Late Payment-Impago

Late payments or even lack of payment (impago in Spanish) are an unfortunate occurrences in  the interpreting and translating professions. Here you have two posts, one in Spanish (impago) and one in English (Late payments) , that deal wit the issue and give concrete advice on what to do if you find yourself in such situation.

Understandably, both posts refer to Spanish and British law. They discuss relevant legal means of reacting and protecting yourself in either country. Read them (if your LOTE is not Spanish, do a bit of research to find something similar in your language) and start thinking about  the equivalent situation in Australia. What can you do if you are not paid for a translation job? What venues do we have here if an interpreter is not paid in time or not paid at all?

If you want to keep in touch with issues related to interpreting and translating during the summer holidays, follow professionals like the ones in the blogs linked in this post (Silvia Ferrero & Oliver Carreira). There are many links on the right side bar of this blog and most of the blogs have twitter buttons for you to follow their authors.

Happy reading!

Court Interpreting

Last week I attended the launch of professor Sandra Hale's report “Interpreter Policies, Practices and Protocols in Australian Courts and Tribunals– A National Survey,” by the Hon. Justice Ian Harrison, NSW Supreme Court.

Today, while looking at my regular dose of translating and interpreting blogs, I came across this very relevant post by Juan Jimenez Salcedo, Intérpretes de cartón piedra. It looks as if the situation is not much better in Spain where a judge can use as an interpreter any person who can speak the language other than Spanish. No questions asked about qualifications or even knowledge of the Spanish language. It looks as even the interpreting agencies send unqualified people as interpreters for court interpreting.

Read the post, watch the TV news within it and listen to this Radio National about Courtroom interpreters.You can use it at consecutive practice and later on as transalting practice (the script is provided).

Translation, traduccion.

I have been forwarding interesting blog posts on translation to a couple of students I'm friends with in facebook, and I thought everyone else may be interested, so here they go:

• El Gascón Jurado publishes a link in Spanish to Traducciones de leyes españolas por el ministerio de Justicia
• Legally yours from Spain writes in depth about the same legal translations recently published by the Spanish Ministry of Justice and he does it in English. Read his analysis of the different styles used by  the translators of those documents. 
• La paradoja de Chomsky publishes a very interesting post,¿Dónde me apunto para ser traductor?, about what it really means to be a translator as opposed to knowing two languages and thinking that this qualifies anyone as a professional translator. Read the comments, they are all great!

What is TED Talks?

If you are new to TED Talks, watch this video. Notice that they've already created captions in Spanish (from Mexico, was that you Ailin?), Portuguese, Polish and English. They've been done via the Open Translation Project. Have you joined yet?

Translators' Web Presence

Tomorrow we are going to work on blogs as the last activity for the course. While I was looking at my twitter, I came across this video by Ian Emmet. It is a very simple way of advertising what his translation company does.



Via twitter, Ian Emmet has sent me a couple more videos. The one below shows some of  his hospitality and tourism translations.


You can achieve something similar with one of the many open source movie making/slide sites (animoto, stupeflix, even slideshare, smile box, etc).

You could easily create a similar little video with photostory or movie maker. Then you upload it onto your blog or onto youtube or vimeo to give it more air play.
Social media marketing for transaltors is becoming more topical by the minute.There are even webminars taking place. Just explore the net to get ideas and learn form what is going on out there!

Note-taking Revisited

248/365 one of those days

In a previous post, Note Taking for Consecutive Interpreting , we watched some videos on note-taking techniques. Today you can check this site, Interpreter Training Resources. Even though it is aimed at a French audience, the skills described are transferable, and often they use English examples, like;
The rule of thumb is that unless a word is short (4-5 letters) the interpreter should note it in an abbreviated form.

Check the whole file here

You can find the example above in the document,  Rozan - The 7 Principles of Note-taking.
Spanish students, check this out: Los pequeños detalles que marcan la gran diferencia en interpretación consecutiva, por Judith de dos palabras.
Happy practising!

Interpreters & Translators: Same or different? Two in one?

Bootheando has published a great post on being an interpreter and a translator at the same time. Spanish students will be able to read the post here.

The rest of you can watch this video by Lourdes AIB. Translating students, why don't you write a transcript in your LOTE?

For a very good description of  the differences between both occupations, read the US Department of Labor entry on Interpreters and Translators. It has not only descriptions of the jobs and the skills needed to do them, but also additional points on how to get trained,etc. the pity is that it is information about the USA. For Australian information, you'll have to visit AUSIT and NAATI.

A Day in the Life of an Interpreter-Korean Subtitles

Suggested exercises:

• Watch the video without sound and sight translate the subtitles into English. Record yourself while doing it. Check by listening to yourself and the the video with sound.
• Listen to the video (English) without looking. Pause and interpret into Korean.Check by looking at the subtitles.
  

TEDxTalks & Spanish

I have told you about TEDXTalks Open Translation Project in previous posts.





















The video above was transalted into Spanish by  Lourdes Cahuich  , who said:

Jill Tarter's TED Prize wish is the best talk I've translated because she inspired me to look beyond my everyday problems and made me look at my life as a human being -- "one possible outcome of billions of years of evolution of Hydrogen and Helium" -- and how the SETI research could change our history.

La charla del deseo TED Prize de Jill Tarter es la mejor charla que he traducido por que ella me inspira a mirar más allá de mis problemas cotidianos y me hace ver mi vida como ser humano como..."un posible resultado de miles de millones de años de evolución del hidrógeno y el helio", y cómo la investigación SETI cambiará nuestra historia. 

You will find Translators from many other languages talking about the videos they have found most inspiring here.

Mental Health

October 2011 is Mental Health Month.

Theis picture has 10 tips to stress less. It was sent to me by a multicultural health worker, who suggested we all slow down a bit this month and take time out to enjoy the things we do not pay attention to becasue we are usually too busy. 

Visit the Mental Health Association website for information, facts sheets, etc. The Multicultural Mental Health Australia website has section called Resources and Translations, where you can find many translated texts that you can browse by language. Use them to practise your sight translation and transating skills.

Finally, watch the TED talk video below and practise your note taking interpreting skills. You can check the interactive transcript in English and many other languages on the right-hand side of the video screen. Remember that you can join TED Open Translation Project to volunteer to translate TED videos! Check this for their next TEDxSydney dates.The next post tells you more about TED translating, with an example which has transcripts in many languages, including Spanish, Chinese traditional & simplified, Korean, etc. None in Vietnamese or Indonesian, though, so you have the opportunity to contribute to the spreading of  great ideas by joining the Open Translation Project now!

Note Taking for Consecutive Interpreting

On a previous post, we had a look at some great examples of consecutive and simultaneous interpreting. I know some of you have to take the final exam for consecutive interpreting very shortly. Check the videos below for great advice on note taking.
The first one is a speech "Soluciones ante la crisis" and the note taking at the same time.

The video below is a speech on food, "los locávoros" .

The following video is an explanation of how the notes for the previous video were taken.

This one is another demonstration.

The last one is some comments on how to avoid problems and improve your note-taking skills.


You can listen to them and practise your note-taking skills.

Holiday Readings

I know you are having a rest from your classes or still working on your assignments and homework, but I thought you may be interested in a few sites related to interpreting (and applicable to translating in most cases). Here they are:

• Aventuras de una traductora interprete de Madrid writes about Los Gastos de cancelación.
• Don de Lenguas, radio blog published by the Departamento de Traducción e Interpretación de la Universidad de Salamanca, broadcasts interviews with professional interpreters and translators.
• Bootheando publishes a list of her favourite interpreting/translating blogs in A ♥ for Language Blogs  

 Happy reading/listening!

Preparing For Assignments

Booteando brings to us another excellent post, this time on the preparation interpreters need to undertake before a specialised assignment. She gives Fisheries and Aquaculture as a hypothetical conference topic. Please visit the post even if you can't read Spanish. It will give you a very clear idea of the amount and type of research one must go through. Some of the glossaries are in English (one is Australian).
You can all read the link to a Practical Guide for Professional Conference Interpreters.

Translators Without Borders

Thanks Mellie for telling the class about Translators Without Borders. Note that you can subscribe to volunteer as a translator and that they will assess your skills to see if you are suitable.

Holiday Fun

Next week most of you are going to start a well deserved break form your studies. If you happen to be bored at home (hopefully that won't be the case!) there is plenty you can do to still keep improving your English skills:

• This blog is a great way to learn English idioms: Rolls off the Tongue
• Splendid Speaking has got idiomatic expressions and oral presentations for your listening and speaking skills
• The Interpreting Links on the right have many useful ways of practising your listening and /or interpreting skills
• Let's Talk ( interviews with fluent speakers) has interviews related to the topics encountered in community interpreting
• DET has a page full of Education related texts in Korean, Chinese, Spanish and English
• UN Radio has many interesting programs on a wide range of topics  
• Translators, check this fantastic post on localisation by The Cyclist Translator!

Interpreting & Subtitltles: 60-second lectures

Visit the previous post on interpreting and 60-second lectures, Is It Wrong To Punish Prisoners? and do the worksheet on in:
Now you can listen to the lecture on the video below. This time:

• Take notes as a consecutive note-taking excercise
• Pause after each sentence for interpreting practice
• Try to write subtitles (caption) in your Target Language. There is a caption option, but nobody has done it yet. Be the first!

lectos, what are they?

Read this informative post @bootheando on sociolinguistic varieties in Spanish, called lectos. Both interpreters and translators must render this linguistic information when  when doing their interpreting/translating job.

The video below comes from Argentina and explains lectos in a very simple way.

Los Lectos - Conectar Igualdad -  Videos

Whistleblowers: Sibel Edmonds

Image "warning"

Thanks to Bootheando, once again, this time for the publication of a post on Sibel Edmonds, an FBI language specialist (Persian, Turkish, English and Azerbaijan), with a BA in criminal justice and psychology, MA in public policy and international commerce and founder and director of the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC).

Read this interview in the Armenian Weekly Online conducted in English. Translate it into Spanish and check your translation against this one by Martin: Entrevista exclusiva con Sibel Edmonds.

Mistranslations

By natalia & gabriel

 
Reading Bootheando about  the imminent closure* of Westminster University Interpreting course , one of the best in the world, I came across this great resource for Translation: Exploring Translation. The first exercises are about the differences between interpreting and translating and machine translation. They include video clips to comment

Check the Spanish examples. They are great to get you thinking about  comparative grammar/structure and literal translating errors. It will help you too with translation commentary.

*Visit the facebook page set for comments and support

TED Talks: Don't Insist on English

Patricia Ryan gives a thought provoking talk on the wide spread of English and how this could be affecting the spreading of ideas form other languages.

You can change the subtitles to Korean, Spanish, Chinese and many other languages. Great to test your interpreting (and translating) skills.

Health and Chinese Seniors

These Ten Health Videos for Chinese Seniors can help you practise this week's topic: Health
Here is one of them (cover the bottom of the screen for real practice!)

Vocabulary Videos: Rescind

We came across the Spanish verb rescindir. Here is a video that explains its English equivalent:

SAT Vocabulary Words | GRE Vocabulary words - Videos for GRE SAT Prep Vocabulary Videos Rescind

Some Points of Ethics in Translation

Thinking about issues of  ethics regarding translators (ethics test coming soon!), I have come across a couple of blog entries by Rose Newell (German/English translator):

• The Ethics of Proofreading
• The Ethics of Translation Blogging

Read them carefully and note all the different issues treated here: plagiarism, unethical translators claiming to work for other translators found on professional websites, negative proofreaders, etc.

Check her ten points towards ethical proofreading.

Send me/your teacher a summary of what you've learnt from reading the blog posts linked above an refer to the code of ethics relevant to the issues mentioned.

Traductor jurado: fora and blogs as searching tools

Image: 'Courtroom One Gavel'

Last week we were searching for answers in different fora and several of our translation students posed a question about traductor jurado and fedatario.

Check the blog El Gascón Jurado and answer these questions (you will have to go to Acerca de mí):

1. What is Fernado Gascón's job?
2. What is his specialty and why?
3. What is the difference between traductor judicial and traductor jurado?
4. What did he achieve in 2006?
5. What does Adriana Cruz Santacroce ask in relation to the Spanish use of interpreters in court?
6. Why dont' you ask Fernando our jurado/fedatario question? 
7. Alternatively, have a look at my Spanish Translation links and you will find the answer in one of the blogs there. 
8. Don't forget that you can use great search/dictionary websites, like the linguee. 

Law and Order

Deborah Cameron has broadcast her program from Manly today. It was all dedicated to law and order.

One of the program reporters, Matthew Perkins, went to a police station and recorded a mini documentary of what happens when someone is arrested.

 

Click on the picture above and it will take you to the slideshow with the recording of a police officer explaining  the process of an arrest.

Take notes and check all the vocabulary in your LOTE. Great to add up to your law glossary.

La mejor traducción-The Best Translation

Once again Bootheando publishes a very interesting entry on how to search for the best meaning of a difficult word of expression.
Check the entry in this post. Look for the expressions we were discussing in class today: aggregate marks, partnership (between home and school), remedial classes.
This could be our first competition for 2011. If you want to translate into English, I'll publish the best translation in this blog.

You can read our last competition's winner in the post Where are the Cockneys? Translated by Simon Wright.
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The picture below illustrates the translation of the passive voice from English into Spanish impersonal/pasiva refleja.

Text Messages

Can you fix the spelling, accents and punctuation of this test messages?

Computer Health

Talking to the Diploma of Translating students about good computer habits, I remembered Melinda Gleeson's page on Computer Health.

Everyone should know that when working on the computer, the very first thing to think about is your posture . It's very important to sit properly and at a good distance from the computer. So here it is:

• Read this information about Computer Health. Click on all the links (Stretches, Postures, Consequences)
• Do the Quiz. When you finish answering the quiz, print it and start translating! Interpreting students can use it as a sight translation exercise.

As always, read the whole text first and then think of the purpose of the text, its audience and the genre (text type). That should inform your language choices.

Check this great video sent to me by one of the translating teachers. You can write a script for it in Spanish, Korean, English, Mandarin....Spanish students can also read the written instructions published with the video and transalate them into English: Más información sobre el portátil en casa

A Day in the Life of a Social Worker

This week some of our students are dealing with social work issues.For an Australian listening  introduction to this topic, go to Let's Talk and listen to my interview with Karen Heycox, senior lecturer of Social Work at the University of NSW, Sydney. There is a worksheet to help you with the listening.

For further listening and  interpreting practice, watch the video below of a day in the life of Maureen,a British  social worker.

You can find many more good videos in youtube: Social work training. Unfortunately most of them are form England or the USA (I'd love to be able to get you more practice with Australian voices and context).

Style Manuals: Manual de Estilo de la Corporacion RTVE

"Toros en la dehesa" by: Fernando Cuenca

We have looked into Style Manuals and personal translator's style sheets during our course.Here is an interesting development that has taken place in Spain following the launch of the new Style Manual for RTVE (Spanish Radio and Television).
Point 6 focuses on language matters. It provides examples of different language uses, like ellipsis and hyperbaton.
Check point 5.9 Violence involving animals. Their decision about not broadcasting bullfights has created a great deal of responses, both for and against.  Read this article and the comments generated by it: "RTVE incluye a los toros como violencia con animales..."

What do you think? It'd be great to write a piece on it in English. Any volunteers?