, it was in fact one of the most relevant workshops that I have ever attended.

The message sent by Siobhan essentially boiled down to this: Translation, or in fact any self-employment activity, is something that obviously we pursue to earn a living and also something that we tend to enjoy. However there is simply no point in slaving away at it, especially if it is likely to have serious consequences for our health and well-being in the long term. There is a high chance that the knock-on effect of hardly ever allowing ourselves time off work and other daily commitments will be burnout at some stage, maybe even followed by chronic fatigue or depression. The emotional effect of this would be to wholly lose the motivation to work, which – if it does happen – can be an extremely upsetting experience. Burnouts tend to come about very suddenly, typically following prolonged periods of operating on adrenaline, without much rest, at performance levels close to 100%.

Siobhan offered plentiful, hands-on advice and demonstrated an excellent ability to help us examine our individual circumstances more closely. A common problem among freelances is that we tend to take so much pride in what we have achieved in terms of building up our businesses that we often take on too much work. The consequence of this is that we become wedded to what we do, maybe without even realising it. Pride in itself is not a bad thing, but rather very often part of the strategy for success. However, this strategy may need modifying, for example by including other aspects of yourself that have not been given a voice yet. There are, in fact, several personalities in every person which need to be valued, developed, and brought into balance.

Siobhan once again proved that she is a warm, persuasive and very engaging speaker, not least because she always blends her personal experiences with intelligent ideas, useful insights, and lots of food for thought to take away and build upon. She left us feeling motivated and determined to bring about changes in how we set our priorities and balance life. I, for one, have decided to allow myself more time off in general, keep up the running and cycling, and start playing the piano more regularly again!

Siobhan Soraghan is founder and director of Active Insight Ltd. She coaches and trains leaders and senior teams and runs regular seminars on positive politics at work, collaborative leadership, work endurance/self-sustainability etc. around the UK, working both in corporate environments and with individuals.

(This blog post is an abridged version of my write-up on the workshop, which will be published in the January issue of ITI Bulletin.)

My first ever webinar: "MemoQ – Not just for TM"

2010-09-21T09:25:00.001+01:00

On Wednesday last week, after work, I dedicated an hour to attending a MemoQ webinar entitled "Not just for TM". It was presented by Gábor Ugray, one of the designers of MemoQ. It was my first ever webinar and helped me explore my new TM software in greater depth.

Various pertinent topics were addressed. Of particular relevance was the topic on the informed use of the spell check feature. Curly underlining indicates possible errors, and the spell check dialogue lets you choose from a couple of options, very similar to the ones in the MS Word environment. So-called "ignore lists" may be employed to control if particular words should be ignored by the spell checker. This can save you time, for example when client-specific terminology has to be taken into account. Moreover, language settings can be adjusted in the "Global Settings" dialogue box, where two options are available: either use MS Word or select Hunspell (the equivalent Open Office version). Hunspell dictionaries are downloadable from the internet. (More info can be found here.) Another topic that Gábor Ugray talked us through was the Autocorrect feature. It is basically a "Replace/With" operation, where predefined abbreviations are used for replacing a particular word. Its purpose is to avoid having to type the same word all over again. It should therefore prove beneficial in terms of efficiently dealing with texts containing recurring terminology.

MemoQ is in fact not just for TM, but also has an integrated quality assurance (QA) checking feature. As MemoQ users will know, red exclamation marks, which usually draw attention to a missing tag, will not let you export the document unless you have inserted the tag. Orange lightning signs, by contrast, represent a mere warning, e.g. when numbers in the source and target segments do not match, or to indicate a redundant space. Warnings are a QA feature; they are sometimes just a false alarm and are merely provided for the user's convenience. As quality assurance is a crucial component of the translation process, I found it very relevant to learn about how the software can be instructed what QA checks to perform. Still a relative newbie to MemoQ, I had not been aware that it is possible to customise QA settings. You can, for example, select if warnings concerning numbers or whitespace and capitalisation should be flagged up or not.

In today’s era of virtually unlimited technological possibilities and wide range of diverse communication techniques, the fact that Gábor Ugray was moderating from Budapest, while I was participating in the webinar from my office in Bristol (and who knows where all the other participants were based), is no longer something to write home about. Still – take it for granted or not – it is remarkable. I was all ears, and impressed with the interactive nature of the presentation, which even included short question and answer sessions.

"Translations" – a threatre production!

2010-06-27T12:19:00.001+01:00

My husband and I enjoy attending theatre performances by the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School has an outstanding reputation for producing excellent actors and actresses in theatre, radio, TV and film. It is one of the most selective drama schools in the world as only 14 out of, apparently, around 2,500 applications are accepted each year! Successful applicants complete a 3-year BA acting course in cooperation with the University of the West of England (UWE). Any of the plays, I find, is usually a must-see. Evenings out at the theatre are always special, also because what happens on the stage is in marked contrast to my own everyday work life. I am, in keeping with my personality, not usually required to rely on any vocal or physical abilities as translating requires a completely different skill set.

It was a foregone conclusion that finding out about an upcoming play actually entitled "Translations" had me eagerly anticipating the performance, which was put on at the Tobacco Factory in Bristol. "Translations" is a three-act play by Irish playwright Brian Friel written in 1980. It is set in Baile Beag (Ballybeg), a small village at the heart of 19th century agricultural Ireland. [It] is "a play about language and only about language", but it deals with a wide range of issues, stretching from language and communication to Irish history and cultural imperialism. (Source: Wikipedia). The British Army is preparing the first Ordnance Survey map of Ireland, which involves anglicising all Gaelic place names. New national schools are established to impose English as the national language. For this particular play the students, acting excellently as usual, had even been trained to reproduce the Irish accent.

From a translator's or linguist's point of view, it was particularly intriguing to see how language was used as the central dramatic element in the play. It was used to expose typical communication problems where different languages – in this case Greek, Latin, Gaelic and English – are involved. The play brought out very vividly how cultural or language barriers can seem insurmountable. The character of Owen, who acts as an interpreter in the play, demonstrated how the very act of translation – where languages clash – can be fraught with difficulties, and thereby present numerous challenges. It highlighted how important the capacity to communicate and to be understood is, and how its loss can result in conflicts with grave consequences.

Literary translation workshop at CrimeFest 2010

2010-06-01T22:04:00.001+01:00

Last Sunday a two-hour translation workshop was run as part of CrimeFest 2010, the international crime fiction convention, at the Bristol Marriott Royal Hotel close to the Harbourside. It was led by Ros Schwartz FITI, the award-winning French-to-English co-translator of Dominique Manotti’s book Lorraine Connection.

Ros started off by providing insights into her approaches to literary translation in general. These include creating the same response in the reader as created by the original text. She then pointed out the tension between creative freedom and being faithful to the author's intention, as it is frequently necessary to depart from the original meaning. She also stressed the importance of knowing when the author has written something quirky – which should then be reproduced in the translation – or if something is just a feature of that particular language.

We then split up into small groups to discuss our own views of the first page of Ros's first draft of her translation of another Manotti novel, Affairs of State, with feedback on our observations from Ros herself. There was an opportunity for each of the groups to re-write the draft and the re-written versions were read out to the whole audience afterwards. We soon realised that punctuation is a powerful tool in a translation, e.g. for breaking up sentences, or imitating rhythm such as Menotti’s very staccato way of writing. Concentrating overly on the individual words on the page might mean losing the big picture as a result. Ros’s view is that it is therefore essential to step back from the translation regularly to visualise exactly what is happening. When I am translating, I always print out the draft translation at a particular stage, then leave the office and read the draft text independently of the original text. I am consequently in a position to evaluate my own translation from a completely different angle, and thereby revise or ‘re-shape’ it as appropriate. The next stage sees me comparing the translation against the source text once again.

At the end, Ros also replied to general questions from the audience, shedding more light on her translation strategies. Ros usually reads the original text first in order to identify salient features, before plunging into the translation. Her method of work is very similar to my own in that she tends to produce the first version of the translation fairly quickly. Ros mentioned that cultural references frequently pose a huge translation problem. Academics and historians often take their own knowledge for granted. It is therefore vital to have an appropriate strategy in place for dealing with cultural references, e.g. by being more explicit in the translation than in the original. Ros explained that there is generally a very fine balance between preserving the author’s style and making the author’s work palatable and accessible. Finally, she read the final, published version of the extract to us. It was great to see how she had mastered all the challenges and issues presented by the source text.

Translation for litigation – Erkundung eines neuen Fachgebiets

2010-05-11T12:59:00.004+01:00

Gerichtsverfahren, Rechtsstreitigkeiten, englischsprachige Begriffe wie burden of proof, prejudice, disclosure, cross-examination versus evidence in chief, affidavit versus witness statement… Ein Gebiet, auf dem ich als Übersetzerin seither relativ selten unterwegs gewesen war. Aus diesem Grund meldete ich mich kurzerhand zur Fortbildung zum Thema „Translation for litigation“ an der City University in London vom 21. bis zum 24. April 2010 an.

Eine knappe Woche lang konnte ich somit ein relativ neues Fachgebiet erkunden. An den ersten beiden Tagen wurden Zivilprozessverfahren in England und Wales, der Aufbau des Gerichtswesens, grundlegende Terminologie, Verfahren der alternativen Streitabwicklung (Alternative Dispute Resolution, ADR) etc. vorgestellt und näher erläutert. Da unser Dozent Richard Delaney nicht nur als Barrister (Prozessanwalt), sondern auch als Übersetzer tätig ist, streute er in seine Ausführungen hin und wieder für die Übersetzungspraxis wertvolle Tipps und Hinweise ein. Begleitend bestand für die TeilnehmerInnen die Möglichkeit, beispielhafte Dokumente zu studieren, um auch die so wichtigen sprachlichen Aspekte in Augenschein nehmen zu können. Nickie Matthews, Barrister (Prozessanwältin) bei den Staple Inn Chambers, verschaffte in einer separaten Veranstaltung einen Überblick über das englische Strafrecht und grundlegende englische Fachbegriffe. Am Freitag vermittelte schließlich Clemens Richter, Juradozent von der Uni Leipzig, in deutscher Sprache verschiedenste und teilweise sehr ins Detail gehende Hintergrundinformationen zum deutschen Prozessrecht, was vor allem für ÜbersetzerInnen aus dem Deutschen von Bedeutung war. Schade, dass nur wenige Stunden für übersetzungspraktische Übungen, nämlich am letzten Fortbildungstag, eingeplant waren. Der von mir besuchte Workshop für die Sprachrichtung Englisch-Deutsch wurde von Angela Sigee geleitet, die als deutsche Anwältin und juristische Übersetzerin bestens in der Lage war, mit uns diverse Dokumente durchzugehen und auf übersetzungstechnische Aspekte abzuklopfen. Außerdem wurden von ihr zahlreiche rechtsvergleichende Bezüge von Belang für die Übersetzungspraxis aufgezeigt.

Alles in allem kann ich festhalten, dass zwar der vermittelte Stoff wohl wegen des Themas per se stellenweise recht zäh und daher schwer verdaulich war, sich jedoch wahrscheinlich wie so oft das Prinzip bewähren wird, dass eine weitere Befassung mit dem Thema „litigation“ in künftig anstehenden Übersetzungsprojekten dadurch leichter fallen wird, dass ich mir bei diesem Fortbildungskurs ein bestimmtes Grundlagenwissen aneignen konnte.

Wie immer kamen Networking-Gelegenheiten auch diesmal nicht zu kurz. Der Kurs wurde hauptsächlich von MA-Studenten besucht; hingegen konnten wegen des Vulkanausbruchs auf Island nur drei der insgesamt acht angemeldeten TeilnehmerInnen anreisen, die den Kurs als CPD-Veranstaltung belegt hatten. Am Freitag ging eine Gruppe von uns aus: Wir verbrachten einen lukullischen und amüsanten Abend im Restaurant Pierre Victoire in der Nähe der U-Bahnstation Tottenham Court Road.

“Meet the client” ITI training event at Bath University on 19 March 2010

2010-04-17T09:09:00.002+01:00

On 19 March 2010 practising and aspiring translators and interpreters gathered in one of the lecture theatres at Bath University for an informative, well-attended and successful CPD event. It was facilitated by Dr Suzanne Kirkbright, ITI’s Education Officer, in the presence of Pamela Mayorcas, ITI Chairman.

The morning sessions featured representatives from the translation industry, who focused on how to find and keep top clients. Clare Suttie from Atlas Translations Ltd. started off on the topic of professionally handling complaints about one of your own translations. Clare suggested that generally a good way of avoiding such awkward situations was to get a good brief from the client beforehand. The brief should contain information regarding the intended audience, and whether there are any websites, reference materials or glossaries with preferred translation terms to refer to. Kirsten Hemingway, MD Hemingway Corporation, explained how to create and maintain efficient networks. Networking is usually aimed at finding work, getting advice and also giving advice yourself. The latter tends to build your credibility and is likely to bring you referrals and of course personal satisfaction as well. Interestingly, networking opportunities often crop up when you least expect it. Anne James focused on the prerequisites of becoming an interpreter for Bristol City Council Interpreting & Translation Services. Jonathan Nater from the award-winning Wessex Translations Ltd. afterwards opened the floor for any burning questions from the attendees, including how to approach potential clients for the first time and become a translation company's regular supplier, as well as the assignment of work projects in general.

After the lunch break, which provided good networking opportunities, we continued to think about “best business practice”. Judy Heminsley, having worked from home both as en employee and running her own businesses, was ideally placed to talk to us about work-life balance. Judy had some valuable suggestions in store for us, such as how to deal with interruptions. Having two separate phone lines for example, one for business and one for private purposes, is something which I certainly find very useful myself. Judy also advised us to set ourselves time boundaries and find out how long our concentration spell is. Consequently, breaks can be planned in advance more easily. I already consider myself an experienced home worker, but I could definitely see some areas for improvement in my case.

The importance of not only selling yourself as a translator, but also as a person was highlighted in the session run by Andrew Mann, employed as a project manager by Syntacta Translation & Interpreting until very recently. You can build your marketing activities on the principle that, despite all the automation in the translation industry nowadays, people still buy from people. In the end, the cornerstone of your business, apart from how you approach customer service, are the relationships that you have made. Andrew's blog for Ways with Words, where he now works, is also very worth a read.

Time was flying, but before we all went away from this informative, inspiring and well-run event, there was room for general questions and answers. Among the issues raised were technological changes. It was noted that the role of the translator in the future would change drastically due to crowdsourcing and machine translation. Machine translation in particular may be expected to necessitate more post-editing rather than actual translation. Although future translations produced by machines may well be usable to some degree, they will still and always have to be looked at by human translators afterwards. Human translators are therefore unlikely to ever run out of work - a reassuring statement, which concluded the day.

I have written a more detailed report on this event, which will be published in the forthcoming issue of ITI Bulletin in May.

New translation memory choice: MemoQ 4.0

2010-03-23T11:31:00.004Z

Having used Trados basically ever since I set myself up as a translator, I recently decided that I wanted to look at other translation memory options, and that it was time for a change and a fresh perspective. It only took a short while to assess current trends on the translation memory market, then I had a lovely chat to Doug Lawrence from Amicus TransTec (the UK reseller of the MemoQ tool) on the phone, and here I was with my new MemoQ 4.0 licence. Overall: a great choice!

MemoQ is an integrated translation/localisation environment, a new computer-assisted tool to aid the work of the human translator, and a serious competitor in its field. It was designed by Kilgray, a Hungarian company, with the aim of increasing translators’ productivity.

Here is a list of MemoQ features that I like most:
- There is just one interface for all software components, which is naturally very intuitive and easy to handle.
- It is possible to join or split segments easily and ad libitum.
- You also come across 101% matches, which means the preceding and the following segment are the same.
- You can see a sort of WYSIWYG real-time translation preview while you work.
- MemoQ is compatible with my existing Trados translation software.
- It is straightforward to build up a termbase on the fly, i.e. no additional typing is required.

Note that I have only got my head round the basic functions of MemoQ so far, as I have only added it to my existing software resources very recently. Watch this space as I intend to explore my new TM software in more depth and report back on any new knowledge and insights gained. I have also heard that the MemoQ customer service is brilliant, and there is a very supportive Yahoo user group out there on the web.

Elisabeth becomes a fully qualified member of the ITI

2010-02-08T11:39:00.002Z

Hooray! – Last week I found out that I had successfully passed the exam for fully qualified membership of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI), which I sat in November last year. This means I may now call myself a ‘Qualified member of the ITI’; I am also entitled to put the designation MITI after my name. This is a widely-known mark of professional recognition and relevant experience in the British translation industry. Moreover, my details will from now on be advertised in the Directory of Members on the ITI website.

It was in one of the heat waves in July last year when I decided to take the plunge and put in my application to upgrade from Associate to MITI status. Examination candidates are required to produce a translation in a chosen subject field to a professional standard and fit for its intended purpose. I selected law as this is one of the areas in which I regularly work, although examination texts are always chosen to test candidates’ translation skills rather than subject knowledge. To this end, it is also a requirement to write a commentary on linguistic and other issues presented by the source text to outline the approach and strategies applied to overcome particular translation challenges. For more information on all the requirements, please visit the ITI’s website.

I had been quite nervous about the outcome of this important exam over the last few months, as I am aware how rigorously these translations tend to be marked. It goes without saying that I am thrilled about the news!

Penguin translation event at Bristol University

2010-01-07T13:34:00.002Z

On 9 December 2009 I attended a Penguin translation colloquium co-organised by Bristol University and the AHRC Penguin Archive Project as part of a free two-day professional education event. The focus was on literary translation, as opposed to technical or business translation. I was therefore learning about the other end of the spectrum from where I have positioned myself. And I felt I had arrived in a completely different world! Literary translations are produced at a more leisurely pace, for a different purpose and with a different readership in mind.

The colloquium included six papers which conveyed an enlightening insight into the world of literary translation. Sian Reynolds, a professional literary translator, firstly confronted the audience with a few interesting facts: 3% of UK publications involve translations of all genres, whereas in the Czech Republic this proportion amounts to 75%! Sadly, only a handful of literary translators can earn a decent income; in this industry, it is therefore customary to have a second job. In her talk, Sian also touched on the relationship between translators and publishers as well as editors and sales departments, which in many cases is not an easy one. On the other hand, translators are in a much more fortunate position nowadays as they can rely on contracts, copyrights and royalties. Finally it was interesting to note that literary translators tend to be paid per 1,000 words (as in my field), and not based on the number of individual pages.

The topic of translating titles in Penguin classics was covered extensively in a presentation by Robert Crowe. He highlighted that a title is always a promise, and that expectations are generally set by titles. When it comes to translating a title, considerable problems may arise as a title in one language potentially means little or nothing to a monolingual reader.

Poetry translations featured in the presentations as well. Tom Boll pointed out that a letter to Penguin in 1964 referred to poems not being translated into verse, as you might expect; instead they were “discussed into English”. This is an interesting viewpoint, in my opinion, because it demonstrates that in literary translation – as opposed to many other translation fields – considerably more discussion and interpretation take place. Richard Mansell, a lecturer from the University of Exeter, later illustrated the fairly complicated process of translating a Chinese poem into Catalan as well as into English. Due to the special nature of the Chinese language, it is usually necessary to complete the translation in various stages, such as producing an intermediate or “original indirect” version of the translation initially. Genevieve Lively, a lecturer at Bristol University, afterwards gave an insight into how various translations have been produced over the centuries of Ovid’s “Metamorphoses” – from Latin into French and then into English. Here, it was common practice to ignore the authority of the Latin source text and to use an existing translation as a basis. In her view, this process aptly reflects the idea of the ‘metamorphoses’ concept.

The series of papers was rounded off by the musings of Mark Thompson, an English journalist and writer. He observed that, in general, literary translation has been in decline or marginalised over the last few decades.

Fortbildung: Grundzüge des deutschen Vertragsrechts

2009-12-08T21:13:00.006Z

Am vergangenen Freitag besuchte ich an der City University in London eine deutschsprachige Fortbildungsveranstaltung auf dem Gebiet des deutschen Vertragsrechts, geleitet von Dr Mike Wienbracke LL.M., der überaus kompetent, effizient und auskunftsbereit einen umfassenden Einblick in die wichtigsten Merkmale des deutschen Schuldrechts gab.

Insgesamt war die Fortbildungsveranstaltung sehr informativ und ihr Besuch daher lohnenswert. Uns Teilnehmern wurden nämlich nicht nur die Grundzüge des deutschen Vertragsrechts erläutert, sondern wir wurden ferner über jüngste rechtliche Entwicklungen in Deutschland informiert und anhand einschlägiger Beispiele mit den Denk-, Arbeits- und Auslegungsweisen deutscher Juristen vertraut gemacht, etwa was Legaldefinitionen oder die Methodik der Gesetzesauslegung betrifft. Gold wert in meinen Augen war nicht zuletzt die Vermittlung des Wortlauts diverser Gesetzesvorschriften, die wertvolle Anhaltspunkte zum idiomatischen Gebrauch der deutschen Rechtssprache lieferten. Wenngleich das deutsche Recht generell nicht deckungsgleich mit dem englischen Recht ist, überrascht immer wieder, wie vorzüglich sich trotzdem bestimmte Begrifflichkeiten, Kollokationen oder Formulierungen vom Englischen ins Deutsche und umgekehrt übertragen lassen.

Da sich die Veranstaltung an Studierende der Übersetzungswissenschaft richtete, wurden bei der Veranstaltung öfters auch rechtsvergleichende Bezüge zum englischen Rechtssystem hergestellt. Beispielsweise wurde hervorgehoben, dass zwischen dem englischen Gewohnheitsrecht, besser bekannt unter der Bezeichnung Common Law, und dem deutschen Gewohnheitsrecht, das auf langer Übung und allgemeiner Anerkennung (vornehmlich unter Kaufleuten) beruht, stets eine klare begriffliche Abgrenzung vorzunehmen sei. Das deutsche Gewohnheitsrecht ist eine der Quellen des deutschen Rechts, untergeordnet unter die Verfassung, Gesetze, Rechtsverordnungen und die Satzungen öffentlich-rechtlicher Körperschaften; es nimmt jedoch anders als im englischen Recht eher eine Randstellung ein, da das deutsche Recht ansonsten beinahe vollkommen kodifiziert ist. Eine weitere rechtsvergleichende Feststellung bestand darin, dass gemäß englischem Vertragsrecht, das ja grundsätzlich das Erbringen einer consideration voraussetzt, ein Vertrag zugunsten Dritter rechtlich nicht möglich sei. Interessant auch der Hinweis unseres Referenten, dass neuerdings immer häufiger Präambeln zur Darlegung des Sachstands etwa in Vertraulichkeitsvereinbarungen eingefügt würden; genau genommen seien Präambeln jedoch kein typischer Vertragspunkt. Schließlich wurde auch diskutiert, ob in der englischen Rechtssprache ein Äquivalent oder zumindest eine adäquate Übersetzung für den spezifisch deutschen Rechtsbegriff der Obliegenheit besteht, die im Gegensatz zur Pflicht nicht erfüllt werden muss, aus der jedoch ein rechtlicher Nachteil entstehen kann. Beim Nachschlagen dieses Begriffs in diversen Fachwörterbüchern am nächsten Tag musste ich feststellen, dass oft keine angemessene Lösung für diesen Problemsachverhalt angeboten wird. Beachtenswert ist der im Wörterbuch der Rechts- und Wirtschaftssprache von Romain/Bader/Byrd beschrittene Lösungsweg. Die im Ausgangsbegriff enthaltenen Bedeutungsnuancen werden in folgender Übersetzung widergespiegelt:
Obliegenheit: incidental obligation (the nonfulfillment of which may be of detriment but will not expose individual to liability directly)

What to do about the sedentariness and solitude of translating

2009-12-02T16:59:00.000Z

It is true that working as a self-employed translator from home can be a sedentary and solitary activity, but it does not necessarily have to be. There actually exists a real danger in that as translators we usually enjoy what we do so much that we can be considered to be true workaholics at times. (And I speak from own experience!) Be that as it may, “all work and no play” is not good, as a friend recently said to me, and I agree. First of all, the risk of workaholism can be wonderfully reduced by regular exercise. I find that being physically active every day is a simple way of boosting one’s spirits. You can shake off any stresses that may have been caused during yet another long stint at the computer screen. (It is very handy for example that where I live is just a few minutes away from the Bristol to Bath cycle track.) Second, I think it is so important to seize opportunities to make contact with colleagues. Cultivating work relationships and friendships at the end of the day means loneliness does not have to be a feature of a translator’s worklife. I am for instance a member of various web-based forums, which I visit to mingle virtually with others. Issues raised and discussed very often include terminology queries, but also any kind of technology and software issue, CPD event information etc. Virtual encounters tend to be complemented by social get-togethers. On these occasions it is always interesting to finally be able to put faces to names that you have come across before on an e-group.

Last Saturday, members of the ITI German network (or GerNet, as it is usually called) were invited to an informal Christmas party over a sumptuous buffet meal. The event was held in the function room of the Barley Mow pub on Horseferry Road in the heart of London and was definitely worth the coach trip over from Bristol. It was lovely to meet a friendly bunch of translators and interpreters, who like me also work with German on a daily basis. The convivial and laid-back atmosphere made the whole event truly enjoyable and rewarding.

All this shows that the sedentariness and solitude that may be inherent in translating can easily be combatted as there are opportunities out there for getting active, meeting like-minded people, and being sociable.

WRG Annual General Meeting 2009 in Bristol

2009-10-12T22:03:00.001+01:00

The AGM held by the ITI’s Western Regional Group in Bristol last Saturday turned out to be a well-attended and lively event with a discussion of various matters arising. The Western Regional Group (WRG) is a subnetwork of the British Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI). It currently has 55 members, drawn mainly from Bristol, Bath and the surrounding region. At the AGM, on the one hand the usual agenda items were addressed, such as the treasurer’s report and the joint coordinator’s report looking back at the year 2008 to 2009, which had again been another positive and eventful year. On the other hand, as always the meeting provided opportunity for raising ideas and voicing issues or concerns of relevance to translators and interpreters in our area. Moreover, a lot of discussion took place on changes to our website at http://www.itiwrg.org.uk that are currently in the pipeline as well as other related measures. The AGM was closed with thanks to Anna George, our joint coordinator, for hosting us and to those present, who went on to enjoy the delicious buffet dinner laid on afterwards.

On the WRG Committee we have recently put together useful information and guidelines on commissioning translation work. The content is particularly relevant when translators are approached directly in order to place work with them. The information can be found on our website at http://www.itiwrg.org.uk/work.php. We have published a pared-down version, trying to be as concise as we felt was appropriate. A more detailed version may be requested from our main coordinator at any time.

Being a translator – and being wonderfully mobile

2009-08-28T19:47:00.001+01:00

There are numerous reasons why being a freelance translator without doubt is a wonderful profession. For example, you can work from any corner in the world and for clients in any corner of the world. What would not have been imaginable within the realms of possibility two decades ago is a reality today: the internet has within an incredibly short space of time turned into a ubiquitous and widely used tool for finding information, shopping, commerce in general, education, social interaction and – very importantly – in a translator’s work environment. It has facilitated collaboration and communication on a worldwide basis, usually within seconds. This development has led to the emergence of so-called “virtual work teams“. Virtual work teams work together across space and time using modern technology, without ever necessarily having to meet face to face. To provide a typical example, earlier this month I was involved in a large-scale translation and revision project for a regular Canadian client of mine, with the end client being based in Munich. I on the other hand was comfortably working from my temporary office in my German home village Lenkersheim in Central Franconia. (At the same time I was liable for tax in the United Kingdom, where my business is registered.)

As translators running our own businesses, we also tend to, or rather have to be reachable at most times of the day. It cannot be denied that translators’ work lives are inextricably linked with their private lives in various ways. What clients in any industry appreciate most, according to a very revealing survey, in the first place surprisingly is not the quality of the work produced (although that of course always is a crucial factor). Instead, what is primarily important to clients is the fact that the people who they regularly work with generally are reliable and reachable. Ideally they always reply to e-mail or phone enquiries fairly promptly. I have in fact always kept this at the back of my mind in terms of my own responsiveness to job enquiries. To make things easier for me in this respect, I have recently started relying on an HTC Touch Pro mobile device, which combines an elegant touch screen with a slide-out (Quertz!) keyboard. As a result, I am now much more independent. I can afford to be away from my computer for longer periods of time and still handle any incoming e-mail and phone enquires. The smartphone, which fits in any pocket, also has many other useful, customisable functions such as an internet browser, a camera and – believe it or not – weather forecast capability. It conveniently comes with Windows Mobile incorporating pocket Office, which lets you view files in common formats like Word, Excel or PDF.

To conclude, being a translator means you can be (wonderfully) mobile!

CPD course on the terminology and translation of property documents (City University, London)

2009-06-17T16:24:00.010+01:00

I treated myself to a 4-day intensive course from 10 to 13 June focusing on the terminology and translation of property documents. It was run by the City University in London, actually as part of the MA in Legal Translation, yet also open to other translators keen to add property law knowledge and translation practice in this field to their CPD portfolio.

First of all, because of the 2-day London Underground strike action, which had brought almost all tube services to a halt on the evening of my arrival, I found myself walking from Victoria to Islington, where the university is located. I thoroughly enjoyed the walk, which surprisingly took me just about an hour and 40 minutes. Walking (or alternatively cycling) usually in fact is my preferred option of getting from A to B when the distance is manageable. (And is not one of the nicest aspects about working from home that you hardly ever have to go by car? Some translators do not to even have to own a car because of that.)

In the Wednesday and Thursday workshops, Richard Delaney explained and illustrated the key principles relevant in property law as it applies in England and Wales, whereas the afternoon sessions were dedicated to comparative document analyses. What among other illustrative materials that we looked at was quite interesting was a comparison of two stylistically contrasting assured shorthold tenancy agreements. The first text drafted in plain English, with all the typical features such as plain syntax and less use of legalese, turned out to be actually more difficult to navigate. As for its substantive content, it provided more room for disputes or less legal certainty than the second text, which was drafted in traditional legal English. It was also pointed out to us that, in terms of drafting techniques, there is a noticeable tendency in German contracts to provide in express terms that certain things are allowed. This is because in the German legal culture prohibitions are assumed to apply to the subject matter in need of contractual regulation. By contrast, this works exactly the other way round in English contracts.

The Friday lectures for those of us working with German were given by Dr. Mike Wienbracke LL.M.. He presented us with a summarised, yet at the same time very detailed and excellent overview of German property law. We also looked at the structure of relevant documents, such as a property sales contract, a gift deed, a will, an inheritance deed etc., as well as noteworthy concepts and typical language contained in them.

On Saturday, we continued with hands-on sessions concerned with the translation of property documents. The English to German course was run by Angela Sigee, and with her help we put our newly acquired knowledge into practice. It was noted that in the translation of land law-related documents especially, it tends to be tricky to deal with the pervasive incongruence of the two legal systems involved. The translation exercises also were a goldmine of translation techniques, workaround solutions and other useful tips that Angela had in store for us to take home.

At the end, we all went away armed with new knowledge, skills and confidence, ready to sink our teeth into translation projects in this field that might come up at some point in the future.

Finding a work-life balance crossing America

2009-05-24T21:27:00.003+01:00

Here is a shortened version of my write-up on Phil Goddard’s talk at the recent ITI conference:

One of the highlights of this year’s ITI conference was the inspiring and gripping presentation given by Phil Goddard (who has been a freelance into-English translator for over twenty years) on his 3,000-mile walk through America in 2006. The journey that took him from New York to Los Angeles was in memory of his wife Jayne, who had died of colon cancer at the age of 49, and aimed to raise money for cancer research. A fond walker in general, Phil explained that to him walking represented the only real way of experiencing the landscape and of meeting locals. When he set off, apart from essentials like a tent and a sleeping bag, he also took his laptop so that he could share his experience with other people by blogging, and also continue translating in order to finance his journey.

The presentation also included photos illustrating Phil’s account of his amazing journey, on which he also met Pam, his new wife-to-be. New Orleans at the time gave the impression of a war zone because of the flooding following Hurricane Katrina. It was amusing to hear that Phil also used a pushchair, which he had found and in the end pushed for 700 to 800 miles to transport his belongings. Admittedly, this did feel a bit silly at times, and he was stopped several times by police alerted by bewildered locals or tourists. Occasionally Phil met other people, even other translators, who like him were walking through America, albeit mostly for other such as religious reasons.

Phil wrapped up his presentation, which had without doubt managed to capture the audience's attention, by quoting Hippocrates' aphorism “Walking is Man’s best medicine“ and mentioning some interesting statistical data concerning his walk. For example, he had been on the move for a duration of 11 months; he had walked for 3,091 miles overall and about 7 million steps; the number of dogs that had barked at him amounted to around 970; he had lost 15 pounds; the number of boots worn amounted to a total of 3; etc.

Blog links worthy of mentioning are Phil’s own walk blog and the New Orleans blog.

Work-life balance for freelancers

2009-05-21T20:22:00.002+01:00

Here is a round-up of what to my mind were particularly relevant points made by Siobhan Soraghan, business coach and director of Active Insight Consulting Ltd., during her presentation at the recent ITI Conference. Her presentation set out to uncover the importance of maintaining a healthy work-life balance throughout one’s career as a freelancer. Freelancers (and not just freelancers of course) are constantly faced with the challenge of adopting a disciplined and balanced approach to managing their time. Developing this skill is very relevant to them, especially if they also have second jobs, or (like me!) juggle work and family commitments.

I am presenting these points in a bullet point format as I have just picked out a few precious "golden nuggets of advice or fact" from Siobhan’s presentation:

- It is vital to set yourself limits, instead of constantly wanting to push them.
- It is a fact that job burnout is a growing phenomenon in our society, as involvement tends to give way to cynicism.
- It is another fact that most diseases are caused through stress.
- It is worthwhile thinking about which activities give us energy and which tend to drain us (also taking into account whether you are an introvert or extrovert person), and consequently adjust our daily activities accordingly.
- We should focus on what is within our control, and not worry about things that we cannot control.
- It can make a huge difference to your well-being if you decide to deliberately build in slack in your everyday life.
- Even doing too much of what you love doing can have adverse effects on the work-life balance.

ITI International Conference 2009, “Sustainability in Translation“ (16-17 May 2009)

2009-05-20T20:42:00.000+01:00

Last weekend I was among the delegates attending the 2009 ITI International Conference at 1 Birdcage Walk in London (the “Institution of Mechanical Engineers”), just a stone’s throw away from famous tourist sights such as the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. There were networking opportunities galore, both on the night before at a fringe event at the Old Star Pub at 66 Broadway in Westminster and of course during the conference itself. The event was themed “Sustainability in Translation“, offering a stimulating and extremely varied programme of sessions and presentations, all of them centring around the buzzword “sustainability“ to a greater or lesser degree.

Environmental issues specifically in relation to translation and interpreting were covered by Cat Akana, who runs a translation company specialising in this field. She named climate change and “peak oil“, which will mean the end of cheap transportation of goods, as the greatest challenges facing us all, and in particular sectors such as the government, businesses and civil society. As a consequence, there is a constant need for materials to be translated or interpreted, not least because sustainability issues are becoming more and more mainstream. Generally, as major changes are lying ahead of us, working towards a positive vision of the future will be required.

The session on contingency planning covered a wide range of topics: Dr. Suzanne Kirkbright briefly discussed client-work issues by juxtaposing a negative and a positive model, the latter comprising so-called “survival“ strategies, such as finding a niche market for yourself, maintaining professional links or having an effective marketing plan in place. She also emphasised the importance of enhancing communication with clients, noting that as translators we tend to be brilliant communicators, although we often underestimate that! Jana Kohl talked about combining the different requirements of translation/revising at home with interpreting away from her office, and how different technical devices help her support the mobility and flexibility inherent in her work life. Mahersh Shah concentrated on the IT side of contingency planning, as did Marc Prior, who for example recommends netbooks for working on the move or as a backup PC.

Philippa Hammond, a London-based freelance translator, and Sarah Dillon, an Australian-based translator presenting from her home office in Brisbane on this day, offered an inspiring insight into the world of social media tools, which are commonly associated with the web 2.0 concept. Philippa stressed that interactive sites such as document collaboration tools, blogs, micro-blogging sites (e.g. Twitter), social networks and communities (e.g. Facebook), unlike static websites, provided the advantage of a global reach, which is an important feature as, in the end, as translators we are all global businesses! She added that, from a marketing point of view, they were effective tools for growing one’s professional network and for raising one’s profile organically. Sarah then talked us through the most relevant features of LinkedIn, which offer an easy way of having an online business presence.

The panel discussion afterwards focussed on "where to draw the line" in terms of how business relationships can be placed on a proper footing. It also touched on good and bad practices in drawing up terms for work assignments. Paul Appleyard highlighted the ever so important role of the translation brief, which in his opinion may even be considered the most important part of the whole translation process and should therefore usually be clearly defined. Nick Rosenthal had valuable tips in store on how to offer good customer service and build and foster client relationships.

For more information on these or other conference sessions which have not been covered by my own blog entry, you may follow the links below:
ITI Conference website: http://www.iti-conference.org.uk/
Nicola Bottrell’s blog: http://languagetrail.blogspot.com/2009/05/iti-international-conference-2009.html
Sarah Dillon’s blog: http://www.dillonslattery.com/2009/05/iti-conference-round-up-a-social-media-perspective.html#more-484
Philippa Hammond's blog: http://blog.philippahammond.net/

Online-Fachwörterbücher und -Glossare (v.a. für Englisch u. Deutsch)

2009-03-24T11:29:00.000Z

Oft ist es ratsam, anstatt der diversen Online-Wörterbücher allgemeiner Art, die sich in den meisten Fällen natürlich auch hervorragend zum Recherchieren bestimmter fachspezifischer Begriffe eignen, spezielle Glossare der betreffenden Fachrichtung zu Rate zu ziehen. Nachfolgend ist eine Liste von Links zu nützlichen Online-Fachwörterbüchern und -Glossaren zusammengestellt:

IT-Wissen/Das große Online-Lexikon für Informationstechnologie (D/E):
http://www.itwissen.info/verzeichnisse/fachwoerter-deutsch-englisch.html

Phictionary/Ein Wörterbuch photographischer Begriffe (v.a. E/D):
http://home.arcor.de/Objektive/Phictionary.html

Lichttechnisches Wörterbuch (D/E u. E/D):
http://www.baero.com/lang_de/licht/woerterbuch/woerterbuch_ed.htm

Glossary of Plastics Terminology (D/E u. E/D):
http://www.kunststoffe.de/ku/overview_glossary.asp?task=5&t_id=925&xid=20061217113928-43217229225210&nav_id=13091TO9POce8CK

Wörterbuch Druck (Deutsch/Englisch/Italienisch/Spanisch/Portugiesisch/Französisch/Niederländisch/Dänisch):
http://www.sefar.us/cms/de.nsf/PageID/83A5E7A741EAADCFC1256E29002D1632?OpenDocument&srclang=english&trglang=german&letter=P

Industrie.de: Das Fachportal für Wirtschaft und Technik/Fachwörterbuch (D/E):
http://www.industrie.de/industrie/live/index2.php?set=godict&search_text=m

Wörterbuch der englischen Limited (E/D):
http://www.starostik.de/LTD/woerterbuch-englische-limited.shtml

Glossar englischer Rechtstermini einschließlich kurzer Erläuterungen (E/D):
http://www.fsjura.uni-erlangen.de/demo/englisch/lexicon/content.html

Glossar schottischer Rechtstermini (E/E):
http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:MJrKFPFmjKoJ:www.adjudication.org/pdfs/cases/ukcases/glossary_scottish_terms.pdf

Bau-Fachwörter (D/E und E/D):
http://www.bau.net/woerterbuch/index.php

Wörterbuch der Immobilienwirtschaft (DE-EN):
http://www.stalys.de/data/wa.htm

Wörterbuch der Logistik Deutsch-Englisch
http://www.nextlinx.net/glossary/german/glossGrmA.html

Buchempfehlung: „Grundlagen des Patentrechts“

2008-09-23T21:34:00.000+01:00

Eine hervorragende Einführung in das Patentrecht bietet das Lehrbuch „Grundlagen des Patentrechts“ von Horst-Peter Götting und Karsten Schwipps (B.G. Teubner Verlag / GWV Fachverlage GmbH, Wiesbaden 2004), dessen Studium sich nicht nur, wie im Untertitel angegeben, für Ingenieure, Natur- und Wirtschaftswissenschaftler, sondern meiner Meinung nach auch für Übersetzer(-innen) dieser Fachrichtung durchaus lohnt. Denn es vermittelt zum einen die allgemein anerkannte deutsche Grundterminologie auf dem Gebiet und enthält zum anderen Fallbeispiele zur Erläuterung einzelner Aspekte wie des Schutzbereichs eines Patents, eine deutsche Patentschrift als sprachliches Anschauungsbeispiel sowie Auszüge aus einschlägigen Gesetzestexten. Einzelne Begriffe und Sachverhalte werden dabei auf verständliche Weise näher erklärt oder konkretisiert. Zum Beispiel wird der Begriff der Erfindung definiert, welche in der Lösung einer Aufgabe mit technischen Mitteln besteht, jedoch von der reinen Entdeckung abzugrenzen ist, oder es wird auf die Unterscheidung zwischen wortsinngemäßen und äquivalenten bzw. inhaltsgleichen Patentbenutzungen eingegangen, die verschiedene Arten des Patenteingriffs darstellen. Die Texte der einzelnen Kapitel, welche sich von einem kurzen geschichtlichen Rückblick über die Schutzvoraussetzungen bis hin zur Patentvermarktung erstrecken, sind übersichtlich gegliedert und in einem praxisorientierten, prägnanten und leicht zugänglichen Stil verfasst. Nebenbei bemerkt, dass Übersetzer nicht unter den Zielgruppen angegeben sind, an welche sich das Buch vorrangig wendet, macht die Verwendung der Fachausdrücke darin um so glaubhafter und erhöht folglich dessen Nutzen als Referenzwerk auch und vor allem für übersetzerische Zwecke.

Insgesamt handelt es sich um ein empfehlenswertes Buch, da es sich gut zur erstmaligen oder vertiefenden Beschäftigung mit der deutschen Patentfachsprache eignet. Fachübersetzern/-innen dürfte es dabei ausgehend von ihrer Übersetzungspraxis nicht schwer fallen, beim Lesen geistig eine Querverbindung zu den entsprechenden Fachbegriffen der Ausgangssprache herzustellen.

(If you wish to read an English translation of this blog post on a recommended reference work on the fundamentals of patent law in German, please do not hesitate to contact me.)

Business logo of Elisabeth Hippe-Heisler Translation Services

2008-07-17T10:11:00.001+01:00

Colleagues and friends sometimes ask me about how my logo, showing the New Severn Bridge, which links England and Wales and carries the M4 traffic, came into being. The two bridge pillars point to my surname Hippe-Heisler, and opting for the concept of a bridge symbolises the linking of different languages, cultures, or systems, which tends to be an essential element in the translation process. The picture of the logo can be traced back to a brilliant photo taken by my brother-in-law, who kindly transferred copyright to me, on a summer outing from Bristol to Cardiff by car a few years ago. I cropped the original photograph and gave it its distinctive colouring, thereby transforming it into my business logo. It has of course been displayed all over my business and marketing literature since.

ITI Joint Revision Workshop and St. Jerome Seminar in Bristol on 12 April 2008

2008-05-07T16:39:00.000+01:00

On 12 April 2008 a joint ITI revision workshop and St. Jerome seminar was held on the Frenchay campus of the University of the West of England in Bristol, jointly organised by the ITI Western Regional Group and the University of the West of England, which provided the venue. The day featured speakers Sue Young and Eyvor Fogarty. Sue, known as ITI’s revision guru, launched the presentation by mentioning that what is meant in most cases when translators are asked by clients to edit, check, correct, revise, review, read through, proof-read, or even “quality-assess” a translation is to revise the translation. Sadly, there is widespread confusion about the correct use of the above terms. She then went on to provide the following very useful definitions:

- revision: examining a translation for its suitability for the agreed purpose, comparing the source and target texts and recommending corrective measures;
- proofreading: checking of proofs before publishing;
- reviewing: examining a target text for its suitability for the agreed purpose and respect for the conventions of the domain to which it belongs and recommending corrective measures

It is generally essential to put a few queries to the client before the job is carried out: First you should make sure that what a client actually has in mind is revision. Apart from that, as a reviser you should of course be paid correctly for the service provided. Sue generally recommends charging on an hourly basis, the yardstick being that if you find you need more than one hour to revise 1,000 words then there is a problem with the initial translation quality. It may even be advisable to offer to re-translate the text from scratch in some instances. Furthermore, it is important for translation professionals not to be bullied into doing revision work on a per-word basis in most circumstances. On a practical note it is also vital to clarify beforehand how the client would like the work returned, for example by using Track Changes.

Next, Sue elaborated on a few guiding principles from Brian Mossop’s Summary of Revision Principles, which may come in useful in this respect, for example: If you cannot understand the translation without reading it twice or without consulting the source text, then a correction is definitely necessary; check numbers as well as words, as they are also part of the message (e.g. check for formatting); etc.

What followed were a few practical examples, which gave us workshop participants some useful hands-on experience, before we broke for a delicious buffet lunch and networking.

The St. Jerome Seminar in the afternoon was led by Eyvor Fogarty from the ITI Admissions Committee and Sue Young as chairwoman. In this seminar the role of assessors, moderators and examiners was discussed, while guidelines for assessment and mark-up conventions as well as the new examination format were presented. Eyvor Fogarty described the aim of achieving standardisation in marking exams and assessments and stressed that it had always been one of ITI’s aims to maintain a particular standard of translation quality over the years. The seminar overall was also very informative and revealed, for example, how very different mark-up procedures in the context of a translator applying for fully qualified ITI membership are in comparison with those in a university environment.

(The information on part 1, the revision workshop, is based on Anna George's report.)

E-book recommendation on marketing yourself as a self-employed translator

2008-04-30T12:45:00.000+01:00

If you wonder how you should best go about marketing yourself as a self-employed translator, you might be interested in the e-book "The Insider Guide to The Strategic Marketing of Translation Services" by A.M.Sall. (Just follow the links on A.M.Sall's blog, and you will come across a downloadable copy, which shouldn't cost more than about 15 euros.) It is actually true that among professional service providers it is first and foremost translators who are not overly keen on selling their services proactively, and there is in fact so much more to it than just sending out CVs to translation companies, creating a profile on translator fora and then just waiting for clients (often in vain) to come knocking on your door. What is definitely appealing about the book is its refreshingly upbeat tone. Anyway, find out for yourself whether it's about time to revamp your marketing strategies by checking out the preview at http://www.lulu.com/items/volume_62/984000/984986/1/preview/Insider_Guide_Preview.pdf.

WRG Christmas dinner at The Bull in Hinton

2007-12-12T15:22:00.000Z

The ITI Western Regional Group's traditional Christmas dinner once again took place at The Bull, a lovely Cotswold inn in Hinton close to the Eastern outskirts of Bristol worth a visit all year round. It was a wonderful occasion to meet up and socialise with some of the other translators and/or interpreters and some of their other halfs from the group and at the same time indulge in delicious food such as Pumpkin Soup with Roasted Chestnuts, Christmas Turkey with all the Festive Trimmings or Roasted Lamb Shank in a Rosemary Jus etc. in the friendly and cosy surroundings of The Bull.

This is the place: http://www.thebullathinton.co.uk/index.htm

CPD short course in English legal drafting

2007-12-08T14:21:00.000Z

Last week I attended a CPD short course in legal drafting skills run by the University of the West of England here in Bristol. It was an opportunity not to be missed, as such courses are great for furthering one's understanding of the way that lawyers think when drawing up documents. In the beginning, in the context of clarity of drafting, I learnt that lawyers are always advised to set themselves the target of drafting contracts that are both self-contained and enjoyable to read, by stating clearly what the contracting parties are trying to achieve. (From a translator’s point of view, it is hence worth getting back to the client with queries at times, if the original document seems in some respect not clear in its meaning.) The lecture focused on how a contract is structured in general. It also covered drafting traps (such as the danger of being too legalistic or just assuming the meaning of certain technical terms without querying their actual background) and rules of construction.
Such rules include implied contract terms, i.e. terms implied into contracts by virtue of statute, contra proferentem, or other Latin classics like Eiusdem generis, Expressio unius est exclusio alterius, Noscitur a sociis – for a definition of these maxims see http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=208920.

Besides, there was mention of the famous Coode’s Rule established in 1843, according to which a legal sentence typically consists of four elements: the case (the circumstances in which the sentence is to operate), the condition (what is necessary to give effect to the sentence), the legal subject (the doer), and the legal action (what actually happens). The example given to illustrate this rule was:

"Where there is any question between parishes touching the boundaries of such parishes (the case), if a majority of not less than two-thirds in number and value of the landowners of such parishes make application (the condition), the Tithe Commissioners (the legal subject) may deal with any dispute or question concerning such boundaries (the legal action).“

It goes without saying that bearing this pervasive rule in mind in the translation process will certainly help convey the respective legal situation in the target language more easily. Course participants also had the opportunity of comparing a one-page-long insurance clause, where bad drafting features basically had proliferated, side by side with just a few lines conveying the same content in a summarised and much more intelligible form.

Richard Wynn-Jones, the speaker, also covered a good deal of legal sentence construction and language, of which a few examples will be given here: In legal drafting, as a rule of thumb, including too many provisos constitutes a potential danger, as the sentence might become overly long. (Translators should therefore consider breaking up convoluted syntax.). Double negatives should usually be avoided. (These may often be replaced by a positive, thus less confusing rendering.) Moreover, pronouns should always be treated with care because referring them back to their intended antecendents is sometimes a thorny issue. Use of consistent terminology and its repetition throughout the document is a must, as in legal construction a change in language usually means a change in legal meaning. Overall, translators are advised to be wary of phrases that lawyers often just chuck in. Examples include "substantial" (which equates to a degree of about 10%) vs. "material" (which equates to possibly less than a degree of 10%), archaic expressions like "the same" or “best endeavours“ (which almost corresponds to an absolute obligation!), and of course the ever recurring signifier “reasonable“, for which strictly speaking no definition has ever been provided as to its actual meaning. Finally, “shall“, as an auxiliary verb conveying a sense of obligation, will probably always be a classic in English legal drafting and is unlikely ever to lose its effect.

Wrapping it up - ITI Peer Support Group 2007

2007-07-22T21:03:00.000+01:00

The Peer Support Group has drawn towards a close, and it has undeniably been a fantastic three to four months, in which I have on the one hand met a lot of amazing likeminded people (in a virtual sense, of course) and on the other hand have learnt a great deal about many interesting aspects of working as a self-employed translator, such as specialisation, CPD, equipment and capital investment, CV writing and marketing (including carrying out a SWOT analysis), invoicing, proofreading (with the word itself being a misnomer, technically speaking), to name but a few.
To conclude, I highly recommend the ITI’s Peers Support Group to any translator wanting to find out more about the business side of translation!

The translator – only a passive mediator between source and target text?

2007-07-05T16:10:00.000+01:00

This is an article which I originally wrote for publication on a website, but have decided to post here instead:

The translator – only a passive mediator between source and target text?

The notion of the translator as someone who only mediates between source and target text and plays a passive role in the translation process has rightly been challenged by numerous translation scholars, and light can be thrown on this complex issue from different angles. Firstly, let me point out that it is an incontrovertible fact that any professional translator, regardless of the subject field which s/he works in, needs to be regarded as an independent text producer entrusted with extensive decision-making authority, no matter whether s/he faithfully reproduces the original text or diverges from it to a given degree. Consequently, translation work is anything but derivative.

Hans J Vermeer for example propounded the skopos theory, whereby a target text or translatum is determined by the skopos or purpose of a text, which is ideally specified in the translation brief, and constitutes only an offer of information on which the translated text will be based. The theory suggests that a function needs to be determined for each individual translation, whereas according to the traditional view held by both translation theorists and the general public the same function consisting in a strictly literal approach is assumed for each translation. Thus, Vermeer’s theory was revolutionary in that the translator was at last formally authorised to no longer be slavishly faithful to the source text in terms of form and content, but be faithful to the underlying skopos instead. This approach led to the creation of a wide continuum of legitimate translation strategies, with possible strategies encompassing a strict adherence to the original text at one end and adaptations at the other end. For instance, if functionally adequate and in accordance with the specified skopos, the translator can be provided with a great deal of leeway to produce a fairly free translation. Such a translation strategy seems appropriate in the case of marketing or advertisement literature or any other kinds of text that, due to the requirement of resorting to aesthetically pleasing language with a view to satisfying the target readership’s expectations, typically call for a creativity approach and are characterised by effect-orientation.

As a translator specialising in patents and law, I acknowledge that on the other hand a high degree of fidelity to the original text also requires very careful mediation between source and target text in that the translation is required to remain faithful to the original in all its peculiarities and surface patterns, a feature particularly true of patent and legal texts. In these text genres, the translator has to actively apply the very special skill of making the source text shine through in the target text. Moreover, legal lacunae often need to be filled by means of borrowings and/or explications in the target language, as generally the two legal systems in question are incongruent and source text notions need to be transferred intact. Consequently, the translator plays a very active role when transferring the propositional (legal or technical) content in question.

In summary, the translator, equipped with extensive linguistic and subject field knowledge, actively mediates between source and target text, which presupposes great skill and results in an expert manipulation of the original text’s words. The fact that this mediation is anything but passive may be illustrated by highlighting the notion of the tertium comparationis. This translation theory concept constitutes an invariant against which source and target segments can be measured in order to gauge the quality of the translation. It represents a platform of reference which the translator transfers the original's propositional content to before converting it to words in the target language. In this very complex process it is often inevitable that the translator becomes visible, and it cannot be ignored that translators need to be viewed as independent target-text authors rather than as passive mediators. Incidentally, all the aspects mentioned above serve to underline that there is simply not a grain of truth in two common and very ignorant misconceptions about translation, which are that "translators don't need to understand what they’re translating" and that "translation is just typing in a foreign language".

WRG/UWE event

2007-06-18T06:11:00.000+01:00

Yesterday brought me an opportunity to cycle to the UWE campus, as I used to when I was studying for my MA degree at the University of the West of England here in Bristol, as aspiring and practising translators had gathered there for a CAT tools workshop. As a member of the local ITI network, the Western Regional Group (WRG), I participated in the Round Table panel for the purpose of answering questions which the workshop participants (most of them MAT students) had in terms of embarking on a career as a freelance translator. It was a nice opportunity for me as well to meet up again with some of my friends from the WRG. At the same time, the event marked the beginning of a closer cooperation between the UWE MA in Translation and the WRG in the future.

As far as the Western Regional Group is concerned, I have recently taken the decision to join its planning committee, so from now on I will be involved in running the group, such as organising social events, talks and outings.

Legal Terminology for Translators in Corporate and Commercial Law

2007-06-04T15:16:00.000+01:00

London - not exactly my favourite place in the entire world… However, last week brought another opportunity to set out for the capital in order to attend the workshop on Legal Terminology for Translators in Corporate and Commercial Law offered by the City University London over the weekend (with corporate law meaning the law of business associations, as an aside). The workshop covering the sale of goods via different methods of trading to memoranda and articles of associations, debentures and the like was run by Clare Canton LL.M (Cantab) MA (London) and proved to be excellent. The German afternoon sessions supervised by Angela Sigee, another very competent lecturer, provided an opportunity to gain some hands-on translation experience in small groups afterwards where we had a chance to apply what we had learnt.
To summarise, this was without doubt a thoroughly profitable and informative seminar demystifying a lot of the concepts which one comes across fairly regularly as a translator in these subject fields. We all went our separate ways afterwards, eager to delve into the subject area more deeply, although it may be advisable to wait for the new Sale of Goods Act 2006 to be passed shortly (which apparently will be the "longest statute ever to be passed by parliament in the history of the universe", as it consolidates all previous acts), before books on the subject should be purchased. London as usual was marked by the hustle and bustle typical of a busy city, and one will forever be left amazed by accommodation rates in one of the dearest cities in the world.

Continuation of my legal translation studies

2007-04-30T12:56:00.000+01:00

I was having a fairly quiet time recently spending two weeks with my family in Central Franconia in Germany around Easter time, where I was able to continue my legal translation studies and broaden my knowledge in this field. There are a few excellent and extremely useful books on the market, such as "Einführung in die anglo-amerikanische Rechtssprache/Introduction to Anglo-American Law & Language" by B. Sharon Byrd. By the way, a few months ago I read "Introduction to English Law" written by Margaret Marks for fledgling translators at the Institut for Fremdsprachen in Erlangen. I had borrowed the book from a friend (in legal terms on a gratuitous bailment basis, so to speak ;-)). Yet as the book is out of print, I am unable to obtain a copy for myself anywhere. Therefore, if you happen to own it and would like to get rid of it (for example because you’re an IFA graduate), please contact me by referring to the contact section of my website because I would be interested in buying it from you. Thank you.

ITI Peer Support Group 2007

2007-03-08T14:59:00.000Z

The ITI’s Peer Support Group started this week, and I am excited about being one of its mentees this year! The PSG is an online mentoring scheme which teaches translators relevant business skills and helps them acquire more self-confidence when portraying themselves as qualified and dedicated professionals to existing as well as potential new clients. My first impression is that there is a really nice bunch of people from all sorts of backgrounds on the course, and there are already some lively discussions going on on the forum. The schedule over the next three months will cover designing CVs, specialist fields, telephone negotiations, marketing, CAT tools etc., to name but a few.

It is brilliant that thanks to the wonders of modern technology courses like these can be run online nowadays, which means you only meet your course mates like in a virtual classroom. It is great, however, that I have already met a few mentors in person, for example Cate Avery. Cate ran a CV workshop last summer (as part of the great programme of events run by my ITI Western Regional Group here in the Bristol / Bath area) in the wonderful surroundings of the meeting facilities at the Esther Parkin Residence at Bath University. I also attended a seminar (equally informative) run by Michael Benis in Exeter last November, which was about keeping translators' workstations running smoothly (so that you don't risk suffering attacks of computer rage, as Anna, our WRG coordinator, put it so nicely) and about subject specialisation and marketing. And as mentioned, I met Nick Rosenthal (an ex-mentor mentoring a new mentor this year) during that weekend up in Birmingham.

Overall, I am hoping that by the end of the PSG course, which I think is a fantastic opportunity, I will be in the know of how to establish a sound client base as well as a steady flow of work, and how to work in fields that I really want to work in.

CPD seminar in Birmingham

2007-02-28T21:12:00.000Z

I went up to Birmingham for a Continuing Professional Development seminar run by ITI last weekend. I had already arrived in the afternoon because I wanted to have a little wander round the city before meeting up with some of the others for the first event, an evening meal at the Royal Naim, a famous Balti restaurant in Sparkhill. The seminar the next day was held at The Studio, a conference venue right in the centre of Birmingham, and the morning session dealing with how to market yourself as a freelance translator more efficiently was run by Nick Rosenthal, Managing Director of Salford Translations, who is generally known as a marketing guru. Overall Nick provided lots of invaluable advice and useful information on customer perceptions in general, the concept of customer delight, legal pitfalls when it comes to contacting new customers or translation companies for the first time and so on, which made me view my relationship with clients from a broader perspective and from a long-term point of view. He also explained about the benefits of having a blog, as it is an important means to help you increase your internet presence, hence my decision to start this blog! The afternoon session was run by Vernon Blackmore, an IT consultant, who talked about designing and setting up your own website. A couple of pictures taken during the event can be viewed on the ITI West Midlands Group's website at http://www.iti-wmg.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/reports.htm (Thanks to Ros Mendy for compiling this page and of course for organising this event.)

This is an extract from the article "Launching into cyberspace" written by Ros Mendy for the July/August 2007 edition of the ITI Bulletin (page 39):