Volume 20, number 2 — Winter 2012

Quarterly Newsletter of the

Australian Institute of Interpreters and Translators Inc

Translating in the age of social media

The decay of public language — Don Watson speaks to In TouchThe decay of public language — Don Watson speaks to In Touch

Translators and interpreters find solace in A Room with a View

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Never Stand Still

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ContentsFrom the helm..........................................................3Interview with Don Watson ....................................4Translating in the social media age..........................6Webinars made easy.................................................7The making (or unmaking) of the translator....... ....9Translating and interpreting ‘newspeak’...............10The search for meaningful work............................11 Industry news..........................................................12

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

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Welcome to the winter issue. It seems I last wrote to you merely days ago, but

the calendar shows me I’m wrong! I wonder whether our members feel connected enough to our organisation and look forward to reading the responses to the next membership satisfaction survey, which will come to you in an e-flash within the next few days. The last three months have seen a respectable number of initiatives in the branches and intense work on several projects at the national level.

AUSIT Code of Ethics

The review of the AUSIT Code of Ethics has perhaps the widest potential impact of all our current projects. During the consultation process we received many detailed feedback submissions, which in itself is an indication of the significance of this undertaking. Christian Schmidt delivered an acrobatic performance by considering them all and incorporating most perspectives into a final draft which Barbara McGilvray is editing; shortly it will be rolled out for further comment. I expect the launch of the rewritten Code of Ethics to take place during our 25th Annual General Meeting. Déjà vu…

Professional development plan

Conscious of the ever-increasing demand for resources and events for professional development, the National Council has approved a medium-range professional development plan and NAATI has provided funding to establish the infrastructure for it. We have already started construction of a continuing professional development (CPD) online library/storehouse and are developing an information package on how to account for CPD activities. Thanks to Dr Harry Blackmore (originator of the AUSIT Code of Ethics) I was able to leaf through some old issues of the AUSIT newsletter. What a strange feeling it was when I discovered in vol. 5, no. 3, that in December 1997 the late Klaus Hermes, a previous president, had called for revalidation of accreditation and compulsory PD activities for our members!

From the helm...

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Front cover photo: The view outside Jean DeKlerk’s window. DeKlerk is AUSIT’s State Principal Delegate for Western Australia. Photographer: Jean DeKerk

Sponsorship We are now seeing these words (Déjà vu) in a logo, alongside the TIS National logo on the website of our JubilaTIon 25 conference and in related promotional material: Déjà vu and TIS National are providing sponsorship for the conference. Inquiries from prospective sponsors and contributors are still coming in and Tea Dietterich, Sam Berner, Helen Slatyer, and our treasurer, Diana Rodriguez, deal with them expertly.

JubilaTIon 25 conference contributors & venue About sixty Australian and overseas academics and practitioners responded to our call for papers; the Scientific Committee is facing a very difficult task to select the best ones from this bountiful crop, to be squeezed into our three-day forum. Our event partner, Macquarie University, is providing splendidly comfortable and convenient surroundings for the conference on its campus and also much valued assistance with the organisational nuts-and-bolts. Members of the NSW Branch and AUSIT NEO committees have spent many enjoyable hours on preparations for the conference so far, and we all are looking forward to welcoming a large audience in December. I believe the conference will fit the occasion — after all we are celebrating our Silver Jubilee. With a little luck, the number of stars in the night sky on 2nd December will match those shown on the JubilaTIon 25 conference poster, designed by Bradley Dawson (see back cover), and we’ll be able to enjoy the view from our Luna Park dinner venue exactly as depicted.

Keeping members informed Over the past three months, many hours have been spent liaising with external bodies close to us, such as APESMA, ASLIA, FIT and NAATI. We try to bring news to you via direct mail, social media, e-bulletin and the various language and special-interest Yahoo groups of AUSIT members. Please don’t hesitate to write to me with questions, comments, compliments and constructive criticism.

We must begin thinking about:• reaccreditation

rather than life-long accredication

• a minimum of continuous professional development over any given period or lose membership of AUSIT

Jean DeKlerk shares the view from his workspace ...................................................13Book review.................................................13Branch news................................................14

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INTERVIEW

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I’m not a grammarian,’ chuckles Don Watson, ‘I think a grammarian’s worst nightmare

would be for everyone else to be good at grammar. I just like language to be concrete and honest.’

Don is talking with me about what makes good language. Clearly, he’s not snooty about language, nor does he ask much of people whose work, like that of T&Is, relies on the effectiveness of their language. Just give him an honest, hard-working verb over the adjectives triple-somersaulting through so much of today’s corporate jargon and he’ll be happily out of a hobby.

Policing language isn’t really his thing, either. Sure, he’s written books on language misuse — but he’s also the author of academic books on Australian history, political speeches (which have reached cult status), satirical scripts and screenplays for feature film. Paul Keating, John Cain, Max Gillies, Billy Connolly, Judy Davis and Richard Roxburgh have all relied on his words to help their voices penetrate and live on in the crowded public domain.

His interest goes so much further than just a misplaced apostrophe; it reaches to the heart and purpose of language, to responsibility, duty, power and even passion.

Don Watson not only uses fewer words to say more than most, he puts them together more wittily than most. In our conversation, Don didn’t offer snappy, empty sound bites or

one-liners—far from it: his comments reveal a depth and insight formed from a sharp intelligence, broad professional experience, humanity and common sense.

For translators and interpreters, language maintenance is one part of keeping our skills honed, but it’s all too easy to miss seeing the verbal forest for the trees. Staying aware of the way our languages are evolving can mean stepping back from the keyboard or the courtroom but this may not be a straightforward task for a busy freelancer tripping over deadlines and appointments. Don uses contemporary examples, from news stories we all know, to show how language works well and how it can also have tragic, unintended consequences.

Below is an edited version of an interview I recorded with Don Watson.

You are famously indignant about the use of jargon and the decay of public language. What do we need to know about using public language?

Management language is now the default language of education, politics, the public sector, the private sector and the media. Anyone who uses language for their work in the public domain should use concrete terms. The moment you move into the abstract, the passive, you’re losing your readers. Yes, you need to be able to think abstractly but the task of people writing in any profession

is to write as well as they can, every time. This means to write in a way the audience will understand, be moved or persuaded by, to provoke some kind of reaction. For example ‘impact on’ has replaced about twenty-five other words, all with other meanings. I don’t want my language to impact on anyone! It sounds like I’m going to stun or run over [someone]. When you find yourself relying on words like that, you realise you actually need some other word and it’s usually there if you look for it.

Are there some real economic and social effects of the decay of language?

A hospital which uses this language in accordance with its new managerial principles—well of course it will affect the patients. To begin with, they don’t call them patients anymore. They call them customers, or non-ambulatory customers, when actually they’re poor buggers who need looking after!

My favourite example of this is St Martin in the Field, in London, an establishment which has been giving aid to the poor for 500 years. Through the Black Death and the Blitz and the Great Fire and everything else, it was always there but now it has its mission statement on the front door saying that they ‘provide excellence in hospitality.’ You can imagine London’s homeless going down to St Martin, saying, ‘they do really good excellence in hospitality’ rather than seeing whether they’ve got a sandwich for them, or a bowl of soup.

Is there any jargon that you think is worth using or that adds value?

Some kinds of street jargon work quite well…

[To return to a former point about managerial language] When you look at how the Murdochs, father and son, spoke in the parliamentary enquiry, you notice that Rupert spoke in the kind of language anyone in the last 300 years would understand. His son James was educated in the modern way and used business parlance; after the first two or three sentences your brain freezes over and you start thinking about other things. James was probably not lying any more than Rupert —he looked more honest than Rupert — but after a while, anyone watching would think he’s the liar because you can’t help thinking: why is he saying all this stuff we can’t be

Don Watson argues that language should be used to move, persuade and above all, say something meaningful to others. Maurite Fober interviewed the writer for In Touch.

The decay of public language

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INTERVIEW

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bothered listening to if he’s not trying to hide something? He uses all that awful managerial, abstract language that most people conduct their professional lives in nowadays. No verbs, lots of portmanteau, words like ‘impact’ replacing other words. It’s really the language of public life now, of working life, and that seems to me a terrific diminution of intellectual life as well, because, you know, if you speak to people in those abstract terms, they’re not understanding, they’re not listening, and you’re unable to explain the nuances of your thought.

There’s a lot in that, how language permits us to shape our ideas …

I do have an interest in that and if I had more time I’d read a lot more about it. I’ve never had any doubt that we think in language, that language is the mother of thought and not the other way around. And what is so peculiar when you work in politics or in many kinds of public organisations is that they are in total denial about this, so that what they’ll say to their wordsmith (as they call you when you’re in the speechwriting business), is ‘I’ve got the ideas, you just write them down for me.’ They’re used to speaking in platitudes and their ideas are limited to thinking in platitudes. If you think in cant, your ideas are going to be as limited as cant is and you can’t think beyond that.

Orwell says it much better than I can: he calls it the principle of the pre-fabricated henhouse. If you get into the habit of using these stock phrases, so that you just tack these phrases together, what you’ve got in the end is something really unappealing which people will simply ignore. They won’t take it in, nothing will grab their attention…Now we’re [wordsmiths] meant to serve a different purpose, so you have to think about it as you write and you have to know what it is you’re trying to say. You may not know what it is until you’ve actually written the first few sentences and then things start. Something goes on when we write, when we conceive sentences.

Once you get into the habit of thinking only in clichés, then it’s almost impossible to escape…

Do you think the cliché is one reason for people leaving larger organisations like the church or newspapers? Are people looking

the bombs are falling, how to take shelter, but the writing is rubbish. He says in his diary, ‘When will these people ever learn?’ No-one will ever respond, ordinary people will never respond to this abstract language, only to the concrete. You’ve got know instantly what it means. If you don’t, it’s language which doesn’t make any impression on you... It’s not telling you what to do, you only half know what it means, it may tell you [something] if you can summon up the energy [to listen], but it enervates you, it takes all the substance from your being just trying, so when your life is truly at risk, you’re not warned.

We had exactly the same thing [happen] in Victoria in the lead-up to the Black Saturday fires. People out where I live in the country, in a high bushfire risk area, said they had no memory of Ash Wednesday — they’re not old enough to remember the really fierce bushfires. At the bushfire classes they were never told concretely what the Black Saturday bushfire would be, never told how there would be no hope of them defending their homes, that this would be a bushfire out of control. They stayed in their houses, often with their children. (The bushfire went the other way, could have come through the Macedon Ranges but it didn’t.) When you talked to them later they said ‘we had

for something new from the Internet or from new spiritual movements because perhaps they’ve grown tired of the clichés and they’ve come to recognise them as such?

I think so. I think that’s probably right. They get tired of ritualised responses to everything. I don’t know how people stand it who have to deal with it every day, I really don’t! To use Orwell again, he’s living in London during the war, raising hens, living on the smell of an oily rag and a government leaflet comes under his door telling people what to do when

no idea it’d be a fire like that.’

…At the subsequent Royal Commission, when they talked to the Country Fire Authority (CFA) officers, they spoke in this inane language that in the end frustrated the commission so much they said, ‘Why didn’t you tell people what this fire would be like?’ and they [CFA offers] said, ‘Oh well, there’s been no previous fire like it: we had no language, no words to describe the fire because it was unprecedented.’

That’s preposterous, isn’t it?

That’s totally preposterous. The next day they [the commission] brought a description in of a fire in 1939 that described this fire exactly and anyone reading that would never have stayed in their house. When the commissioner asked [CFA officers] ‘What were you doing on Saturday?’ the answer was ‘we were populating the template.’ They were talking about ‘fire events’ and ‘wind events’ — complete rubbish! The duty of language is to do the most basic human thing, which is to warn someone: ‘hot’, ‘get away’!…So you’re saying that language is power, whoever wields it has a great responsibility.Yes they do, but it’s evolved in a way that means you can escape the responsibility with consummate ease. Does the power of language ever frighten you? Like the power to draw out a strong emotional response?

...No I’m not frightened of it…I think as long as the language stays honest, it’s not hurting anybody. But a Hitler or someone who will just use repeated phrases, repeated appeals to certain base emotions over and over again, that’s when we all should beware. On the other hand it’s my feeling that that’s what’s happened to [the] Anzac [tradition] over the last ten years; it’s become a kind of propaganda tool, a kind of quasi-religion. Really, had the language been made honest, we’d have been talking in more and more detail about what the experience of these battles was, what they meant, why [Australian soldiers] went. Good language never ends up in ritual and cliché, as ritualised deference to certain ideas, that’s not… [where] language should take us; it should take us deeper and deeper into the plot. This December, Don Watson will

address a plenary session at JubilaTIon 25 .

‘James [Murdoch] was educated in the modern way and used business parlance: after the first two or three sentences your brain freezes over...’

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SOCIAL MEDIA

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For those who are building their own businesses as freelance translators, finding the best

way to use social media to promote your skills may initially seem like a daunting task. While the powerful advantages of sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are certainly obvious, having your name stand out and attracting attention is an entirely different matter. But by following just a few tried and tested tips, you’ll be sure to make your social media marketing campaign a success.

Boost your business: Before you decide whether or not you want to integrate social media marketing in your marketing activities, you should ask yourself what you want to achieve. Common objectives are creating good client traffic to your website, using relevant keywords for search engine optimisation and enhancing your online reputation through effective social networking with established end clients, agencies and other organisations that will help improve your overall standing.

Beyond understanding the basics of social media, freelance translators have to delve into the fundamentals of Internet marketing to come up with an effective plan in order to generate the best results. In addition to other Internet tools that can be used for marketing purposes, such as email, one’s own website or blog,

social media platforms naturally lend themselves to this approach.

Set up: Start by setting up your profiles on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, or just one or two sites where you would like to focus your efforts. Remember to always separate your business from your personal accounts as you are trying to promote your business, rather than just chatting with your personal friends. Your privacy settings here are very important.

Know your goals: Every translator has different marketing challenges and needs a unique strategy. Before you start, you will need to decide what your specific goals are in utilising social media. Do you need to network more with your fellow translators in order to build a broader experience base? Are you hoping to generate more new client traffic? Are you looking for a better way to keep in touch with your current clients who could potentially offer you more work? Choose your most important goal and then work on the rest once you get rolling. Remember the old saying that ‘He who tries to do everything often achieves nothing’.

SEO: The power of search engine optimisation extends beyond your business website and onto social media sites. Be sure that when you post information on social networks

it follows the same SEO standards as those you use for your traditional website. Use words and phrases that a potential customer would use to find your services on your profiles, in your forum posts and tweets, in order to attract the right kind of traffic to your profile pages and ensure that clients find you before they find your competitors. Be specific (for example, use ‘professional legal Spanish to English translator’ rather than just ‘freelance translator’) to increase your chances of being listed on page one of Google for relevant searches.

Combine marketing and networking: Different social media sites provide different advantages. Twitter, for example, is a great way to establish a network with other translators. Here you can share valuable information and perhaps find out about interesting assignments. LinkedIn is more geared towards general marketing for new clients, while Facebook is better suited to keep in touch with your existing clients and agencies. Some larger agencies have even started to use social media sites as a job board and to post translation assignments there.

Online reputation and branding: Anything you write on the Internet can be read by other people unless you have restricted access to your posts. This is a very powerful tool which you can utilise to pass on your knowledge and experience to colleagues and potential clients, and to establish your credibility. You can use it to build a reputation around the globe and position yourself as an expert in a particular subject or field. Used properly, you will sooner or later be perceived as the person to go to for a translation on certain topics.

Let’s take a look at the different types of social media platforms available:

Translation portals and directories: The online databases of professional translators’ associations like AUSIT, the American Translators Association or the Chartered Institute of Linguistics, and translation portals such as ProZ.com, Aquarius or TranslatorsCafe are an excellent first step and are particularly useful for boosting the

Translating in the age of social mediaNicole Y. Adams explains how to promote a freelance business using social media tools

Nicole Y. Adams at her computer

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WEBINARS

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ranking of your own website thanks to their excellent Google ranking.

Business platforms such as LinkedIn, Xing and Viadeo: Although they require a certain level of activity to bring results, these platforms offer excellent options and tools for networking, presenting your skills and making a real impact on SEO. Try to participate in group or forum discussions, comment on other users’ links if you find them useful, or post a small survey on a current issue to generate a buzz on your profile. Linkedln has a more international focus, while Xing is mostly used in German-speaking countries and Viadeo in France. Business platforms are especially useful for addressing direct clients and connecting with the right people. You can also join or set up groups to improve your professional standing and demonstrate your expertise in a particular field.

Twitter: This micro-blogging platform is probably one of the most underrated social media platforms for professional use. You can use it to generate a high number of visits to your website or profile. It is ideal for building your professional reputation and offers relevant information and links to job postings. Most of all, it makes it possible to network in a casual environment and keep up to date on developments in your industry. However, it is also very time-intensive. Start by completing your bio page to tell people what you offer and what your specialisations are to ensure you can be found. Then use the Twitter Search to find some interesting people to ‘follow’ — this can include fellow language professionals, agencies or end clients in the industries you work in. A lot of times people you follow will follow you in return, especially if you post interesting content.

Facebook: A very powerful SEO tool but also the most challenging platform. Facebook has many rules, and they can change at any time. When you start out, you need to devote some time to familiarising yourself with features such as Facebook Applications (apps), Ads, News Feed, Analytics and Groups. You can either use a personal profile (with a clear separation between

private and business activities) to follow some of the agencies that use Facebook to recruit translators or stay in touch with your existing clients. Or you can set up your own business page to develop your online brand.

Google+: Launched in 2011, the youngest of the major social media platforms, Google+ is often underestimated. Google+ does not differentiate between business and personal profiles but gives you the option to categorise your contacts in different ‘circles’ that let you control who you share information with. You can also follow people you find interesting without them having to follow you back. The best thing about Google+ is its connection to the Google search engine. So if nothing

else, having a Google+ profile is very important to improve your Google ranking and benefit your SEO campaign. Finally: You may find that some social media sites are more effective than others in terms of either marketing or networking. No one plan fits every translator, so you will need to experiment a bit to see what works best for you. Most importantly, don’t give up if you don’t see instant results. Getting established on social media sites and seeing your activities come to fruition can take some time. The only must is to be committed to being active on your chosen sites on a long-term basis — it is better to have no profile at all than to have a profile that has been dormant for six months.

Having berührungsängste? Signing up to your first webinar can be daunting

Berührungsängste, a beautiful German word which may be simply translated into English

as reservations, is the feeling I had when I contemplated signing up for my first webinar. You might have seen these webinars advertised on the e-bulletin and may have put them into the ‘too hard basket’.

However, in the past year or so, I was often in the wrong place at the wrong time and unable to attend AUSIT workshops that were of interest and benefit to me. When I enquired about how to participate in a webinar, our former National President, Sam Berner, who is a regular webinar presenter, and our current National President, Annamaria Arnall, who has attended webinars in the past, sent me this informative link <http://www.ecpdwebinars.co.uk/faqs.html> with a list of ‘frequently asked questions’ covering pretty much everything the uninitiated may want to know.This does not sound too difficult, I thought, and was intrigued. So, when a webinar relevant to my area of interest was advertised

in an AUSIT e-flash, I took the plunge and signed up online. Here is what happens: Once you submit your payment via PayPal or credit card, you receive your payment confirmation. The cost for this seminar was £ 20, around AUD 30. I had expected to receive an instant automated message with the link to the webinar, but it turns out that an actual person

from eCPD Ltd., located in the UK,

Ilke Brueckner-Klein approached her first webinar with trepidation but found the experience surprisingly straight forward.

Ilke Brueckner-Klein, who can now attend seminars from the comfort of her own home.

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WEBINARS

sends the registration confirmation together with your personal link to the webinar. Hence there was a delay of a couple of hours, because they were still tucked up in bed when I registered.

The confirmation contains a detailed list of how to proceed on the day of the webinar, plus there is a link to a Quick Reference Guide for attendees which covers all the technical requirements. Oh no, you might think, technical requirements! I am a self-confessed technophobe and was pleasantly surprised to find that everything was straight-forward.

All I had available for my webinar was my trusted laptop and a mobile broadband internet connection, and it worked brilliantly. In preparation for the webinar, it helps to download their Attendee Quick Reference Guide: <http://www.ecpdwebinars.co.uk/sitefiles/19/7/5/197552/GoToWebinar_Attendee_QuickRef_Guide%20%281%29.pdf>.

As a first-time user, you are advised to sign on to the webinar via your personal link about 15 minutes prior to the start of the session to make sure your audio settings work properly. About 10 minutes prior to the start, the host welcomes you informally via audio and you are able to communicate via a text box. So, basically, you can hear them, but they cannot hear you, because you are muted.

While you are waiting, you will see the first slide of the webinar on your computer screen. It feels as if you are sitting in a workshop looking at the projector screen, except you are sitting in your study with your cuppa by your side. You do not have to rush to catch a train or fight your way through traffic only to find an expensive car park miles away from where you actually want to be. In fact, I had just had dinner at home with my mum who was here for a visit from overseas. Then the session started, on the dot! The voice came through crystal clear and it was easy to distinguish between the presenter and the host. In addition, the name of the person speaking appeared at the bottom of the screen. In the webinar I attended, there was a host and a presenter. The host welcomed all the participants and I learned that I was not the only one tuning in from Australia. There was no need to take notes of the slides since a link is sent after the session. In case you miss the live webinar, you will receive a link to the recording. Following a short introduction the presenter started with her presentation and went through the topic, slide after slide, in an easy-to-follow fashion and at a leisurely pace. Once in a while the host would have a question or comment. She also conducted a couple of instant surveys where we saw a list of questions appear on the screen

and we were asked to put a tick beside the selected answer. After 30 seconds or so, the results showed up as percentages for each question and the presenter commented on these results which gave her, and the participants, a percentage indication (e.g. of the participants’ background or experience in a certain field).

At the conclusion of the presentation, which took about an hour, we had the opportunity to ask questions via a text box. The host read out the person’s name and their question and then the presenter responded. Once no further questions were received, the host and presenter thanked their audience and the session was concluded. The next day, I received the link to the slides and the recording which will be available for 90 days.

I was pleasantly surprised at how smoothly and conveniently everything ran. I will use this way of continuing professional education in the future. Of course, if there is an AUSIT workshop organised locally, I always prefer to mix and mingle with colleagues. But I know that with webinars I will be able to attend CPD sessions more often.

Also, don’t forget to record your 20 AUSIT (ASLIA and NAATI) PD points in your logbook on page 7, box 4.2. You will find the logbook under <http://www.ausit.org/files//cpd/pdlogbook.pdf>. So next time you see a webinar advertised, don’t hesitate. It is all too easy!

Dear AUSIT Members,

Have you come across a client who surprised you by showing they understood what you needed, as a translator or interpreter, in order to deliver your best performance?

Or one who made you reach into your stores of patience and dignity because they expected the impossible?

AUSIT is interested in trialling a new column to be titled T & I Brickbats and Bouquets in your In Touch newsletter.

The idea of this column is two-fold:

To encourage better working conditions, pay and behaviour by T&I employers/clients by highlighting cases where poor behaviour or practices have occurred.

To support and congratulate clients who do the right thing by T&I practitioners.

In cases where poor behaviour is highlighted, clients will not be named but referred to in general terms; the focus will be on highlighting poor industry practices.

In cases of good behavior, the names of clients may be given.The idea is really to educate clients about industry practices which are unacceptable and to provide a forum for members to share their experiences.

Members who would like to send their contributions will need to write a small paragraph explaining the behaviour that has occurred. Please email contributions to Yveline Piller at brickbats_bouquets@iprimus.com.au by 6 August 2012 to have your say in the next edition of In Touch.

In Touch seeks contributions to a new column — ‘T&I Brickbats and Bouquets’

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CONFERENCE REPORT

The making (or unmaking) of the translator Are translators destined to be editors in ‘human-assisted computer translation’? Sue Jollow ponders the future after attending the ‘Making of a translator’ conference in Taipei.

In April my Victorian AUSIT colleague May Hu, a senior producer at SBS, and I had

the great pleasure to attend an international conference ‘The making of a translator’ at the National Taiwan University Language Training and Testing Center in Taipei. The organisers chose the translator as conference subject, ‘hoping … [to] offer some useful insights into the nature of translation and the role of the translator’. A dominant theme was the nature and impact of translation technology. Chan Sin-Wai who wants to see computer-aided translation (CAT) studies become a completely separate academic area, much like literary translation, gave a plenary paper Translation technology: Past, present and future. Specific domains — particularly those with highly restricted non-ambiguous linguistic data, often of great volume — are clearly now being well-served by machine translation (MT), and many are working to dramatically expand its scope.1 There are already various language-pair specific CAT systems, including Arabic-English, Chinese-English, Chinese-Japanese and French-English. 1 Sin-Wai mentioned 736 articles on CAT published in China alone between 2004 and 2008.

Chan’s paper included a great quote from the 1966 ALPAC Report2 which concluded there was no ‘immediate or predictable prospect of useful machine translation’ but translation technology raises the spectre of the ‘unmaking of the translator’. A recurrent associated question was whether we translators are first destined to become editors in a ‘human-assisted computer translation’ world and then completely redundant: the scenario presented was of our profession becoming industrial, mass processing in nature, and ultimately obsolete. Despite constant comments that computers can’t translate literature, there was a report of poetry having been better translated using MT. It caused wry amusement.

Nevertheless, people who think individuals will learn to use controlled language that computers will understand (as Anthony Pym predicted at the AUSIT conference in Melbourne) strike me as over-optimistic, about people’s language use — except for employees who can be required to use certain scripts in highly restricted formulaic contexts. Certainly, somewhat surprisingly, legal documents I translate from

2.Automatic Language Processing Advisory Committee of the National Academy of Sciences. ALPAC (1966; Warwick 1987:23-37)

Chinese, such as contracts, are not yet in standard ‘fill in the blank’ patterns, and they regularly have incorrect or occasional missing characters. How can MT handle that? The central divide seems to be between MT and CAT: I too routinely employ computer-assistance, typically Google searches — wonderful for quickly searching out examples of terms in context, and images. And ironically perhaps, computers now deliver T/I requests for work from around the globe. I think niche market translators will continue to enjoy a steady stream of clients — and lots of bilingual editing work.History was a major ‘making’ theme. Fascinatingly, during Taiwan’s Martial Law Period (1947-1987) it was illegal to publish any translations from mainland China, leading to over 1,000 publications by ‘unknown’ translators .Translators’ names were also fabricated: well-known novels might ostensibly have dozens of ‘different’ translations. And different translators’ works were at times attributed to just one translator. ‘Zhong Si’, for example, was credited with translating 27 novels, from Arabic, English, French, Italian, Spanish, and Russian!

These are just examples from a wealth of pertinent ideas presented and discussed. I’m happy to provide the program and papers to anyone

interested: suejollow@gmail.com

Left: May Hu and Sue Jollow enjoy the ‘Making of a translator’ conference.

Below: Fans queue for a photo with literary translator, Yu Kuang-chung.

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ANALYSIS

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Translating & interpreting ‘newspeak’

Eric Blair, aka George Orwell, knew the power of language. In 1984, his still-relevant

dystopian satire on Soviet Russia and other totalitarian regimes, the government of Oceania proclaimed these absurdist contradictions (war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength) with ferocious frequency until society came to believe them as truths. Today’s world is also filled with similarly laughable examples of language abuse as well as chillingly mild euphemisms for violence and cruelty which would fit beautifully into the deliberately impoverished language, or Newspeak, promoted by the state in 1984 to control thought. How do translators and interpreters (T/Is) reconcile the cornerstones of their profession — accuracy and impartiality in conveying messages — with deliberate obfuscation or deception designed also to control thought?

Take the word rendition. Originally meaning ‘an interpretation, performance’ or even ‘an interpretative translation or interpretation of an artistic work’, this term is now used by the US military and its allies to describe kidnapping: ‘illegally and forcibly taking the citizens of another country who are under suspicion of a crime by the US military/CIA and moving them to a country which does not abide by the Geneva convention on human rights for means of torturing the suspect’. Nice. The US military, just like the Party in 1984, cleverly achieves its aim of muting the negative emotive meaning in the latter definition (and, subsequently, reducing opposition to the practice). When translating or interpreting any new jargon, terminology or colloquial speech which is not yet broadly understood and an accepted part of the target language, a T/I can choose to include some sort of explanatory note to help listeners/readers comprehend.

For example, in Russian (the language I translate from), rendition is almost always written in English, followed by a roughly equivalent word in Russian. No exact translation exists, so the word for extradition, ‘vydacha’, is used, or perhaps ‘peredacha’ – the transfer, or handing over. Then follows an explanation along the lines of the longer definition used above.

Yet this must affect impartiality. By providing an explanation, the intent to deceive is actually thwarted. The T/I fails at their job. On the other hand, if an explanation isn’t included, the jargon won’t be understood. Again, the T/I fails.

Once a T/I believes a new term or phrase has become a part of ‘everyday’ language, they can drop the explanatory footnotes or asides. Treasures of US military-speak like ‘friendly fire’ and ‘collateral damage’ once needed explanation. Like Orwell’s Party slogans, frequency of use and repetition have made these terms part of the worldwide lexicon; they are no longer ridiculed and are now simply muted, almost calm, descriptions for killing. Once more, it makes these acts just that little bit easier to consciously or otherwise ignore, or not react to, when encountering them in the media.

T/Is (and English-language writers and editors) contribute to the deception by not pointing out the true meaning of these ‘accepted’ terms to the audience. In fact, our profession requires us to accurately translate or interpret lies (unless we feel we cannot ethically remain accurate). But is this the professional, or honourable, thing to do when these lies are actually impoverishing and rendering less accurate the very languages we work in?

How would you translate the following terms into a LOTE? (Translations into English have been provided for your convenience.)

WAR ISPEACEFREEDOM ISSL AVERYIGNORANCE ISS T R E N G T H

How do translators and interpreters fulfil their professional responsibilities when confronted with deliberately deceptive language?

negative patient health outcome —deatharea denial munitions—landminessignificant emotional event— death/injury, maiming, loss of property due to cluster bombnon-core promise—lieterrain alteration —aerial bombingtransfer tubes—body bagspre-emptive strike—unprovoked attackpain compliance/tough questioning/control technique— torturefinal solution— genocide of Jewsdownsizing/right-sizing/headcount adjustment/reduction in force— sacking of workersservicing the target—killing the enemyacts of asymmetrical warfare— Guantanamo prisoner suicides self-harm incidents, hanging gestures —Guantanamo prisoner attempted suicides unintended benefit leakage—fraud

This is a revised version of an article written by Bradley Dawson and published in an earlier edition of In Touch..

Bradley Dawson discusses this dilemma

JOB OPPORTUNITY WITH AUSITPosition: National PD CoordinatorHours: Paid, part-time employmentKey Responsibilities: • Design, setup, implement, maintain and

administer AUSIT’s national professional development strategy in cooperation with the National Council and local branch committees.

• Current target: Three face-to-face events in each branch and four webinars a year, distributed across core topics such as T&I skills, ethics, personal development and business skill enhancement.

• Liaise with members of AUSIT and the public, develop and maintain links with relevant institutions and organisations.

• Administer professional development points.

• Other tasks as identified from time to time.

Find the full position description at www.ausit.org. Please send a statement addressing selection criteria, resume and other relevant documents (references) to eo@ausit.org by 8 June 2012.

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CAREER

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Are you called to it?

Probably the worst thing that can happen in one’s life, after loss of freedom, is the loss of

freedom to do what we love doing. Unfortunately, the majority of the world’s adult population do work they don’t enjoy, simply because they have to.

There are, of course, a tiny minority of people who manage to make money and enjoy what they do. In certain professions, people perform because they are intrinsically attracted to what they do: doctors, social workers, missionaries, teachers, aid workers, human rights defenders, writers, artists and a few others fall into this category. They are said to have a ‘calling’. I would like, for the sake of argument, to add interpreters and translators to this list of professionals.

It is important to figure out one’s calling in life. Although money can be a motivator to do things, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has long ago proven that it isn’t as important as being satisfied with having meaning in one’s life and work. Doing something we are not passionate about for prolonged periods of time can be demoralizing.

This was what happened to me: For the last six months of 2011 I had to dig into my soul, trying to figure out the source of my unease. The question wasn’t initially couched in terms of a ‘calling’, but of having only this much more time to live and missing meaning in my everyday life. I needed something to drag me out of bed every morning, something that would put me in touch with like-minded, interesting people, something that would involve learning and sharing

knowledge. I have been a translator most of my working life, and I felt that I was reaching a stage where the whole process was becoming mechanical, tiresome and was no-longer challenging my mind the way it used to. Yet after 26 years of translation, my identity was tied to my work so strongly that even the thought of dropping it and trying something else was terrifying.I was on a trajectory to burnout and had to redefine my calling. So how do we define a calling? If we feel deeply emotional about our profession—if we are passionate about it and absorbed by it to the exclusion of all other activities—then it qualifies as a calling. If we crave it, and miss doing it — it qualifies, too. A true calling will use your talents, strengths and experiences in life. It is not a project, but a life journey, and the centre around which your life rotates. When looking to pin down your calling, one of the first steps is to draft lists: What do I want from my calling? What are my life experiences, values, passions and talents? It is at this stage that the doubts kick in—these doubts are valid and need to be resolved or the whole exercise falls to pieces. There are external expectations, some of them as old as our ability to understand what is being said to us. There are self-limiting beliefs, embedded in our psyche. There is our self-esteem, fear of failure, of disappointment and of loss. For me, these were the hardest to work around and resolve. Once the lists and the objections have been dealt with properly it is time to start making some plans. What you are looking at doing at this stage is finding ‘themes’. For me, as an example, there were two main themes: information work and teaching. List all your skills, talents and experiences under each theme, and check if you need to top up somewhere — maybe a course, some reading or a support group? The idea is to get rid of all drainers; i.e. activities that you are good at, but don’t enjoy. If you are on the right path to your calling, these drainers should be replaced with energisers — activities you enjoy doing, even if you are not very good at them yet. The energisers should then be aligned with your skills, talents and life

experiences, so that these strengthen your ability to engage in them. Now the time has come to name your calling. Nameless things don’t exist except as ghosts that haunt us, and you certainly don’t want to tarry in the ghost realm. There are two sides to the calling, an inner and an outer. The inner has to do with your psyche: why you are wherever you are, and what you want to do with your life. The outer is about action: how you will achieve what you want, when and with whom. Your answers to both will provide the name for your calling.And finally, there is the extremely important step of committing to the calling.I told my friends and family about what I intended to do. A public commitment means I was accountable to the people I told, and therefore had to deliver on what I said, or risk losing their trust. I decided to tell all my friends and colleagues that I was taking a path to academia and starting to do my PhD. I also decided to take a more serious approach to public speaking, something I am good at and thoroughly enjoy. Once you are on a roll, take some time every three to six months to review your commitment: am I getting to where I planned to, or do I need to review and adjust? So far, it has been hard work — trying to do both my translation work and writing a literature review. I have been a bit more successful in the public speaking area, focusing on finding opportunities overseas as well as in the country. And, once on the road, you may find that what you have been doing so far is not your calling. Don’t worry! Many of us are doing that, too. Life is about change, and about living it to the full.Remember, it is a gift we are only given once.

What happens when the work you once loved becomes tiresome and mechanical? Sam Berner discusses how to find a new career path

Sam Berner, who found a new calling through public

speaking and undertaking a PhD.

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INDUSTRY NEWS

12

Industry newsThe International Association of Professional Translators and Interpreters (IAPTI) has opened a new branch in Australia, its ‘Australia and Oceania Chapter’, which will be headed by AUSIT member Nicole Y. Adams.

IAPTI was established in 2009 by a group of professional language mediators as a vehicle for promoting ethical practices in translating and interpreting, and as a platform to address current issues in the T&I industry. If you would like to find out more about IAPTI, please visit www.iapti.org

Court interpreting highlighted on SBS Radio The SBS Radio Mandarin Program produced a series of programs on ‘Court interpreting’ which aired nationally on five Fridays between March and April 2012.The program producer, May Hu, who is a committee member of AUSIT’s Vic/Tas Branch, interviewed a number of interpreters, academics,

representatives of professional bodies such as AUSIT, and legal practitioners, including interviews on SBS and ABC with Professor Sandra Hale from the University of New South Wales.

In the episodes titled ‘SBS On-Air Forum: Court Interpreting’, several Chinese interpreters with various experiences talk about the problems and challenges they face in court interpreting and their suggested solutions.

A Sydney-based bi-lingual lawyer, Daniel Sheen, talks about how important it is to have a competent interpreter in court. He said that the quality of the interpreting may affect the severity of the sentencing, and may even having a bearing on whether a case is won or lost.

Joseph Tu, a lecturer at Monash University, pointed out some systemic problems which both interpreters and judicial officers can fall prone. Ms Dongmei Chen, a committee member of AUSIT Vic/Tas Branch, suggested that interpreters need to improve themselves by acquiring an adequate knowledge of the legal system,

specific terminology and court procedures before taking jobs in court interpreting.

Mr Lu Yu, Vice Chairman of the Chinese Interpreters and Translators Association of Australia gave the following advice to interpreters: be wary of complicated legal terms and the jargon barristers and judges like to use and be prepared to use your best professional skills to deal with the worst situations imaginable.

The majority of the interviewees supported the recommendations made by Professor Sandra Hale, such as establishing a national register of interpreting experts and setting up a national protocol on working with interpreters in courts and tribunals. The radio program series brought awareness of court interpreting to the public, especially to the Asian community. It also revealed where progress has already achieved in the translation and interpreting industry.

This program is now available on the SBS website <www.sbs.com.au/mandarin>. Once you get to this page, click on ‘English’ and choose ‘page 2’ at the bottom. May Hu

Translators’ and interpreters’ union campaign updateProgress continues as member numbers build with the Translators and Interpreters group.

The Committee is currently working on a number of initiatives. These include meeting with labour hire and booking agencies to confirm our long-term presence in the industry and to begin dialogue; meeting with the Australian Sign Language Interpreters’ Association with a view to possible cooperation; assessing the feasibility of discounted professional indemnity insurance for contractors; and planning a public launch of our campaign.

The Industry Survey report and Translators and Interpreters brochure are in the final stages of production and will be available shortly. The Australian Taxation Office is close to providing APESMA with information on the broader taxation implications of the On-

Call decision for Translators and Interpreters. This information will be made available to members as soon as it becomes available. Language group meetings continue, most recently with the Arabic, Turkish, Chinese and Italian communities. The Committee is also looking at holding cross-language community meetings in the near future.

An email to non-members about our intention to pursue superannuation entitlements was circulated in late March, generating interest in the campaign and these enquiries are now being followed up.

A letter to the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations in relation to a General Employee Entitlements and Redundancy Scheme claim to the liquidated On-Call has been drafted and is under consideration, following liaison with the liquidators Lawler Draper Dillon.

Existing members have been asked to complete a short questionnaire

so APESMA can better understand work locations, language groups, qualifications and agencies used by members. This mapping and segmentation is essential to allow us to establish our areas of strength, and determine where campaigning is best targeted. In future this process will be undertaken when members join.

APESMA’s Workplace Advice and Support Centre has provided assistance in a dispute at the Darwin Detention Centre about accommodation and conditions, and APESMA will follow up with a letter to DIAC.

The website has been updated with information on On-Call superannuation, the membership application form with updated fees for 2012/13, an article on custom and practice and how implied terms of employment operate, as well as the latest Committee meeting minutes (available to Committee members). Moreno Giovannoni

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THE TRANSLATORS/INTERPRETERS’ VIEW

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Babel no more: The search for the world’s most extraordinary language learner, New York: Free Press (2012) by Michael Erard

Michael Erard’s book Babel no more caught my attention when reviewed enthusiastically by Joel Zetzshe in his computer newsletter for translation professionals, The tool box newsletter.

The title itself, Babel no more: The search for the world’s most extraordinary language learner alludes to the hope of overcoming the curse of Babel. The Book of Genesis describes how God cursed the proud people who were building a tower together to reach the heavens, by confusing their one language into many, so they would not be able to understand each other.

The book’s title invites the curious on a quest with the author to find the world’s most gifted hyperpolyglots who speak, read, write or translate six languages or more.

Michael Erard begins the story of this journey with an introduction to the 19th century Italian Cardinal, Mezzofanti, who was said to speak 72 languages.

The book describes meetings with remarkable individuals, research and theories about how people master multiple languages, and matters of the brain, framed in this quest to understand.

For someone like myself who has put considerable effort into becoming bilingual, how could I ignore such a tantalizing prospect?

Reading this book assisted me to understand my own fascination with language learning, the pleasure it gives me, and my own son’s desire to learn Hebrew, Arabic and other

ancient languages, somewhat similar to Alexander Arguelles, a polyglot who states that ‘if something is worth reading , then it is worth reading as the author wrote it’ (p.141).

I have bookmarked some gems to chew over later, such as a quote from Lomb Kato, a Hungarian who learnt Russian by reading romance novels who advises to ‘spend time tinkering with the language everyday’, or the newly learnt discovery that chewing gum (while learning new vocabulary) improves recall of learned words!

On finishing the book I felt inspired enough to borrow Arabic learning material from the local library to make those regular drives to work more stimulating and perhaps to benefit my Swahili, the language I translate in.

If not, at least it is fun! Babel no more is all at once enjoyable, inspiring and informative.

Jean Burke

Review

Hello fellow translators and interpreters,

This photo (and the photo on the front cover of In Touch) reveal the views from my seat, where I tap away through heat waves, storms, and pleasant autumn afternoons in Sorrento, a northern suburb of Perth.

The cover photo shows my garden, planted with Western Australian native plants that particularly suit the limestone soils here. You might be able to see the banksia flowers, the grevilleas, as well as a kangaroo paw, the waxy pale grey plant in the foreground (excellent for shaping), and the melaleuca tree in the background (heavily pruned to clear the power lines, on the verge), which has been

attracting bees from my neighbour’s hive and is home to a family of singing honeyeaters (birds). New Holland honeyeaters also come and eat the nectar from the banksias, kangaroo paw, and the Geraldton wax flower, which is full of buds now, ready to burst in July or August. The window faces north, so we enjoy the sun’s warmth in winter, when it’s not raining.

What’s the view like from your position? Care to share it with your fellow AUSITeers? Interpreters and translators alike, you are invited to send

in a photo and short description of the view from your favourite workplace. This idea has been borrowed from the IJET 20 [International Japanese English Translation] conference in Sydney, 2009. Please note that interpreters will need the written permission of any person who appears in a photo to be shared in this newsletter. Please send in your photo and description to the editor for the next edition. (Remember that your image will need to look ok in black and white!)

I look forward to sharing your view.

A room with a view...For the desk-bound worker, the view from a workspace can offer solace, inspiration and reflection. Jean DeKlerk taps away from his home office through heat waves, storms and pleasant afternoons...

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BRANCH NEWS

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Branch newsBranch news

The pagoda is the sort of public space that could be and probably has been used for band practice. It provides adequate shelter from your average Melbourne rain shower and an excellent all-round view of the pleasant grounds of the former convent near the Yarra River at Abbottsford.

Your dedicated Vic/Tas Branch committee ‘bagsed’ the pagoda for a picnic on Sunday 25th March 2012 by assembling at 10.00 am and holding a regular committee meeting before anyone else was up. The picnic proper commenced at midday and exceeded our best expectations in the number of attendees — 17 members and 15 not-yet members. It was gratifying to learn that two of the not-yets have since applied for membership!People responded well to the BYO mode of catering on this occasion and all were well fed with some delicious offerings of an appetising multicultural variety. The weather was kind to us as well, so we were not confined entirely to the roofed space of the pagoda.As is the way with such gatherings at the present time, the topic of union membership figured prominently in discussion and Moreno Giovannoni gave us an update on APESMA activities. The pictured attendees and the rest of us send greetings

from Melbourne. John Gare.

Queensland

The year has kicked off in earnest with our workshop schedule. Attendance was good at our Voice Training Workshop in February, held at Geoffrey Rush Theatre, University of Queensland. In March, Sam Berner gave a practical presentation on Project Management for Freelancers. Again, our leisurely April Chat Breakfast was a chance to catch up, share a coffee, the latest happenings and some informal know-how. Just like at structured workshops, Chat Breakfasts are becoming known for the abundance of ideas and information circulating, as well as

some unexpected digressions into art and herb gardening.

Queensland Chair, Tea Dietterich is currently working in Paris and has been busily attending global industry conferences, gaining perspective on the state of the industry. In Monaco at the end of March, at the Globalisation and Localisation Association Conference, the largest language service providers (or as they prefer, Multi-Language Vendors) discussed developments in technology, machine translation, and future trends. Currently in Madrid for the European Language Industry Association networking days, Tea will also attend the ‘Localisation World’ international conference in early June.

On August 24, Tea will be giving an informal PD Session in Brisbane, sharing all she has learned from these conferences and reporting on the shape of the industry as we know it. This will be a particularly relevant and interesting session, as we have all felt the sands shifting under our feet and the need to adapt, work smarter and shift with them.

Meanwhile, back in Queensland,

things have not been dull. The University of Queensland School of Languages and Comparative cultural studies held their annual T&I Forum on Friday 27 April, in cooperation with the Institute of Modern Languages. Always well attended by both T&I students and established professionals, this year’s forum included presentations on negotiating for T&I professionals, literary translation, and a talk by AUSIT Past President Sam Berner on ‘CPD and the Changing Translation Industry’. The first-class morning tea hosted for attendees proved an ideal networking opportunity.

Saturday 9 June will see our 4th T&I Mini-Conference at the University of Queensland, with presentations by Christian Shmidt (Ethics), Daniel Muller (Technology), Sarah Dillon (Webinars/CPD) and a session by NAATI on reaccreditation.We will be sending a healthy contingent to the AUSIT Conference in Sydney in December – can’t wait for that. See

everyone there!

South Australia/Northern Territory

T&I connect has become a reliable sanity-saver, the breakout session to a freelancer’s solitary slog. Use it to brainstorm, whinge, share stories of bullseyes and mishits in your work, or just listen in.

SA/NT forum We hope this provides all members with access to a channel for informal, local, work-related chat and have been using it to let others know what’s going on in allied PD, such as public lectures at universities, workshops at business enterprise centres, and humour— thanks Magdalena Rowan for the cartoons. The forum has been used to post news and links to some of Adelaide’s interesting cultural events: Writer’s Week; the French Movie Festival; the public lecture at Adelaide University on bilingualism, the March copyright workshops run by IP Australia (AUSIT was offered a group booking discount); the Festival of German Film; and news of our family picnic. If you are interested in such events, check the forum for the latest and give yourself the

Victoria/Tasmania

W/Tas committee members:(from left) Sultan Dogan-Chair, Sophie

Meunier, John Gare-Treas, Mirna Cicioni, Denise Formica & May Hu.

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BRANCH NEWS

chance to soak up some culture with like-minded colleagues. If you are in SA/NT and face-to-face networking isn’t a regular option for you, why not join us here on the forum. Send an email to: AUSIT_SANT_Forum-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

TAFE graduations Once again AUSIT had the pleasure of presenting an outstanding student with a prize. This year’s winner received a free membership for achieving the highest mark in interpreting for 2011. Our congratulations go to Xianya Zhao, better known as Kay, who uses Mandarin and English. We hope she will find the information and mentoring opportunities advantageous and wish her a successful and exciting future using her languages.

PD plan/calendar Adelaide is proud to offer a new style of PD specially designed for the busy freelancer: the ‘CAT TOOLS MINI-WORKSHOPS SERIES’. These will be short presentations to a small group in an informal setting. Each workshop is limited to five places. As of writing, the first session in May was almost booked out in two days, just by word of mouth! Nicole

Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Following the presentation there will be an opportunity for questions and discussion as well as networking with other language professionals.

*Please note this event replaces our informal coffee morning. Join us here if you realise it’s time to stop ignoring online developments and get serious about what the Internet can do for your work as a translator or interpreter! There will still be time for our usual friendly chat at the endJ

Other events A few more events are in the pipeline: a presentation of the CODE OF ETHICS REVISIONS by Christian Schmidt and, we hope, a workshop presented by Sandra Hale. Get in touch with your branch if you want to know more.

E-flashes & local e-forum Members, remember to check your e-flashes for information updates on these and other branch topics. If you have not yet joined the local e-forum, you may be missing out on advance notice of some of these events.

Annual general meeting (AGM) Please note that the SA/NT AGM is scheduled for Wednesday September 5th 2012.

Adams, a member of the local committee, will present these events between May and August. Nicole is an experienced translator and editor. She makes good use of social media to promote her company, NYA Translations Services, which provides professional English and German language solutions with a focus on marketing, advertising and business communications. Visit <http://www.nicole-y-adams.com/>

The mini-workshop series topics are:

Mon 14th May — MemoQMon 16th July — SDL Trados 2011 and 2007Mon 13th August — Across (free CAT tool) and/or General CAT tool overview (possibly including open source options)

Social media workshop Nicole will also present a workshop on SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING FOR LANGUAGE PROFESSIONALS on Saturday June 2nd, 10-12 am. She will introduce us to social media marketing and the art of establishing an online reputation. She will help us navigate the dos and don’ts, demonstrate useful social media marketing tools, and take us through the features of Proz.com,

AUSIT CONTACTS

National telephone: 1800 284 181Website: www.ausit.org PO Box 193, Surrey Hills Vic 3127 Tel: (03) 9895 4473 Fax: (03) 989 0249Email: admin@ausit.orgYahoo groups: ausityahoo@optusnet.com.au

The deadline for the Spring issue is 8 August 2012. Please send any letters, articles or images for forthcoming editions to:

Rachel Judd, In Touch editor atrachelaj@bigpond.com.

The editor reserves the right to edit or not to publish any item submitted for publication. Opinions expressed are those of the authors only and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the editor or those of AUSIT and its executive. AUSIT does not necessarily endorse products or services appearing in any advertising contained herein.

This newsletter is printed by Bounty Print and distributed by Mailing Matters.

NZSTI Annual Conference 2012 Wellington, NZ

Translating and Interpreting: Celebrating Strength in DiversityWhen: 9–10 June 2012

Where: Massey University, Block 4, Entrance E, Tasman St, Mt Cook, Wellington

The theme of ‘celebrating strength in diversity’ is clearly articulated in this year’s conference programme, which is now available on the NZSTI website (www.nzsti.org). The programme has been structured into three distinct streams: General translation, literary translation and interpreting. Conference organisers are confident that it provides literally ‘something for everyone.’ NZSTI is very lucky to have also attracted two highly esteemed individuals to provide keynote addresses. These are:

• Hon. Chris Finlayson, New Zealand Attorney General, Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage and Minister of Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations;

• Dr Adrian Macey, a Former New Zealand Ambassador. Both will be sharing their personal insights into the role of translators and interpreters in their work.You can register for the conference online at <https://www.etouches.com/nzsti2012> and additional logistical information is available from the NZSTI website

If you have any queries please email nzsticonference2012@gmail.comWe look forward to greeting you at the conference in June.

NZSTI Conference Organising Committee