Training for Translators

Classes for translators and interpreters

Announcements


Corinne McKay

Web 2.0 presentation in Paris in March

If you attended the ATA conference in New York this past October, you may have seen Eve Bodeux, Michael Wahlster and I present “Web 2.0 for translation industry professionals,” in which we talked about how to use LinkedIn, Facebook, blogs, podcasts and Twitter for business purposes.

Eve and I (both French to English translators) are very excited that the Société Française des Traducteurs has offered us the opportunity to present a similar workshop (but this time it will be a day long!) entitled Web 2.0 pour traducteurs : optimiser votre utilisation des médias sociaux… which will take place in Paris on March 13. We’ll be presenting in French and covering social networking sites and strategies for Europe-based translators too. Hope to see some Thoughts on Translation readers there!


Corinne McKay

Name the new ATA client outreach newsletter

The American Translators Association has just announced a naming contest for the new translation client outreach newsletter. The winner receives free registration to the 2010 ATA annual conference in Denver and an acknowledgement in the first issue… go for it! Here’s the text from the ATA announcement:
Calling All Wordsmiths: Name ATA’s New Client Newsletter and Win Free Registration to Denver Conference

In early 2010, ATA will launch a complimentary e-newsletter designed for consumers of translation and interpreting. Building on the success of Getting It Right and Translation: Buying a non-commodity, this new publication is expected to appear four to six times a year and will be available by subscription and on ATA’s website. Each issue will feature practical tips and best practices on a specific aspect of translation or interpreting – planning ahead, listening to your linguist, budgeting wisely and using computer translation tools safely, to name just a few.

Like ATA’s Client Outreach Kit, the newsletter is designed to score a triple win, benefiting you, your clients, and the translation and interpreting profession as a whole.

By offering lively, accessible content to current and prospective clients, the newsletter will make the profession more visible and help consumers avoid common pitfalls, leading to more successful translation and interpreting projects for all involved. Over time, you’ll benefit from a more sophisticated clientele—and you’ll be able to use the newsletter right away to strengthen your position in working with your clients. (“As a matter of fact, the American Translators Association just published a newsletter on this very point. Let me e-mail you that PDF: it’s only one page, it’s very readable, and it may help solve our problem.”)

Sound good? It gets better: put on your thinking cap, come up with a suitable name for this exciting new publication and you could win free registration to ATA’s annual conference in Denver.

Here’s how to enter:

The contest: From December 16 to January 15, ATA will hold a contest to name the new client outreach newsletter.

The goal: The ideal name will be clever, punchy and memorable.

The prize: The winner will receive free registration to ATA’s 51st Annual Conference, slated for October 27-30, 2010 in Denver. The winner will also be acknowledged in the first issue of the newsletter and at the Annual Meeting of All Members in Denver.

The deadline: Entries must be received no later than midnight Eastern Standard Time on Friday, January 15. ATA reserves the right to extend the contest deadline. Send entries to pr@atanet.org or to ATA at 225 Reinekers Lane, Suite 590, Alexandria, VA 22314.

The competition: Any member of ATA may enter. You may submit as many entries as you like.

The fine print: No late entries will be accepted. If multiple entrants propose the same winning title, the earliest-dated entry will win. ATA will have sole discretion in naming the client outreach newsletter and is under no obligation to select any of the entries received. All entries become the property of ATA. The winner will receive no compensation other than acknowledgement in the first issue of the newsletter.


Corinne McKay

Off to ATA

This year’s annual conference of the American Translators Association promises to be a record-breaker, with about 2,200 attendees expected. I’m really looking forward to attending the French sessions, and Eve Bodeux, Michael Wahlster and I will be presenting “Web 2.0 for Translation Industry Professionals” at 2PM on Friday. Eve will be covering social media etiquette, LinkedIn and Facebook, I’ll be covering blogs and podcasts and Michael will be covering Twitter; we’re packing a lot of information into an hour and a half! I’m hoping to be able to do some short posts from the conference, but if not, I’ll post a general wrapup here next week. Hope to see many of you there!


Corinne McKay

Termium is now free

The Canadian government has long maintained an excellent terminology resource called the Termium; it’s primarily in French and English, but also includes a Spanish section. Access to the Termium used to be by subscription only but with the launch of Canada’s new Language Portal, it’s now free (our favorite price!). With close to four million French and English terms and over 200,000 Spanish terms, this is a resource worth investigating if you haven’t already. Happy searching!


Corinne McKay

Episode 5 of Speaking of Translation

My colleague Eve Bodeux just released the fifth episode of our podcast Speaking of Translation. It’s entitled “Leverage payment methods to keep the most money in your own pocket,” and we talk about the advantages and disadvantages of getting paid by check, ACH, wire transfer, PayPal and international currency transfer companies. The podcast site is set up so that you can either listen right from the site without downloading anything, or you can download the audio file to your computer or mp3 player and listen at your leisure. We’ve also added a new feature (can you tell that we secretly want to be NPR hosts?), you can call and leave a message on our comment line, 720-279-4738. Feel free to give us your feedback, suggest a topic for a future episode or ask a question that we can answer on the air! Happy listening!