I already wrote about them before, but I’m just so excited, I have to do it again, especially since they are about to publish another great resource, “The tablet interpreting manual”. If you’re an interpreter with at least some interest in how technology can make your professional life easier, then I’m sure you’ve heard of these two. If you are and haven’t or if you’re an interpreter and have …
interpretation
2020 has thrown us quite a few curveballs already, forcing us to be more flexible than we perhaps ever thought possible.Not having any or less work or not being able to work is one of them. Working as a self-employed translator and interpreter means that the regular, government-based support (at least in Germany) in case of unforeseen events is not available. So you have to prepare for yourself. Besides …
If you have experienced simultaneous interpretation on the listener end but never tried it themselves – or if you’re just curious what challenges are involved, here’s an interesting (and funny) video by two interpreters showing and explaining some of the difficulties during simultaneous interpretation. It may seem almost impossible, and it certainly is not an easy thing to do, but I agree wholeheartedly with Katty: “This is the best …
For those of you who may have experienced interpretation on the listener end but never tried it themselves – or if you’re just curious what this “real-time translation” (not really the correct term, but that’s another story) is all about, here’s an interesting video showing how it works, both consecutively, where the interpreter speaks after the other person, and simultaneously, where the interpretation happens while the other person is …
Have you ever wished there was a way to avoid sending inquiries to translators and interpreters who for whatever reason are not available when you need them? Wouldn’t it be nice to see in a simple overview the dates someone is not available to interpret or out of the office (and thus unable to work on translations)? Well, guess what? On my website, there is such an overview. Yes, …
Last week I wrote about the importance of style guides. With the recent influx of interpreting jobs, another indispensable tool that came to my mind are glossaries. Without them, I don’t think it would be possible to work effectively as a translator but even more so as an interpreter. If all I had were dictionaries and term bases or glossaries of other people, I might be able to get by …
I’m having to interpret at very short notice the next two days, so preparing properly is a bit of a challenge, seeing as I was called only yesterday to fill in for a colleague who has become ill. Thankfully, the topic is not entirely unknown to me and the customer has sent plenty of material, an agenda and more helpful information, such as names of those who will be listening …
What do you mean “No, you’re not”? Well, if you’ve ever heard that “anyone who knows more than one language can be a translator and/or interpreter”, here’s an excellent video by Michelle Hof available over at A Word in Your Ear busting this myth (and also a few others) on interpretation. Enjoy!
I knew that there were standards for technical requirements for interpreting set-ups and translation in general (the BDÜ published a special edition each on the DIN-versions last year – German only), but I was unaware that there are quite a few international standards, as well. There are actually 19 of them now (6 of them still under development), grouped under ISO/TC37/SC5, with the most recent addition the standard on the …
You probably know the story about the Tower of Babel: how humankind, speaking only one language, had come together to build a tower that would reach all the way to heaven, and how God stepped in and frustrated their efforts by making them speak a multitude of different languages, thus making communication and cooperation a lot more difficult. Today, everyone is talking about how in the not-so-distant future, thanks to …
… that there is all sorts of useful information regarding translation and interpretation on the website of the German Federal Association of Interpreters and Translators, BDÜ? Seeing as how I am currently on the road quite a lot helping people communicate, I thought I’d share what the site says about interpreting: Interpreters Conveying texts orally from a source language to a target language Interpreting is the oral transfer of spoken …
Well, yesterday was a first for me: I don’t think I’ve ever before been hired, did the assignment and then got paid all within three hours. Usually, the customers call or write several weeks in advance to hire me as an interpreter for their appointment at the register office, not least also because getting said appointment is usually not possible on short notice and has to be coordinated with all …
With the rise of MT and AI, the voices proclaiming the end of human translation and interpretation are getting louder. And if you look at all the headlines and the hype taking place surrounding DeepL & Co it certainly can seem that way. But is it really true? The Tech-Savvy Interpreter (aka Prof. Barry Slaughter Olsen) took a very close look at one of the new devices that are supposedly …
