AUGUST ATA CHRONICLE 07 WEB...6 The ATA Chronicle August 2007 Our Authors August 2007 Silvana...

In this issue:ATA Candidates Announced

Opportunities at the 2012 London Games

A Multilingual Glossary of Legal and Court-Related Terms

CHRONICLETheAugust 2007

Volume XXXVI Number 8

A Publication of the

American Translators Association

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Contents August 2007

August 2007Volume XXXVI

Number 8

A Publication of the


12 The ATA Nominating Committee: A Peek Behind the CurtainsBy Tuomas KostiainenLearn how the nominating process for ATA’s election works, and find out how you can contribute to this important teameffort for next year’s elections.

ATA’s Power-Packed Energy ConferenceBy Jackie ReussATA’s recent Energy Conference provided an in-depth look at the energy industry upstream, downstream, and inside out.

Opportunities for Linguists at the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games By Jane CollisLondon and the U.K. will play host to athletes and spectators from more than 220 countries for the Olympic and ParalympicGames in 2012. This article explores the opportunities available to professional linguists before, during, and beyond the Games.

Déjà Vu X: A Review of Version 7.5, Part IBy Naomi J. Sutcliffe de MoraesA product review from the viewpoint of a freelance translator.

Why Professional Project Management in Your Translation Company?By Kenneth A. McKethan and Graciela WhiteDiscover the value that professional project management can add to your business.

Online Multilingual Glossary of Legal and Court-Related TermsBy Silvana CarrAn overview of the origins and development of Vancouver (British Columbia) Community College’s online MultilingualGlossary of Legal and Court-Related Terms in Plain Language (English), Farsi/Persian, Chinese, Punjabi, Spanish, Russian,and Vietnamese.

American Translators Association225 Reinekers Lane, Suite 590 • Alexandria VA 22314Tel: (703) 683-6100 • Fax: (703) 683-6122E-mail: [email protected] • Website: www.atanet.org

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Columns and Departments678

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Our AuthorsFrom the PresidentFrom the Executive DirectorLetters to the EditorBusiness Smarts

The OnionskinGeekSpeakSuccess by AssociationMember NewsATA Certification Exam InformationUpcoming Events

New ATA-Certified Members and Active Membership Review

Dictionary ReviewThe Translation InquirerHumor and TranslationDirectory of Language Services

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The ATA Chronicle � August 20074

We Want You!The ATA Chronicle enthusiastically encourages members and non-members to submit articles of interest to the fields of translation and interpretation. ForSubmission Guidelines, log onto www.atanet.org/chronicle. The ATA Chronicleis published 11 times per year, with a combined November/December issue.Submission deadlines are two months prior to publication date.

Advertising Directory

National Security Agencywww.nsa.gov/careers

SDL Internationalwww.translationzone.com/ata

Star Group America, LLCwww.star-group.net

TechInput, Inc.www.techinput.com

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The ATA Chronicle (ISSN 1078-6457) is publishedmonthly, except bi-monthly in November/December,

by the American Translators Association, 225Reinekers Lane, Suite 590, Alexandria, VA 22314.Periodicals postage paid at Alexandria, Virginia, and

additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Sendaddress changes to The ATA Chronicle,

225 Reinekers Lane, Suite 590, Alexandria, VA 22314.

The American Translators Association (ATA) wasestablished in 1959 as a not-for-profit professional

society to foster and support the professionaldevelopment of translators and interpreters and to

promote the translation and interpreting professions.The subscription rate for a member is $43 (includedin the dues payment). The U.S. subscription rate for

a non-member is $50. Subscribers in Canada andMexico add $25; all other non-U.S. subscribers add

$45. Single copies are available for $5 per issue.

Reprint Permission:Requests for permission to reprint articles should be sent

to the editor of The ATA Chronicle at [email protected].

Send updates to:The ATA Chronicle

225 Reinekers Lane Suite 590

Alexandria, VA 22314Fax (703) 683-6122

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Moving? Find an error with your address?

EditorJeff Sanfacon

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Membership and General Information

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website: www.atanet.org

acrossSystemswww.across.net

Beetext Productivity Systemswww.beetext.com

Japan Pacific Publications, Inc.www.japanpacific.com

Katherine Loh Graphic Design, Inc.www.katherinelohdesign.com

Monterey Institute of International Studieswww.miis.edu

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Our Authors August 2007

Silvana Carr has been the coordinator of the interpreting programs atVancouver Community College in British Columbia, Canada, since 1983. She isalso the director of the college’s online Multilingual Glossary of Legal andCourt-Related Terms in Plain Language (English), Farsi/Persian, Chinese,Punjabi, Spanish, Russian, and Vietnamese. She is responsible for curriculumdesign and a variety of interpreter training initiatives, ranging from workshopsto full-time training, both in the classroom and in distance learning. She serveson various advisory committees to interpreter training programs. She is also afounding member of Critical Link, which organizes national and internationalconferences on interpreting in court, health care, and social services. Contact:[email protected].

Jane Collis is the manager of Regional Language Network London, which isfunded by the London Development Agency to promote language and culturalskills for the benefit of businesses and communities in London through net-works, signposting, and best practice. She has a master’s degree in applied lin-guistics and many years of experience in language training. Contact:[email protected].

Tuomas S. Kostiainen, a native of Finland, is an ATA-certifiedEnglish�Finnish translator specializing in technical and medical translations.He has a Ph.D. in entomology from the University of California, Berkeley, anda master’s degree in agricultural sciences from the University of Helsinki,Finland. He has served several years as an ATA language chair and a grader inthe English�Finnish language group. He is currently the president of theNorthern California Translators Association. He is also chair of ATA’s NominatingCommittee. In addition to freelance translation work, he provides Tradostraining and consultation, and has taught several Trados workshops around thecountry. Contact: [email protected].

Kenneth A. McKethan is a globalization project manager for IBM’s Tivoli divi-sion. He is a foreign language professional with over 30 years of experience invarious facets of the language industry: as a translator and interpreter; inrecruiting, sales, marketing, and international business development; in vendormanagement; and project management. He is a certified project management pro-fessional and a German-government certified technical interpreter and translator(Staatlich geprüfter Dolmetscher und Übersetzer für die englische Sprache[Technik]). He is a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force auxiliary (Civil AirPatrol). Contact: [email protected].

Jackie Reuss has been a freelance technical translator since 1989. Her spe-cialties include translating texts related to natural gas, the power industry, envi-ronmental issues, and related fields. In addition to ATA, she is a member of theSocieté Française des Traducteurs (SFT). Elected to SFT’s executive board in2000, she served successively as the organization’s president, vice-president,and treasurer. Contact: [email protected].

Naomi J. Sutcliffe de Moraes is an ATA-certified (Portuguese�English)freelance translator based in São Paulo, Brazil, where she recently completed aPh.D. in linguistics at the University of São Paulo. Originally from the U.S., herB.S. in mechanical engineering and her M.S. in physics are from the Universityof California, Los Angeles. She specializes in engineering, legal, and medicaltranslations. Contact: [email protected].

Graciela G. White was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, andearned her bachelor’s degree in legal translation from the Universidad Nacionalde Buenos Aires. She worked as a senior technical translator/vendor coordi-nator for IBM Argentina and also performed software verification testing. Afterrelocating to the U.S., she worked as a freelance translator in the fields of law,software localization, telecommunications, and electrical engineering. She iscurrently a globalization project manager with IBM. She is a certified projectmanagement professional. Contact: [email protected].

48th Annual Conference


October 31–November 3, 2007San Francisco, California

Don’t miss this opportunity to network, market yourself andyour skills, reunite with friends and colleagues, and have fun!

Check out www.atanet.org/conf/2007 for complete details.

7The ATA Chronicle � August 2007

Two Developments

[email protected]

From the President Marian S. Greenfield

I am happy to announcetwo significant bits of news from mylast ATA Board meeting as president.The first is the approval of the releaseof a Request for Proposals (RFP) toauthor the corporate history of ATA,to be published in time for our 50thanniversary celebration in 2009. Toquote from the RFP, “The AmericanTranslators Association (ATA) willcelebrate its 50th anniversary in 2009.The Association would like to com-memorate this event with a publica-tion that appropriately documents its history and accomplishments.”The RFP is on ATA’s website atwww.atanet.org/history. The RFP hasbeen sent to various providers whohave already expressed interest in theproject, as well as to other potentialproviders. Proposals must be sub-mitted by September 30.

Continuing with ATA’s quality cru-sade (I know some folks think theword should only be used by thepoliticians who hijacked it, but Irefuse to cede a perfectly good wordto politicians), the Board voted toincrease compensation for graders tobring it closer to market levels. This is

intended to compensate graders asprofessionals, and will enable ATA’sCertification Program to attract much-needed personnel. This increase, the

computerization of the exam (we hopeto have the first computerized sittingin San Francisco in November), andour research into requirements for theaccreditation of ATA’s CertificationProgram and adjustments made toconform to best practices will entailconsiderable additional cost. Thesecosts will be reflected in the exam feeas of January 1, 2008, when it willrise to $300. The cost of practice testswill also rise slightly.

I expect the cost of the exam to gohigher in the future as more of the truecosts for the exam are shifted to examtakers (in other words, as subsidies are

reduced) and as other improvements tothe exam process are implemented. Toput the cost of our exam in perspective,I thought you might be interested in the

cost of the certification exam offered bysome sister organizations. Australia’sNational Accreditation Authority forTranslators & Interpreters (www.naati.com.au) charges AUD 243–424($208–$363), while Britain’s CharteredInstitute of Linguists (www.iol.org.uk)charges GBP 310–460 ($631–$937).

Here is wishing you a verypleasant end-of-summer. I hope to seemany of you at ATA’s CourtInterpreting Seminar in San Juan,Puerto Rico, on September 8. Seewww.atanet.org/pd/court for details.

I hope to see many of you at ATA’s Court Interpreting Seminar in San Juan, Puerto Rico,

on September 8.

Terminology ManagementSue Ellen Wright (Kent State University)

Plain LanguageAracely Rosales (Rosales Communications)

Literary TranslationGraciela Lucero-Hammer (Salem College)

Challenges of Legal TranslationLuc Delporte (independent translator and lawyer)

Interpreting for the MediaCesar Cardoza (CNN interpreter)

Conference InterpretingSteven Mines (conference interpreter)

Psychiatric InterpretingAngela Londoño-McConnell (licensed psychologist)

September 29–30, 2007

Atlanta Association of Interpreters and Translators

1st Annual Conference

“Language and Terminology”Atlanta, Georgia

For more information and registration, please visit www.aait.org.

Topics will include:


Highlights from the July Board Meeting

[email protected]

From the Executive Director Walter Bacak, CAE

The ATA Board of Directorsmet for its summer meeting, July 21 –22 in San Diego, California. This wasthe last Board meeting chaired byATA President Marian S. Greenfield.ATA President-elect Jiri Stejskal takesoffice November 2 at ATA’s AnnualConference in San Francisco.

Here are some highlights from themeeting:

Single Candidate Officer Elections:In my June 2007 column, I mistakenlyreported that the Board, at its May2007 meeting, had approved a motionthat the Nominating Committeecharge be revised to include languageto the effect that it is generally prefer-able to have uncontested elections forofficers—president-elect, secretary,and treasurer. The Board did notapprove the proposal, but referred itback to the proposer.

At the July meeting, the Boardrejected a revised proposal to includelanguage explaining why it is generallypreferable (but not mandatory) to haveuncontested elections for officers. Formore information, please seeNominating Committee Chair TuomasKostiainen’s article, “The ATANominating Committee: A Peek Behindthe Curtains,” on page 12 of this issue.

Budget: The Board approved the July1, 2007 – June 30, 2008 budget. Thefiscal year budget includes $2.8 mil-lion in revenues and a slightly loweramount in expenses. The Boardapproved the “working budget” at theMay meeting with the understandingthat the final fiscal year budget wouldbe approved in July, thus allowing formore complete year-to-date figuresand the chance to make any necessaryrevisions in the final budget.

ATA Certification Accreditation:The Board approved a proposal tocontinue to research the feasibility ofobtaining American NationalStandards Institute (ANSI) accredita-tion for ATA’s Certification Program.The purpose of this motion was forthe Board to renew its commitment toresearching ANSI accreditation.While expenses to date related to pur-suing ANSI accreditation have notbeen substantial, much volunteer andstaff time has been spent on the effort.The consensus was that regardless ofwhether the program ultimately seeksand/or achieves accreditation, theATA Certification Program hasalready greatly benefited and willcontinue to benefit from the effort, forexample, by implementing enhancedgrading practices and procedures,among other changes.

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If you are interested in establishing an Arabic Division within ATA, please send amessage to [email protected] and get in on thediscussion! Group home page: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/arabic_translation_ata.

We will also be holding an informational meeting at ATA’s 48th Annual Conferencein San Francisco on Thursday, November 1, from 5:30 – 6:30 p.m.

If you have any questions, please contact:Patrick J. D’Silva [email protected]

An ATA Arabic Division?


Candidates AnnouncedATA Election • 2007 Annual Conference • San Francisco, California

ATA will hold its regularly scheduled election at the upcoming 2007 ATA Annual Conference in San Francisco, California, to elect a president-elect, secretary, treas-urer, and three directors. The candidates’ statements will be published in the September issue of The ATA Chronicle.

Further nominations, supported by acceptance statements in writing by each additional nominee and a written petition signed by no less than 35 voting mem-bers, must be received by the Nominating Committee within 30 days of publication by ATA’s Board of Directors of the names of nominees proposed by theNominating Committee. Acceptance statements and petitions may be faxed to the chair of the Nominating Committee, Tuomas Kostiainen, in care of ATAHeadquarters at (703) 683-6122.

Candidate statements and photos of the candidates will appear in the September issue of The ATA Chronicle. Official proxies will be mailed to all eligible votersprior to the conference. Votes may be cast: 1) in person at the conference; 2) by proxy given to a voting member attending the conference; or 3) by proxy sentto ATA Headquarters by the date indicated in the instructions enclosed with the proxies. The candidates proposed by the Nominating Committee are:

President-electNicholas Hartmann

SecretaryVirginia Perez-Santalla

TreasurerPeter Krawutschke

Director (three positions, three-year terms)Alan Melby

Michael Metzger

S. Alexandra Russell-Bitting

Caitilin Walsh

Ted Wozniak

Public Relations: The Board approvedthe pro bono project to be conducted inconjunction with ATA’s 48th AnnualConference in San Francisco,California, October 31 – November 3.The recipient will be announced at theconference. In addition, the Boardapproved a motion to pursue theissuance of a U.S. postage stamp hon-oring translation and interpreting. Fromwhat I have read, the issuance of a com-memorative stamp by the U.S. PostalService takes several years to come tofruition. The proposal also called for theresearch of any stamps honoring transla-tion and interpreting that may have beenissued in other countries. If you are

aware of any, please let me know.

Grader Compensation Increase:The Board approved offeringincreased compensation to ATA certi-fication exam graders effectiveJanuary 1, 2008. The belief here isthat increased compensation will helpattract and retain good graders in aneffort to further professionalize theprogram. The increased expenses willbe offset by an increase in the fees forthe exam and the practice test.

2012 ATA Annual Conference: TheBoard approved San Diego as the hostsite for the 2012 ATA Annual Con-fer-

ence pending final negotiations byExperient. Experient, the largest meet-ings management company in the U.S.,has assisted us with hotel selection andcontract negotiations for a decade.(Experient was formerly called Con-feron.) ATA last met in San Diego in 1992.

The minutes of the meeting will beposted in the Members Only section ofATA’s website (www.atanet.org/membersonly). Past meeting minutes are alsoposted on the site. The next Boardmeeting is set for November 3 – 4 inSan Francisco, California. As always,the meeting is open to all members.

As a benefit of ATA membership, members can join any or all of ATA’s 15 divisions. Divisions—or professional-interest groups—play an important role in the Association. By providing specialty-specific information and networking, divisions allow members to focus on meeting the practical needs of their business. To join a division online, simply login using your ATA User Name and Password in the Members Only sectionof ATA’s website (www.atanet.org/membersonly). To learn more, visit the links here.

Join an ATA Division Today!

Chinese Language Divisionwww.ata-divisions.org/CLD

French Language Divisionwww.ata-divisions.org/FLD

German Language Divisionwww.ata-divisions.org/GLD

Interpreters Divisionwww.ata-divisions.org/ID

Italian Language Divisionwww.ata-divisions.org/ILD

Japanese Language Divisionwww.ata-divisions.org/JLD

Korean Language Divisionwww.ata-divisions.org/KLD

Language Technology Divisionwww.ata-divisions.org/LTD

Literary Divisionwww.ata-divisions.org/LD

Medical Divisionwww.ata-divisions.org/MD

Nordic Divisionwww.ata-divisions.org/ND

Portuguese Language Divisionwww.ata-divisions.org/PLD

Slavic Languages Divisionwww.ata-divisions.org/SLD

Spanish Language Divisionwww.ata-divisions.org/SPD

Translation Company Divisionwww.ata-divisions.org/TCD


Domestic Violence and ChildrenJennifer J. Polzin’s excellent article,

“Interpreting in Domestic ViolenceService Settings,” in the June issuefocuses on interpreting for batteredwomen, who obviously make up alarge percentage of such cases. Sherightly stresses the need for the inter-preter to remain neutral and to be“accurate and complete,” even clinical,in relaying questions to the victim.

But another and rather different sit-uation prevails when interpreting for achild victim, as I found when I wascalled upon to interpret for anadorable, giggly five-year-old whosemother was filing a complaint on thechild’s behalf against his father. Thechild had not been in the U.S. forlong, and so his videotaped “testi-mony,” which would form the basisfor the complaint, had to be taken inhis own language.

Being detached and uninvolvedwould have only scared the child. So,following the lead of the detective con-ducting the interview, I adopted a dif-ferent role entirely. I spoke to the boyas I had to my own children at that age,kidded around a bit, and the informa-tion flowed. In such cases, an inter-preter would be well advised to takecues from other professionals who dealdaily with domestic violence cases. Wecan all learn from each other.

Eve HechtElizabeth, New Jersey

Hebrew TranslationsIn the May Humor and Translation

column (“It Ain’t Necessarily So,”page 51), Mark Herman states: “...noone today can read the Bible except ina translation of one sort or another.Even native speakers of modern…Hebrew require partial translationsbecause the modern languages are notthe same as the ancient ones.” I wouldregard this statement as an oft-

repeated misconception. For example, sometimes I am

asked by a client to provide a transla-tion not into Hebrew (that is to say, a“biblical, ancient, dead language”),but into Ivrit (which the client regardsas a totally different language). Thisspurious distinction reveals a basicmisunderstanding of the developmentof Hebrew—and even of its name.Ivrit is simply the name of the Hebrewlanguage in Hebrew, just as Deutschis the name of the German language inGerman. There is, and has alwaysbeen, one Hebrew only. It simplyevolved, as languages do.

Although the vocabulary ofHebrew has expanded enormouslyover the past 120 years, its basicgrammar has not changed to nearlysuch an extent. And the vast majorityof the vocabulary found in the Biblehas either exact or very close equiva-lents in modern Hebrew.

Virtually all the neologisms wehave today derive from (mostly three-letter) roots that can be found in bib-lical Hebrew. A massive book can befilled with examples; indeed, anyHebrew dictionary is such a book.Let’s look at just three: maxSev (com-puter), from the root xSv (to think,calculate); maqren (radiator), from theroot qrn (ray, radiate, glow); and tiz-moret (orchestra), from the root zmr(sing, make music).

In truth, any literate speaker ofmodern Hebrew can read most booksin the Bible with considerably lessdifficulty than a modern Englishspeaker can read William Chaucer.And most of the problems that areencountered have to do with the factthat some of these books are simplyhard stuff: highly stylized poetry,abstruse prophecy, or ones that are noteven written in Hebrew at all, but inAramaic. The histories, however, arerather straightforward. There are

many obscure words in the Bible, tobe sure (some of which occur onlyonce), and in all probability we willnever know their precise or evenapproximate meaning. Their transla-tion will remain guesswork forever-more, especially if they were used tolabel cultural artifacts lost in the mistsof human antiquity. But these wordsmake up only a small percentage.

As to the example given byHerman (Genesis 11: 1-9): m-qdm(which was misspelled in the columnas m-qrm) is a non-issue. If we ignorethe possible signification of the rootqdm as “earlier in time” (not impos-sible, but unlikely in this context) andaccept that it should be interpretedgeographically, then it simply meanseast (as in Qidmat Eden = East ofEden). The prefix “m” is the preposi-tion “from,” and it cannot be anythingelse. It is not Luther’s quite mistaken“to(wards),” and it is not the GoodNews Bible’s “wandering about.” I donot know, and can only speculate,why so many translators find this con-struction difficult, because there isnothing difficult about it. Therefore,we should reserve the brow-furrowingfor genuine conundrums.

John KinoryBicester, Oxon, England

Address your letters to Jeff Sanfacon [email protected] or American TranslatorsAssociation, 225 Reinekers Lane, Suite 590,Alexandria, VA 22314.

Letters to the Editor

September 8, 2007

American Translators Association Court Interpreting Seminar

Carolina, Puerto Ricowww.atanet.org/pd/court/register


Actually, I do not thinkthere are any curtains here, but I likedthe title and believe there are still a lotof members who do not know why orhow these eight excellent namesended up on the slate of candidates forATA office. (See page 9 for the slateof candidates.) The purpose of thisarticle is to explain exactly that, andalso to encourage you to be a part ofthe process next year.

What does the NominatingCommittee Nominate?

The main job of the committee isto nominate candidates for each elec-tive position of ATA’s Board ofDirectors—in other words, create theslate of candidates for the annual elec-tion. The job description is defined inATA’s bylaws and further detailed inthe charge that the committee receivesfrom ATA’s president each year. Thisyear’s charge said: “According to cur-rent thinking on association manage-ment, the committee should strive topropose one candidate for each officerposition (president-elect, secretary,and treasurer) and two candidates foreach director position (for a total ofsix candidates for director).” Soundspretty straightforward.

Who Nominates the Nominating Committee?

The Nominating Committee con-sists of five members, and isappointed by ATA’s Board ofDirectors upon the recommendationof the president. This year’s com-mittee members are Nora Favorov,Jean Leblon, Odile Legeay, ConniePrener, and myself. Traditionally, anew committee has been appointedfor each annual election. However, thecurrent Board has emphasized theneed for more year-to-year stabilityand continuity in the committee, andthat the committee should work to

develop and maintain a list of possiblecandidates for the future (the leader-ship pool). This would make it pos-sible for the committee to have a morecomprehensive picture of the skillsand expertise among the membership,and to be on the lookout for suitablecandidates throughout the year. This,in turn, would make the work of thecommittee easier and much more effi-cient, and allow it to develop longer-term plans.

How Does the Committee Work?We all have our own reasons for

voting a certain way or wanting to seea certain person as a candidate.However, the committee membershave to be able to look beyond theirpersonal preferences and concentrateon the common good, as well as thebig picture, when selecting candi-dates. The goal is to have a slate ofcandidates as diverse as possible, andcandidates that every voting ATAmember can feel excited about, or areat least comfortable with.

Candidates can be nominatedeither by ATA’s NominatingCommittee or through a petition bymembers (endorsed by at least 35voting members). (See page 9 for thedetails.) In addition, members canpropose names through the Call forNominations for the committee toconsider when compiling its list ofcandidates. These methods ensure thatmembers have a say in the nominatingprocess and that it is not only thecommittee that decides who can run.It really surprised me that we did notreceive any nomination proposalsthrough the Call for Nominations andvery few suggestions from the chapterpresidents we contacted. I try to thinkpositively, and interpret this to meanthat after seeing the names of thecommittee members, you were so surewe would do an excellent job

The ATA Nominating Committee: A Peek Behind the CurtainsBy Tuomas Kostiainen

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that you did not see any reason to sendin your suggestions. Thank you.However, the committee would verymuch appreciate additional sugges-tions next year no matter how goodwe are. When you do submit yournomination, do it as early as possibleso that the committee will have suffi-cient time to consider it fully.

The committee starts its work byexamining the composition of the cur-rent Board and looks for backgroundsand expertise that would be particu-larly useful to the new Board. Thenwe start looking for candidates whocould fill those needs and are repre-sentative of the membership at large.One of the main objectives is diversityamong the candidates. It is actuallyquite easy to start listing the variousfactors that need to be diverse, such aslanguage, geographical location, typeof professional involvement (such as translator, interpreter, companyowner, etc.), gender, background,experience, etc. It is also just as easyto start listing the desired qualifica-tions for candidates, including the fol-lowing: a proven track record; activeparticipation and an interest in ATA,its divisions and chapters (or otherlocal groups); experience in othernonprofit organizations; ability tocooperate and work as a team player;and reliability. But it is quite another

thing to put this all together and find acombination of candidates with theperfect mix of these backgrounds andqualifications. Even if you are able tocreate a “dream team” on paper, youmust then face the next problem: avail-ability. Many good candidates arealready very busy with other ATA,chapter, or non-ATA volunteer tasks—not to mention their jobs and families.

Why Only One Officer Candidate?You might wonder why there is only

one candidate for each of the officerpositions, but two for each of thedirector positions. (Please note thatinstead of the full slate of six directorcandidates, there are only five becauseof a late withdrawal.) As mentioned inthe committee’s charge, this concept isin line with the current thinking on association management. One reason for this trend is that it is increasinglydifficult to find candidates for the time-consuming officer positions: president-elect, secretary, and treasurer. Neitherdoes it make sense to “force” theNominating Committee to find a secondcandidate if it has already found onestrong one. The preference is to havetwo strong candidates, but the Board didnot want to make it mandatory. At theMay Board meeting, the consensus wasto instruct the Nominating Committeethat if it has two strong candidates for

an officer position, it may put forth bothof them. In the future, ATA will stillhave contested elections. Candidatesmay petition to be added to the slateand, in fact, petitioned candidates havewon. Furthermore, ATA has had singlecandidates for officer positions in the past; this year’s charge to theNominating Committee to allow singlecandidates just established the policy.

What is Your Part in This?This is easy and does not require

much effort. First, vote in the election.If you cannot come to the AnnualMeeting of All Voting Members atATA’s Annual Conference, pleasesend your proxy to ATA or to a col-league who will attend the meetingand vote for you according to yourproxy instructions. (A proxy andinstructions will be mailed to allactive and corresponding members inlate September.) Second, startthinking about who would be a goodcandidate and bring those names toour attention. You can do that offi-cially through the Call for Nomina-tions next spring, or by contacting anyof the committee members. Feel freeto approach us at ATA’s AnnualConference in San Francisco if youhave a name in mind or would be interested in running yourself.

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Accustomed to compactEuropean cities, I never did findHouston’s downtown during my visitto Texas this past May to attend ATA’sEnergy Conference. I could definitelysee that Houston was a boomtown,and, judging by the large turnout ofattendees from the metropolitan area, avery busy place for translators andinterpreters as well. I guess the localattractions will have to wait until mynext visit, though, since the EnergyConference, oil rig tour, and OffshoreTechnology Conference did not leavetime for tourism.

Offshore Technology ConferenceMy first stop, thanks to compli-

mentary one-day passes offered toATA attendees by Rowan Companies,Inc. (a major international offshoreand land drilling contractor), was theOffshore Technology Conference,which attracted a record 67,000 visi-tors this year. Choosing from a broadtechnical program, I heard industryleaders speak on projects rangingfrom floating production storage andoff-loading (shipping and oilindustry) in West Africa andNorwegian Sea exploration to inte-grated asset management in the giantoffshore Mumbai High field.Afterward, I toured the exhibitor

booths quickly and collected a sur-prising number of contacts in additionto the usual documentation.

Bob Palmer Oil Rig TourSpecial thanks to ATA’s own

Elizabeth Langley for arranging the oil

rig tour provided by Rowan Companies,Inc. The tour proved to be an irresistibleattraction that, unfortunately, conflictedwith Cheryl Hutchinson’s session onnuclear reactors and Steven Marzuola’stalk on oilfield operations and tech-nology. We were bused 90 miles to theBob Palmer, a Gorilla-class jack-up rig.Donning hard hats and safety glasses,we followed Offshore InstallationsManager Gary Farris up the gangway tothe rig floor. The mammoth derrick,draw works, cranes, and drill pipes pro-vided a full measure of this enhancedSuper Gorilla designed to operate in 550

feet of water in the Gulf of Mexico (400feet in extreme weather). Steering usclear of the welders, Gary guided usbelow deck through offices and meetingrooms, by sleeping quarters for up to120, and into the engine, pump, andcement rooms. A picture is worth a

thousand words, but nothing compareswith hands-on experience! Fullycharged by the day’s experience, weeagerly boarded the buses back to themain event.

Research Techniques and PrimaryResources for Technical TranslatorsAaron Ruby

After opening remarks by ATAPresident Marian S. Greenfield, theEnergy Conference officially beganwith Aaron Ruby’s review of researchtechniques and resources for technicaltranslators, or, as he put it, “translator-

ATA’s Power-PackedEnergy ConferenceBy Jackie Reuss

One of the major difficulties for a specialized translator,and a recurring theme of the conference, is to ferret

out accurate terminology.

17

researchers.” Aaron explained thatdomain-specific resources are essen-tial, but to meet client needs, we oftenhave to deploy search skills outside ourspecialties. Aaron cited an array ofresources in oil, gas, and related fields,from non-specialized dictionaries toprimary texts and standardized termi-nology. To troll the digital media’s vir-tually infinite potential, Google (thetranslator’s best friend) can be fine-tuned by country- or language-specificsearches and image or combinationqueries (e.g., [term]+[glossary] or[define:]+[term]). Aaron underlinedthe benefits of Wikipedia, which issometimes dubious, but an excellentresource for technical information andillustrations, as well as file indexingand automatic backup.

Environmental Aspects of EnergyProduction and ConsumptionPatricia Bobeck

Geologist Patricia Bobeck’s ses-sion on the environmental aspects ofenergy production and consumptiongave an even-handed overview of theprimary polluters (coal, lignite, ura-nium, oil, and natural gas) and relatedactivities, such as mining; power gen-eration and distribution; petroleumproduction; refining, storage; and dis-tribution; and nuclear waste disposal.Looking only briefly at renewableenergy and such relatively non-pol-luting technologies as “clean-burn”coal, “waste-to-energy,” or landfillmethane, she examined in detail var-ious techniques to contain pollutants,remove impurities, and promotedegradation. She retraced the mecha-nisms resulting in air, soil, andgroundwater pollution, and global cli-mate change. The upside of this grimpicture, at least for us, is that newenergy policies and technologiespromise lots of translation work!

➡

The Bob Palmer, a Gorilla-class jack-up rig (Photo courtesy of Jackie Reuss)


Unit Operations: The Heart of theChemical PlantRoger Martin

With Roger Martin we journeyed tothe center of the chemical plant. Anengineer and undeniably good com-municator, he described the processesused across different industries and the“unit operations” or basic stepsinvolved. Along the “oil route” weexplored distillation, its tops and bot-toms, the bain marie (also known as adouble boiler), moonshining and thetwo-stage still, as well as assortedtrays, towers, and exchangers. Fromthere we moved on to catalyticreforming and extraction of aromatics,which are named for their sweet smell,but are of major industrial interest.Once separated into intermediatechemicals, aromatics are used to man-ufacture products as varied as explo-sives, paints, or resins, and evenplastic sandals and shower curtains.

A Primer on Oil and Gas LawTerms in French and EnglishSteven Mines

I left Roger Martin’s session as hewas guiding attendees along the “cornroute” and joined a language-specific(French and English) session on oil andgas law terms. Steven Mines put usthrough an ordeal akin to torture. Likedripping water on our foreheads, hetrickled excruciating driblets of safetyguideline and training jargon on ourbrains, which he directed us to trans-late. With our defenses down, heknocked us out with a Loi sur les bauxportant sur du gaz naturel et du pétrole,

the nuances of which, amazingly, sev-eral participants apparently grasped. Indire need of consolation, we staggeredoff to the Welcome Reception.

Oil and Gas: A Portuguese PotpourriJ. Henry Phillips and Thelma Sabim

From the next day’s menu, I chosea “Portuguese Potpourri,” one of thelanguage-specific sessions. From J.Henry Phillips, we learned that manyupstream oil and gas terms commonlyused in English in countries likeBrazil, Mozambique, or Angola arebest left untranslated. After helping usrecognize some of them, he turned to

This was an exceptionally rich (but exhausting)conference. Its 30 sessions offered

more than enough choice.

ATA’s Power-Packed Energy Conference Continued

The crew prepares to board the Bob Palmer (Photo courtesy of Jackie Reuss)


the “stumpers.” For these difficult-to-translate terms, he recommendedPETEX, a website on training coursesfor the oil and gas industry from theUniversity of Texas (www.utexas.edu/ce/petex), and a number of diction-aries and CDs related to petroleum,geophysics, and exploration.

After Hank, Thelma Sabim led usdownstream through refining, trans-portation, and trading from a Brazilianperspective. As she discussed the var-ious products—essentially fuels andlubricants—and related services fromgas stations to convenience stores andfleet credit cards, she referred us torelevant online glossaries and themonolingual dictionary of the AgênciaNacional do Petróleo (Brazil’snational petroleum agency).

Offshore Oil and Gas PlatformsAaron Ruby

Aaron Ruby’s session on offshoreoil and gas platforms abounded withimages, diagrams, explanations, anddefinitions of different componentsand how they are fabricated, trans-ported, and positioned. He focused onterminology used in several LatinAmerican countries as well as idiomsand slang specific to PEMEX projectsin the Gulf of Mexico. Illustrated bySpanish translations, the content wasnonetheless accessible to beginningand experienced oil and gas translatorswhatever their working languages.

Online Documentation as a Termin-ology Source in the Energy Sector Igor Vesler

One of the major difficulties for aspecialized translator, and a recurringtheme of the conference, is to ferretout accurate terminology. Igor Vesler,revisiting this issue in his session ononline documentation, explained whytraditional specialized dictionaries andglossaries are increasingly inadequate.

For one, terms are almost always outof context, while full-text searchengines index billions of pages full ofterms in their context. To separate thereliable wheat from the doubtful chaff,he advised translators to retrievematching document types and to startwith the most authoritative docu-ments, particularly in the oil and gasand nuclear power industries, such asinternational treaties and conventions,domestic laws and regulations, inter-national standards, and internationalterminological databases. Igor alsoemphasized the value of personal con-tacts, such as experts, project per-sonnel, or specialists in charge ofdocumentation management.

Outline of the Upstream Oil andGas IndustryJohn Rock

Since I was not sitting for an ATAcertification exam, my adventureended with John Rock’s presentationdevoted to surveying and mappingtechnologies, drilling engineering,

and well logging. He described theprimary exploration tool, magne-tometer, and seismic surveys, andtheir processing and interpretation. APh.D. in physical oceanography, hisexplanations on multiplexing/demul-tiplexing (“very simple, but [com-puter] time-consuming”) would haveleft many on the wayside without hisexcellent graphics. We also investi-gated less conceptual aspects, such asdrilling muds and fishing techniques.

With Energy to SpareAll in all, this was an exceptionally

rich (but exhausting) conference. Its30 sessions offered more than enoughchoice, although I did regret the can-celled sessions on renewable energy.The two bonuses framing the confer-ence were unique, and I strongly rec-ommend that translators working inoil and gas visit next year’s OffshoreTechnology Conference, entitled“Waves of Change.”

Links of InterestAgência Nacional do Petróleowww.anp.gov.br

Energy Glossary (French) www.centreinfo-energie.com/ glossary.asp

Offshore Minerals Management Glossarywww.mms.gov/glossary/index.htm

Offshore Technology Conferencewww.otcnet.org/2007

Oil & Gas Glossarywww.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/oilandgas/glossary_of_terms/glossary_of_terms_a.html

Petroleum & Natural Gas Glossary (English, Russian, Italian, French, German)www.pngis.net/glossary

Petrochemical Terms, Ipiranga (Brazil)www.ipq.com.br/index.php?secao=glossario

Rowan Companies, Inc.www.rowancompanies.com

Schlumberger Oil Field Glossary www.glossary.oilfield.slb.com

Well Logging Glossarywww.spwla.org


London and the U.K. willplay host to athletes and spectatorsfrom more than 220 countries for theOlympic and Paralympic Games in2012. London will literally be “wel-coming the world,” with all its rich-ness of languages and cultures, thusmirroring the “superdiversity” itenjoys as the U.K.’s capital city.

The success of London’s Olympicbid was strengthened by the capital’sprojection of itself as a global city thatis able to reach out and connect withthe world through the vibrant culturaland linguistic resources within its pop-ulation. The London bid team’s deci-sion to include 30 young Londonersspeaking 28 first languages among thedelegation that travelled to Singaporefor the International Olympic Com-mittee’s host city election in July 2005

gave a strong message to the worldabout how the U.K. will connect withpeople across the globe through the2012 Games. London 2012 ChairSebastian Coe said, “London is themost cosmopolitan city in the world,constantly renewing itself, and is nowhome to 200 ethnic communities whospeak a total of 300 languages. Wewant to involve all of these people andcommunities in delivering our Games.”

Language Service OpportunitiesLanguage skills and services will be

vital not only in ensuring a quality expe-rience for athletes, visitors, and theOlympic family during the events, but increating a legacy for communities andemployers in the years after the Games.

Five years away from 2012,detailed planning for the role of lin-guists in supporting and delivering the

Olympic experience is not yetunderway. Linguists must already rec-ognize, however, that the Games offera once-in-a-lifetime chance to pro-mote the value of language and cul-tural skills, especially when Londonand all of the U.K. will be the focus ofunprecedented international attentionbefore, during, and after the Games.This will provide professional lan-guage service providers with a greatopportunity to make the case for theimportance of their profession.

Migration patterns have transformedLondon into an exceptionally multicul-tural city that is one of the most diversein the world. The stereotypical view ofa population of English-speakingmonolinguals is misleading and out-dated not just in London, but in theU.K. as a whole. Communities, agen-cies, and employers understand ➡

Opportunities for Linguists at the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games

By Jane Collis


the value of the language skills avail-able in the population. In a recentsurvey, 94% of London businessesacknowledged that language skills are“very important to the Londoneconomy.”1 Delivering the vision of suc-cessful Games enhanced by effectivemultilingual communications willrequire meticulous and timely planningacross a complex array of settings andinterfaces. However, there are prece-dents for language strategies estab-lished at previous Games that serve as afoundation on which to build a lan-guage service structure.

Peaking in Time for the Games:Opportunities for LanguageProfessionals

Planning for language services willneed to be implemented in a widerange of activities over the comingyears, culminating in the highly vis-ible peak during the summer of 2012.

In the run-up to the Games, thereworking and translation of a range ofofficial documentation will need to beundertaken, including updating existingsports glossaries and preparing new lex-icons,2 rule books, and official guides.Official communication with theInternational Olympic Committee, ath-letes, organizing committees, and offi-cially accredited press representativeswill require translation and interpretingexpertise of the highest standards. At

the Games, that expertise will be neededduring press conferences and when pro-viding services for live updates, cere-monies, official accreditation, medicalfacilities, drug testing, security, trans-portation, procedures and disputes,and when providing information to thepublic.

Another early challenge organizersface is deciding which languages to pri-oritize in the delivery of services. TheOlympic Movement has French andEnglish as its two official languages,which are also featured in the OlympicCharter as “working languages” alongwith Arabic, German, Russian, andSpanish.

In the recent past, Games organizingcommittees have gone beyond the min-imum requirement of two official lan-guages, extending the range to includethose of the host country (for example,English, French, and Greek for the2004 Athens Games). There has alsobeen a trend to support other “workinglanguages” in order to provide assis-tance on a case-by-case basis and tomeet the needs of the anticipated mix ofthe press and visitors. In London’s case,the languages spoken in its own com-munities will also merit consideration.

The following examples of languageinitiatives at previous Games give anindication of the scale of opportunitiesavailable for language professionals.

• At the 1992 Barcelona Games, 15other languages were used in addi-tion to the four official ones (Catalan,Spanish, English, and French).

• At the 1988 Seoul Games, 5,890personnel with language skills weredesignated for duty assignments.

• At the 1996 Atlanta Games, 32 edi-tions of the Olympic Village news-paper were translated into French.

• At the 2000 Sydney Games, themultilingual switchboard operatedin over 50 languages, and over1,400 volunteer interpretersworked inside the venues.

Translating into Action in LondonLondon is home to professional

associations of linguists and practi-tioners with international member-ship, links, and standing. Thenetworks and expertise of the fol-lowing organizations will be invalu-able in meeting the challengesdiscussed above:

• Association of TranslationCompanies (www.atc.org.uk);

• Chartered Institute of Linguists(www.iol.org.uk);

• Institute of Translation and Interpreting (www.iti.org.uk); and

• International Association of Conference Interpreters(www.aiic.net), through its contactpoint Conference Interpreters U.K. (www.conferenceinterpreters.co.uk).

These organizations are well estab-lished, and the Games provide themwith an incentive to simplify and pro-mote access to their services for thebenefit of a wide range of organizationsbeyond those directly involved with theplanning of the Games—in key areassuch as public services, transport,

Language skills and services will be vital not only inensuring a quality experience for athletes, visitors,

and the Olympic family during the events, but in creating a legacy for our communities and employers in the years after the Games.

➡


and tourism. In addition to the organiza-tions just listed, the Regional LanguageNetwork (RLN) London is poised tohelp this vision of language accessbecome a reality. RLN London works tocreate greater opportunities forLondon’s businesses and peoplethrough improved access to languageskills. It is funded by the LondonDevelopment Agency and is part of theRegional Language Network program,which is supported by CILT, theNational Centre for Languages, oper-ating in the nine English regions andthree home nations. RLN Londonworks in close association with part-ners to promote the benefits of foreignlanguages and cultural skills forLondon’s businesses, communities,and individuals.

Public ServicesThe Games do not exist in a vacuum.

Thousands of organizations and busi-nesses will be involved in ensuring thatthe event runs smoothly and in sup-porting the visiting and resident public.With security and safety a high priority,the interface between Games organizersand public and emergency services willbe of paramount importance, and multi-lingual support is an integral part oftheir planning. The police, health, emer-gency services, and local authorities inLondon and across the U.K. have a longtrack record of providing language sup-port services to non-English speakers,and these services will be a high priorityaround the Games.

TransportationLanguages will also have their role

in ensuring that hundreds of thou-sands of spectators are able to maketheir way to the venues. Alongside theconstruction programs alreadyunderway at Olympic Park, London’stransportation infrastructure is beingtransformed with the creation of a

new high-speed rail link to the mainGames venues. The challenge ofmoving vast numbers of people vis-iting for the first time—many withlittle knowledge of English—presentsopportunities for linguists to work inpartnership to create signs, maps, andother graphic or audible methods toconvey site locations and directions to

travellers, and to deliver these in anaccessible way that employs a rangeof technology-based solutions. Trans-portation for London already offers amultilingual journey planner and arange of other information in worldand community languages on its web-site. Multilingual touch screens,helpdesks, and information podcastscould all help to provide informationin different situations.

London already welcomes morethan 11 million international visitorsevery year, many flying in viaHeathrow, one of the five airportsserving the city. BAA Heathrow, theairport operator, is piloting a cus-tomer-focused language training pro-gram for companies based at theairport. The initiative builds upon asurvey (Heathrow Talking to theWorld3) that RLN London conductedacross a range of key frontline workstreams at the airport.

TourismThe Games are expected to deliver

a £2-billion boost to Britain’s interna-tional visitor economy. Games-relatedand Games-motivated tourism willmean over half a million extra visitorsin London alone in 2012, but a “haloeffect” of global media coveragemeans that most of the growth will beachieved in the four years followingthe Games. Therefore, there is a need

to build up the U.K.’s capacity to com-municate with people in their own lan-guages and to upgrade the quality ofservices tourists receive so that thecountry can genuinely “welcome theworld” for the long term. The U.K.will be encouraging the delivery offoreign language and cultural trainingfor tourism information staff and forthose in the hospitality and otherservice sectors. Language skills andcultural understanding for those infrontline roles have the power to buildcloser, more responsive customer rela-tionships and to transform attitudes.

Signs again are positive thatLondon will enjoy enhanced supportfor these changes, which will, in turn,lead to business for professional lin-guists. The Department for Culture,Media, and Sport has conducted asurvey entitled “Welcome Legacy:Tourism for the 2012 Games.” TheFebruary 2007 interim summary ofresponses made several references tothe importance of languages for mar-keting purposes to enhance the U.K.’s

Delivering the vision of successful Games strengthenedby effective multilingual communications will require

meticulous and timely planning across a complex array of settings and interfaces.

Opportunities for Linguists at the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games Continued


“welcome,” and to opportunities toharness linguistic diversity in the hos-pitality and tourism sector. The surveyalso mentioned the possibility of avisitor attraction focused on the lan-guages of London.

“Education, Education, Education”Those were the words of former

Prime Minister Tony Blair over 10years ago in his campaign for office.While in office, Blair demonstratedhis own skills in French when pre-senting to the International OlympicCommittee in Singapore for theLondon bid, and when congratulatingnew French President NicolasSarkozy4 on his appointment. TheGames have the potential to give afresh impetus for language learning inall sectors. The recent review on theDepartment for Children, Schools andFamilies’ language policy5 by LordDearing highlights the importance ofthe Games in motivating languagelearners in the nation’s schools.Greater opportunities for international

links, for innovative projects com-bining sports and languages, fordeveloping “ambassadors” with lan-guage skills, and for increasing thefocus on vocational language pro-grams could reap rewards for lan-guage learners and teachers in schoolsand colleges.

In higher education, a £4.5-millionprogram called “Routes intoLanguages” will encourage participa-tion in language learning and raise theprofile of university language depart-ments across the U.K.. Institutions arealso becoming involved in earlyresearch on providing language sup-port for the Games. A £40,000 awardwas recently made to the University ofWestminster to investigate languages

and international events. This projectaims to make a connection between theformal support services at theGames—provided by professionalbodies of translators and interpreters—and the work being done in the generalcommunity, including both London’sresidents and international visitors.

Creating a Legacy for Businessesand Communities

Agencies are already placingemphasis on languages in their plansto create momentum for, and to ben-efit from, the Games. For 2012, theLondon Development Agency (LDA)and the Learning and Skills CouncilLondon Employment and SkillsTaskforce has created an action planto maximize the employment andskills benefits of the Games.Languages and cultural skills areprominent as a feature of training forvolunteers and those in paid employ-ment involved in the Games, and RLNLondon is funded as part of this plan.A new customer service gold standardfor key sectors such as hospitality,tourism, and passenger transport, withlanguages and cultural skills as a keyelement, is to be developed.

The Confederation of BritishIndustry (CBI) has launched anOlympics business prospectus in con-junction with other leading businessorganizations. The prospectus cham-pions the formation of a business clubfor 2012, and proposes five distinct busi-ness-led initiatives aimed at securinghuge long-term benefits for London’seconomic competitiveness, includingthe development of language skills.

Regional LanguageNetwork London

If you would like to learn more about RLN London’s work as it gears up for the 2012 Games, visit www.rln-london.com/olympics andsubscribe to the quarterly online newsletter at www.rln-london.com/ newsletter.

In the run-up to the Games, the reworking andtranslation of a range of official documentation willneed to be undertaken, including updating existingsports glossaries and preparing new lexicons, rule

books, and “official guides.”


There is recent best practice in providing language services duringother major sporting events. Forexample, Germany was praised

during the 2006 World Cup for thewelcome it gave foreign fans byexpressly recruiting volunteers withlanguage skills. There is great poten-tial for the 2012 Games VolunteerProgram to harness the languageskills of London’s communities tomake visitors feel at home. Up to70,000 volunteers may be needed to

help with everything from car parkingto media work.

RLN London’s funding from theLDA means that it can start—in a small

way—to create a legacy for the U.K’sbusinesses and communities. RLNLondon hopes to bring many others onboard along the way in order to benefitanyone working with languages inLondon, and to share the work andprogress with networks across the U.K.and further afield. The Games haveenormous potential to showcase the

skills of professionals, nurture the lin-guists of the future, and generate enthu-siasm for language learning at alllevels. And with five years to go, thereis a good chance this can happen.

Notes1. CBI Survey (January 2007),

www.rln-london.com/pdf/pressrelease_cbilondonsurvey.pdf.

2. At the time of this writing, it hasbeen suggested that skateboardingmay be introduced as a new disci-pline for the 2012 Games.

3. The report can be downloaded fromwww.rln-london.com/pdf/talkingtotheworld.pdf.

4. www.youtube.com/v/P6Cu9187tCY.

5. www.teachernet.gov.uk/docbank/index.cfm?id=11124.

Opportunities for Linguists at the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games Continued

The Games have enormous potential to showcase theskills of professionals, nurture the linguists of the

future, and generate enthusiasm for language learning at all levels.

If you are interested in being a part of the Arizona Translators andInterpreters Association, please subscribe to the mailing list at [email protected].

Attention Translators and Interpreters in Arizona


The purpose of this reviewis to describe what Déjà Vu X (DVX)offers translators who do not currentlyuse a translation environment tool.Translators who use a different tool, butwho might be interested in switching,may find the details mentioned herejust as useful as downloading a trialcopy (since you would then be obligedto read the 600+ page manual).

I have been using DVX for fiveyears, so I have quite a lot to say.When evaluating any tool, I ask thefollowing questions:

• How easy is it to get started?• Is the translating/editing environ-

ment easy to use?• Can I use the tool even when I will

work with others who do not haveit?

• Is the terminology database well-integrated with the translatingenvironment?

• Is the translation memory databasewell-integrated with the translatingenvironment?

• What file formats and other toolscan it work with?

• What quality control features doesit offer?

• Is it stable (will it crash or, worseyet, cause my PC to crash)?

How easy is it to get started?One advantage of DVX is that it is

one program, rather than a collectionof smaller programs, and that one pro-gram is relatively intuitive. Forexample, to translate a file, you mustfirst open the program and then createa new project. This opens a wizard (aninteractive help utility) that asks youto identify the file(s) to be translated,the languages in question, etc. The fileis then imported and you can begintranslating immediately. The transla-tion environment looks like a spread-sheet, with one column containing thesource text and the other column con-taining the translation. New users willwant to start with the Getting StartedGuide (62 pages). The full manual is622 pages long, and I can usually findwhat I am looking for in it, so I startlooking there first. But again, I likemanuals—I used to write them for aliving—so perhaps this would be toomuch information for most users. The

online help appears to contain thesame information. The software inter-face is available in English, French,Spanish, and Dutch, but manuals areavailable only in English and Dutch.

Is the translating/editingenvironment easy to use?

Figure 1 on page 26 shows thebasic DVX working environment (inthis case, the translation has alreadybeen done). Figure 2 shows a close-upof two source and target cells. DVXuses codes inside braces to indicateformatting, and you must insert thecodes (using the shortcut Ctrl+D forthe next code) to match. The codes arein numerical order, beginning at thestart of the document, and do not indi-cate what underlying formatting isrepresented. They could stand forbold, italic, a tab, a symbol, etc. Insome cases, you will need to look atthe source in the original format (MSWord, etc.) to see what the

Déjà Vu X: A Review of Version 7.5, Part I

By Naomi J. Sutcliffe de Moraes

One advantage of Déjà Vu X is that it is one program,rather than a collection of smaller programs, and that

one program is relatively intuitive.

➡


Déjà Vu X: A Review of Version 7.5, Part I Continued

codes stand for. DVX does provide anoption to see the context, but I havenever found it to be helpful for MSOffice documents due to their encoding.This option does not open the originaldocument in its native program.

A drawback to this numerical codemethod is when you have a word in thesource text that is bolded for somereason, and the target text requires twowords (like a verb with a helping verb)that need to be separated (one next tothe subject, the other at the end of thesentence). There is no way to do this in

DVX. You can only use each code once.Fortunately, this does not happen oftenfor my language combinations.Another disadvantage is that youcannot change the formatting from boldto italics. You can remove formattingaltogether by placing the begin and endformatting codes next to each other, ineffect applying them to nothing.

DVX uses symbols to indicate thetranslation status of a segment. Thesymbols for a pending translation andfor a finished translation are shown inFigure 2. Unfortunately, they are both

light blue, which makes them a bithard to differentiate. However, youcan choose to see only pending seg-ments on the screen (or only emptytarget segments, etc.), so this is nottoo serious a problem. You can addcomments to a segment, and thesecomments can be seen by reviewers ata later stage in the translation process.Comments are marked with an excla-mation mark as shown in Figure 2.

To move from one cell to the next(and send the segment translation tothe database), you must use the key

Figure 1: DVX working environment

Figure 2: Close-up of source and target cells


combination Ctrl+Down Arrow.Unfortunately, this key combinationcannot be changed. You must takeyour right hand out of position topress the Down Arrow key. The Enter

key does not move the cursor. TheDown Arrow key will move thecursor, but the segment is not markedas translated, nor is it sent to the data-base.

A nice feature of DVX is that youcan join segments. Most programssplit segments every time a periodappears. Many abbreviations end inperiods, and some environment pro-grams chop up the segments, but inDVX you can teach it which abbrevi-ations are most common in your lan-guage so it will treat them correctly.

In DVX you can click on the first seg-ment of a pair, and then click on abutton to join it with the next. This isespecially useful when the originalauthor includes line breaks in unfortu-

nate places. You can also separate seg-ments when a period goes missing, orwhen a sentence is very long.

Another favorite feature in DVX isthe search and replace window, shownin Figure 3. It works just like thesearch and replace window in mostprograms, but you can search eitherthe source or the target text. I did notrealize how useful this was until Itried tools that do not have this fea-ture. Very frustrating!

An advantage of DVX is that youcan edit the source text in the left

column cells. I often scan pages andrun them through optical characterrecognition software with the expectedresulting errors (m is read as rn,accents are left out, etc.). The correctedsource text is then stored in the transla-tion memory, which is reversible.

DVX has an AutoText feature sim-ilar to that of MS Word, with oneextra step. First, you must define anabbreviation and the full text in theAutoText window. Then, every timeyou wish to insert that text you musttype the abbreviation followed byCtrl+Shift+F3. Fortunately, you canchange this ridiculously long keycombination. An AutoCorrect featurealso works like the AutoCorrect fea-ture in MS Word.

Almost anything can be done inDVX with keyboard shortcuts, but Iwish they had chosen better key com-binations. So many shortcuts requirecomplicated combinations, and the Fkeys are programmed to do things Irarely need. Fortunately, the shortcutF5 copies source to target, includingcodes. This is probably the func-

Figure 3: Search and replace window

A nice feature of Déjà Vu X is that you can join segments.

➡


Déjà Vu X: A Review of Version 7.5, Part IContinued

tion I use most, and a tool without itwould be useless to me. Still, a buttonfor this function would also be nice.

I rarely remember all the specialkeyboard shortcuts for all the differenttools I use, so I have created extra but-tons for the options I use most (thisworks like MS Word button cus-tomization). DVX also has an exten-sive context-sensitive menu (called upwith the right mouse button), shownin Figure 4. Just about anything Imight need is on this menu.

Can I use the tool even when Iwill work with others who do nothave it?

One disadvantage of environmenttools that use a proprietary interme-diate file format (the file format theprogram itself uses) is that onlypeople with the tool will be able toedit your work. I often work with aseparate editor for publication-qualitywork or medical texts, and this hasbeen a problem for me, depending onthe tool. DVX has two solutions.

• DVX Workgroup (the most expen-sive version) can create “satellite”files, which can be modified byany of the other DVX versions. Iwill not discuss this further, sincethe Workgroup version is notintended for freelance translators.If you do work with an agency thatprefers DVX, just be aware of thefact that you can download andinstall DVX Editor (the free ver-sion) to modify a satellite projectfile. This free version cannotimport files on its own.

• The second option can be used byDVX Professional and DVXWorkgroup owners. DVX has aspecial feature called externalview. After a translation is done, itcan be exported to a special table

Figure 4: Context (right-click) window


in RTF or HTML format, with onecolumn for source text, another fortarget text, and another for com-ments. The target text can be editedoutside of the tool and thenimported back into it. A specialscreen allows you to see thechanges made to the translation,and you can accept or reject eachnew segment. The DVX site even

provides four pages of instructionsfor proofreaders who have neverworked with an external view file(see the documentation section).

Note: If you work with another DVXuser, simply send that person yourproject file. It is self-contained and canbe modified with the Standard,Professional, and Workgroup versions.

Stay Tuned for Part IINext month, I will discuss more

advanced features in DVX, and how ittakes advantage of the integrated ter-minology databases and translationmemory databases.

References:Atrilwww.atril.com

Version reviewed:Déjà Vu X ProfessionalVersion 7.5.302

The Déjà Vu X site even provides four pages ofinstructions for proofreaders who have never worked

with an external view file.

ATA’s MembershipDirectory

You’ll find the most up-to-date

contact information for your ATA

colleagues online, day or night!

Search by name, location, even

by e-mail address—just click

www.atanet.org/membersonly.

The 61st General Assembly of theUnited Nations (UN) has pro-claimed 2008 the International

Year of Languages, thereby recognizing thatgenuine multilingualism promotes, protects, and preserves the diversity of languages andglobal understanding.

The Assembly emphasized the importance of the equality of the organization’s six officiallanguages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. In that regard, the Assemblyrequested that the Secretary-General ensure that all UN language service providers be treatedequally and have equally favorable working conditions and resources. The Assembly alsorequested that the Secretary-General complete the task of publishing important older UN docu-ments on the organization’s website in all six official languages.

Further, the Assembly emphasized the importance of making appropriate use of the organi-zation’s official languages in all the activities of the UN’s Department of Public Information,with the aim of eliminating the disparity between the use of English and the use of the fiveother official languages.

UN General AssemblyProclaims 2008 theInternational Year ofLanguages


Team building refers topromoting a homogeneous workingenvironment to ensure that a projectruns smoothly. Since the project man-ager is the glue that holds the projecttogether, his or her mission is to makesure that the team is kept properlyinformed and motivated, and thatteam members are on good terms withone another in order to achieve highquality and timely results. This is noeasy task. This article will touch uponthe many details the project managerneeds to consider in the organizationand development of a dynamic team.

The Project Manager as a Team Builder

So how does a project manager ofa translation agency assemble a teamof qualified individuals? For starters,the project manager needs to take intoaccount the fact that team membersmay not be working face-to-face inone physical environment. Nowadays,one of the most common team config-urations for activities performed in atranslation agency is the virtual envi-ronment. This reality poses quite aunique challenge to the project man-ager: to build a team of invisible free-lance participants whose platter isalready loaded with other assignmentsand priorities.1

Even without face-to-face contact,

and despite cultural differences, it isimportant for team members to feel asif they belong to the group and thattheir contributions are making a differ-ence. The key, then, is for the projectmanager to establish an identity2 forteam members and to reinforce a senseof community participation through-out the life of the project. It is thissense of community, in combinationwith the high professionalism of theteam members, that will bring themcloser together and drive the projectforward. In this respect, experiencedtranslators and project managers havean advantage in that they are alreadyworking in the same field, utilize thesame industry jargon, and have beenbrought together to accomplish acommon goal.

Interpersonal skills are likewiseimportant to team development. Asthe third edition of A Guide to the Project Management Body ofKnowledge states: “By understandingthe sentiments of the team members,anticipating their actions, acknowl-

edging their concerns, and followingup on their issues, the team cangreatly reduce problems and increasecooperation. Skills such as empathy,influence, creativity, and group facili-tation are valuable assets when man-aging the project team.”3

Practically speaking, the projectmanager must understand the goal ofthe project, clearly communicate it toteam members, and make sure thateverybody is on the same page interms of the constraints of quality,time, cost, scope, and customer satis-faction. This common understandingcan be facilitated through an initialkickoff meeting. It can then be main-tained by holding periodic statusmeetings, keeping minutes of the dis-cussions, and always being attentiveto any signs of trouble that couldderail the project. To this end, theproject manager should keep the teammotivated and informed of the accom-plishment of milestones. Even anoccasional acknowledgement of someoutstanding achievement will suffice.

Why Professional Project Management in Your Translation Company?By Kenneth A. McKethanand Graciela White

Risk assessment is another vital aspect of projectmanagement that should not be taken lightly.


Doing so will reinforce eachmember’s sense of belonging and willgenerate a sense of ownership for theproject’s ultimate success, which isessential to any group effort. By pro-viding a sense of direction and sup-port, the project manager can expectcommitment in return.

Risk AssessmentRisk assessment is another vital

aspect of project management thatshould not be taken lightly. A risk isdefined as an uncertain event or con-dition that, if it occurs, has a positiveor negative effect on a project’s objec-tives. Not all risks represent threats tothe project. In fact, some risks may

bring windfall opportunities thatshould be pursued in the interest ofproject goals. Therefore, risk manage-ment processes must be implemented.The intent here is to increase the prob-ability and impact of positive events,and to decrease the probability andimpact of those events that mightprove adverse to the project.4 Be sureto keep in mind that any risk must becontained and controlled.

On a side note, be aware that whilethe current discussion only applies toknown risks, the project manager alsoneeds to be aware of unknown risks.“Unknown risks cannot be managedproactively, and a prudent response bythe project team can be to allocate gen-eral contingency funds against suchrisks, as well as against any knownrisks for which it may not be cost-

effective or possible to develop aproactive response.”5 In fact, unknownrisks are mainly a concern of uppermanagement and are often excludedfrom the project budget. Such risksusually involve changes to the project’sscope that require the allocation of amanagement reserve; therefore, thisresponsibility is usually beyond therealm of the project manager.

As a first step to implementing aneffective risk assessment plan, thetranslation company should detailhow it will deal with risks for its proj-ects. This will serve as the basis forany discussion of risks with vendorsas well as clients. Given the differentreactions to risk—risk averse, risk

seeking, and risk neutral—it is impor-tant to know the translation com-pany’s position on risk in order to setthe tone for future action.

Next, risks should be identified andassessed in terms of their probabilityof occurrence and their impact on theproject. By performing quantitativeand/or qualitative analyses of the risk,the project manager will be able torank the pool of risks and determinewhich ones will receive serious focus.Even trivial and obvious risks shouldundergo the process. For instance, theclient needs 20,000 new words trans-lated a week before the expectedreturn date. What is the probability ofthat happening? What is the impact onthe project schedule? Will theschedule be broken? What about theresources? What is the impact to team

morale? These are some of the ques-tions that the project manager shouldshare with the team and, together,come up with an action plan.

Armed with a clear understandingof the risks in question, a riskresponse plan can then be drafted todetail the appropriate strategies. If itbecomes necessary to deal with nega-tive risks—those that pose a threat tothe business—responses will be inplace to avoid, transfer, or mitigate therisk. On the other hand, the reaction topositive risks—those that represent anopportunity to the business—may beto exploit, share, or enhance them. Inall cases, it is vital to have a planbeforehand in order to react withoutdelay should the risk materialize.

Finally, it is important to monitorrisks periodically to determine theirstatus. This is an ongoing processthroughout the life of the project. Theassumption should be that some risksmay very well go away, while newones may surface.

Conflict ResolutionThe Merriam-Webster Online

Dictionary (www.m-w.com) definesconflict as: “2a: competitive or opposingaction of incompatibles; antagonisticstate or action (as of divergent ideas,interests, or persons); 2b: mentalstruggle resulting from incompatible oropposing needs, drives, wishes, orexternal or internal demands.”

By this definition, conflict is anissue that can affect all facets of life,either positively or negatively.Accordingly, conflict can also be amajor factor in project management.However, too much conflict can disruptthe normal flow of the project. Whilesome level of conflict is actually neces-sary for the successful functioning of ateam, it must be managed in order tomaintain positive working relationshipsand improve productivity. ➡

The project manager is the glue that holds the project together.


Why Professional Project Management in Your Translation Company? Continued

Can conflict be avoided alto-gether? According to Rita Mulcahy, aworldwide authority on project man-agement, “Conflict is unavoidablebecause of the nature of the projectstrying to address the needs andrequirements of many stakeholders,the limited power of the project man-ager, and the necessity of obtainingresources from functional managers.”6

It is commonly assumed that per-sonality is the main source of conflictin a project: the project manager cannotsee eye to eye with the client; there aredisagreements on the cost and scope ofthe project; or the project manager ishaving trouble resolving differencesamong the team’s large pool of free-lancers. However, this is not the case. Infact, the seven categories of conflict,

listed in order of frequency are: sched-ules, project priorities, resources,technical opinion, administrative pro-cedures, cost, and personality.7

If conflict is here to stay, responsesto it must be constructive. Peopleaddress conflict in different ways,including:

Withdrawal or avoidance: The issueis basically ignored, or more posi-tively, left until such a time as coolerminds can prevail. This is considereda “lose-lose” situation because noresults are achieved and the discus-sion is essentially postponed.

Forcing: One party pushes for hisor her own view at the expense of

others. This technique is consid-ered an “I win, you lose” scenario,and it is mainly used when quickdecisions need to be made.

Smoothing: Emphasis is placed onthe agreements rather than on thedisagreements. Although the issueis not really resolved, this tech-nique is helpful when the health ofthe relationship is more importantthan being right or having the lastword on the matter.

Compromising: The parties try tofind solutions that may pleaseeverybody involved. This is cer-tainly not the best approachbecause each party feels like it hasgiven up something dear.

Confronting: The parties move rightalong to solve the problem. Thismethod is considered the preferredapproach in project management,and should not be confused withbeing confrontational. In otherwords, by facing the problem head-on, all the parties are open to findinga solution—they examine the issuewith open minds and really strive forthe best outcome. Notice that beingconfrontational is a completely dif-ferent approach that involves a bel-ligerent or aggressive attitude.

All of these approaches to conflictresolution employ some form of negoti-ation as the primary method of commu-nication. In the negotiation process,

parties with opposing interests holdconversations to settle a dispute. Asstated in The Gale Encyclopedia ofChildhood and Adolescence: “Researchon games theory and the decision-making process suggest that the face-to-face conversation involved in directnegotiation may actually influencepeople to act in the interest of the group(including the opposing party), or someother interest beyond immediate self-interest.”8

In the specific case of translationteams, where face-to-face interaction israre, project managers should be extracautious with how they respond to con-flict and make sure that all partiesinvolved have had the opportunity tovoice their concerns.

Communication ManagementOne of the most underrated, even

neglected, aspects of project manage-ment is communication management.There can be several reasons for thisshortfall, including:

• Underestimating the importanceand impact of communicationmanagement;

• Ignorance of the reality that com-munication must be managed;

• Underestimating the amount ofeffort this duty entails;

• Failing to address the issue of com-munication because of the press of“real” project management work,such as crunching budgets andschedules, preparing reports, andattending meetings;

• Failing to allocate neededresources, bandwidth, scheduling;

• Assuming that everyone is alreadyin agreement; and

• Reluctance to impose on people’s time.

As a result, much needless pain can beexperienced by project managers andtheir teams.

The key to success lies in finding the team’s identityand communicating it to the members.


What can be done to improve thispicture? First, recognize that commu-nication is the main pillar of anyproject—it does not just happen.Communication is real work that mustbe planned, organized, consistentlyexecuted, and managed. It takes con-

siderable effort to communicate therequisite volume of informationwithout overloading the recipients. Itcan also take a disproportionateamount of communication effort todrive a single issue to closure. Failureto plan carefully and to executeproject communication consistentlyguarantees that some vital pieces ofinformation will fall through thecracks.

It is clear, then, that achieving thecorrect balance requires considerableeffort on the part of the project man-ager, much of which lies in informa-tion processing. Such processing isnot unlike the source text crunchingperformed by translators to producethe target language output. There is nomistake about it—this is hard work! Ittakes a lot of time and energy toprocess reams of information, decidewhat should be communicated and towhom, what should definitely not becommunicated, and what bearsrepeating, as well as the mode ofcommunication to be used (e.g., a pri-vate conference room, an InstantMessage chat line) and the frequencyof such communication.

Secondly, one should never assumethat everyone is on the same page.This is especially true in today’s

global virtual team environment. Thecommunication picture is complicatedby such factors as different culturalassumptions, different job needs andexpectations, as well as time zone dif-ferences, not to mention the pace ofthe project. The problem of informa-

tion overload is well known!Basically, the project manager cannotafford to take anything for granted.

The above points to the need for acommunication plan. This plan mustbe discussed during the project’s ini-tial planning stages and then againwhen the project team has been assem-bled. Promulgating the communica-tion plan in this way sets expectationsas to what information should beexpected, its channels, and defineswho will communicate with whom, aswell as what, when, and how. The planshould also specify that all team mem-bers have the necessary access to themode of communication to be used, aswell as to any archived materials.

The project manager must not onlycreate the communication plan andpresent it to the team, but must alsoensure that team members complywith the details of the plan. Theproject manager also needs to processthe incoming information, such asregular status reports, and make surethat it is duly stored and disseminatedthrough the most consistent, efficient,and timely means possible. This is inthe project manager’s own self-interest in order to maintain properworkload management. For instance,should the project manager allow a

variety of status reporting formats,which will only complicate the job ofreprocessing information for dissemi-nation? Why not promote agreementon a common reporting format alongwith meaningful deadlines that wouldsimplify the task of summarizinginformation in subsequent communi-cations? For example, does it makesense to cut and paste the same infor-mation into yet a different format?Such considerations must beaddressed in the communication plan.

Expectation ManagementEven less appreciated than com-

munication management is expecta-tion management. As with conflict,differing expectations within anyproject team are normal andinevitable. Stakeholders invariablycome to the table with differing needs,priorities, and backgrounds. Forinstance, the customer might notunderstand that their software productcannot be simply “translated” withoutfirst being internationalized.

The unpalatable truth is that noteveryone will get everything theywant, when they want it. If the cus-tomer’s software must first undergocostly internationalization or reengi-neering to accommodate “transla-tion,” then it is unlikely that theproject’s initial schedule or budgetwill remain unchanged.

Any differences of opinion regardingwhat is expected must first be identifiedin order to set expectations. Such differ-ences also need to be communicatedduring early project planning. But thejob does not stop there. As with risk andcommunication, team expectations mustthen be managed throughout the entireproject. Does the customer understandthe level of support they will have tocommit to the internationalization/local-ization effort, for example, to providetimely responses to transla- ➡

The team must develop a sense of community to bringit closer together and to fuel the project.


Why Professional Project Management in Your Translation Company? Continued

tors’ queries? Are the product devel-opment teams and other subjectmatter experts in agreement withthese expectations?

As with communication in general,nothing can be taken for granted. Thismeans that the project manager ismuch more than a planner and exe-cuter of the project: he or she mustalso wear the hats of coach, publicrelations specialist, and diplomat!

Obviously, then, this aspect of theproject manager’s role is a very proac-tive one. It is much more difficult toadjust expectations after the project isunderway when everyone is alreadylaboring under the illusion that theirown needs are paramount to everyoneelse’s. Unless clearly communicatedotherwise, most stakeholders willsimply assume that their needs areunderstood and that they will be met infull. Late-breaking redirection ofexpectations is usually met with resist-ance, and can actually underminestakeholder confidence in projectmanagement. (“Why are you tellingme this only now?”) This, in turn,means that the project manager mustalso be assertive. One must reaffirmthat not everyone will get everythingthey want, not even the customer.

Donning the diplomat’s hat, theproject manager will have to bringtact and negotiating finesse to bear inorder to achieve the best possiblecompromise and to keep everyone onboard. Since our expectations tend tocolor our perception of reality, it iscritically important that they be setand managed for the project from thevery outset.

Lessons LearnedIn addition to the product deliver-

able itself, another valuable output ofany project is to compile a list of les-sons learned. At a high level, theseshould document:

• What went right?• What went wrong?• What could be improved?

The project manager could also ask:what have I personally learned fromthis project?

Sadly, the lessons learned exercisetends to get lost in the shuffle at theend of the project. The result is the lossof much invaluable information andexperience. The reasons for this lapsecommonly include the following:

• Project fatigue or general burnout;• Tacit reluctance to reopen old

wounds;• Fear of recrimination;• Rush to close the project;• Dissimilarity to the next project;• Press of overlapping projects that

likely had to be neglected duringthe final stages of the previousproject; and

• General lack of appreciation of thevalue of lessons learned.

Since these realities are very unlikelyto ever go away, what practical stepscan be implemented to capture valu-able project information? Oneapproach is to set up a draft document(entitled Lessons Learned) in a project

database where stakeholders canquickly and easily “dump” feedback atany point during the project. Thishelps ensure that no valuable thoughtsare lost along the way.

As a further step, meaningfulstructuring of the lessons learned

brainstorming document will mini-mize the amount of effort needed toorganize, edit, and formalize the doc-ument at the close of the project.Reducing the overall effort in thismanner goes a long way towardensuring that the lessons learned fromthat particular project will actually becaptured!

The task of finalizing the lessonslearned document need not bedrudgery. One proven technique is forthe team, at least the core team, toretreat to an offsite location awayfrom the usual interruptions wherethey can brainstorm and focus onwhat is in the document. The above-mentioned database serves as astarting point for the discussions. A“scribe” should be appointed to trackadditional feedback. Also, since thenature of the globally dispersed vir-tual team rarely allows for full stake-holder attendance, input fromabsentees can be solicited in advancefor consideration by the core team.

The project manager must understand the goal of theproject, clearly communicate it to team members, and

make sure that everybody is on the same page interms of the constraints of quality, time, cost, scope,

and customer satisfaction.


This approach ensures that the coreteam does actually review and discussthe lessons learned together, which issomething they may not have had anopportunity to do until this point. Thetask of final compilation, editing, anddissemination of the lessons learneddocument normally falls to the projectmanager. In any case, by now most ofthe work has already been done.

Finally, in order to ensure that ithappens at all, the lessons learnedphase must be planned from the outset.As part of initial project planning, itmust be added to the schedule as amilestone. This type of lessons learneddocument should also be planned as aproject deliverable. In this way, it is notdismissed as optional during the rushto close the project. Compiling a list ofthe lessons learned from each projectand disseminating it to team membersshould be regarded as a valuable assetfor all concerned, individually and col-lectively. Failure to capture a good setof lessons learned is a loss foreveryone concerned.

So, once completed, it is easy tosee how this document could be filedand forgotten. How can this be pre-vented? How can lessons learned bestbe applied? Opportunities for applica-tion include having the documentserve as:

• A basis for a formal project closuremeeting of stakeholders. This rein-

forces the lessons to everyone involvedwhile they are still relatively fresh.

• A basis for formal project kickoffmeetings for future projects. Many ofthe lessons learned from one projectcan usually be applied to another.

• A measurement of success onfuture projects.

• A database archiving and linkingmethod for easy reference forfuture project planning documents.

In addition to minimizing the painof the next project, a list of lessonslearned can go a long way to supportingthe continuing education of customers,teams, and management. After all, it ishard to quibble over a well-organizedset of empirical lessons gathered from avariety of stakeholders.

Closing ThoughtsEffective project management

skills can improve the success of theoperations in any agency. Projectmanagement involves a combinationof team building, conflict resolution,communication management, riskassessment, and expectations man-agement. In addition, a project manager needs to be able to commu-nicate effectively and motivate teammembers toward the desired goal.The job also requires the ability toteach people to examine the indi-vidual factors that lead to a successfulproject, and to learn from past mis-

takes and triumphs. We hope you willimplement some of the techniques wediscussed here when planning yournext project.

Notes1. White, Graciela. “A Real Approach to

Virtual Teams.” Proceedings of the45th Annual Conference of the Ameri-can Translators Association (Ameri-can Translators Association, 2004).

2. Schmaltz, David. Discover YourProject’s Identity. Projects@Work(June 12, 2006), www.projectsatwork.com/content/articles/231706.cfm.

3. A Guide to the Project Manage-ment Body of Knowledge, ThirdEdition (Project ManagementInstitute, Inc., 2004), 213.

4. Project Management Institute, Inc., 237.

5. Project Management Institute, Inc., 240.

6. Mulcahy, Rita. PMP® Exam Prep—A Course in a Book (RMCPublications, Inc., 2002), 199.

7. Mulcahy, 200.

8. The Gale Encyclopedia ofChildhood and Adolescence.Jerome Kagan and Susan B. Gall,Editors (Thomson Gale, 1997).

A sense of belonging, in combination with the highprofessionalism of the team members, generates a

sense of ownership, which is a key ingredient to anyproject’s success.

November 24–26, 2007

FIT Regional Centre Latin America 2nd Meeting of the FIT Regional

Centre Latin America Guadalajara, Mexico

www.omt.org.mx/general.htm


The first Canadian onlineMultilingual Glossary of Legal andCourt-Related Terms, launched inNovember 2006 by VancouverCommunity College (VCC) in BritishColumbia, provides free public accessto 5,000 criminal law terms and theirdefinitions in Plain Language (English),along with equivalents in Chinese(Traditional and Simplified characters),Farsi/Persian, Punjabi, Russian,Spanish, and Vietnamese. Based onCanadian law and initially developed toprovide Canadians with an easy-to-understand reference to legal termi-nology, the glossary has receivedinternational recognition for its useful-ness in countries with English-basedcommon law legal systems.1

Filling a VoidIn 1999, members of the local legal

community in British Columbia—among them the Law Courts EducationSociety of British Columbia and VCC’sCertificate Program in CourtInterpreting—voiced concern over alack of consistency in the comprehen-sion and use of legal terminologyamong unaccredited court interpretersworking in the provincial courts. Thisproblem was seen as being particularlysignificant in areas outside metropolitan

Vancouver, where there were (and stillare) very few accredited interpretersworking in the provincial courts.

At the time this issue was beingraised, VCC had already expressed aninterest in creating for its interpretingstudents a consistent terminology toolin the form of a multilingual glossarybased specifically on the Canadianlegal system. After discussing how bestto go about meeting the needs of VCCstudents while assisting unaccreditedand untrained interpreters to compre-hend Canadian legal terminologybetter, VCC and the Law CourtsEducation Society of British Columbiaresolved to develop a multilingual glos-sary that would include definitions inPlain English. To facilitate access, itwas also decided to present the glossaryin a web-based format and open it tothe public at no charge.

After initial needs assessments in

the community, it was obvious tothose involved that this combined ini-tiative would fulfill needs beyondcourt interpreting. The glossary wouldalso benefit:

• Translators;• Workers at social service agencies;• Legal personnel working with lim-

ited-English-proficient clients;• Immigrants going to court who

need assistance in understandingthe criminal court process; and

• Members of the general publicwho are untrained in legal matters.

VCC took on the project and obtainedfunding from the Law Foundation ofBritish Columbia. VCC is grateful tothe Foundation for its generous sup-port and its understanding of the com-plexity and challenges of the project,which ultimately took six years to

Online Multilingual Glossary of Legal and Court-Related TermsBy Silvana Carr

The glossary has received international recognition forits usefulness in countries with English-based

common law legal systems.


complete. The results can be seen atwww.legalglossary.ca (see Figure 1).

ContentA team of interpreters, legal termi-

nologists, and judges have selectedthe terms they consider to be the mostpertinent and frequently used in crim-inal court. The selection team hasnoted that not all the 5,000 terms canbe classified as legal terms, but hasdetermined that they are court-relatedand therefore relevant to the project.The court-related terms fall into thefollowing categories:

• Police jargon;• Scientific terms;

• Technical terms; • Narcotics; and • Street slang.

Since all terms are used in court andlegal proceedings, their inclusion ben-efits not only interpreters and transla-tors, but all those participating in courtor legal processes (e.g., laypersonsunfamiliar with legal terms, non-English speakers).

How to Search The glossary is user-friendly and

simple to navigate. Each entryappears on its own page and is easy toread. Every entry includes the fol-lowing elements:

Part I: English Entry• The term in English; • Its part of speech;• Its definition in Plain English;• An example of how the term is

used in context; and• Related terms (synonyms and

antonyms), if any.

Part II: Entry in the OtherLanguage• The equivalent term in another lan-

guage;• Its definition in the other language;

and• Related terms, if any.

Users may search by:

• Full phrase; or• Individual words from the phrase;

or• Base word (e.g., “revoke” versus

“revoked”; “appeal court” versus“appeal courts”).

If searching for just the Englishterm, the entry page will show onlyPart I of the entry. If searching for theequivalent of the English term in oneof the six other languages covered inthe glossary, the entry page will showboth Parts I and II for each term (seeFigure 2 on page 38).

So far, the response from users hashighlighted the feature that differenti-ates this glossary from other freeonline glossaries that give translationsof legal terms. Many other glossariesdo not supply context or explain themeaning of the translations they provide. The online MultilingualGlossary of Legal and Court-RelatedTerms generates a Plain English defi-nition for each term and provides anexample of how it is used, thusmaking it possible for the lay readerto understand its meaning.

Figure 1—The homepage of the Multilingual Glossary of Legal and Court-Related Terms

➡


Online Multilingual Glossary of Legal and Court-Related Terms Continued

Glossary DevelopmentThe glossary project was designed

by lexicographer Roda Roberts, thedirector of the Canadian BilingualDictionary Project, and is based on thecollaborative efforts of over 30 profes-sionals with expertise in the Canadianlegal system, legal terminology, transla-tion, and web design. The project hasrequired the ongoing multi-directionalparticipation of all involved in order tomove the glossary through the differentstages of development.

From the beginning, a comprehen-sive quality assurance path was estab-lished and rigorously followed in thecreation of the terminological entries.Following the selection of the 5,000terms, lawyers and Plain Language spe-cialists created the definitions in PlainEnglish. The definitions were reviewedfor legal accuracy and to ensure thatthey could be understood by laypersons.Once approved, the terminologicalentries were sent to qualified terminolo-gists and translators who created equiv-

alents in each of the six foreign lan-guages. Peer bilingual terminologistsreviewed each entry for accuracy andease of comprehension in each lan-guage. The entries were finallyreviewed for legal accuracy by bilinguallawyers and certified legal translatorswith experience in both the Canadianlegal system and the legal systems ofthe countries where the six languagesare spoken. There were, in total, 10stages of completion necessary for finalterm approval (see Figure 3 on page 39).

The entire project, which was over-seen by a steering committee of repre-sentatives from the legal andmulticultural community, has drawnupon an amazing body of knowledgeand expertise, and has received unwa-vering support and assistance from allstakeholders.

Limitations The field of law is vast, and the

online Multilingual Glossary of Legaland Court-Related Terms was neverintended to be all-inclusive. This glos-sary is limited in scope, both in thenumber of terms (5,000) and in thearea of law (criminal) it covers.

It is important to clarify that theglossary does not cover the laws ofthe countries in which the six lan-guages are spoken. Its purpose is toexplain Canadian legal terminologyand to provide foreign languageequivalents for concepts related toCanadian law. As mentioned above,however, the glossary is useful in anycountry that bases its legal system onEnglish common law.

Due to copyright issues, the glos-sary does not include formal defini-tions from legal dictionaries orcontexts from legal documents. Theonly definitions included are PlainLanguage definitions created specifi-cally for this glossary. The PlainEnglish definitions cover only the

Figure 2—Typical search results on the entry page


legal meaning of the terms in criminallaw. A term may have other meaningsthat are not covered in this specializedglossary, but these can be found in aregular legal dictionary.

At the time of this writing, impro-vements are under development. Forexample, all pages of the glossary willsoon be made accessible to Google sothat it can index the entire site forbrowsing.

Future DevelopmentsThe response to the online

Multilingual Glossary of Legal andCourt-Related Terms has been over-whelming, and has come not only fromNorth America, but from other coun-tries, including India and Iran.Feedback from an online surveyincludes requests to add other lan-guages and to expand the scope toother areas of the law. The Law

Foundation of British Columbiarecently awarded VCC two generousgrants to permit it to expand the glos-sary with terminology from family andimmigration law, as well as to developthe entries into another language. Aneeds assessment will determine thechoice of language.

One of the most frequent com-ments from the survey has been topoint out that the glossary

Association des Juristes d’Expression Françaisehttp://ajefo.ca

Canadian Bilingual Dictionary Projectwww.dico.uottawa.ca

Canadian Association of Law Librarieswww.callacbd.ca

Law Courts Education Society of British Columbiawww.lces.ca

Law Foundation of British Columbiawww.lawfoundationbc.org

Multilingual Glossary of Legal and Court-Related Termswww.legalglossary.ca

Vancouver Community College Certificate Program in Court Interpretinghttp://continuinged.vcc.ca/interpreting

For more information on Canadian Law and Legal Interpreting

Figure 3—Stages of final glossary term approval

➡

➡


does not contain the other official lan-guage of Canada. The decision not toinclude French is based on two facts.In Canada, court documents areprinted in French and English. To helpaddress the issue, the Association desJuristes d’Expression Française hascome forward to offer their collabora-tion, and the addition of French to theglossary is now in the planning stages.

Where to Go from HereThe online Multilingual Glossary

of Legal and Court-Related Terms is awork in progress. Please visitwww.legalglossary.ca and take aminute to fill out the online survey onthe homepage. Input and feedbackfrom working interpreters and transla-tors will be very much appreciated.

Note1. See The Self-Help Law ExPress

(Harvard Law School), Blogs.law.harvard.edu/shlep/2007/01/08/lawglossaries-a-to-z.

Online Multilingual Glossary of Legal and Court-Related Terms Continued

MAKEPLANS TO

LEARNCONNECTEXPLORE


48th Annual ConferenceHyatt Regency San Francisco, California October 31-November 3, 2007

Don’t miss this opportunity to network, market yourself andyour skills, reunite with friends and colleagues, and HAVE FUN!

With over 150 sessions covering a dozen languages and a variety of topics, the chance to see the latest software, publications, and products that fit your unique needs, and the opportunity to network with over 1,500 translators and interpreters from around the world, the ATA Annual Conference is an essential event, providing professional development specifically for the translator and interpreter.

Register today at www.atanet.org/conf/2007


Hosted by the


Join ATA and Save!If you join ATA when registering for this seminar, you qualify for the ATA member rate.Contact ATA for an application or join online at www.atanet.org/membship/join_now.php.

Hotel InformationThe InterContinental San Juan islocated at 5961 Isla Verde Avenue inCarolina, Puerto Rico, on two miles ofwhite sand beach and only 1.5 milesfrom Luis Munoz Marin InternationalAirport.

Guests can enjoy a fitness studiooverlooking the beach, an outdoorpool, casino, a full-service spa, and afull complement of business supportservices.

Make your reservations by calling theInterContinental at (787) 791-6100or (800) 443-2009 and be sure toidentify yourself as an ATA seminarattendee.

Cancellation PolicyCancellations received in writing by August 31, 2007 are eligible for arefund. Refunds will not be honoredafter August 31. A $25 administrativefee will be applied to all refunds.

3 Ways to Register- Register online at

www.atanet.org/pd/court/register

- Fax registration form to (703) 683-6122

- Mail registration form to ATA, 225 Reinekers Lane, Suite 590 Alexandria, Virginia 22314

Don’t Forget- include payment with your form- make your hotel reservations- tell a friend about this event

Registration Form

First Name Middle Initial Last Name ATA Member#

Employer/School (only list employer or school if you want it to appear on your badge)

Street Address Apt/Suite

City State/Province Zip/Postal Code Country

Telephone Email

Early-Bird (by August 31): $145 $260Total:

After August 31 & Onsite: $215 $330

Check/Money Order: Make payable through a US bank in US funds to American Translators Association.

Credit Card: Charge my ___VISA ___MasterCard ___American Express ___Discover

Card Number Verification Number Expiration Date

Name on Card Signature

___Please check here if you require special accessibility or assistance. (Attach sheet with your requirements.)

To learn more about the ATA Court Interpreting Seminar, visit www.atanet.org/pd/court or contact ATA at (703) 683-6100 or [email protected].

Seminar Registration Fees ATA Member Nonmember Payment

Registration Form

An ATA ProfessionalDevelopment Event

$

This full-day seminar is targeted at interpreters, currently working in the courtroom, whoare seeking advanced-level continuing education. Gain insight from successful interpretersin the legal field—a full-time staff interpreter for the U.S. District Courts in Puerto Rico anda Certified Federal Interpreter.

Learn retention enhancing techniques, such as note taking and visualization, to improveyour consecutive interpreting ability, as well as advanced techniques to enhance your simultaneous interpreting and sight translation.

Saturday, September 8: ATA will provide a full day of in-depth sessions, including a continental breakfast, a Job Marketplace, and a NetworkingSession.

Continuing Education: Earn up to 6 CEPs for the ATA Certification Program.Sessions will also be submitted for CIMCE credit in the States of California, Texas, and Washington.

Court Interpreting SeminarInterContinental San Juan Carolina, Puerto Rico September 8, 2007


Business Smarts Preserving Your (and the Client’s) Reputation

Dear Business Smarts:A few weeks ago, I delivered an

English translation of a German com-pany newsletter to an agency cus-tomer. It was a demanding source text,and I felt I had done a very good jobof producing an idiomatic and persua-sive translation. But just yesterday theagency sent my text back for reviewafter it had been “edited” by someoneat the client’s office in Germany. Itwas a disaster: the “editor” was obvi-ously not a native English speaker andhad ruined my translation with mis-spellings, inappropriate capitaliza-tion, and awkward syntax. Is thereanything I can do? Or should I justgrit my teeth and let the end-usermake a mess of what is now their text?

Frustrated in North Carolina

Dear Frustrated:Regrettably often, nonnative

speakers of a target language (espe-cially, it seems, those in positions ofcorporate authority) overestimatetheir expertise and believe they canimprove on a text produced by anexperienced professional translator.There are several things you can do inthis situation.

First, decide whether you want tospend more time on the issue and thinkabout possible consequences. If thetext now belongs entirely to the cus-tomer, further corrections may bebeyond your control. The risk you run,however, is that some day the same textwill come to light with your name stillattached to it, with consequent damageto your reputation as an expert trans-

lator. Bear in mind also that the agencysent the “edited” text back to you,which implies some expectation offeedback on your part.

For both reasons, it is better not tolet the matter lie. First, to verify whythe translation was returned to you,find out whether the German clienthas sent any comments about yourwork. Is the client complaining aboutthe quality you delivered? Then, usingthe “compare” function in Word, findout exactly which changes were intro-duced to your translation and analyzethose changes with as much emo-tional detachment as you can muster.Send the “edited” text back to yourproject manager with your correctionsand comments, pointing out specifi-cally (and courteously) exactly whereand how the “editor” has damaged theeffectiveness of the translation.Remember that although you willthereby be upholding and enhancingyour professionalism, you are alsodoing the client a favor by keepingthem from being associated with apiece of bad English. It is preciselythat aspect—preserving the client’sreputation and prestige—that youshould emphasize in all your corre-spondence. You can also point out thata poor translation at any stage of theprocess puts the agency’s reputationat risk as well. To enhance objectivity,you might also suggest sending bothyour original translation and theedited text to a competent and neutralthird party for evaluation.

If the client nevertheless insists onusing the “edited” text, you should

still take action. You can first makesure the agency understands, and con-veys to the end user, that having doneyour best to rescue your translation(and both the agency’s and the client’sreputation) from mangling by anunqualified editor, you take no furtherresponsibility for the target text. Youcan also inform the agency thatbecause you feel an ethical obligationto provide the best possible work inevery circumstance, you would prefernot to accept future assignments forthis particular end-user if the sameinterference with your work willoccur. For your own protection, keepprinted copies of all this correspon-dence in a folder.

Although it may be upsetting to seeyour work disfigured or altered, it isof crucial importance to keep yourcommunication professional and bal-anced. The fact that you have takenthe time to write a detailed response,and are doing so out of concern for theclient’s reputation, will leave a lastingpositive impression.

The information in this column was compiled by members of ATA’s Business Practices Education Committee for the benefit of ATAmembers. This column is not intended to constitute legal, financial, or other business advice. Each individual or company shouldmake its own independent business decisions and consult its own legal, financial, or other advisors as appropriate. The viewsexpressed here are not necessarily those of ATA or its Board of Directors. Send your questions about the business of translation andinterpretation to The ATA Chronicle—BPEC Q&A; 225 Reinekers Lane, Suite 590, Alexandria, VA 22314; Fax: (703) 683-6122; E-mail: [email protected]. Questions must be accompanied by a complete name and address, but will be publishedanonymously or pseudonymously upon request.

Comments?

ATA members can discuss business issuesonline at the following Yahoo! group:http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/ata_business_practices. Youwill need to register with Yahoo! (at nocharge) if you have not already done so,and provide your full name and ATAmember number in order to join the group.


What do the Café de los Austrias, a mid-range eatery inMadrid, and the premium HyattRegency Hotel in San Francisco havein common?

International clients and a yen tocommunicate with them, which weapplaud. Unfortunately, both are clue-less when it comes to buying transla-tions, as seen in a set of silly bilingualmenus sent in by eagle-eyed readers.

A closer look at how each estab-lishment concocted the flawed entrieson its menu is a tantalizing reminderof the language traps awaiting theunwary buyer or producer of foreign-language texts.

In Madrid, the Café de los Austriasserves a variety of broad beans(habas), referred to on the menu bythe diminutive form habitas inSpanish. Alas, the verb habitar (to liveor reside) can also be conjugated ashabitas, meaning “you live.” Thecomputer program that did the transla-tion was unable to tell the difference,and there were no native speakers onhand to correct the mistake. Result:“You live with egg and jamon.”

At the Hyatt, where the U.S.Marketing Research Association(MRA) celebrated its 50th anniversaryon June 6, one thousand diners foundwould-be chic French/English menuson their tables at this gala event. Tohype the victuals on the plates asFrench cuisine, organizers cooked up“French” renderings that, for anynative French speaker, sound a wholelot better in plain English. Example:Seared Breast of Chicken appears inFrench as withered mammary gland(sein desseche de poulet) minus theaccents. Unlike the Café de losAustrias, the MRA’s aim appears to be

pretentiousness, full stop. To ourknowledge, there were no Frenchspeakers in the room. The English isprinted below the silly French, thusmasquerading as a translation of whatwas clearly produced after the fact bya computer or a simple dictionarylook-up, with no proofreading at all.

Contacted by the Onionskin, theHyatt insisted that the offending textwas prepared by its client, the MRA,which describes itself as the leadingand largest U.S. association of the

opinion and market research profes-sion—a group where “researchers learnof new opportunities, markets, andpotential obstacles to future success.”

In an increasingly global market, onesuch obstacle might well be failing tomind your language manners, so wehave sent them a copy of theTranslation: Getting It Right booklet.Rumor has it that a Spanish version ofthis lively client education brochure is inthe final stages, so Café de los Austriaswill be hearing from us soon, too.

Chew (Hard), Then Swallow

The Onionskin Chris [email protected]

The Onionskin is a client education column launched by the ITI Bulletin (a publication of the U.K.’s Institute of Translation and Interpreting)in 1996. Comments and leads for future columns are very welcome; please include full contact details. Contact: [email protected].

(Newsweek): Broken Spanish: a sign on the border fence along the beach at Tijuana is awash with errors

➡


Murky WatersReaders of Newsweek magazine,

too, have written in to flag a flawedsign in the photo of a dilapidatedU.S.-Mexico border fence along thebeach at Tijuana (see page 43).

The accompanying article describesperceived dangers of terrorist infiltra-tion of the U.S. (June 11, 2007).

Once again, language mistakes helpidentify where the translation processskidded off the tracks, here througherrors in transcription as much astranslation. Thus “pilegro” should readpeligro, “bato” should be bajo, and“del auga” should be del agua. Onlyfierros is a real word, but it would beback-translated as “irons” or “thingsmade of iron,” we are told. Five wordswrong out of five is a dismal perform-ance indeed, although illegal immi-grants probably get the picture.

Yet even if each word were cor-rected, says translator Veronica Albin,the message would still violateSpanish stylistics. A correct versionwould read Peligro / Objetossumergidos en el agua. Ramshacklefence, ramshackle language.

Here is a tip for translation buyers:make sure your bilingual buddy is lit-erate before asking him or her to scribbledown a foreign-language equivalent ofyour essential message. Failing which,hire a professional translator.

War Zone Interpreters—Some Relief in Sight

On Friday, June 15, 2007, U.S.President George W. Bush signed leg-islation temporarily increasing thenumber of Iraqi and Afghan nationalswho may be admitted to the U.S. asspecial immigrants after having

worked as translators and interpreterswith the U.S. Armed Forces or underChief of Mission authority. For fiscalyears 2007 and 2008, the previouslimit of 50 visas for eligible inter-preters and their family members willbe raised to 500. U.S. lawmakers hopethat the increase will help clear anine-year backlog of applications.

This new bipartisan legislationwas passed overwhelmingly in boththe House of Representatives and theSenate. It exempts the new visasfrom existing limits, and makes suc-cessful applicants eligible forrefugee assistance that they wouldnot otherwise receive.

This is an important first steptoward providing safe haven to inter-preters who have risked their ownlives and the lives of their families tohelp American personnel in Iraq andAfghanistan, say observers, though itdoes not come anywhere near meetingthe real number of visas needed forIraqi and Afghan linguists and theirfamily members. That number is esti-mated to be in the thousands.

As press reports make tragicallyclear, Iraqi interpreters aiding U.S.communication efforts have beenshot, beheaded, and burned alive forsimply doing their jobs. Interpretersare actively targeted precisely becauseof their vital role in security anddiplomacy, and yet they are often thelast to be provided with body armorand have no safe place to live withtheir families, even in the face ofrepeated death threats. The sametragedy is playing out in Afghanistan.

U.S. military personnel are amongthe most passionate advocates for thethreatened linguists. “They see things

on the streets we don’t see and under-stand things we can’t begin to com-prehend. I can’t tell you how manyAmerican lives interpreters havesaved. We truly have an obligation tothem,” Shelaine Tuytschaevers, anArmy Reserve sergeant who served inIraq, told the Des Moines Register.

As President Bush was signing theU.S. bill into law, military officials inDenmark were sounding the alarm aswell. Over 400 Danish military per-sonnel are currently deployed in Iraq,most of them training Iraqi soldiersand providing protection to civiliansinvolved in reconstruction, but all willreturn home in early August. Whethertheir 21 interpreters will be with themis an open question.

Two members of the team havealready been assassinated, leadingDanish commanding officers to appealfor visas to be issued immediately forthe others. After initial encouragement,the Danish prime minister backtrackedunder pressure from the conservativeFolkeparti, which is adamant that noexceptions be made to the country’sincreasingly restrictive immigrationpolicy. Allowing war-zone interpretersin would open the floodgates to a waveof (unwelcome) immigration, theyinsist. Yet a compromise may beshaping up. A taskforce has beenappointed and “it is working towards asolution,” says the Danish Ministry ofDefense. This will probably be on acase-by-case basis.

With thanks to Veronica Albin, GabeBokor, Carmelo Cancio, CarolineGotler, and Alvaro Villegas.

The Onionskin Continued

ATA’s 48th Annual ConferenceStart Planning Now October 31–November 3, 2007San Francisco, California


There are a lot of complaintsthat speech recognition—the ability todictate to your computer—is geekytechnology, but I think the very oppo-site is true. How geeky is it to hack ona keyboard to make your computerunderstand what you are trying tosay? Think about it. It makes so muchmore sense to be able to speak to yourcomputer, dictate text, and navigatethrough programs. And the onlygeeky part about it is that we are notused to it and that it works—kind of.

Although I like speech recognition,I am not a “purist.” I use it only when Ithink I need to speed things up a little,when I have a text that is well suited, orwhen my fingers just do not work theway I want them to (which, unfortu-nately, happens more often than I careto admit). But even when I use speechrecognition, I do not unplug my key-board or simply refuse to use it. Somethings are just more practical to do onthe keyboard, and this is particularlytrue if you need to switch between lan-guages, which, obviously, is quitecommon for translators. The programI use—Dragon NaturallySpeaking,available at www.nuance.com—sup-ports at least the native language andEnglish in the Dutch, German,Spanish, Italian, French, and Japaneseeditions; however, unloading one lan-guage and reloading the other takes atleast a couple of minutes.

So, which texts are well suited—orbetter, which texts are not well suitedfor speech recognition? The answer tothis depends partly on your particulartranslation subject. For me, speechrecognition does not work with textcontaining a lot of proper namesand/or loan words. This does not meanthat you cannot teach the program torecognize the proper names and loanwords, but it is one of those judgmentthings. If you want to use speechrecognition (or anything else for that

matter) to become more effective, youhad better make sure that you truly areincreasing productivity. If you have tospend an hour to train the software torecognize a bunch of new terms beforetranslating for an hour and a half on ajob that would have otherwise takenyou only two hours, that seems likewasted time to me. Plus, while I enjoytranslating, I can think of better thingsto do than training speech recognitionsoftware. On the other hand, if I canexpect that these proper names andloan words will occur in future proj-ects, I may just as well spend the timeto train the software.

My first rule for success whenworking with speech recognition soft-ware will probably have the “purists”shaking their heads in agony. Afterhaving used speech recognition forsome time, I know some of the weakspots of my speech engine (or my pro-nunciation). Rather than using the“correct” function again and again, Iprefer to type those problem termseven while dictating the rest.

My next rule is to take some timeto get used to not “thinking with yourfingers.” Instead, try to preformulatelonger segments and then speak themcoherently for better results.

This goes right along with the nextkind of texts that are not well suitedfor speech recognition—those with alot of formatting. It is hard to speakformatting commands naturally.Depending on what kind of transla-tion environment tool you areworking with and how formatting ishandled by the tool, it may be easierto use the keyboard shortcuts for thosefunctions that you are used to. If thereis really a LOT of formatting, it maybe easier to just type the whole thing.

Now, technically, there is no for-matting function or other fancymaneuver that your speech recogni-tion cannot do. That is, if you have the

right version. When it comes toDragon NaturallySpeaking, thePreferred version comes with all thebasic formatting in environments likeMS Word or its own editor,DragonPad. When you use a transla-tion environment tool that makes youwork in an interface other than Word,you will have a hard time doing every-thing with voice commands unlessyou have the Professional edition, inwhich you can easily write macroswith virtually unlimited possibilities.The problem is that while thePreferred version has a relativelymodest price tag, the Professional ver-sion does not. Once you have theProfessional version, you can eitherstay there and pay premium prices forupgrades because you are interestedin the slightly better recognition thattypically comes with each new ver-sion, or you can go the cheap route,downgrading at some point but thenlosing all your macros. That is theproblem that I am stuck with inDragon, so I am not running the latestversion (9.5 with Vista compatibility).

And while we are talking aboutVista, many of you have probablyheard that one of the new features ofVista is internal voice recognition. Iam sure that many of you have alsoseen the hilarious video on the officialMS demonstration of the new featuregone bad: www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Y_Jp6PxsSQ. Well, I tested itfor the first time this week and I was

On the Way to Out-Geeking Yourself

GeekSpeak Jost [email protected]

The GeekSpeak column has two goals: to informthe community about technological advances and atthe same time encourage the use and appreciationof technology among translation professionals. Jostalso publishes a free technical newsletter for trans-lators (www.internationalwriters.com/toolkit).

Continued on page 46


The Colorado TranslatorsAssociation (CTA) was established in1985 as a nonprofit professionalorganization for Colorado-basedtranslators and interpreters that pro-vides assistance to its members and tocorporations and individuals seekingtranslation and interpreting services.The association currently has close to100 members in Colorado.

Benefits and ActivitiesIn addition to regularly scheduledmeetings, CTA offers the following:

Online Searchable MembershipDirectory: CTA’s online directoryprovides professional profiles andcontact information for all corporateand individual members. Memberscan also update their informationonline by logging onto the MembersOnly section.

Newsletter: Members receive the CTANews, the association’s quarterlynewsletter. For submission guidelines,please e-mail [email protected].

Professional Development Seminarsand Networking Events: Past topicsfor CTA seminars include “TranslationTechniques,” “Organizing Your Home

Office,” and “Marketing Roundtable forFreelancers.” In addition, CTA partici-pates in events involving the Coloradointernational business community, suchas World Trade Day. As part of its com-mitment to professional development,CTA has also sponsored ATA certifica-tion exams. See CTA’s online calendarof events for more information(www.cta-web.org/activities.php).

Online Discussion List: CTA allowsmembers to stay connected on a dailybasis. Members are automaticallysigned up to receive e-mail. In addi-tion to being able to discuss topics per-tinent to the profession, participants

receive event reminders and informa-tion on job opportunities.

Website: In addition to membershipinformation, CTA’s website (www.cta-web.org) contains among its many fea-tures: association news and eventlistings; the online membership direc-tory; a resource page (including a gen-eral guide on how to select a translatoror interpreter and a frequently-asked-questions section); and the CTA Newsarchives in PDF format.

ATA chapters, affiliates, and local groups serve translators and interpreters in specific geo-graphic areas. They provide industry information, networking opportunities, and supportservices to members at the local level and act as liaisons with the national association. Thiscolumn is designed to serve as a quick resource highlighting the valuable contributionsthese organizations are making to the Association and the profession as a whole.

• Acronym: CTA

• Established: 1985

• Website: www.cta-web.org

• Contact:Colorado Translators Association941 Cedwick StreetLafayette, CO 80026Tel: (720) 890-7934 E-mail: [email protected]

Colorado Translators Association

Quick Facts

Success by Association

rather impressed. Unfortunately, myVista PC is in English only, since Ihave not made the jump to shell outanother $140 to upgrade to the VistaUltimate edition, which would giveme access to the localized versions ofVista. Since I am not a native Englishspeaker, there is always a slight loss inrecognition (the same is true forDragon), but I dictated the first para-graph of this article (“There are a lot

of complaints that speech recogni-tion…”) with both Vista and withDragon on an XP computer and hadpretty similar results. Dragon intro-duced two small errors and Vista hadfour (ironically, it did not like theword “geeky”). Though this test cer-tainly was not very scientific, I wasimpressed with how accurate Vista’sspeech recognition was after hearingso many negative things about it. The

individual user training is optional inboth programs and does not take morethan 10 minutes.

So, unless you are an awesometypist and refuse to change that geekyhabit of exclusively using your fingersto enter text, speech recognition is agreat alternative way to “type,” evenbefore carpal tunnel syndrome hits.

GeekSpeak Continued from page 45


Send your news to Jeff Sanfacon [email protected] or American Translators Association, 225Reinekers Lane, Suite 590, Alexandria, VA 22314.Member News

• Isabel Framer was recentlyelected chair of the board of direc-tors of the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters andTranslators.

• In June, Lionbridge Technolo-gies, Inc. sponsored the newLocalization Certification Pro-gram at California State Univ-ersity (CSU), Chico. Now in itssecond year, the LocalizationCertification Program aims toprovide students interested in thelocalization and language profes-

sion with intensive, hands-ontraining designed to give themreadily marketable skills upongraduation. Lionbridge alsoawarded its annual program schol-arship to three students for theirachievements, coursework, andinterests in the areas of localization and global business.To learn more about the Localization CertificationProgram at CSU, Chico, visitwww.csuchico.edu/localize.

• Marla Schulman was recentlyelected president of theAssociation of Language Com-panies. She will serve a one-year term expiring in May 2008.Marla is also the president ofSchreiber Translations.

ATA Certification Exam InformationUpcoming Exams

ArizonaPhoenixSeptember 30, 2007Registration Deadline:September 14, 2007

CaliforniaSan FranciscoNovember 3, 2007Registration Deadline:October 19, 2007

ColoradoDenverSeptember 22, 2007Registration Deadline: September 7, 2007

MassachusettsSomervilleSeptember 30, 2007Registration Deadline:September 14, 2007

MinnesotaMinneapolisSeptember 29, 2007Registration Deadline:September 14, 2007

TexasAustinSeptember 29, 2007Registration Deadline:September 14, 2007

UtahSalt Lake CitySeptember 29, 2007Registration Deadline:September 14, 2007

WisconsinMilwaukeeSeptember 29, 2007Registration Deadline:September 14, 2007

All candidates applying for ATA certification must provide proof that they meet the certification programeligibility requirements. Please direct all inquiriesregarding general certification information to ATAHeadquarters at (703) 683-6100. Registration for all certification exams should be made through ATAHeadquarters. All sittings have a maximum capacityand admission is based on the order in which registrations are received. Forms are available from ATA’s website or from Headquarters.


Upcoming EventsSeptember 29-30, 2007 Atlanta Association of Interpreters andTranslators 1st Annual Conference “Language and Terminology”Atlanta, Georgiawww.aait.org

October 5-7, 2007 International Medical Interpreters Association International Conference on MedicalInterpreting“Pioneering Healthy Alliances”Boston, Massachusettswww.mmia.org/conferences/default.asp

October 5-7, 2007California Federation of Interpreters5th Annual ConferenceSan Francisco, Californiahttp://cfinews.org

October 11-13, 2007 American Medical Writers Association 67th Annual Conference“A Legacy of Leadership”Atlanta, Georgiawww.amwa.org

October 31–November 3, 2007American Translators Association48th Annual ConferenceSan Francisco, Californiawww.atanet.org

November 7–11, 2007American Literary Translators Association 30th Anniversary Conference“Celebrating the Past, Imagining the Future” Richardson, Texaswww.literarytranslators.org

November 15-18, 2007 American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages 41st Annual Convention & Exposition“Bridging Cultures Through Languages”San Antonio, Texaswww.actfl.org

November 24–26, 2007 Organización Mexicana de TraductoresCapítulo Occidente 11th International Translation & Interpretation Congress “San Jerónimo 2007”Guadalajara, Mexico www.omt.org.mx/general.htm

November 24–26, 2007 FIT Regional Centre Latin America 2nd Meeting of the FIT Regional Centre Latin America Guadalajara, Mexicowww.omt.org.mx/general.htm

December 27–30, 2007Modern Language Association 123rd Annual ConventionChicago, Illinoiswww.mla.org/convention

March 7-8, 2008Institute of Germanic and Romance StudiesNordic Translation ConferenceLondon, Englandwww.awaywithwords.se/nordic.htm

May 13-17, 2008The Association of Language Companies 2008 Annual Conference San Francisco, Californiawww.alcus.org

August 4–7, 2008International Federation of Translators18th FIT World CongressShanghai, Chinawww.fit-ift.org

New Certified Members Congratulations! The following people have successfully passed ATA’s certification exam:

English into CroatianCatherine R. Taylor-SkaricaPacifica, CA

English into GermanGrit Stilec McGeeSunnyvale, CA

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English into RussianValery Berestetsky Bellevue, WA

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German Business Dictionary(English↔German)

Editors:Morry Sofer (General editor)Kerstin Roland (German editor)

Publisher:Schreiber Publishingwww.schreiberpublishing.com

Publication date: 2005

ISBN:0-88400-310-8

Number of Pages: 425

Price: $24.95 (paperback)

Reviewed by:Bruni Johnson

This is a concise and veryhandy little dictionary of American andGerman business terms for the InternetAge, with entries in the areas ofbanking, accounting, insurance, realestate, import-export, taxes, businesslaw, computers, and more.

This dictionary is quite useful as aquick reference, and particularlyuseful when interpreting at deposi-tions or business meetings and/ordoing document review at law firmsand companies, when time is alwaysof the essence. The dictionary pro-vides a quick reminder of a number ofcommon terms. This dictionary is notfor someone looking for in-depth/lengthy explanations.

The editors very appropriatelystate in their introduction: “One, how-ever, should bear in mind that bothGerman and American English arehighly dynamic languages, and bothare in a constant state of growth andchange. As a result, not every businessterm is cast in stone, and one shouldcheck terms against actual usage inany particular area of business. Theseemingly boundless availability ofbusiness documents on the Internetthese days is one excellent source forchecking business terms, and the edi-tors encourage the dictionary users tomake ample use of it at all times.”

The above quote is also the first com-mandment of the translation community,and has been discussed at length on theonline list of ATA’s German LanguageDivision. The reviewer, however, feelsvery strongly that one should not forgetto consult literature available for the var-ious faculties, such as trade and businessmagazines, journals, and publications.Not everything found on the Internet is100% reliable.

The reviewer feels the terminologyin this dictionary has been researchedfairly diligently, and that the editors’claim that the dictionary provides the

most common business terms for theU.S. appears to be quite appropriate.

I must admit, however, I did findentries I never heard of, nor do I agreewith some of them. In any event, thedictionary still provides good cov-erage, such as the following:

comfort letterBericht m über begrenzteAbschlussprüfung f;Verwaltungsschreiben n;Patronatserklärung f;Prüfungsbericht m (fürBörsenzulassungsstelle f)

truth in lending actGesetz zur wahrheitsgemäßenKreditkostenangabe (US-Konsumentenkreditgesetz)

arm’s length transactionGeschäft wie mit Außenstehenden,Transaktion zwischen rechtlichselbständigen Geschäftspartnern

Rückzahlungsrenditeyield-to-maturity (YTM)

Overall EvaluationFor the price and handiness of this

dictionary, it contains a fairly good selec-tion of terminology. I would not recom-mend it for in-depth studies, and themore advanced and experienced transla-tors might prefer other, more exhaustiveresources. But I can honestly say that ithas served me well on several occasionsto find the proper terminology to jog mymemory under time constraints.

Dictionary Review Boris [email protected]

Compiled by

Bruni Johnson has translation andinterpreting degrees from Germany and a U.S.associate’s degree in law. She has beentranslating and interpreting on a freelancebasis for 30 years. Contact:[email protected].


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Typically, we use quiteconventional criteria to compare theway languages sound. We say that onelanguage reminds us of another becauseboth have nasal sounds, or share conso-nant clusters or singsong patterns.Captain John Smith, the Virginiaexplorer of 17th-century fame, was aman of the world who must have beenaware of the general acoustic differ-ences between the more commonEuropean languages. Imagine his shockin 1608 upon exploring the northernChesapeake Bay and encountering theSusquehannock tribe, whose membersare very tall and related, both

ethnically and linguistically, to theHurons. Smith found the voices of themales to be deep. The sound was pro-duced from a different part of thelarynx than Europeans are used to,much farther down in the throat, sothat, to Smith and his men, the malesin the tribe sounded as if they werespeaking from inside a deep hollowplace. It was ultraguttural, to coin aword. Currently, some imagination isneeded to conjure up what such asound was like, and it is a pity that thishas been a Language of No DiffusionWhatever for close to 250 years now.

Sadly, we can only guess at the soundsthey made that so awed John Smith.

The Translation Inquirer John [email protected]

Da–DanishE–English[E]–Englishacceptable as ananswer; theoriginal query didnot involve EnglishF–French

G–GermanI–ItalianPo–PolishPt–PortugueseR–RussianRo–RomanianSp–SpanishSw–Swedish

Abbreviationsused with this column

New Queries(Da-E 8-07/1) In dealing with anti-cartel legislation, a ProZ user stum-bled over vedtagelse af en bøde for endomstol, and provided the following toaid in unraveling it: Hvis ansøgerenhar søgt om strafnedsættelse, vil sagenherefter kunne afsluttes med et bøde-forlæg eller en vedtagelse af en bødefor en domstol. Now, what is it?

(E-F 8-07/2) Ugh! If a reef is beingrestored to a more pristine state, thenwhat is to be made of cascading bene-fits to down-current areas? Use thecontext sentence to help with this one:One key area for research is to find outwhether localized restoration at scalesof hectares can cascade benefits todown-current areas at scales of tens ofhectares or square kilometers…thisrelates to the wider issue of the min-imum size needed for marine protectedareas to be expected. Probably half thedifficulty is in the breezy, trendy verb tocascade.

(E-Pt 8-07/3) As relates to computers,what would be good Portuguese for thicknetwork pipe? Obviously working byanalogy, whoever came up with this

computer term used it in this sentence:You’ll need to have a thick enough net-work pipe to transport the imageswithout negatively impacting operations.

(E-Ro 8-07/4) Septal motion proveddifficult for this ProZer trying to pro-duce a Romanian text. A definitionwas provided: Paradoxical septalmotion is considered to be a charac-teristic feature of total anomalous pul-monary venous drainage, reflectingthe right ventricular volume overloadin this condition. Patients with addi-tional pulmonary venous obstructionhave reduced pulmonary blood flow,and would be expected to show normalseptal motion. Is that enough context?

(G-E 8-07/5) In the world of technicalrequirements and speaker characteris-tics, what would Sinusbelastbarkeit be?Other characteristics includeMusikbelastbarkeit, Impedanz, andÜbertragungsbereich. A ProZ memberwants to know.

(G-R [E] 8-07/6) In a context of per-haps cathedral architecture, a ProZ userstumbled over Hallenchor as a refer-ence to a section of a building. The sen-

tence fragment providing the contextreads: Langhaus und dem weit höheren,spätgotischen Hallenchor. The term isprobably not unique to the buildingbeing described, so give it a try if youcan, either in English or Russian.

(I-F [E] 8-07/7) The eight words inbold in the following sentence in anengineering text caused a ProZer toseek help: CAPOTE PARASOLE convisiera a scomparsa e finestrella inrete per una perfetta aerazione. Whatis to be made of this phrase, either inFrench (the language that was origi-nally requested), or in English?

(Po-E 8-07/8) What, asks a ProZer,can we do with the medical term do∏ynadobojczykowe with a context expla-nation of termin by∏ cz´scia poprzed-niego mojego pytania, wiec podajetutaj osobno?

(Pt-E 8-07/9) In a marketing context,a ProZer stumbled over the abbrevia-tion “D.M.” in the following: Tambémrealizam corte e frisos em metacrílico,chapa de latão, P.V.C., e D.M., entreoutros. What is it?

´


(Sp-E 8-07/10) What is a canal dearrastre? A ProZ user found it in thissentence: Las análisis con los modelosreducidos en el canal de arrastreserán conducidas para estudiar,sobretodo, los apéndices, en especiallos fenómenos de interferencia. Whatkind of channel is it?

(Sw-E 8-07/11) Maybe some literarycreativity is called for in this ProZquery, where the meaning is known,but an optimal English equivalent isnot, for föredettingar, in the sentence:Putin försöker vinna stöd hos “före-dettingarna,” personer i ledandebefattningar under sovjetregimen.How can this be rendered?

Replies to Old Queries(E-G 6-07/1) (clear working days):Clayton Causey says these might refer todays in which one’s schedule is clearedof other obligations in order to dedicatethe entire day to one particular task.

(E-Sp 6-07/5) (construction of reli-gious identity): There are, says ClaytonCausey, two direct options in academicSpanish for this: la interpretación de laidentidad religiosa, or la explicación dela identidad religiosa. Perhaps, he says,the author might allow for la demar-cación de la identidad religiosa.Leonor Giudici likes la elaboración(creación) de una identidad religiosa.

(G-E 3-07/5) (Wer allerdings zu denSitzriesen zählt): Stephanie Martinwas discussing this with her husband,and his suggestion was that tall in thesaddle was a worthy English equiva-lent. Quite apropos, indeed! See page49 of the March 2007 issue for the fullcontext sentence to see if you agree.

(G-E 5-07/6) (Beanspruchungen): In thepast, John Kinory has used physicalstresses, impacts, and shocks for this.

(G-E 6-07/7) (OwiG): Eric Wilson sawthis query, went to Google, set his pref-erence for German entries, and punchedthe acronym in. What came up wasGesetz über Ordnungswidrigkeiten.Randall Condra and Peter Christensenagree. Ted Wozniak defines it as theAdministrative Offenses Act. Anothersuggestion by Barbara Müller-Grant isLaw Against Infringement of Police andAdministrative Regulations. Ordnungs-widrigkeit by itself means breach of anadministrative rule, administrativeoffense, or regulatory offense. JohnKinory defines it simply as misde-meanor, which is an offense that merits afine only.

(I-Sp [E] 6-07/9) (lubrorefrigerante):Might this refer, asks Clayton Causey,to a chemical that functions primarily asa refrigerant, but also has a lubricatingcomponent? If so, refrigerante lubri-cante would be accurate, and one mightconsider the possibility that a Spanishportmanteau word such as lubrirefriger-ante could convey the same idea.

(Po-E 6-07/10) (przewodnienie wjamah op∏uchnych): John Burek sug-gests water oversaturation in the lungcavities for this.

(Pt-E 3-07/9) (elubrações): ThaisSimoes says it means to meditate orponder about a subject. Her dictionarydefines it as meditação grave, cogi-tação profunda, trabalho paciente eprolongado. Maceio 96 uses let the catout of the bag for this.

(Pt-E 5-07/12) (se entregou):Alexandra de Vries and Haroldo andCharlotte Silva render it as to giveyourself away.

(Sp-E 6-07/12) (c.s.p.): Mercedes Guhlexplains that this is an abbreviation forclub social privado, an institution cre-

ated to allow social life to continue inBogotá beyond the city-mandatedcurfew of 1:00 a.m., which was passedby the city fathers in 1995. Card-car-rying members of a c.s.p. can stay aslong as the party continues, if they havepaid their dues. Perhaps such places arenot as badly needed in 2007 as theywere formerly, since a new ordinancehas pushed the legal closing time backto 3:00 a.m. again.

(Sp-E 6-07/13) (Soca y Fusión): Lots ofATA members knew the answer to thisone: Heather Oland, Clayton Causey,Peter Christensen, Leonor Giudici, andJohn Kinory, who helpfully breaksdown soca to be an abbreviation of souland calypso, a style that evolved inTrinidad. Webster’s New UniversalUnabridged Dictionary defines theformer as a style of Caribbean dancemusic derived from calypso andAmerican soul music and having apounding beat, and the latter as popularmusic that is a blend of two styles, espe-cially a combining of jazz with eitherrock, classical music, or such ethnic ele-ments as Brazilian or Japanese music.For the dictionary definitions we haveHeather Oland to thank.

Obviously, there will be no summerslump this time. Thanks to all!

This column is solely intended as a means of facili-tating a general discussion regarding terminology choices.For feedback regarding pressing terminology questions,please try one of these online forums: Lantra-L(www.geocities.com/athens/7110/lantra.htm),ProZ.com (www.proz.com), or Translators Café(http://translatorscafe.com).

Address your queries and responses to TheTranslation Inquirer, 112 Ardmoor Avenue, Danville,Pennsylvania 17821, or fax them to (570) 275-1477. E-mail address: [email protected]. Pleasemake your submissions by the first of each month tobe included in the next issue. Generous assistance fromPer Dohler, proofreader, is gratefully acknowledged.


A couple of years ago,the Metropolitan Opera in New Yorkpremiered a new production of Mozart’scomic opera Die Zauberflöte/TheMagic Flute, directed with spectacularvisual effects by Julie Taymor. Taymoris known for her previous fine work onStravinsky’s opera Oedipus Rex andon the movie Frida. She is alsoacclaimed for the stage version ofDisney’s The Lion King.

The Met’s production exists in twoversions: the complete opera in theoriginal German performed at theOpera House, and an abridged 100-minute “family friendly” English ver-sion that is performed at the OperaHouse and shown in movie theatersand on television. Both versions havereceived many effusively favorablereviews. I recently saw the televisedEnglish version. Despite the criticalacclaim, I believe the production is sobad that it effectively destroys theopera.

That The Magic Flute is a corner-

stone of the operatic repertory botherssome critics because, they say, thelibretto by Emanuel Schikaneder isridiculous. Why is Tamino in thecountry of the Queen of the Night?How can he fall in love with herdaughter Pamina just by looking at herportrait? Why does he switch his alle-giance from the Queen to her arch-enemy Sarastro so easily? Is Papagenoa man? A bird? Half and half? AndPapageno’s bells seem to be as impor-tant as Tamino’s flute—why does thetitle mention only the flute?

Furthermore, there is racism—apoint is made of the villainMonostatos being black. There is alsosexism—at times, Sarastro and his fol-lowers seem to hate the Queen simplybecause she is a woman.

And The Magic Flute is such an ill-made play! It ends not with one, butwith three separate climactic finales:Tamino and Pamina survive their trials,Papageno gets his Papagena, and theQueen of the Night and her minions arecursorily defeated.

Because of all this, some conven-tional wisdom states that only the glo-rious music and the cute costumes andscenery are worth paying attention to;the plot and characters are of noimportance. In this view, it is not onlyacceptable, but desirable to simplifythe plot and omit anything, frequentlyin the sung lyrics and always in thespoken dialogue, that contributes tocharacter development.

This is precisely what J. D.McClatchy’s English translation does.However, one of the reasons that TheMagic Flute works on the stage is that,despite some surface absurdities, it isnot nonsensical; its ambiguities andcontradictions have deep psycholog-ical resonance. In fact, one of thepoints of the opera is that the co-exis-tence of complementary opposites isnecessary for there to be healthy indi-viduals and a healthy social order.Among the opposites highlighted arelight and darkness, spiritual and phys-ical love, reason and intuition, andmale and female. And these opposites

Destroying The Magic Flute

[email protected] and Translation Mark Herman

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are embodied in characters, presentedthrough both words and music, whomthe audience genuinely cares about.But no one can care about the flattenedcharacters marching through the flat-tened plot in McClatchy’s translation, aversion which, ironically, actuallymakes far less sense than the originalopera.

McClatchy’s translation is alsotechnically incompetent, includingwords that are mis-accented whensung and using the word “now” overand over and over and over again as ametrical filler.

Contempt for the original libretto inthe Metropolitan Opera production issignaled at the very beginning: libret-tist Shikaneder’s name is omitted fromthe opening televised credits. Perhapsbecause the production was designedto be “family friendly,” racism andsexism are excluded. But not exactly.Monostatos is no longer black, andthere is no reference to his beingblack, but the Queen’s three ladies, her

evil henchwomen, are covered inblack hoods behind their inhumanwhite masks, and so appear to beblack. And while there is no sexism,there is sex, more than in the original!For example, in Act II, whenMonostatos is thwarted in his attemptto either kill or rape Pamina, he says ashe exits, “Jetzt such’ ich die Mutterauf, weil die Tochter mir nichtbeschieden ist. [Now I will seek outthe mother, since the daughter has notacquiesced to me.]” This statement isambiguous, but it is obvious from sub-sequent events that Monostatos is notseeking the mother to win her person-ally, but to obtain her help in winningthe daughter. McClatchy simplifies theline to the much more explicit, “If Ican’t have the daughter, I’ll go try themother.” But when Monostatos andthe Queen next appear, they are plot-ting, among other things, to givePamina to Monostatos as expected.

I do not believe it coincidental thatmany of the favorable reviewers of the

Met’s production consider the opera tobe meaningless, and expatiate at somelength over this notion. I fear that whenthe hoopla, mainly over Taymor’s spec-tacular costumes, puppets, and scenery,has died down, the critics will not rec-ognize that McClatchy’s translation isincompetent, but will use it to buttresstheir opinion that a good English trans-lation of an opera is impossible.

Herman is a librettist and translator. Submit itemsfor future columns via e-mail to [email protected] or via snail mail to Mark Herman, 1409E. Gaylord St., Mt. Pleasant, MI 48858-3626.Discussions of the translation of humor and examplesthereof are preferred, but humorous anecdotes abouttranslators, translations, and mistranslations are alsowelcome. Include copyright information and permis-sion if relevant.

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Conference FeaturesWith over 150 sessions covering a dozen languages and a variety of topics, the chance to see the latest software,publications, and products that fit your unique needs, and the opportunity to network with over 1,500 translatorsand interpreters from around the world, the ATA Annual Conference is an essential event, providing professionaldevelopment specifically for the translator and interpreter.

San Francisco Highlights Located between the San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean, San Francisco is renowned for its month-long episodes of fog, steep rolling hills, and eclectic mix of Victorian and modern architecture. You won't want to missthe sun setting behind the Golden Gate Bridge, the diversity of its neighborhoods, a cable-car ride over Nob Hill,or visits to Alcatraz, Fisherman's Wharf, Ghirardelli Square, and Coit Tower.

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48th Annual ConferenceHyatt Regency San Francisco, California October 31-November 3, 2007

Don’t miss this opportunity to network, meet newcomers

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