ITI conference 2013
Saturday, 18 May 2013, 6.40am. I check my phone and notice
I’ve got a voicemail. Bärbel has called me to tell me she slept in and doesn’t know
when she will be there to pick me up. I am only surprised because she left the
message an hour ago! Five minutes later she is there and I remind her that we
wanted to meet at 6.45am rather than 5.45am. All is well. Deep breath and off we go to London.
8.00am - A light is flashing on the dashboard. I am put in
charge of figuring out how far one can go with a deflated tyre. An impressive
280km we learn from the car manual, and decide to stop at the next petrol
station.
8.10am - We have stopped. Bärbel is checking the tyres,
being careful not to get her white (!) trousers dirty. I am also in nicer
clothes than my usual jeans and t-shirt; we are on our way to a conference after
all. But I am a useless bystander here and I am deeply impressed – Bärbel puts air
in her tyres all by herself!!! To this day I am not even capable of getting petrol
on my own.
On the dot of 9.00am we are entering the hotel – right on
time! We are very proud of ourselves. I go to check in and discover that a
double room is not a room with two beds, but one with a bigger single bed. And
I had changed the reservation from twin (since I thought twin meant narrow) to
double. The concierge is Hungarian and deeply amused about the linguistic
confusion. I am rather embarrassed that my years in America have confused my
sense of bed sizes. In the end we get a room with two beds. Hurray!
And this is where the
adventure stops – or begins, depending on how you look at it. No more
misunderstandings, accidents or confusions! Just an incredibly well organized conference with loads of interesting
talks, incredible food and a fringe programme that exceeded all expectations.
For me, the keynote speech by Jost
Zetzsche was a particular joy because he highlighted the importance of getting
the word out that languages matter, that translation matters, that
communication matters and that without translators and interpreters
communication would be very difficult indeed.
And it is up to us to promote this message to the world to enhance the
image of our profession and thus of ourselves.
The talks I attended, regardless of whether they focused on
translation technology, the debate about whether machine translation is bad,
will replace us or will continue to be a tool that cannot match the human
translator, or whether they focused on our own professional development and
training, complemented this main message in a very rounded and sophisticated
way. Yes, we patted ourselves on the back and were proud to be entrepreneurs,
translators and interpreters. At the same time, we learned how we can improve
ourselves to become (or remain) more successful.
The offers “on the side” included having your professional
picture taken (check out my homepage to see whether you like the result),
attend yoga sessions (fantastic and relaxing), learn how to line-dance (which I
thought was a great response to the European Song Contest, which also took
place that night) and join the impromptu choir of translators, led by Gillian Hargreaves
and her partner Neil Brinkworth. The
various networks also had the chance to meet and the atmosphere was in general
very personal and friendly. I was not just proud to be a professional
translator, I was also happy to belong to this wonderful group of colleagues
who know how to work hard and how to have fun. What better balance could one
ask for?
I know for sure that I will be at the next ITI conference-
and if Bärbel is driving, we will get there safely with lots of laughter and
possibly a little adventure on the side.
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