Don’t miss this opportunity to learn how to use Wordfast, a computer-assisted translation (CAT) tool compatible with Trados and most other CAT tools. Certified Wordfast trainer Paul Makinen will present an all-day workshop designed to cover all the essential features of the program and get people up and running as quickly as possible.

The workshop, on Saturday, July 26th, will be taught in a highly interactive, informal way — something along the lines of a Wordfast “install party,” with attendees following along on their own computers. Workshop participants who sign up in advance (by e-mailing workshop registrar Gisela Greenlee) will have the opportunity to purchase Wordfast at a 25% discount.

Download a flyer and registration form for more information. Space is limited to 12, so don’t delay! Questions? Contact Maurine McLean.

Didn’t make the Business Basics workshop with Ted Wozniak? Read this review by AATIA member Cecilia Berrios and find out what you missed. Berrios is currently employed as a policy analyst for a state agency and has recently launched a second career as a freelance Spanish-English translator.

Wozniak covers the basics: a review by Cecilia Berrios

A great overview of how to operate a translation business was recently addressed at a workshop titled, “Business Basics for Freelancers.” Sponsored by AATIA, the workshop was held on June 14 at the International Center of Austin. As a newcomer to the translation profession, I found the training most helpful. Running a successful translation business takes more than just having expertise in your language pair(s)!

The training was presented by Ted Wozniak, who maintains that operating an effective translation business involves learning how to establish a “business presence,” advertising, finding work, getting paid, keeping tax records, bookkeeping, among other useful topics.

Other comments from workshop participants:

"Very useful!"

"Everything was important to know or to review."

"I am a beginner and found it to be very useful."

"Very reasonable price for the content, quality and presentation style."

AATIA will offer two more great workshops in the coming months: Wordfast training with Paul Makinen on July 26th and Translation Tools with Jost Zetzsche on September 6th. Watch this space for details!

The City of Austin will host a Small & Minority Business Resources “Certification 101 Workshop” on Wednesday, July 9th, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m., at 625 E. 10th Street, Room 105.

• Find out more about the requirements and benefits of obtaining your Minority-Owned Business Enterprise and/or Women-Owned Business Enterprise Certification (MBE/WBE) through the City of Austin Procurement Program.
• Learn about Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Certification
• Work with the City’s Vendor Registration Department to add or update your information on the Vendor Registration System.

“In addition to becoming certified for City minority and women-owned business procurement opportunities, Small & Minority Business Resources can help businesses with certification as a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise, used in federal transportation and aviation projects, as well as the Historically Underutilized Business Program, which encompasses the state of Texas procurement opportunities,” said SMBR Director Stephen Elkins.

RSVP to Blender Hill at 512.974.7677.

Marianne Martinez of the Austin Sister Cities program will be one of the featured speakers at AATIA’s next member meeting at 1 p.m. on Saturday, July 12. The broad goals of the program are to foster friendly relations and promote understanding between the people of Austin and the citizens of our sister cities around the world.

This program is designed to contribute to the educational, cultural, social, and economic presence of the City of Austin in the international community of nations. You may have noticed the related displays at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

The meeting, to be held at the Austin History Center (9th & Guadalupe), will have the usual high-quality networking, top-notch refreshments, and other meeting segments, which will be announced here as the details surface.

Chinese efforts to provide signage in English as the 2008 Olympic Games approach inspired Wired Magazine writer Michael Erard to speculate about the future of English as a global language.

The expected “Chinglish” translation boners are cited, but the author also looks at some of the ways English is being changed in different ways in different parts of the globe, similarly to the way Latin and Arabic splintered into a number of locally-influenced dialects.

Thanks to globalization, the Allied victories in World War II, and American leadership in science and technology, English has become so successful across the world that it’s escaping the boundaries of what we think it should be. In part, this is because there are fewer of us: By 2020, native speakers will make up only 15 percent of the estimated 2 billion people who will be using or learning the language. Already, most conversations in English are between nonnative speakers who use it as a lingua franca.

English is “mingling with so many more local languages than Latin ever did, that it’s on a path toward a global tongue—what’s coming to be known as Panglish.”

The International Hospitality Council of Austin is arranging one-week home stays for English as a Second Language teachers from Mexico who will be participating in a training program at UT. Each ESL teacher will have a one-week home stay with an Austin family. The family may host one or more teachers for a week and/or may host a different teacher(s) all three weeks. The family will receive a stipend of $200 for each teacher hosted to help cover the expenses.

Dates of Home Stay Program
Week 1: July 12 to 18
Week 2: July 19 to 25
Week 3: July 26 to Aug. 1

Objectives of ESL Services Home Stay Program:

• to give each teacher a chance to meet an American and learn more about American culture
• to give each teacher a chance to practice speaking and listening to English
• to give each host family the chance to make a friend from another culture and to learn more about that culture

We are looking for families who are interested in meeting people from other countries and have time to spend with them in the evenings and on the weekend. We have a very loose definition of "family." We are looking for families of all shapes and sizes. Single people, couples, families with small children, families with older children are all most welcome.

Your responsibilities as host:

• pick up your teacher at the International Office at UT at 6 p.m. on the Saturday of your week and keep him/her until the following Friday morning.
• arrange transportation for your teacher to and from the International Office at UT on week days so that he or/she may attend classes, which run from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
• provide all weekend meals and weekday dinner and breakfast (If you prefer, you may return the teacher to the International Office at UT early so that he or she can have breakfast at the Castilian Dorm).
• spend time with your teacher on the weekend and evenings either doing your normal family activities or taking him/her somewhere
• speak English with your teacher

Benefits to you:

• You will make a new friend
• You will help an English teacher to learn more
• You might get out and do something interesting in Austin that you’ve been meaning to do
• You will be helping to foster intercultural awareness

If you have any questions, please contact Margie Kidd at 512-858-4443 (home) or 512-576-2018 (cell)

Living legend Margaret Sayers Peden — she’s published over fifty books by such leading Latin American writers as Isabel Allende, Laura Esquivel, Carlos Fuentes, Pablo Neruda, and Octavio Paz — will be teaching two classes in literary translation on Saturday, July 12, in San Antonio. through Gemini Ink, an astonishing opportunity for Austinites. Run don’t walk to sign up.

Languagehat reports on the online availability of French lexicographic materials, including the Dictionnaire Littré de la langue francaise.

On the encyclopedia front, www.Larousse.fr has been revamped to allow contributions from readers, a la Wikipedia,but these are clearly identified by a different colour from the official contents of 150,000 articles and 10,000 illustrations or animations, which are verified and updated regularly.