ITI Conference 2011

Archive for December, 2010

Has your business bought you a present for Christmas yet? An upgrade for your translation memory software, perhaps, or the latest edition of your favourite dictionary?

Well if not, now is the perfect time for your business to treat you to a ticket to the next ITI Conference, taking place in Birmingham on 7 & 8 May 2011. CPD – or continuing professional development – is a key way of demonstrating to your clients that you are serious about the work you do for them. And there aren’t many more fun ways of doing CPD than attending a conference that is aimed directly at you!

So while you are busy sending the Christmas cards out to your clients, consider this – wouldn’t they rather have the peace of mind of knowing that you have invested wisely in your professional development?  Don’t forget, you might be able to deduct some or all of your conference fees from your income on your tax bill, as a legitimate business expense. So go ahead and have your business treat you to an extra special Christmas present!

Click to open our Bookings page.

Welcome to the website for the ITI 25th Anniversary Conference 2011, to be held in Birmingham at the NEC Gallery on 7 & 8 May 2011. Our draft agenda has now been published and can be viewed online or downloaded in PDF format.

Our 25th Anniversary Conference is sponsored by MFL Professional Partnerships, and by Kilgray.

ITI is offering current or immediate past MA/MSc students the opportunity to present a poster session at the Institute’s 25^th anniversary conference in Birmingham, 7-8 May 2011.

The poster session may be based on work you have done in connection with your translation and/or interpreting course, dissertation or project or on an aspect of translation and/or interpreting work that particularly interests you.

The aim of the poster sessions is to enable practising translators and interpreters to learn about ongoing research and study as part of MA/MSc courses and to give grant recipients an opportunity to meet and network with practising and established translators and interpreters.

The conference is being held at the NEC Galleries, Birmingham, which offers good road, rail and air connections.

If you would like to present your poster, please send an e-mail to education@iti.org.uk with:

Your name, university, and university department

Year of study

Title of your poster session and a short outline of the content (max 300 words)

Your daytime telephone number, email and postal address

Final date for submissions: 15 February 2011

We will select a maximum of four dissertations. We would like to include both translation and interpreting topics.

If you are selected to take part, you will be required to:

• produce and set up a poster display illustrating your research (for tips, Google ‘poster session’ or see http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/speaking/poster/ )
• be available to discuss it with conference participants
• give an 8-minute presentation in a conference session organised for this purpose
• write a short article for ITI Bulletin.

You will receive £100 towards your travel, materials and expenses, and free registration for the conference day when you are presenting.

The platform presentation is scheduled for the pre-lunch session on Sunday, 8 May 2010.

More information on the 2011 Conference is available at:

http://www.iti-conference.org.uk/conference-2011/

ITI Education & Training Committee

Andy Walker has been working as a freelance translator and interpreter since 1997 and is also Senior Lecturer in Translation Technology at Roehampton University.

Being able to find and check (often obscure) terminology and locate background information on the Internet is an essential skill for a translator. Google, Yahoo and other search engines have a number of features to allow searchers to define their searches in order to achieve better results and thereby speed up the process of translating. This may involve broadening the search to capture a wider range of information or narrowing it down to eliminate as much non-relevant material as possible.

This presentation will explore some of the less-used features of the major search engines to demonstrate some inventive ways to find translation- and language-related information on the Internet. We will be looking, for example, at how to search for something within a specific website or how to search the KudoZ glossaries on simultaneously for a particular term.

Note-taking: an evaluation of skills transfer between conference interpreting and public service interpreting

There is a wealth of research and several well-known publications on note-taking for conference interpreting.  Research in this field is almost as old as the discipline itself and the area of consecutive interpreting in the conference arena is extensively covered. As far as research or publications on note-taking for public service interpreters is concerned, however, there is very little available. Existing conference interpreter documentation does not, in its current form, deal with the topic areas relevant to public service interpreting or the techniques which may be applicable to public service interpreter note-taking.

Kirsty Heimerl-Moggan’s research analyses the underlying ideas and systems used in note-taking for conference interpreting and their applicability, once adapted, to public service interpreter needs. She will be reporting on her studies into adapted public service interpreter note-taking and considering student performance pre- and post the adapted-note-taking study. Her research focuses on public service interpreting students, conference interpreting students and those combining both careers paths.

Kirsty will be drawing on her observations and analysis of her conference and public service interpreting students over the last 12 years.

Kirsty Heimerl-Moggan is a Senior Lecturer and Course Leader in Conference Interpreting at the University of Central Lancashire and a Public Service Interpreter Trainer for Interp-Right Training Consultancy Ltd. She combines her lecturing and teaching with her work as a high-level freelance conference interpreter and public service interpreter. She is the co-author of the publication Note-taking for Public Service Interpreters.

Jérôme Devaux is a Senior Tutor at the University of Salford and a Public Service Interpreter Trainer for Interp-Right Training Consultancy Ltd. He has worked as an interpreter at the highest level in both the conference and the public service fields, whilst continuing to teach aspiring interpreters in both areas. He is about to publish a book on interpreting exercises compiled with his co-presenter.

Kirsty and Jerome’s workshop follows on from the presentation on note-taking and will be a fun interactive session for anyone who would like to find out more about this useful skill or would like to improve their existing knowledge.

An essential skill for any interpreter is the retention of information. A great deal of emphasis in interpreter training is placed on memory skills enhancement and such skills are deemed the most appropriate in the interpretation of short interventions. Note-taking, however, can be a very useful additional skill especially when interventions are longer, require retention of specific details or are difficult to follow.

Although every interpreter’s note-taking is very individual, there are some underlying notions which help any interpreter develop their individual set of notes.

During this session the presenters will give an introduction to these skills and participants will then have the opportunity to start developing their own set of symbols on specific topics on the basis of the information provided.

This session will look at the various difficulties encountered when legislation crops up in non-legal and legal contexts. Questions might include 1) how do I translate legislation that has not been translated before; 2) how do I deal with legislation that has been translated before, but I disagree with the translation; and 3) how do I deal with a source text that makes reference to a specific aspect of legislation (a nuance or ambiguity) that is not present in the target language version of that legislation? The session will be led by Richard Delaney.

Richard is fully bilingual, having grown up and being educated in both Germany and England. Following a BA from Edinburgh University and a Diploma in Law from BPP Law School, London, he was called to the Bar of England and Wales at Lincoln’s Inn.

After a year working in the German offices of the English Law Firm Travers Smith, he started working as a legal translator, and qualified as a Business Translator at the Berlin Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK Wirtschaftsübersetzer), and is a full member of the German professional translators’ association, the BDÜ http://www.bdue.de/. He also studied for and obtained a Diploma in Arbitration from University College Dublin, and is a full member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators http://www.ciarb.org/.

Alongside his translation work, he worked as a freelance advocate and appeared in County Courts across England and Wales, predominantly in London and the East Anglia area, and also qualified as a mediator.

Since 2008 he has been involved in organising and teaching an MA in Legal Translation at City University, London http://www.city.ac.uk/translation/staff/richard-delaney.html.

As an experienced translator and lecturer, and with his legal background, his first and foremost aim is to ensure the absolute accuracy of any given translation, while aiming to also provide an idiomatic rendering where possible.

Publications and conferences:

• A translator’s liability; published in the ITI Bulletin, May-June 2009
• Specialising in legal translation – City University’s MA in Legal Translation as a case study; paper given at the conference “Interpreting the Future” in Berlin, 11 -13 September 2009, published in Tagungsband – Übersetzen in die Zukunft, edited by W. Baur, S. Kalina, F. Mayer, J. Witzel, Berlin, 2009, ISBN 9783938430248
• The Translator’s Copyright; paper given at the The Translator as Writer- 2009 Portsmouth Translation Conference, 7 November 2009, published in The Changing Face of Translation, Proceedings of the ninth annual Portsmouth Translation Conference held on 7 November 2009, edited by by Ian Kemble, Portsmouth, 2010, ISBN9781861376169
• Legal Translation in Theory & Practice; Fifth Conference on Legal Translation, Court Interpreting and Comparative Legi-Linguistics. Not yet published

Memberships:

Bundesverband der Dolmetscher und Übersetzer e.V.

The Bar of England and Wales

Lincoln’s Inn

The Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (MCIArb)

The Chartered Institute of Linguists (MCIL)

Council member of the ITI

Terence Oliver (65) grew up and went to school in southeast England. After gaining a joint BA in German and Geology from Keele University in 1967, he spent a short spell in teaching and two years as a COBOL programmer. He has lived and worked in Germany since 1971, when he joined Unilever Germany as a staff translator, later becoming head of the Translation Department. Since 1984 he has worked as a freelance technical translator (German–English), covering a wide range of business and technical content with an increasing focus on the law and technology of environmental issues. A member of BDÜ since 1980 and of ADÜ Nord since its founding in 1997, he served as chairman of the latter from 2001 to 2005. He was a member of the German mirror committee for European Standard EN 15038 and a delegate to ISO Technical Committee TC37/SC2, working group WG6 on translating and interpreting. He was elected to the Steering Committee of FIT Europe (Regional Centre Europe) in 2002 and was its secretary from 2005 to 2008. He no longer holds any honorary offices, and is now focusing – with little success to date – on his latest project of “phasing himself out”. He is presenting a session entitled Translators are Human.

Translators are human

This is both their greatest strength and their greatest weakness.

What implications does this realisation have, or should it have, for the way we approach our work? How can we counteract our human failings and exploit our human advantages to the full? This is not just a matter of: “We make mistakes, translation memory perpetuates them”. It extends far beyond core translating skills to include communication with clients, agencies, colleagues and others, the need for continuous upgrading in the sense of life-long learning, problems with organising and mobilising knowledge, and many other fields. It can even affect our attitude to our profession and its status: Do we hide behind our computers, phones and e-mail, or do we take a proactive stance in our dealings with the outside world?

Taking a fresh and wide-ranging look at what makes human translators their own worst enemy, this talk seeks to provide practical and pragmatic solutions to a number of familiar everyday problems by raising awareness of how the problems arise in the first place. This session is presented by Terry Oliver.

In the world of professional translation getting an MA is something akin to getting a first driving license – you may know the theory but you are not yet a proficient practitioner.

Sarah Griffin-Mason, Vice-Chair of the ITI Education and Training Committee will provide a low-down on some of the available post-MA translator training that can help you gain the competitive edge and compete professionally in a burgeoning market-place.

This session will discuss many types of valuable training available to language providers from sources including on-line translator forums, commercial providers, the ITI and other professional associations. The aim is to provide you with:

• an overview of the types of training available
• suggestions for complementary skills for portfolio working – teaching, revising, editing, writing
• suggestions on how to improve your writing, productivity and list of contacts.

There will be a short discussion session aimed mainly at freelancers seeking guidance in uncharted waters.

Emotional Intelligence is generally defined as a set of competencies demonstrating the ability one has to recognize his or her behaviours, moods, and impulses, and to manage them best according to the situation at hand.

Typically, “emotional intelligence” is considered to involve emotional empathy, attention to -and discrimination of- one’s emotions; accurate recognition of others’ moods; response with appropriate emotions and behaviours in various life situations, especially to stress and difficult situations; and possession of good social skills and communication skills.

Arguably, competent translators and interpreters also need to possess these skills in order to mediate effectively between cultures, to understand a client’s needs and expectations, and to communicate someone’s message in a successful way. Being able to recognize what other people feel, and finding ways to handle and transfer these perspectives seems absolutely necessary for successful translation and interpreting performances in today’s globalized and competitive market.

So what place should be given to emotional intelligence in the translator’s/interpreter’s workplace, if any? And how can translator and interpreter professionals learn to behave in more emotionally intelligent ways in this competitive and increasingly technological industry, where face to face interactions are becoming a thing of the past?

This session will be interactive, enabling delegates to participate in the discussion and share experiences.  It is presented by Séverine Hubscher-Davidson.

Séverine Hubscher-Davidson is lecturer in Translation Studies at Aston University, England, where she teaches translation and interpreting theory and practice. She has received her Ph.D. from the University of Bath and her research interests include translators’ personalities, the translation process and translation pedagogy. She has organised short courses for professional translators and interpreters, including UK government linguists, and has published in a number of TS journals. She is also a practicing translator.

Séverine is presenting a session entitled Emotional Intelligence in the Translator/Interpreter Workplace.