Esther Diaz has been tapped to deliver the keynote address for the Medical Friday and TAPIT Conference, to be held on September 12–14 in Nashville.

Sponsored by the Tennessee Association of Professional Interpreters and Translators (TAPIT), the three-day conference will offer practical, actionable tools for judiciary, medical, and community interpreters and translators.

Diaz will also speak on “Women’s Health, the Digestive System, Medical Terminology” and “National Certification: Where do we stand?” Other topics include the following:

• Interpreting for Children in Medical, Forensic and Legal Settings
• General English-Spanish Terminology for Immigration Matters
• Interpreting for the Deaf from Other Countries
• Expert Testimony on Tape Transcription and Translation
• Best Business Practices and more!
• Intonation Patterns
• Phone Interpretation

The TAPIT website has complete Medical Friday and TAPIT Conference information.

Hear about life as an interpreter with the US Military forces in Iraq as Mohaned Saddawi shares his personal experiences and answer questions from the audience at the August meeting of AATIA’s Interpreter Special Interest Group.

Light refreshments will be provided at the meeting, to be held 1:00–3:00 p.m. on Saturday, August 9, at the International Center of Austin (201 East 2nd Street). On-street parking is available. Meters are free on Saturday.

Registration is now open for the Tools for Translators workshop, to be held on Saturday, September 6th.  This all-day, two-part workshop, presented by translator Jost Zetzsche, will offer expert advice on which software tools you’ll need to save time and boost your productivity, the best way to use these tools, and which popular tools you can do without.

The morning session will provide general information on how to get the most out of your computer, while the afternoon session will focus on specific translation environment tools (TEnTs), such as Trados and Déjà Vu. Participants may attend just one session or both. ATA-certified participants will earn three continuing education points per session.

In addition to working as a translator and a localization consultant, Jost Zetzsche publishes The Tool Kit, a biweekly computer newsletter for translators, and is the author of The Translator’s Tool Box: A Computer Primer for Translators. He has given similar workshops to translator groups all around the country, always to rave reviews. Most recently, Jost was one of the presenters at the ATA Translation Tools Seminar in Boston. For those who missed that event, this is your chance to get the same information right here in Texas - at significantly lower cost!

Don’t miss this opportunity! Download a flyer for more information and sign up today!

Questions? Contact AATIA Workshops Coordinator Laura Vlasman.

At the July membership meeting AATIA President Michael Blumenthal welcomed Jonathan Cole to the Board of Directors as Interim Director of Finance and thanked outgoing board member Al Favela for his years of service as Finance Director.

Approximately 50 members and guests attended the meeting, which featured Marianne Martinez, International Program Coordinator for the City of Austin, who gave a fascinating presentation on the Sister Cities program housed at the International Center of Austin.  The concept of International Sister Cities, the umbrella program, was first introduced by President Eisenhower to build international relationships and promote global exchange. 

Austin has ten Sister Cities: Adelaide, Australia; Koblenz, Germany; Lima, Peru; Maseru, Lesotho; Oita, Japan; Saltillo, Mexico; Taichung, Taiwan; Xishuangbann, China; Old Orlu, Nigeria; and Gwangmyeong, Korea.

Secretary Julie Nordskog introduced Nominating Committee members Carlota Grimes (Chair), Marco Hansen, and Carolina Modesto. She also encouraged members to contact a committee member or herself in order to run and/or suggest candidates for the 2009 Board of Directors.  The deadline for nominations is August 15.

With the Beijing Olympics fast approaching, it might be instructive to look at machine translation with a cynical eye once again. The folks at Google Blogoscoped used Google and Babelfish to translate a few Garfield panels from English into Chinese, then back into English. Some of the panels may seem funnier than the originals, but they graphically illustrate the risk of not using human translators.

In honor of International Translation Day 2008, the Houston Interpreters and Translators Association (HITA) will host a conference for interpreters and translators on September 27 in Houston. The theme of the conference, chosen by the International Federation of Translators (FIT) for the this year’s International Translation Day, will be "Terminology: Words Matter."

Professionals from various fields – including law, education, and health care – will present on topics related to the use of specialized terminology in their given fields. Participants will receive glossaries of specialized terminology from each session.

The event will kick off with a reception/networking session on the evening of September 26. Find more information and register for the conference on the HITA website. Questions?  Contact HITA Director of Professional Development Jorge Ungo.

Well, not exactly, but I wanted to mention Electropedia, the "world’s most comprehensive online electrical and electronic terminology database containing more than 20 000 terms and definitions in English and French organized by subject area, with equivalent terms in various other languages: Arabic, Chinese, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Polish, Russian, Spanish and Swedish".

Here is a sample entry (note that not all entries are available in every language):

EN
    printed circuit     
    this term is in common use with at least three meanings:
a) a generic term to describe a certain technique
b) circuit obtained by printing and comprising printed components, printed wiring, or a combination thereof, all formed in a predetermined design in, or attached to, a surface or surfaces of a common base
c) circuit obtained by printing and comprising printed wiring and conventional components, all arranged in a predetermined design in, or attached to, a surface or surfaces of a common base     
FR
    circuit imprimé     
    terme généralement utilisé avec trois significations possibles au moins:
a) terme générique pour décrire une certaine technique
b) circuit réalisé par impression, comprenant des composants imprimés, un câblage imprimé, ou une combinaison des deux, le tout formé selon un dessin préétabli ou rapporté sur la ou les surface(s) d’un support commun
c) circuit réalisé par impression, comprenant un câblage imprimé et des composants conventionnels, le tout disposé selon un dessin préétabli ou rapporté sur la ou les surface(s) d’un support commun     
DE
    gedruckte Schaltung    
ES
    circuito impreso     
IT
    Circuito stampato     
SV
    tryckta kretsar

Electropedia is published by the International Electrotechnical Commission.

Today’s Wall Street Journal gives a glowing review of Marian Schwartz’s translation of White Guard, the first novel by Mikhail Bulgakov (1891–1940), famed Soviet-era author best known for Master and Margarita.

Written in the 1920s, White Guard focuses on the household of Dr. Alexei Tuchin, his sister and brother, and assorted military officers and friends.

The unnamed urban locality at the novel’s center is clearly Kiev a year after the Bolsheviks seized power.

The remains of the Russian Empire are in turmoil, none more so than Ukraine, where the civil war is raging with particular ferocity. No fewer than 18 different regimes — led by Germans, Poles, Ukrainian nationalists, monarchists known as the Whites and the Bolsheviks themselves — will eventually claim control of Kiev, lifting their banners over the ancient city.

With this edition of White Guard, translator Marian Schwartz has done a handsome job of matching Bulgakov’s rich Russian vocabulary and attention to meticulous detail.