The Spanish Special Interest Group (SpanSIG) cordially invites you to its first meeting of 2012, scheduled for Saturday, March 3rd, from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. at the AATIA office.

Molly Sheridan, an experienced translator and interpreter, will present “Sight Translation: Practicing a Strategy.” You will need paper, pencil, and a voice recorder — if you have one. (Many cell phones have recording capability.)

The AATIA office is located at 201 East 2nd Street. You can use the Convention Center Parking Garage (entrance on Brazos Street). In order to get free parking, when you exit just tell the attendant that you attended an AATIA meeting.

We hope to see you there!

SpanSIG Coordinators

Save the Date! April 30

Juanita Ulloa, MA, MBA, Vocalist, Voice teacher, Voice-Over talent  and Spanish Court Certified Interpreter will present two new workshops:

Vocal Power - Save your voice and lengthen your career! Learn the exercises, good vocal habits, good breathing, projection and professional tricks to making your voice last during long hours of talking on the job! Sat. April 30th from 10:00 a.m. to -1:00 p.m.

Crash Course in Accent Modification - Improve your accent in any language in this class. No one wants to be told "I can't understand you" as an interpreter, and a good accent can heighten the meaning of any phrase. Sat. April 30th from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Registration details coming soon.

The United Nations will be holding a competitive examination for the recruitment of English-language interpreters tentatively on 12 and 13 January 2011.

Applicants for the examination must have:
•English as their main language
•An excellent knowledge of French and Russian or Spanish.

Candidates who are successful in this examination will be placed on a roster from which existing and future vacancies in the Interpretation Service in New York, Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi will be filled.

Applications for this examination must be received by 10 December 2010.

Further details regarding additional eligibility requirements and application procedures can be found at

http://www.un.org/Depts/OHRM/examin/exam.htm
(Please note that this address is case sensitive)

Please do not apply unless you qualify

With best regards,

Examinations and Tests Section
Office of Human Resources Management
United Nations
New York
OHRM_exam@un.org
www.un.org/Depts/OHRM/examin/languageexam.htm
  

Calling all Interpreters…
and everyone else interested in preparing for Court Interpreting Exams. Come join the Interpreter Special Interest Group (ISIG) this Saturday October 9, from 10 a.m. to 12 noon. Joseph Bretell, Licensed Court Interpreter, will continue to provide practical sample exercises. Meetings take place at the AATIA headquarters in the International Center of Austin on 2nd street between Brazos and San Jacinto. Parking is available at the Convention Center parking garage on the west side of the building. Enter from Brazos Street. Hope to see you there!

The Board of Directors of the Texas Association of Healthcare Interpreters and Translators is pleased to announce that the American Translators Association (ATA) has approved TAHIT's 4th Annual Symposium on Language Access as continuing education for ATA-certified translators. Those of you who are certified by ATA can earn up to 10 Continuing Education Points by attending this year's event!

Registration is NOW OPEN and the EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT deadline has been extended until July 15th! Register today and save $20 off of the regular registration. This year, we are also offering 1 day registration as well as group discounts.

To find out more about TAHIT's 4th Annual Symposium on Language Access, download the symposium brochure. 

Contact Graciela Zozaya at acalang@sbcglobal.net if you need additional information about TAHIT's Symposium.

We are looking forward to seeing you in August!

Interested in becoming certified as a Medical Interpreter and/or learn about the proposed requirements? Or, maybe your interests are in Literary Translation and you would like to hear about exciting upcoming events? Interested in translation/interpreting in general and looking for information/workshops to increase your productivity?

Well… just join us on July 10th, from 1-4 pm, for all the latest news in our field while networking with our distinguished members and enjoying delicious snacks and refreshments.

The meeting will be held at AATIA Headquarters, 201 East 2nd Street. Free parking is available at the Convention Center parking garage, which is on the west side of the building that houses our offices. Enter from Brazos Street, inform the attendant that you are attending an AATIA event, and sign a garage parking record sheet. There is no charge.

Look forward to seeing you all there!

Carolina Modesto
Director of Professional Development

The Interpreter’s Special Interest Group will meet on Saturday April 10 from 10 AM to 12 noon at the AATIA headquarters in the International Center of Austin on 2nd street between Brazos and San Jacinto. Joseph Brettell, a Licensed Court Interpreter, will continue his presentation on training materials available to aspiring court interpreters, and the realities and practice of court interpretation. This session will focus on practicing with real texts which are commonly seen in the courts. All interpreters or other interested parties are welcome. See you then!

Online magazine Slate recently outlined how interpretation works at the United Nations.

The brief article by political reporter Christopher Beam explained the difference between interpretation and translation and between simultaneous and consecutive interpretation. It also described the working conditions of the interpreters:

At any given moment, the U.N. Interpretation Service has a dozen interpreters working six booths—one for every official language. The pair of interpreters in the English booth translates into English, the French booth translates into French, and so on. Attendees can then listen to the interpretations on headphones, clicking across channels for different languages. The job is exhausting, so interpreters will usually switch off every 20 minutes or so. They can also take breaks when the speech is in their language, since no translation is necessary.

The article gave a shout-out to AATIA member Stephen Mines, as well as American Translator Association President Jiri Stejskal and Hossam Fahr of the UN Interpretation Service, for their help in the preparation of the article.