ITA Conference 2020 - Day 2

Day two was good, too (pardon the obvious pun.)
The only problem is, that I waited too long to write this post, have forgotten much of what I heard, and must now rely on my skimpy notes. On the positive side, this might turn out to be a shorter post, and less time-consuming for you guys to read! Always look on the bright side, etc etc.

On the second day I made my life easier by deciding to skip the first session, which meant I could get up at 07:00 instead of 06:00 (sheer torture for me). I didn't mind missing Moshe Devere's talk about MemoQ for newbies, because I don't intend to get into CAT tools; (of course I can always change my mind!) and I didn't mind missing Liron Kranzler-Feldman's session about developing translator-client relationships because I'm not looking for clients. Ah, the privileges of being retired!

So once again I was in ZOA's Marlen Hall. This entire session, until lunch break, was in the hands of eight capable and interesting speakers representing the Israeli Union of Literary Professionals. Sounds better in Hebrew: איגוד אנשי הספר - Igud Anshei HaSefer - people of the book. (Sorry - the site is only in Hebrew. Someone should probably suggest that it be translated into English and other languages, hint hint, nudge nudge.) Each speaker was limited to ten minutes.

The first speaker was Yinon Kachtan, committee member of the above Union. If you're not in the field of writing, translating, publishing etc, you have no idea what we're up against, how underpaid these professions are, and how important it is to unite, achieve solidarity, and together strive to improve our rights and terms of work. So we should all be thankful that Kachtan and his colleagues have picked up the glove. His professional website is fascinating; pity it's only in Hebrew.

Next was Yaniv Farkas, a freelance English>Hebrew translator. Unfortunately, the cryptic title of his talk, "Mapping Israel's book market players onto Game of Thrones' finest", was lost on me, because I don't watch Game of Thrones. Luckily, my son read A Song of Ice and Fire (by George R. R. Martin), on which the TV series is based, and explained Yaniv's Hebrew title -- שוק הספרים בישראל: בין בנק הברזל להולכים הלבנים. So now I get it: Yaniv used the Iron Bank and the White Walkers as metaphors for the powerful, ruthless elements which we, the people of the book, must deal with in order to make a living.

Asaf Bareket, owner and chief editor of Ocean Publishing House had the brilliant idea of creating the Adventure series, which is dedicated to beautiful new editions of children's and young adult classics. Nostalgia had me qvelling in my seat, as I re-lived, for a few blissful moments, many happy reading-hours: Bambi, The Glass Slipper, The Prince and the Pauper, Black Beauty, Tarzan of the Apes, Oliver Twist, Pollyanna, Peter Pan, Around the World in Eighty Days, and many more.
Thing is, most of these books had been translated into Hebrew ages ago. As we know, the Hebrew language has developed and recent translations sometimes sound to us (old timers) a bit too "modern". In many instances, we're emotionally attached to the old version. The trick is to retain the feel of, say, 19th century England, yet make the text fluent and accessible to today's youngsters. I got the impression that the Bareket brothers chose their translators carefully, and hope to god that they did a good job. Once my grandkids get their hands on some of these books (with my encouragement and help, I hope) I will find out for myself. (Yes, I know I can find them in the local library! But who has time to go to the library?...)

Dr. Hamutal Ben Dov, co-manager of Bear in Mind publishing, spoke about the desirable cooperation between publishers and the Union of Literary Professionals. The company's online shop, with its selection of educational books and games that feel more like fun than like "learning" or "studying", is very attractive. It reminded me of the [defunct] educational software company LOGAL, whose software at the time was groundbreaking, fascinating, and fun. (Worked there for 10 years!) Anyway -- I regret to say that I didn't take any notes during Dr. Ben Dov's talk, and have nothing more to say... Except that I wish the site was available also in English.

Much-needed brief coffee-break.

Next: The Odd Couple ;-)  Just kidding - they're not odd, they work really well together, and are both entertaining and edifying: Rachel Halevy, editor; Yaniv Farkas, translator. The first time I saw them "perform" was at the 2005 conference, in their joint talk/presentation about their Hebrew translation of Huckleberry Finn. I must have been busy enjoying the show, because I didn't take any notes. Besides, I have worked with Rachel Halevy once, on a novel. I don't usually translate from English to Hebrew, so felt a bit insecure, and having Rachel as editor was a blessing. Every few days I'd send her a Word document with a table: on the left was the problematic sentence/s in English, on the right my question or suggestion. She'd get back to me with clear, super-helpful replies. The book in question was The Last Summer (of You and Me) by Ann Brashares.

Hamutal Yellin, a literary translator and editor, and active board member of the Literary Union mentioned above, accomplished a helluva lot in her allotted 10 minutes. She gave a wonderfully succinct and clear presentation of the current literary-translation market in Israel, from our point of view. "Our" meaning us, professional literary translators and editors, who work hard for every shekel. The situation sucks. Publishing houses don't pay well, don't give raises over time, aren't fair or consistent in their methods of calculating the payments due, and overall do not treat us fairly. Which does not bode well for the future of this profession, for the future of people practicing it, and the future of translated literature in the country.

Implications of the current situation

What can we do about it?

We join forces!

We join forces, that's what; we unionize. Together we're stronger.
We share information; it's easier for publishers to get their way when we don't have the full picture.
We negotiate and haggle, for better rates, better terms of payment, all reflecting our true worth.
We support and help each other.

Inbal Sagiv Nakdimon, with a track record of over 160 translated books, plus more on the front and back burners, needed to find a subject she could squeeze into 10 minutes, and chose "Measure for Measure". How do we decide when to change miles into kilometers for the sake of Hebrew readers, the feet into meters, the ounces and pounds into kilograms? Surely Jane Austen's heroines didn't think in kilometers-per-hour, when discussing the time it would take their horse and carriage to trot from their "humble" home to the next town?
And while I'm at it: Inbal gave another presentation later on, dedicated to Gideon Toury and his essay about optimal translation. This is top-notch academic material which I shall not go into here. You can read it in Hebrew on Inbal's website, and watch her presentation on YouTube.

Back to Yaniv Farkas, solo this time, with 30 translation hacks. Sharing one's tricks and tips with fellow translators is a mitzvah. Farkas began his talk with technical stuff like his preferred computer screen ("portrait" as opposed to "landscape" orientation); preferred keyboard (a certain Lenovo, with the red dot - TrackPoint); then went on to essential work-habits such as making backups. Last but not least: Take a deep breath before answering annoying clients ;-)

Below are links to a few work tips I wrote and spoke about in the past:

• My most important tip for translators and editors
• Nina's tips for lectures and presentations
• How to work with translation agencies
• How to find well-paying clients
• How not to write and mail a CV 

Lunch break!

Yael Sela, my longstanding fave translator and speaker, has been [Hebrew] Language Manager  at Google since 2014, helping Google improve its Hebrew capabilities. She spoke with her usual vim and vigor about Goliath -- the project of making light of Google's Hebrew. In my professional past,  I had the displeasure of trying to edit and improve the Hebrew UI of various [educational] software, usually written quite badly by programmers, may they forgive me for this generalization.
Yael's task is to make Google's Hebrew, as it appears onscreen to the average Hebrew speaker, more inclusive, friendly and accessible. Their guiding motto is "Google is for everyone"; its instructions, commands, messages should all be understandable and friendly towards kids, golden-agers, and women everywhere. You can easily read more about Google's Diversity approach.
As it happens, I don't use Google in Hebrew, so wasn't aware of these specific changes. But the project is still going on strong, and I'm curious enough to try the Hebrew version and see for myself.

Vicky Teplitsky Ben-Saadon, of the Hebrew Language Academy, is terminology coordinator in the science section of the Academy, and very aware that a living language is constantly changing by its speakers. When it comes to scientific terminology, most scientists are not linguists. The Academy believes that language should serve all spheres of life. This implies that there's no point in creating words that make sense only to a small, limited sector. Also, there's no point in artificially creating Hebrew alternatives to foreign words which have become part of our everyday life, e.g., pizza, sushi, pop, rap, hip-hop, blog, blogger, etc. My notes mention that the word סימלון, simlon, has been suggested for emoji. I don't know whether this was a serious suggestion; I suspect not -- I think emoji is here to stay. The same goes for the much "older" word -- date, as in "I asked her/him out on a date."

How the Academy decides on creating a Hebrew term

Though I was thoroughly enjoying Vicky's talk, I left before it ended, since I'd intended to switch to the Academia room, where Shirley Finzi Loew was speaking.
So imagine my disappointment when I reached the room only to realize that Shirley was at the tail end of her talk. She was discussing the challenge of translating Italian dialects into Hebrew. Most of us, whose Italian encompasses the basic ciao, bellissima, arrivederci, buongiorno, and perhaps a handy expletive or two, aren't aware of the dialects, let alone coped with explaining their nuances. If I'm lucky, I might get another opportunity. If you'd like to read a brief summary of Shirley's talk, you can scroll down my colleague Ruth Ludlam's blog-post about the conference.

Inbal Sagiv Nakdimon's second talk, which I mentioned above, was the last on the agenda. During the ensuing break, many said their goodbyes. Those who stayed spent a relaxed hour or so enjoying a musical performance by Ronit Ophir and her accompanying musician, singing old favorites with lyrics by Natan Alterman, Natan Yonatan, and Natan Zach.

Until next time -- Arrivederci, folks!

ITA Conference 2020 - Yes, it was worth it!

Yep, the bottom line is that it was good.
Why was it so good?
- Ah, I'm glad you asked.

I was nearly late for the first session, having forgotten what public transport is like during morning rush hour. So I barely had time to hug and/or wave at colleagues before settling in. From the corner of my eye I glimpsed the very-colorful round buns (=sandwiches) on the bar next to the entrance to Marlen Hall, but had to forgo them. (Temporarily.)  The event took place at ZOA House in Tel Aviv, like in 2017 and 2018. The interior design has undergone noticeable refurbishing, or redecorating, without major changes that could have altered the venue's character and "vibe". The chief annoyance at ZOA remains the lack of a place to hang one's coat!

Day One. The keynote speaker was writer and translator Assaf Gavron. I haven't read anything by him; but I have now added him to my reading "wish list", and fervently intend to actually make that wish come true. Thing is, by now I'm also wondering what the English version of his books sound like... So whichever book I choose, I'm likely to get it in both languages, and end up comparing the two. Which is what I did with Dror Mishani's crime novel, The Missing File, for example, after hearing his talk at the 2016 ITA Conference.

Mind you, I'm not sure I'd be up to translating Gavron's novels and stories -- they seem quite complex (in the good sense of the word) in terms of plot, characters and language. Those of us who've had some experience in translating Israeli novels into English are aware of the many hurdles. And not just because the IDF lingo, slang, missions, atmosphere and so on are nothing like that of the American or British armed forces.  Gavron provided many amusing and edifying examples of the problems and pitfalls involved. Luckily, Gavron's command of English is far better than the average Israeli's, having been brought up by British parents in an English-speaking home and has lived, inter alia, in the U.S., England, and Canada. He himself even translated one of his novels -- the intriguing Tanin Pigu'a (= Almost Dead for the U.S. market and Croc Attack for the British) into English, with the help of British editor/writer James Lever. Gavron said that he thinks the English version ended up being even better than the original. I am not surprised; understanding and collaboration between author and editor or translator can work wonders.

While on this subject, do you remember Amos Oz's talk at the 2017 ITA conference, on translating A Tale of Love and Darkness into English? Oz collaborated with his translator, Nicholas de Lange, and gave him the go-ahead to leave out several sections of the novel, which were either of no interest to the American reader or too difficult or cumbersome to explain. And a propos A Tale of..., Gavron also translated into Hebrew the its English script written by Natalie Portman. As well as the script of one of my fave movies, Pulp Fiction. I don't suppose the script included the "Quarter Pounder with cheese" dialog...

May the god-of-translators forgive me for patting myself on the back, but I believe that I, too, have improved a few books and short stories while translating them from Hebrew to English. In my case it was relatively easy, once I had the consent and collaboration of the author. As we know, much depends on one's client and his/her attitude. I once had a client who hit the ceiling whenever he saw that my [English] sentence was not a 100% match with his [Hebrew] sentence; whereas another client has full confidence in me, is very flexible, open to discussion and appreciative of my suggestions and contributions to his original text.

Gavron translated a good number of books, scripts and short stories into Hebrew, and as far as I know had very good editors, such as Aliza Ziegler. I could go on and on, but I recommend that you  simply go to Gavron's website. Have fun!

As usual, the plenary was followed by a break. The colorful buns were a bit weird-looking but tasty, the cookies were very moreish, the coffee was bleh, but for 12 shekels you could get a half-decent latte. Then came the usual difficulty of choosing which track to attend. Briefly, here's what I listened to:

Nathalie Haddad, managing director of Transtitles, spoke about -- surprise, surprise -- translating subtitles. I think she did a good job of explaining the challenges involved. Most of the TV series I watch are in English, with no subtitles. But when I do watch TV with Hebrew subtitles, I am always acutely aware of both brilliant solutions and amusing or ghastly failures.

Next was Yael Valier, an experienced and talented speaker, as I discovered during her presentation on translating children's poetry at last year's conference. The emphasis this time was on translating texts designed to be heard -- an aspect most of us don't deal with on a regular basis.

Lunch break. Baby-bourekas instead of confectionery. But for those who wanted something more substantial, there are plenty of good cafes and eateries within easy walking distance. As stated, the main inconvenience was having to schlep one's coat and bag while simultaneously balancing a small, recyclable plate of food & drink and trying to find a temporary resting place. Meileh -- lo nora! (= Oh, forget it, no harm done; we survived to tell the tale...)

Break over. Back to Marlen Hall:
Avi Stainman basically told his audience what his company, Academic Language Experts, does, and why it's important. I totally agree that Israel's academics are, for the most part, in need of the services offered. Translating, editing, and formatting academic papers can be a huge headache which I for one was glad to stop doing. IMHO, most of what Avi said was plain common sense. But a little common sense can go a long way ;-)

Yael Cahane-Shadmi, a versatile translator and experienced lecturer, gave a short talk about an important aspect of our work: What do you do when a text you are asked to translate revolves around a subject, or promotes an issue, that is morally or ethically contrary to your principles. Obviously, if you can afford to pick and choose, you simply turn down any texts you dislike for whatever reason. But when the issue at hand is more serious, and you need the money, where do you draw the line?
Yael's presentation is available on her blog; but note that it is only in Hebrew. You can also enjoy an earlier presentation of hers, on assertiveness, which comes in handy when you want to turn a client down. :-)  This presentation, too, is in Hebrew.

Ruth Ludlam's presentation was about the process of publishing an academic book. This is something I would dread, and have done my best to avoid. But if you must do it, it's good to know what you're getting yourself into. For example: every publishing house has its own guidelines and demands, so if you get turned down by one publisher, you don't give up in disgust -- you try a different one, or two, or three... And even once you've established an understanding with a certain publisher, your contact person might suddenly be replaced by someone else, kicking you out of your comfort zone. You can read more about it on Ruth's blog.

Liath Noy spoke about the state of translation studies in Israel. A touchy subject, it seems. Once upon a time, like fifty years ago, there were no "Translation Studies" in Israel. I studied English Literature, Linguistics, some French and Spanish; and later a few courses in Comparative Literature, and a two-semester workshop in play-writing -- all interesting and fun, but not exactly geared towards translation. At present, my alma mater, Tel Aviv University, no longer has a translation department.
Translators' work often calls for an acquaintance with (or education in) a wide field of knowledge --  linguistics, modern language studies, comparative literature, cultural studies, philosophy, creative language, and more. But in day-to-day reality, that's not enough. The late Prof. Miriam Schlesinger believed in translation studies that prepared its students for the real world. (Which is why she invited me to give a guest-presentation in 2005. More about that in a separate post, I hope.) Today's academic programs are trying to adapt to the 21st century, with more emphasis on hands-on practice, technological aspects and business aspects. Among other things, Liath teaches how to use MemoQ - a successful translation software. If I were still working full-time, I'd definitely try it.

Last coffee-break for the day, followed by two brief talks:

Haddar Perry spoke about excess words in translation. I've been following Haddar's blog (in Hebrew, duh!) for years; her knowledge of the Hebrew language, past and present, is amazing in its breadth and depth. Her talk was a short version of the blog post mentioned above. The blog post contains no less than 47 examples of the way Hebrew-speakers use lengthy, often superfluous phrases when translating from other languages, including English. As we know, Hebrew is, by nature, a succinct language. In many cases the translator or editor looks at the tiny Hebrew (translated) sentence, which seems to him/her somehow insufficient, not respectable or impressive enough... and immediately pads and plumps it up with a few unnecessary words.

Micaela Ziv's two most important projects for the ITA over the past few years have been the Recognition project, and representing the ITA at Lahav - "the NPO whose goal is to lobby for and protect the rights of freelance and self-employed workers". Many of us have been asked by a prospective client to provide proof of our expertise, a professional certificate. And no, a university degree is not enough; it says nothing about your experience. But I can attest that my Certificate of Recognition does the trick.
- Anyone here up to being our new representative at Lahav?
- Anyone here willing to become a mentor for translators into Hebrew? If so, contact Micaela.

That's all for now. I can hear you sighing with relief... One day, I'll report about Day 2.
To see photos from the conference:   https://www.facebook.com/pg/IsraelTranslatorsAssociation/photos/

ITA Conference 2019 - and where were you?

Yes, I'm talking to you, my translator and editor buddies. I missed you.
If there was anything disappointing about this conference, it was the size of the audience. Everything else was fine: good speakers, interesting talks, comfortable chairs, relatively short sessions, unlimited coffee and other drinks, the standard cakes and pastries. Not sure about the parking facilities, but then I had a ride to Kfar Maccabiah, and caught a bus home.

For old-timers like me, who remember 3-day conferences with two hundred(?) participants, the current event was a mite depressing. The in-house advertising for the event made it clear that it wouldn't be that type of conference. The wording clearly attempted to re-define expectations:

But still: forty-odd participants?...
Yes, we were a good, attentive and appreciative audience. Honestly.
And yes, the small-but-involved audience contributed to a relaxed, friendly, intimate atmosphere. Comments or questions didn't come across as rude interruptions, nor did they did seem to throw our speakers off their track.

Okay, enough kvetching. You wanna know what you missed? Here's the program, and below is a brief(?) report:

1. Keynote speaker Dr. Gabriel Birnbaum, senior researcher at the Academy of the Hebrew Language, spoke about the Historical Dictionary Project -- a fascinating topic, as is turned out, and I kid you not. I wonder whether, had I been mainly a translator into Hebrew, and/or a Hebrew editor, I'd know more about the Academy and about this project. To quote the Ma'agrim page in English, "The aim of a historical dictionary is to relate the history of the words of a language by answering questions such as: When did the word first enter the language, and is it still in use? What were the word’s original form and meaning and how did they change over time?" 

Dr. Birnbaum's description of the process of gradually putting together such a database, his examples and answers to questions from the audience, were enlightening and amusing. Though he was speaking to a relatively knowledgeable group, he easily stumped us with his questions. I bet you didn't know that the noun tayir means fortune telling based on patterns of birds' flights. Or that the horrible-sounding word ma'arufia (reminiscent of the verb la'arof, as in "Off with his head!") actually means clientele.  Well, the origin of both words is Arabic, so if you know Arabic, you probably figured out these two words easily. We live in the Middle East, guys! Wakey wakey! Time to learn Arabic!

To find out more about Dr. Birnbaum and his work, read this Jerusalem Post interview (though I doubt that it captures his low-key, tongue-in-cheek sense of humor).

*            *            *

Coffee break. Chatting. All's well, but then comes my usual conflict: Shall I go to Track A or Track B? Track A offered a longish session by one Alfie Gelbard on a subject that I know nothing about: Poetry slam in Israel; Slam Poetry; Spoken Word. Sure, I've heard of these. I'm just totally ignorant on the subject. Okay, so people write poetry and recite it aloud. Big deal. What's so special about that? Hasn't that been around, like, forever?.. Since Ancient Greece, or The Song of Deborah?.. Had I gone, I would have found out. But I didn't, so I might just make the effort and look into the subject. Instead, I chose Track B, which had at least two sessions which are of current relevance to me.

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2. I knew I wanted to hear Shira Leibowitz Schmidt, because I'd liked a previous lecture of hers [at the AGM of June 2018]. In this talk, titled Can a Rabbi be a Muslim, she shared with us some of the difficulties and conundrums encountered in a translation involving different cultures. Specifically in this case, the translation of subtitles for the documentary by Eyal Datz, Hidden Face (Hebrew name: Astir Panai אסתיר פני). It's not easy to communicate the world of Israeli Orthodox Jews to foreign viewers Leibowitz-Schmidt refers to, for the purposes of translation of course, as "a gentile in Georgia". (The U.S. Georgia.) Terms that are obvious by now to most Israelis, such as rogalach, cholent, shma, kapota, and plenty more, have to be very-briefly explained, wherever there is no simple English equivalent. 
The audience was -- how shall I put it -- easily countable by my 5-year-old grandson; but I think about half were from a religious background, so unsurprisingly they had encountered similar issues, and were quite adept at suggesting solutions, e.g., respectively: pastries, stew, the basic Jewish prayer, Hassidic coat, and so on. Other issues were less straightforward. But hey -- that's exactly what the session was all about!

3. When I first saw Dr. Michal Fram-Cohen, while mingling and nibbling, I didn't realize she was one of the speakers. I'd never heard of the novel The Vale of Cedars nor of its author, Grace Aguilar. So I had no idea what to expect. But as is often the case, the ITA conference provided a pleasant surprise. Dr. Fram-Cohen, in a brief talk, managed to illustrate the huge difference between the two translations of the novel, each guided by the ideology of its translator, in accordance with the mores of the time. Most of us are familiar with early translations of classic stories or novels, say from English and from German, into Hebrew. As a pre-teen and a teenager, I read Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe in Hebrew, without realizing to what extent it had been "scrubbed clean" of any obvious Christian motifs. Similarly, I read Ben-Hur by Lew Wallace several times as a teenager, in Hebrew. The original subtitle, "A Tale of the Christ", most certainly did not appear anywhere on or in the book; the plot was, apparently, also similarly adapted to the Hebrew readers of that era. According to Wikipedia, there are no fewer than 8 translations into Hebrew, done between the years 1924-1979, and in all of them the Christian motif was "censored". Considering the centrality of this motif to the novel, it's amazing that it was so totally eradicated. I'm sure that reading the original and reading one of the Hebrew versions is simply a different experience. Fram-Cohen did a good job of selecting and presenting a novel where this type of  "localization" is both amusing and disturbing.
Hebrew readers might find the following page interesting: https://lib.cet.ac.il/pages/item.asp?item=23714

4. & 5. Yael Valier spoke about translating lyrical and rhyming children's books from Hebrew to English, which is more difficult and requires more creativity and ingenuity than the average Israeli writer/poet realizes. Tzivia MacLeod picked up more-or-less where Valier left off, addressing the challenges of translating children's stories (Hebrew to English), and the $$$-question of how to promote and sell such books on the American market.  

These two presentations were very relevant to me, since I've been involved recently with translating stories for children, written in Hebrew by a friend. A couple of these stories contained some rhymed stanzas, which I passed on to my friend and colleague Linda Yechiel, since poetry and rhymes are not my forte. As for the rest, I translated the stories as best I could, but remained dubious as to their chances of ever selling on the American market. On Amazon, to be precise. I did share my doubts with the author, a kindergarten teacher by profession, and a darn good one, too. Her (didactic) stories are adored by local preschool teachers, and kids love her. So far, so good. But selling children's books on Amazon is a different story altogether, and requires an understanding of the market and of how Amazon works. I may not be an expert, but I know the basics, and MacLeod's talk reinforced what I knew and gave me additional pointers.

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Lunch break. The usual buffet. More food than anyone could eat, and cute little petit fours which, being parve, are seldom as tasty as they look. (But I didn't want the extra calories anyway, did I?..)

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Three out of the four post-lunch sessions weren't of great interest to me, mainly since I am retired and have the luxury of being very selective about the work I undertake; I'm definitely not attempting to attract any more business. And so I easily skipped Stephen Rifkind's session, which was about accessing the world market; and Q-Lingua's session, which was about ISO standards and certification. If you're interested in these sessions, pop over to Ruth Ludlum's blog, where she reported on both.

6. Instead, I went to the other track, where Dikla Abarbanel of The Knesset Chronicles, explained and demonstrated what the editors are up against when editing transcripts of Knesset sessions. This is a very specific type of editing, where you must be precise and neutral, obviously; yet you have guidelines of what to omit. After all, not every hesitation, repetition or guffaw merit documentation handed down to posterity.

7. Well, I can attest that traffic in the region was rather horrid that day... which may be the reason that the speaker for this session simply never made it. Udi Hershler was supposed to talk about "Studying and the Yeshiva Language". Glancing at Hershler's Facebook page, he comes across as an interesting fellow. Maybe there'll be a "next time". (Though I don't promise to attend.)

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Coffee break. Then the last session, where I was pleased to see and hear a well-known top-notch artist of the written word, whose work every Israeli probably knows, even if they're not aware of it:
8. Dory Manor - Translating the Untranslatable - Ruminations on Translating Poetry. Manor opened his talk with a well-known quotation of Robert Frost, who wrote in 1959: "...I could define poetry this way: it is that which is lost out of both prose and verse in translation." Not a pleasant thought for translators, especially translators of poetry, I expect. Which is why Manor goes to great lengths to re-create the poesy, the tone, the music, when transforming poetic works from French, English, Spanish (and I'm not sure which other languages) -- into Hebrew. I say "transforming" rather than "translating" because, as Manor says and as other translators surely know, translating poetry means writing it anew in a different language.

What never ceases to amaze me is that some of my favorite writers wrote the most beautiful poetry in a language other than their mother tongue: Leah Goldberg, Rachel, Jacques Brel, and Nathan Alterman - to name but a few. Why, as a student at Tel Aviv University (er... some 50 years ago), I was floored by Joseph Conrad's mastery of the English language, considering he did not speak English fluently until his twenties (says Wikipedia.)

By the time Manor's lecture was over, I couldn't wait to get home and check out some French poetry, read it aloud and savor its beauty, feeling thankful that this beauty is also accessible to readers in other languages.

C'est tout pour aujourd'hui. Au revoir!

ITA Conference 2018 - Short and Sweet

In case I haven't mentioned it before, I'm a notebook freak... Give me a unique or pretty notebook, and I'm yours forever -- or at least until the next attractive notebook comes my way :-)
So the moment I presented myself at the ITA desk on the second floor of the ZOA House, and received this notebook (and pen!)

With thanks to Sarah Yarkoni, Semantica

in addition to my name-tag and program, my face glowed with pleasure. Add to that warm hugs with friends and a buffet with beautifully cut fresh fruit, and the day was already deemed a success. Even though the bus from Rishon LeZion to Tel Aviv took about an hour -- as long as getting from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv during rush-hour -- and by the time I got there, it was almost time for the first session, leaving me very little time for initial schmoozing and fruit-nibbling.

So I was a bit late for the keynote speaker's presentation -- missed the first few slides, but caught on pretty fast. John Di Rico of Wordfast was speaking about Selling Your Translation and Interpreting Services. He was not only speaking and presenting slides, but also asking us questions and trying to get his audience involved. As you can see from his online profile, and as one could tell from his presentation, he is indeed experienced in and comfortable with teaching adults.
My only reservation about this lecture was that it was not suitable to the Israeli market. The type of interaction between translator and potential customer described by Di Rico is nothing like the typical interaction we translators (and editors) are accustomed to, and which goes something like this:

- Customer calls: "Hi! I have a 30-page document about Mechanical Elves. Need it translated from Swahili to English. By tomorrow. Can you do it? How much do you charge?"
- Bewildered Newbie Translator: "Er... um... I'm not sure... Is it in a Word document? Can it be by the day-after-tomorrow? Is 50 shekels a page okay?"
- Blase, Experienced Translator: "Sure, for 150 shekels per 250 words in the target language, plus 30% surcharge for a rush job, and if you pay 50% in advance and the rest by the end of this month. Who did you say your target audience is, by the way?"
- Tired, Semi-Retired Translator: "Yeah, in your dreams!" [Click. Disconnect.]

I totally agree with Di Rico's basic assumption that people love to talk about themselves, and so we -- the "customercentric sellers" (i.e. translators eager to eke out a living) -- should be patient and listen. But as far as I know, most of us prefer to communicate with our customers by email. Otherwise, they'll never remember all the info I need them to know. And besides -- I'm telephobic...
When it comes to writing -- sure, no problem! Di Rico provides these guidelines for summing up the conversation between Customer and Seller:

With thanks to Gila Ansell Brauner

My own emails may not follow this "Champion Letter", but I do take them seriously and they have been effective. (Examples available upon request, just give me a chance to browse through my folders...)

Coffee break. The instant coffee and the "botz" were blah, but the ZOA coffee counter offered acceptable Cappuccino, I am told, at no extra cost.

Next there were several sessions that were irrelevant to me, (being retired, as I've mentioned before) e.g., the one about tax deductible expenses. I was, however, curious about Strategies for Overcoming Literalism in Translations, by Avi Kallenbach, bless him. How can I not admire a young man who enjoys the same books as my own kids do, e.g., The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Catch 22, books by Terry Pratchett, Philip Pullman, and many more. So I didn't learn any new strategies, but I think he's on the right track.

Keith Brooks

The other session I joined and enjoyed was Keith Brooks' Faster Translations Start with a Faster Computer - a very fast and entertaining presentation, which ain't to be sneezed at, considering Brooks was speaking about some very annoying situations, wherein your PC or laptop is driving you crazy and you do your best not to kick it. Calling it names is acceptable, though not helpful.

Pics thanks to Gila Ansell Brauner

I'm a lucky PC-user, in that my husband has been my live-in tech-support ever since he introduced me to computers, way back circa 1986. But I want to be able to fend for myself, to a certain degree at least, and I'm sure Brooks' numerous presentations, available online, will be of help to me. Besides, he has a great sense of humor, which is one of the most important attributes a person can have.

Last session, a panel entitled The three Points of the Triangle: The customer, Translation Company and Translator. I have worked in the past with three out of the four agencies that took part in the panel: Quality Translations, which later became MGSL; Transnet; and Rina Ne'eman.

I have spoken and written about working with agencies, from the translator's point of view. [See here]. So the discussion itself wasn't an eye-opener in any way, but as always it was good to see and hear the actual people behind the names. I hadn't met Emanuel Weisgras before, but it was a pleasure listening to him, especially because he has a sense of humor! (Click the above link and see for yourself.)

Just for the fun of it, and for the sake of my fellow notebook lovers (I know you're out there!), here's a pic of a few of my fave notebooks:

What Retired Translators and Editors Do

"See you next year!" - That's how I blithely ended my fifth(!) post about last year's (2016) Translators' Conference. And what have I written in this blog since? Nothing. Zilch. Nada. How come? Do I simply live from one conference to the next? Surely not. Was I so darn busy working that I had no time for writing? Have I not had any inspiring insights about reading, writing, translating, editing, worthy of sharing with you, for an entire year? - Rubbish! So what the ...?

Enough with the soul-searching. I'll leave that for Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. But I will provide a few explanations, and if you're bored already, just skip to my next post, where I actually start reporting on the conference. [Link to be provided as soon as said post is written.]

I'm officially retired, and glad of it. I love my profession, but -- as most translators will agree -- dealing with clients can be irksome, and running our business is a chore and a bore to most of us. So, once officially retired, I was freer than ever to pick and choose what projects, big or small, to take on.
I've been lucky: people call me. They tell me about a novel, say, that they wrote in Hebrew. They want it translated into English. I glance at it and, for the most part, roll my eyes. I no longer have the patience. I might find the text long, wordy, lacking focus, flowery, or just plain not my cup of tea. So I give the writer some tips and suggestions, along with the names of trustworthy colleagues who will perhaps be willing to undertake the job. I have done this for Ella, Simona, Tali, Gili, Lihi, Haim, Sigal, Lilach, Yossi, Tamar, and others. Sometimes the text is not bad in itself but is just well-nigh untranslatable.
I take this seriously. I know that the writers put a lot of time, thought and effort into their "baby". I admire them for having the determination and persistence to sit and write. What's known in Yiddish as "sitzfleisch": The ability to endure or persist in a task. So I treat my feedback with all due respect, which takes time.

Then there are the books, or manuscripts, that I do undertake. Not to translate, but to help in other ways: To read and give my opinion, to edit to a certain degree, to offer some criticism and helpful suggestions. Two writers whom I'm pleased to say I helped recently in this way are Dorothea Shefer-Vanson and Shmuel David.

On a daily basis, I get a kick out of adding my 2 cents' worth to discussions on Facebook's translators' forums, especially Agenda, which is my favorite. And when I encounter translators in distress, particularly those who are relatively new to the field, I send them one or more of the glossaries I've compiled and/or accumulated over the years.

Oh, and for the past year I've been on the ITA's Audit Committee. Not that it takes up much of my time; after all, I'm not a professional auditor. But I try to follow what's going on in the Executive Committee and be part of the discussions and decisions, to the best of my ability.

What with three [adorable, of course!] grandkids and a wanderlust-driven hubby, I find myself roaming distant lands on the one hand, and exploring Tel Aviv and Rishon Lezion kids' playgrounds on the other hand. May I take this opportunity to recommend Gan Hamoshava in Rishon, mainly because that's where my parents took me when I was the age of my grandkids... My favorites in central Tel Aviv are Ginat Dubnov and Gan Meir.

What else does a retired translator/editor do in her free time?
- Yoga, twice a week. That's pretty demanding, for a short-limbed, non-flexible person like me.
- Mentor kids from disadvantaged families at the local public library, once a week.
- Struggle to maintain three blogs, one of which includes a section dedicated to my mother's memoirs.
- Maintain correspondence with lots of penpals... (Er... do the youngsters among you even know what that means?)
- Try to read another chapter in one of the books on my night-table, while my eyelids still obey me.
- Try in vain to keep cleaning my In boxes, upload pics to my Flickr account, glance at LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest; not spend too much time on Facebook; not watch depressing news and scary TV series. I'm being good to you and not adding links to the above sites.

Et maintenant, que vais-je faire?.. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW6QiI7hHGA]
I'll just collapse in front of the idiot-box with a nice cuppa tea and some chocolate.
TTFN!

Translators Conference, Jerusalem Feb 2016 Day Three

The third day of the conference started bright and early -- far too early for me. The early-birds went on a tour of Machne Yehuda Market with a fascinating young man named Guy Sharett who is a linguist, Hebrew teacher, entertainer, and sharp-eyed collector of linguistic graffiti. The rest of us lazybones had to make do with his talk at the post-breakfast plenary: The Israeli Linguistic Landscape: Stuff I Found in the Street. Luckily for all of us, Guy's website is delightfully colorful, insightful, and educational in a lighthearted way. "Everything that happens in the streets can be used to teach Hebrew", says Guy. Go see for yourself. I'll just post a slide of one item that particularly appeals to me; plus one that I saw and liked in Rome:

You got up this morning? Thank the Lord. All else is a bonus.

Treat your life as you would a work of art

The next plenary talk, Translating Hannah, has a subtitle nearly as long as the session itself, so I'll shorten it: Brazilian Author Ronaldo Wrobel discussed the demanding task of translating his work into Hebrew (by Dalit Lahav-Durst) and into German (by Nicolai von Scweder-Schreiner.) Apparently, he wrote his book in Portuguese, so first and foremost it had to be translated into Spanish. I didn't succeed in following everything that was said, but one important point that came up was, that when the author doesn't speak the target language at all, it's difficult for him to extend any help to the translator. Yes, he can explain something which the translator finds perplexing, say. But he cannot help the translator make any informed choices in the target language.

On this day, I chose the Literary Track. The first session was a panel dedicated to translating Jane Austen's work into Hebrew. Panel participants were: Shai Sendik, Lee Evron Vaknin, Inga Michaeli, Inbal Sagiv Nakdimon, Michal Ladan, Racheli Lavi. Now, this panel was sure to be an eye-opener, because I'd only ever read Jane Austen in English. And whereas, when reading a current-day English novel, I might find myself wondering, "Gosh, how would this sound in Hebrew?", with Jane Austen the thought had never even crossed my mind. I had a vague feeling that someone, at some point, would probably wrestle with this, and was sort of relieved it wouldn't be me.
Not only did I get a chance to hear several talented translators/editors discuss their choices, read out select passages and compare notes; but I also learnt about Jane Austen's early writing, which I  hadn't heard of before. So I have something new (that is, old, actually) to look forward to! In case you're interested, the Jane Austen Information Page is probably the treasure trove you're looking for. The translators on this panel said that the annotated versions were a great help.
Update: Was delighted to learn that Inbal uploaded to YouTube a video of this panel. Thanks to Inbal, for uploading, and to Victor Flickstein, for calling my attention to it.

I skipped the next slot -- there was nothing of interest to me. I'd planned to listen to Yael Sela Shapiro's talk, even though I'm fairly adept at Googling; but it'd been cancelled.

Last session before the coffee break: The wonderful Roni Gelbish on a Very Touchy subject: Translators as Enemies and How to Protect Your Book from Them. Any writer feels protective of his "baby", his creation; and I'm sure most have misgivings about placing their precious "baby" in the hands of someone else, who's going to "do things" to it. If you're Amos Oz and your novel is translated into English and your own English is not half bad, you can probably afford to have your say, to work hand in hand with the translator, and the two of you can drive each other crazy. But books are also translated into languages the author doesn't know at all. Which is when he/she feels they have no control over the process.
Roni gave an amusing example: Apparently, Constance Garnett (1861-1946), translated about as fast as she typed. From Russian to English! Some 73 volumes! It's easy to poke fun at her translations, which understandably suffer from some shortcomings. But nonetheless, her translations made dozens of good books accessible to readers who wouldn't otherwise have been able to read them. And I assume that later translators must have availed themselves of her work, even if just by "peeking" to see how Garnett had dealt with certain expressions or words. (Er, sometimes she didn't. She just ignored them.)
Roni's talk was followed by Open Mike, where we all had our say on this thorny matter. A translator should find something to love in the book, then give it his all. The writer, according to Margaret Atwood, has got to let go. Let go, trust your translator, and let your work reincarnate in a different language. Yes, it may come out "different", but that doesn't mean it won't be good and won't be loved by your readers in other parts of the world. A case in point is Oz's A Tale of Love and Darkness, which is popular in China, despite entire chapters that were left out. Other cases we're familiar with from childhood are Erich Kastner's Das doppelte Lottchen, aka Lottie and Lisa, aka Ora Hakfula, which was quite thoroughly "localized" both in the Israeli-Hebrew book version and in the American movie The Parents' Trap; and Little Women, which, in its Israeli-Hebrew version, was "cleansed" of obvious Christian themes and passages. All of which did not make us love those books any less than they were loved in their original language, by their original audience.

Over to the last plenary on the last day of the conference:
Writer Dror Mishani spoke on The Mystery of the Hebrew Detective: Thoughts about Detectives and Translation. I'm quite sure the first [literary] detective I ever met was Sherlock Holmes, in Hebrew, when I was still in grade school. Because, as Mishani pointed out, for years detective novels were considered "not real literature", and thus relegated to the kids' section in libraries. I remember only too well being home alone on a stormy winter night, reading The Hound of the Baskervilles, and being too scared to go to bed before my parents returned. The first detective I met in English was Nancy Drew; I'll never forget The Mystery of the Moss-Covered Mansion!
I think that next time I'm at my grandkids', I'll finally pick up one of Georges Simenon's Inspector Maigret novels that have been beckoning to me for years now. (In Hebrew; my French isn't good enough.)

Despite being in overload, I managed to take notes during Jost Zetzsche's talk, Getting Back into the Driver Seat: What We Can Do to Determine the Future of the Translation Profession. True -- says Zetzsche -- technology can collect tons of data from lots of journals the world over and machine-translate it within seconds. But only human intelligence can prevent hysterically funny (and potentially dangerous) misunderstandings. We professional translators are passionate about our work; we love what we do, and love to complain about it ;)  But are we an industry?
"Everyone" thinks that pretty soon the world will no longer need real, live translators, and our offspring won't need to bother learning a foreign language. Of course, we translators know this is drivel. But it's up to us to affect the discourse and effect a change. We have to "engage", be pro-active, be part of the process. We have the power to influence the way linguistic products are developed, and we should make sure they are developed in a way that will help us do our job better.

C'est tout.
See you next year!

Translators Conference, Jerusalem Feb 2016 Day 2 Academic Track cont'd

Here we are again, still on Day 2 of the conference, and the next talk in the academic track is by my colleague Inga Michaeli, a very prolific English>Hebrew translator of travel guides, non-fiction and fiction by authors as diverse as Dave Barry, Stephen King, Thomas L. Friedman, and -- oh, the list is too long; just go to her website.

This time, her talk was entitled Between Transparency and Ideology -- Translation Politics and the Politics of Translation. An important topic, that tied in nicely with Temima Fruchter's talk. I listened and enjoyed the session, but didn't take notes, since I'm very familiar with this issue. Also, a similar talk, though from a different point of view, was given in the plenary session of the 2015 conference, by journalist Eetta Prince-Gibson: Objectivity, Subjectivity and Bias: A Journalist's View of Translation in Conflict. Last year I did take notes, but never got beyond posting about the first day of the conference :-(   To make a long story short, whether you are reporting on politics or translating a report on politics, you cannot always resort to neutral words, even if you wanted to. Your choices betray your attitude and your convictions, or at least the biases and guidelines of those who pay you to write.

Next lecture was Translating Creativity by Jeffrey Green. This sounded intriguing. After opening with examples of creativity in various fields such as music and art, Green continued with creativity in translation -- obviously a topic of interest to most translators. Why, even in so-called dry or technical translating, one is often challenged and must think creatively in order to produce good work. Well then, imagine having to translate S.Y. Agnon! Though I haven't read much of Agnon's writings -- mainly what we studied in high-school, plus another couple of stories that my daughter studied in high school -- I always wondered how he got the Nobel prize in literature. I'm not saying he didn't deserve it; all I'm saying is, that I wondered in what language the judges read his writings, and whether these were good translations, and how on earth does one do justice to Agnon's peculiar Hebrew style. So I was pleased when Green handed out pages with Agnon's Hebrew text in the right column and Green's own English version in the left.

Conference program; Jeffrey Green's handout

Sorry to tell you guys that this was a disappointment. I was extremely curious to see a creative solution, but what I saw was mostly what seemed to me like taking the easy way out. The English sounded like a translation of a simplified Hebrew version of Agnon.
Now, Green himself told in an interview in 2011, how he came up with his own version of sub-standard English when translating a book whose protagonists were "Moroccan immigrants somewhere in the Galilee." His efforts were not appreciated by the publishers in London. Could that be why he decided to be less creative this time? How on earth did other translators of Agnon cope?
Guys -- seriously: If you've read English versions of an Agnon novel or short story, that you think hits the nail on the head, please tell me.

Aside #1: In an earlier ITA conference, there was an interesting joint presentation by translator Yaniv Farkas and his editor Rachel Halevi [Rachel, where art thou? Give me a link to your About page in English, please]. They spoke about Yaniv's translation of Huck Finn, and I'm sure you can imagine that was no walk in the park. Hebrew readers: Try this review of the book.
Aside #2: Just realized Jeff Green also spoke at the ITA conference of 2010. As did I :-) If you're in the mood, I highly recommend Mark Levinson's comprehensive report.

Folder with 10 years of ITA conference programs

Last session before the coffee break leading to the plenary was by Dorothea Shefer Vanson: "Every Day in Theresienstadt is a Gift", Translating the Diary of Martha Glass. Dorothea is both an experienced translator and the author of three novels, plus one more in the making. This translation was from German to English. I couldn't appreciate the German, but following Martha's thoughts and emotions in English was heart-rending, especially knowing that Martha's experiences were similar to those of Dorothea's grandmother's, except that Martha survived to tell her tale, whereas Dorothea's grandmother did not.
When blogging about her own lecture, Dorothea says plainly how nerve-wracking it can be, and I couldn't agree with her more. Aside from the nervousness and pre-lecture jitters, giving the last lecture of the day is not fun; you feel that people have had enough, they're in overload, and their attention-span has, er... been somewhat eroded. You, the speaker, are also at the mercy of your "competitors" -- the ones giving a lecture during the same time-slot, in a different room, on a perhaps "sexier" topic. I remember how I felt when giving my lecture Arbitrating in Cases of Customer Complaints at the 2011 ITA Conference.

Yay! The 2nd day is nearly over!

Daniel Goldschmidt of Microsoft spoke of Cloud and the Internet of Things - The Way Forward. I have no idea what it was all about. Yes, I know what "cloud" means in the context of computers. And the IoT is, to quote Wikipedia, "the network of physical objects -- devices, vehicles, buildings and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity -- that enables these objects to collect and exchange data." Great. The Future is here. Everything "talks" to everything. The speaker went on and on, but something about his diction and very-Israeli intonation pattern were preventing me from following what he was saying. But do go to the Wiki page, there's a cute illustration there.

Last but not least: Albert Gabay, film critic, gave a talk entitled From the Written Word to the Silver Screen. You probably wouldn't be surprised to learn that he prefers the medium of cinema to that of a written book. He likes the freedom of interpretation that comes with being a director or an actor, or a script writer, for that matter. Did you know that, to date, there have been over 900 film versions of Shakespeare's plays? And 161 film versions of Tolstoy's novels? I hope this truly impressive info comes in handy one of these days, when I'm doing a trivia quiz. (Over to you, Yoana Gonen.)

Um... there was also Day 3. Are you still with me?... Good! Here's Day Three.

Translators Conference in Jerusalem, Feb 2016 Day Two, Academic Track

Hurray! I've finally made it to the Jericho/Masada Hall, the Academic & Other Track.
The first talk was the only one given in Hebrew on that day. It was Racheli Lavi on Rhetorical Features Translators Need to Identify So that They Don't Get Lost in Translation. Long title, but spells out exactly what it's all about. I made Racheli's acquaintance during last year's ITA conference, where she and her partner were promoting their Hebrew editing software, Ivri. We got to talking (yes, that's one of the purposes of a conference...), and she told me about her own conference, dedicated to creative writing. Being a compulsive writer, I expressed an interest, and was later invited to the conference, called Nekudat Mifneh (= "Turning Point". No, not the 1977 ballet movie... Oh, you weren't even born then? Sorry.) At the time, I couldn't go. But a year later I did attend the 2nd Nekudat Mifneh conference, in November 2015, and it was great, as you can gather from my blog post about it.

Anyway. Racheli presented eight types of rhetorical devices, whose "academic" names were not all familiar to me, which doesn't mean I didn't know what she was talking about.  The definitions below are from various online dictionaries; I'm not copying Racheli's definitions since they're in Hebrew but I'm providing a link to the English definition, so go ahead and look them up!

- anaphora - the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses.
- zeugma - a figure of speech in which a word applies to two others in different senses
- syllepsis - another form of zeugma
- parallel structure - of which there are two or three types
- rhyming sounds (?) - not sure of the English term. A type of alliteration: the same sound is repeated in several words in the same sentence. 
- alliteration - e.g, Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers (an old childhood fave of mine)
- a string of words connected with "and" or "or, creating a kind of list
- onomatopoeia - e.g. "Chug, chug, chug. Puff, puff, puff. Ding-dong, ding-dong" (from The Little Engine that Could, which I read to my grandkids, although its old-train culture makes it a bit difficult for them to follow. Still, the quaintness lends it a unique charm.)

The examples in the lecture were from various sources, from the Bible through recent bestsellers to the immortal Jane Austen. More about the latter in my next post. Racheli is an excellent speaker, with a very relaxed and easy manner, and manages to make complex stuff sound simple and accessible.

Next session was Temima Fructer on What's This Text Really Saying? Matrices for Disclosure Analysis of Texts and Subtexts. Though I've heard of Temima, and had the vague impression that she's worth listening to, the title of the talk made me dread it. Matrices? Disclosure analysis? Sounds awfully scientific. Not that I have anything against science, god forbid :-)

However, I needn't have worried. The main idea was that words are never arbitrary. A translator should always keep that in mind when approaching a text. Questions to consider are, for example:
- What the text omits
- How sentences are linked together
- Grammatical features that carry relational value: who is the writer "talking" to; who does he/she identify with, or who he/she is identified with.
- Does the text use jargon? slang? formal language? euphemisms? If so, why?
- Think of the different expressions used to describe the same thing: blackout; power failure; power outage; load-shedding. Who and why would prefer one of these expressions to the others?
Temima speaks fast (she did warn us), and crammed quite a bit into her talk. It was time well-spent.

Next: Lunch break, followed by Stephen Rifkind's talk, With Friends Like These... Translation Pitfalls in French-English Legal Translation. I skipped this talk because: I don't do legal translation; my French is limited to conjugating verbs and reciting a bit of poetry; and I'm well aware of the phenomenon of "false friends" (even though it was years before I discovered that this common pitfall has an "academic" name).

In December 2005 I was invited by the late Prof. Miriam Shlesinger to give a presentation to all her classes at Bar Ilan University, on the actual challenges a translator faces in his/her daily work, in contrast with the theory of translation as studied at university. Four out of my 52(!) slides dealt with what I called at the time "mokshim" in Hebrew, literally "landmines", but meaning pitfalls in this context.
Here's one example I gave, of French > English mistranslation:

 "… par des documents rediges sous forme resumée"  - cannot be translated as "… by documents prepared in a resumed form" – it doesn't make sense in English. (Perhaps "summarized", or "in the form of a summary")
"Securité does not always mean "security"; in many contexts it means "safety".
“… une facture d'acompte etablie en six exemplaires…” - six copies, not six examples

After the lecture, Prof. Shlesinger sent me a photocopy of an academic article that discusses "false friends", which is how I learnt of this term.

Gosh, I've written over 850 words, and still want to tell you about 3 more talks/presentations, plus two lectures in the plenary session. Thanks for reading so far. More in my next post: Day 2, Academic Track continued.

Translators Conference in Jerusalem, Feb 2016 - Day Two

... so it came about that on the second morning of the conference, right after breakfast, we had three visiting speakers from abroad*.

First among them was Andre Lindemann, President of the BDU - German Federal Association of Interpreters and Translators. I'm sorry I don't remember exactly what he said. I think my colleague Ruth Ludlam wrote about it in her post about the conference. All I recall is that he'd been asked to speak in English, which is not his mother-tongue, and he has a beautiful, deep voice.

Second was the sprightly Stefan Gentz (originally from Germany I believe), full of energy and pizzazz, with a presentation entitled The Future is Now. Creating a good presentation is an art in itself, which I, for one, have not yet mastered; my slides are far too wordy. Gentz could teach you how it's done: his slides were short on words but loud and clear on message. And as I've said before, a good speaker should be a bit of an entertainer. Translators, apparently, have become but a footnote in this huge, world-wide industry with a turnover of Lots and Lots of Money. Customers expect us to come up with innovative solutions to their needs. The industry is far from dead; it has a future, but as it evolves, we have to change too. Why don't you just go to SlideShare and enjoy Gentz's slidewhow.

Third was Andrew Morris with his talk, Standing Out: Changing the Game. This talk could probably have benefited from a slide show, just to help make his point and give the audience an additional something to focus on. Morris spoke mainly about the good and bad aspects of social media, as it applies to us translators. Israelis are addicts of social media. (I can't say exactly how they compare with other nationals.) We know only too well how [some] users get carried away with ranting and raving, creating the website or app they're using into an arena seething with foul language and hatred. As translators and wordsmiths, we seek excellence, success, enjoyment. The last thing we need is that sort of filth and stress. Acting on this conviction, Morris created an online safe haven, much like our own Agenda and Members of the ITA forums on Facebook. That's where we consult each other, help one another, joke around, and enjoy what we do.  Morris also spoke of the need to be open to change. But each of us has to decide what type of change is best for them, since every decision, every change, entails its pluses and minuses.

Coffee break, with all those mouth-watering cakes. And time for agonizing over the huge choice of lectures. I had to go by process of elimination. So, with a heavy heart, I gave up the Business Track, the Technical Track and the Specialized Track. I don't mind much having missed "10 New Ways Your Smartphone Can Help You in Your Business and Life", because I'm trying to cut down on smartphone time, as well as on my business. I'm trying to get on with other important aspects of my life. But if any of you, dear readers, went to one of the Business Track lectures -- do tell.

Similarly, I skipped the Technical Track: I've stopped using Babylon because it seemed to me to get less user-friendly and more annoying with each new version; I don't do enough work to warrant the use of Translation Memory software; and I have live-in tech support who rescues me when disaster strikes. On the other hand, I suspect I might have found the panel on assessing translation quality interesting, even though it's something I've been doing rather intuitively for dozens of years.

I always give the Specialized Track a miss, since I've never seriously dealt with legal, medical, or financial translations. Not my expertise, neither in this incarnation nor in the next. (I've applied for "ballerina" in my next incarnation, but...)

Mazal tov, I've landed in the Jericho/Masada Hall, for the Academic& Other Track. But by this time you're feeling this post has gone on for too long already, right? So I'll tell you about it next time. See you soon!
P.S.  It is now "next time" :-)  Here's installment #3.
---------------------------------
* This annual conference is not merely a local thing. Some of our leading translators -- Sarah Yarkoni, Inga Michaeli, to name but two -- are active on the international scene, submit papers, go to translators' conferences abroad, make friends, tie ties, and invite foreign professionals to come visit us. That is, to attend the ITA conference, give talks and workshops.