Fair Trading

Image: 'My illustration called fair trade'

Next week's topic is Consumer Law & Fair Trading. Fair Trading NSW has a fantastic website with written information, audio and videos in several languages. Unfortunately they do not have anything in Spanish, but you can still use the real life case studies which are in English for practice.

Here are a few:

• Automotive case studies in English
• Automotive case studies in Mandarin
• Building case studies in English
• Building case studies in Vietnamese
• Travel case study in English (Broadband)
• Changes to tenancy laws - what you need to know in Korean - introduction 

For Spanish videos, a simple google search with Defensa del Consumidor will bring up many.

The video below offers lots of relevant vocabulary and role play possibilities.

Prepare to Translate or Interpret

Today we were talking about one of our units of competency, Prepare to translate and interpret and some of its elements referred to research, glossaries, innovative ways of dealing with possible language difficulties, etc.

Here you have a great example of research triggered by casual conversation amongst colleagues while having tapas: Marchando una de calamares by Clara Guelbenzu in Bootheando. Notice how she says that she was trying to dilucidar el asunto: clarify and illustrate the point in question.

Alpacas in Ecuador by Philippe Lavoie

Why don't you try doing the same for your last assignments*?  La Posada Oveja Negra had us discussing the differences between llamas (Lama glama), alpacas (Vicugna pacos), vicuñas (Vicugna vicugna) and guanacos (from the Quechua huanaco), which are all South American camelids.  Do a bit of  research to clarify and illustrate the main differences amongst these camelids.

We also worked very hard to find the exact meaning of this passage: Mantienen los residuos no reciclables por uso en la propiedad por debajo de  una onza diaria por persona. If you read La Posada's website, you'll find this sentence which confirms your understanding of it:
"We produce less than one ounce of non-recyclable trash daily per person!"

*I'll be curious to see what you find out about the music policy in Nazi Europe and DWIs. 

Interpreting Jokes

Thanks again to Bootheando I came across this really interesting video by Lourdes de Rioja about Interpreting Jokes.Remember that you can subscribe to Lourdes de Rioja's video channel, A Word in your Ear where you will find interviews with professional interpreters talking about many different aspects of the profession.

Enjoy it on your last days of the Autumn break!

Sexism in the Spanish language?

Should we accept the generic use of the grammatical masculine gender in Spanish words to include both males & females OR should we start using alternatives that ensure women's visiblility?

El trabajador debe exigir sus derechos OR El trabajador y la trabajadora....


Todos tenemos sentimientos, OR Las personas tenemos sentimientos   
Todos los ciudadanos OR Toda la ciudadanía
Los niños vendrán a clase con ropa comoda OR L@s niñ@s vendrán a clase con ropa cómoda

These and many more questions are the subject of a great article by Ignacio Bosque (miembro de la RAE y catedrático de la Universidad Complutense) that I found by chance yesterday, International Women's Day.  Bosque writes about linguistic sexism, perceived and real, in the Spanish language and what different organisations are doing about it. The article has been supported by many academics of the RAE. All translators should read it, not only to be aware of the issues, but also to avoid over-correcting linguistic sexist practice.

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!