Directorate-General for Translation

EUROPEAN COMMISSION

The work of the translator at DGT

December, 2009Rusana BARDARSKA

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Content

1. Profile and competences of the translator

2. Job opportunities

3. Work environment Work and work-related activities Norms of productivity Professional development Flexibility Conventions and innovation Quality control

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Content

5. Workflow and internal sources of information and terminology Document and data workflow in the Commission and

DGT Pre-processing Translator’s workload Dossier Manager Translator’s Workbench – TWB Euramis Elise Information sources at department level Information sources at DGT/Commission level

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Content

6. Most important external sources of information and terminology• EUR-Lex• IATE• Interinstitutional Style Guide• National sources

NB! There are separate ppts presenting: information and terminology sources free-lance translation

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Profile of the Commission translators

http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/workingwithus/recruitment/translator_profile_en.htm

• Perfect command of your main language / mother tongue• Very sound knowledge of English or German or French• Very sound knowledge of a second source language• Knowledge of any additional languages is an asset• Grasp problems of all kinds, often of a complex nature• React rapidly to changing circumstances;• Communicate effectively

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Competences for professional translators-EMT

http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/programmes/emt/key_documents/emt_competences_translators_en.pdf

Thematic

TechnologicalInfo

mining

Intercultural

Language

Translationservice

provision

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Job profile of the Commission translators

• Traduction, en principe, vers la langue maternelle ou principale et révision, relecture, évaluation de traductions … exécution de toute autre tâche relevant du domaine linguistique et/ou de la gestion… notamment en matière de communication interne et de gestion de l'information, de l'utilisation des outils d'aide à la traduction et de formation.

• Educational background – philologists, but as well economists, lawyers, engineers… Two-way development

• Job-related annual objectives:Productivity

Quality

Horizontal activities

Professional development

Conduct

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Job opportunities

Permanent employment Temporary agent Contract agent AD, AST Translator, assistant, lawyer-linguist/legal

reviser, editor, interpreter, proof-reader Freelance Traineeship

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H.M. The Translator

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The acquis communautaire in Bulgarian

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Work and work-related activities

Translation and revision• Translation from at least 2 source languages (one procedural) into main

language/mother tongue• Revision of internal translations• FL workflow - preparation of dossiers to be externalised, revision and

evaluation of external translations, giving feedback• Written or oral summaries (usually from 1st source language into main

language/mother tongue)• Reverse translations (usually from 1st source language into main

language/mother tongue)

Horizontal activities• Terminology

research while translating, contacts with experts, feeding IATE, building thematic packs, ELISE and other platforms for interinstitutional exchange

• Coordination, project management, knowledge-sharingCorrespondents (training, library and documentation, language, IT, FL, etc.), lead

translators, DGT working groups, presentations

• TrainingAnnual training paths, ad hoc dossier-related, thematic, language & IT training

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Internal norms of productivity

• Translation into 1st language – appr. 6-7 pages/day• Translation into 2nd /3rd … language – appr. 3-4

pages/day• Revision internal translation – appr. 15-20 pages/day• Revision external translation – appr. 15 pages/day• Translation written resume into 2nd /3rd … language –

appr. 10 original pages/day

Only indicative figures!! Actual output depends on many factors!

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Professional development

Training Internal thematic specialisation IT skills Language competences Competences through horizontal activities Annual evaluation, promotion system

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Flexible work environment

Mobility (transfer to another post in DGT, Commission, another institution)

Flexitime, Teleworking, Part-time Flexible workload sharing - within and across

language departments and interinstitutional Trans-Ardennian dimension

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Conventionsin terminology, phraseology and layout

SOURCES• Existing EU legislation – the acquis translated before the

accession (app. 100 000 pages), court decisions• Existing EU legislation – since 2007• Other official documents/acts – some translated, others - not• Other reference documents – Interinstitutional Style Guide,

internal Style Guide• National sources – legislation, official documentation, experts

PATTERNS• Form of acts (phraseology of legal drafting, layout)• Hidden or explicit textual citations• Referrals – form and content• Terminology

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Innovation

More freedom and linguistic mastery:• New notions – CAP health check, neighbourhood policy, low-

carbon economy/prosperity – sense, language paradigm, consultation

• Press releases• Political speeches/strategies, etc.• Explanatory and/or consultation texts (memoranda,

green/white books)

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Quality control

Peer review (revisions) Revision, evaluation, feedback for FL Ex-post quality review (HoU, quality circle,

outside partner) Feedback – from commitology committees

(national experts), DGs, national authorities, DGT TELLUS, other institutions (linguists, other officials)

Total Quality Management at DGT

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The European CommissionInternal categorisation of translation requests

Political priorities and/or new legal obligations

Existing legal obligations

Communication priorities

Non-core documents

Rules on language regimes maximum volume externalisation quality assurance indicative deadlines

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Document workflow in the Commission

Unit(s)->Dir. responsiblefor the drafts

InterserviceConsultation

Legal service

consistency with other consistency with other policy areas, political policy areas, political aspects, technical aspects, technical substance,substance, legal basis and legal basis and certainty, legislative certainty, legislative drafting qualitydrafting quality ? Language, correctness, consistency ?

Unit(s)->Dir.->DGresponsible for the drafts

Secretariat General DGT

Other institutionsPublication

State authoritiesCompanies

Citizens, etc.

AdoptionByThe

Commission

-> app. 88% in EN or FR because…-> Editing service, lead translator…-> Documents normally come after, but as well during Interservice consultation-> For Action 2 documents DGT has the sole responsibility for the quality-> More than half of the documents have one or more versions

Action 2

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Document workflow at DGT

Planning Unit Pre-Processing Translation Units Planning Unit

Requesting DGsSecretariat General

Directorate General for Translation - DGT

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Data workflow at DGT

TWBmemory

Euramissegments,

alignments

SGVistaDGTVista

Pre-processing

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Pre-processing

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Pre-processing

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Pre-processing

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Translation unit

Composition and tasks Workflow

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Translator’s workload

NAME - G-12 02/011 - Tel. : …

Nombre d'actions: 7 / Nombre de pages: …

Request reference Task Deadline Lang Vol Days Contact Person Requesting secretariat Other actions

OLAF/2009/00704/00/00 OF/2008/0808 NCPF (request for summary from Bulgarian into French)

RSE 16/10/2009 16/10/2009

BG 4 0 NAME, Tel, office address, DG

NAME, Tel, office address, DG

SJ/2009/17107/00/00 OBSEVATIONS ECRITES AFFAIRE C-357/09PPU - JURM(2009) 13033

TRA 16/10/2009 16/10/2009

BG 12 0 NAME, Tel, office address, DG

NAME, Tel, office address, DG TRA : NAME.

TRA : NAME.

BUDG/2009/80035/00/00 Communication de la Commission au Conseil, Parlement, Cour des Comptes : Comptes définitifs des 7, 8, 9 et 10 FEDs pour l''exercice 2008

TRA 22/10/2009 22/10/2009

EN 63 0 NAME, Tel, office address, DG NAME, Tel, office address, DG REI : NAME.

COMP/2009/09255/01/00 STATE AID No…

TRA 22/10/2009 22/10/2009

EN 1 0 NAME, Tel, office address, DG NAME, Tel, office address, DG REI : NAME.

SG/2009/80117/00/00 COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS: Mobilising private and public investment for rec...

REI 22/10/2009 22/10/2009

EN 25 0 NAME, Tel, office address, DG NAME, Tel, office address, DG TRA : NAME.

DEV/2009/80018/00/00 ACCORD DE PARTENARIAT VOLONTAIRE ENTRE LA COMMUNAUTE EUROPEENNE ET LA REPUBLIQUE DU CONGO SUR L’APPLICATION DES …

REX 26/10/2009 26/10/2009

FR 88 0 NAME, Tel, office address, DG

NAME, Tel, office address, DG

DEV/2009/80018/00/00 ACCORD DE PARTENARIAT VOLONTAIRE ENTRE LA COMMUNAUTE EUROPEENNE ET LA REPUBLIQUE DU CONGO SUR L’APPLICATION DES …

EVA 28/10/2009 28/10/2009

FR 10 0 NAME, Tel, office address, DG

NAME, Tel, office address, DG

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Fiche de Travail

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Dossier Manager

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Note in Dossier Manager

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Dossier Manager - Versions

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Dossier Manager CMP file

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Translator’s Workbench

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Translator’s Workbench

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Translator’s Workbench

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Translator’s Workbench

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Translator’s Workbench

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Euramis

All institutions Alignments Acquis and after 2007 for BG and RO Information presented; operational options First appears normative memory Sentence management

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Euramis

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Euramis

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Euramis

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Elise

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Sources - Language department

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Sources - Language department

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Language department - Templates

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Sources - Language department

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Sources - DGT Vista

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Sources - SG Vista

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DGT Library(internal)

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DGT LIBRARY

Directorate-General (DGT)• Directorate D - Transversal linguistic services

Unit DGT.D.3 - Library, Terminology & Translation Support Brussels (G12 00/45) & Luxembourg (JMO B0/10)

Reference works in all Community languages• Paper: books, periodicals, newspapers• Electronic: CD-ROM, on-line databases• etc.

Reading room Loans Contact with the European Commission's Central Library

VM18 - Rue Van Maerlant, 18http://ec.europa.eu/libraries/doc/index_en.htm

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MULTIDOC - Multilingual Virtual Library(internal)

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MULTIDOC

Virtual library of DGT One site per language -> Multilingual pages per subject 22 categories encompassing the main EU subjects

PERTINENCE and QUALITY of electronic sources

keep and manage data found and/or created by the Departments (translators, terminologists, documentalists, etc.)

for reference purposes for self-training purposes

New application: end of 2009?

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ECLAS

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ECLAS

ECLAS is the catalogue of holdings of the European Commission network of libraries. DGT – 15 000 titles included in the catalogue.

EC staff can borrow books and obtain photocopies from any EC library

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QUEST Metasearch(internal)

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QUEST

Interface that finds solutions to terminology problems in 20+ term sources

(including not only terminology databases but also related sources such as

Euramis Concordance, DGTVista and Eur-Lex).

Macro button in Word (see Quickstart Help)

New application soon …

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MOST IMPORTANT EXTERNAL

SOURCES OF INFORMATION AND TERMINOLOGY

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EUR-Lex - The access to European Union Law(http://eur-lex.europa.eu/)

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EUR-Lex

Free access to European Union law and decision making procedures from all EU institutions

Multilingual documents from:• the very beginning of the European cooperation• the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951• the European Economic Community and Euratom in 1957• the several enlargements• till today.

• Some 441 000 references in several languages• around 2 300 000 texts in total• average of 15 000 documents added each year

Bilingual display of texts in .html format (document synchronisation)• Texts available in .html, .pdf and .tif format

full texts before 1998 not always available for EU 15 languages

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EUR-Lex & Translation

• Official EU terminology

• Quotations

• Translation solutions (bilingual display)

• Modifications /rectifications / consolidations of legislative texts

• Copy & Paste of texts

• Documents for Translator’s Workbench (TWB)

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EUR-LEX

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EUR-Lex: Search terms

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EUR-Lex

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EUR-Lex

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EUR-Lex

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IATE

Definitions, explanations Launched in 1999; available from 2004 for the EU institutions; free public access in

2007• Merging of EURODICAUTOM (Commission); TIS (Council); Euterpe (European

Parliament); Euroterms (Translation Centre) and other databases -> duplicates!

interactive terminology database: multilingual drafting, translation and interpreting with regard to EU activities

validated terminology; terminological debate

added value versus other sources of terminology (documents)

terminological solutions in the EU official languages (can be fully multilingual)• “Eurojargon”; technical terms; nomenclatures; etc.

23 official languages (public) and more than 100 others (internal access)

approx. 1.5 million concepts• approx. 7.0 million language entries• approx. 9.3 million terms, abbreviations & phrases

7.0 million /1.5 million = 4.6 languages per entry• not always fully multilingual!

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IATE

domain author

1 – reliability2 – reference3 – context 4 – note5 – definition

1 2 3 4 5

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IATE

1 – reliability

2 – reference

3 – context

4 – note

5 – definition

5

13

4

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Interinstitutional Style Guide(http://publications.eu.int/code/en/en-000100.htm)

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Interinstitutional Style Guide

uniform stylistic rules and conventions which must be used by all the institutions, bodies and agencies of the European Union.

obligatory for all those involved in document production (paper or electronic).

• Publication procedures Structure of the Official Journal Presentation of documents

• Linguistic conventions Spelling, punctuation, etc. Conventions common to all languages Names of institutions, bodies, agencies, etc. List of countries, abbreviations, etc.

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Interinstitutional Style Guide

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Interinstitutional Style Guide

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Other

Ciela in EN and BG government.bg other national authorities national experts national language authorities

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Thank you for your attention!

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