Finding and working with premium clients - Chris Durban's talk

So many people turned up to hear Chris Durban speak at Aston University on Friday that we had to find extra chairs. 

Chris was inspiring, funny and full of practical ideas. She set about countering the bulk, price-driven view of the translation market with a vision of hundreds of different translation markets, including in particular one in which premium clients care passionately about their businesses and their texts and are prepared to invest time, effort and money in ensuring that they are translated well - by translators who speak their language, understand their context and write exceptionally well.
There will be a full write-up of Chris's talk in the May-June issue of  the ITI bulletin.
Anyone interested in buying her book, The Prosperous Translator, will find it on the Lulu site.

The WMG will miss Anne Hulme

Anne Hulme was an active member of both the WMG and the NWTN for whom she set up the first website - she was a formidable technician even in the early days of CAT tools etc. Highly regarded as a technical translator from German and French into English, her soft spoken, unassuming manner belied her respected authority as a translator. Moreover, Anne was always ready to use her wealth of translation knowledge and experience to help new translators, by whom she will be remembered as an unusually sympathetic and supportive source of advice and encouragement.

In her personal life, Anne was a keen walker and cyclist who not only completed cycling feats few of us could aspire to, but achieved the kind of healthy work-life balance most of us long for. She was, above all, a thoughtful, perceptive and kind person with a gentle, but lively sense of humour at the right moments.

Anne was all these things to those of us who were fortunate enough to know her during her lifetime and lives on as such in our memories of her.

Jean Darvill

Chris Durban comes to Birmingham!

Fantastic news for WMG members - Chris Durban is giving a talk to WMG members and Aston students at Aston University on Friday 30th March (3-5.30 pm) on "Finding work with premium clients: the pleasure of getting your hands dirty". See our Events page for more details and let Jean know this week if you're interested.

Workshops and AGM planned for 27th April

We are holding two workshops and our AGM on Friday 27 April at Aston University, followed by a meal at Browns near the Bullring in the city centre. The afternoon workshop is free to WMG members.

You can book for the workshops separately or come to both and make a day of it. The morning workshop is on financial translation and will be led by Javier Gill. The afternoon workshop features a talk on ''The widespread and increasing use of controlled or simplified versions of English by technical writers and translators", given by Dr Stephen Crabbe from Portsmouth, and a demonstration of Trados software by Charlie Gobbett.

Please see our Events page for further details.

Walk photos

Many thanks to Mike Hanson for a beautiful snowy walk around Bewdley last Saturday. Please click on the Photos tab to see more pictures.

Winter Walk and Meal – Saturday 4 Feb 2012

This year's winter walk will be in and around Bewdley, a former inland port on the River Severn with a rich history and some attractive waterfronts.
See http://www.bewdley.org.uk for further details.

As usual there will be an afternoon walk (5 miles) and an early evening pub meal, but this year I am asking those coming to the pub meal to give me a firm booking for this, independently of the walk, in case it has to be cancelled due to poor weather. Payment can be made on the day. The meal will be at 5.30pm at the Running Horse Inn on the A456 near Bewdley – see

http://www.chefandbrewer.com/pub-food/running-horse-inn-bewdley/pid-P1474

for details of the menu and location. I’ve made a provisional booking for 15 people – last booking date for the meal will be Tuesday 31 January.

For the walk, meet at the Blackstone Picnic Site off the A456 Bewdley by-pass, from 1.15pm onwards for a 1.30pm start. It is well signposted. SatNav users note – postcode DY12 1PU will take you close to it but probably not all the way there, so best to do the last mile from the roadsigns. Coming from Kidderminster, once you have passed the West Midlands safari park to the left of the A456, take the first exit at the next roundabout (signposted A456 Leominster), go straight through the traffic lights after about a mile, and the picnic site is then immediately on the right.

Everyone is welcome but as a reminder, please note that participants should consider themselves to be on a private excursion - neither the organiser nor the WMG can accept any liability for accidents or injuries sustained by those involved.

Organiser: Mike Hanson

Email: mike@mikehansontranslations.co.uk / mike.hanson@zen.co.uk

Mobile: 07941-389990

Translating business film material

A joint workshop held by Aston University and the WMG on Saturday 10 December 2011 at Aston University

                         

 

Business as usual? Far from it. This workshop led by Dr Jean-Pierre Mailhac from Manchester, who trains professional translators and postgraduate students in various European countries and carries out research in applied translation studies, was exceptionally enlightening, engaging and entertaining. Throughout the day the seven postgraduate students and nine professional translators and interpreters were guided by Jean-Pierre, who has himself translated, recorded and supervised recordings of film material for a wide range of companies over the last 20 years ,through the problems and pitfalls of translating and recording business films.

The theoretical part comprised a detailed description of a pressured environment in which translators must first prepare a reasonable quote, then juggle the demands of a complex translation context in which they have to create, condense and synchronise the spoken target text with the film. Moreover, they have to do justice to a wide variety of features peculiar to the AV context, including: meaningful accents, dialects and intonation, wordplay and cultural dimensions. The presentation was enlivened by some amusing anecdotes of ruffled corporate cool, sound engineers' frustrations and mismatches between the translated text and the film material: 'the difficulty of finding the right product' as a commentary for a scene in which a lady effortlessly lifts a tin of baked beans from the shelves. In practical exercises we wrestled with problems such as recognising and conveying pronunciation, alliteration, assonance (Waggle/Busy/Buddy) and wordplay in several 5-7 minute films, covering anything from publicity for the Euro (nice one!), to hedge trimmers that were a 'cut above the rest'.

My thanks to both Jean-Pierre and Christina Schäffner of Aston University for presenting and organising the workshop, also to all those professionals and students who attended and helped make this a most instructive and enjoyable day.

Jean Darvill 13 December 2011

Photos of Translation Workshop

Photos of the ITI Translation Workshop and trip to Bournville are now on our Photos page. Many thanks to Charlie Gobbett, Aileen Cowan and Alan Mendy for the photos!

ITI Translation Workshop in Birmingham


ITI's Translation Workshop is being hosted by the WMG and Aston University in Birmingham on Saturday 15th October 2011. Come and tackle a range of interesting texts in language groups, meet fellow translators, share ideas and learn new approaches.


Why not make a weekend of it and join us for a visit to Bournville and the Selly Manor Museum on Sunday 16th October? To register your interest in either of these events, please complete the relevant sections of the booking form on the ITI website at www.iti.org.uk (click on Events - ITI).