*** First Friday Flashback, from Oct. 2013 *** Nothing else can quite substitute for a few well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of praise. They're absolutely free and worth a fortune. —Sam Walton As my translation business has grown, the amount of work for private clients who need...
I just read a blog by my dear friend (yes, even if we haven’t seen each other in years!) David Mintz, former NAJIT Chair and webmaster extraordinaire. I so enjoyed reading his irreverent takes on all kinds of different topics that...
There is something about “being” a translator that is very different from “being” an interpreter. It’s not just about sitting in front of a desk by yourself versus being surrounded by people when you do your work. Translators want to take their time finding that...
**First Friday Flashback** (A favorite of mine, from back in 2013) I am continually amazed by the generosity of the talented writers and thinkers in our profession. What seems to be just a few years ago, our pre-Internet ability to connect with colleagues beyond our immediate reach...
On this blog, we dedicate a great deal of time and effort to the profession of interpreting for the courts. We tell stories, share experiences, propose new ideas, and issue calls to action. This week, let’s look briefly at some issues related to translating for...
Over the past decade I’ve heard the term “unfunded mandate” used all too often to describe the Department of Justice and the Ohio Supreme Court’s stance on providing interpreters and language access in the courts. This phrase is used because the government requires the use...
I know. The official name is “International Translation Day”. I changed it. I just have this thing about “interpreters” being included whenever anyone talks about “translators” and “interpreting” being understood as a part of “translation” in the title of such an important day. We all...
I was at a Holly Mikkelson training on August 3rd and afterward at lunch I asked her if I could blog about it. She said yes, but another NAJIT member, esteemed colleague, and past guest blogger beat me to the punch. I asked John P....
- By Gio Lester Why would entrepreneurial individuals create a business to help others like them make money? That seems to go against the very core of Capitalism. But does it? And what are non-profits, actually? Well, the truth is that non-profit endeavors and money making are...
Beware of false friends! I don’t mean the people, I mean the words. One of the first impulses a young interpreter must overcome is the use of words that may, at first glance, seem to be equivalent terms and concepts in two languages... but are not. Taking that direct path from similarly-sounding words in our source and target languages is not always wrong, but part of being a good interpreter is knowing exactly when to take this path and when not to. In the rapid pace of judiciary interpreting, our brains may lean heavily towards cognates in source and target languages. Cognates are words with a common origin or etymology. True cognates, like “library” and “librería” in Spanish or “livraria” in Portguese, with a common Latin root -- liber -- may come to have new and different meanings with usage and the passage of time. In this example “library” is a place where books are kept for people to read or borrow, whereas “librería” or “livraria” is a place where books are sold. So although they may be true cognates, these words have become false friends, or faux amis.