There were two big events in the calendar last week: firstly, International Translation Day on 30 September; secondly, German Unity Day on 3 October (celebrating 25 years of united Germany). So it was doubly appropriate timing to attend the annual "work and play shop" run by the ITI German Network.
This year's event took place in London, with talks by fellow translator Laura Byrne on the use of the voice recognition software Dragon for translation and Charlotte Ryland, editor at New Books in German, on opportunities for and promotion of literary translation. In the afternoon there were two "translation duels" (one each for German-English and English-German) in which pairs of translators presented different translations of one and the same source text. Rather than a fight to death, as the name "duel" suggests, there was a very amicable discussion about the different translation choices made by each translator.
Since I am in a profession where I mostly work from home and have little direct contact with colleagues, it always makes a welcome change to meet up with fellow translators - some who I knew from last year's event, others who I had only interacted with online, and some completely new people too. Aside from the opportunity to socialise (the "play" aspect to the day), it offered some much-needed perspective and insights on work in the translation sector. The translation "duel" offered a glimpse of how other people might approach translation problems - something that is always helpful to prevent you from getting too stuck in your own way of doing things. Meanwhile, the talks expanded my awareness of the bigger picture of the world of translation: even though I may not be planning a full-time career in literary translation or to replace my keyboard with a headset just yet, I have a clearer sense of the possibilities that are out there (and, at the very least, have learned a few handy tips for dictating text messages on my smartphone, which I recently discovered already has Dragon installed).
Many thanks to all the speakers, and above all to the German Network coordinator Cherry for organising another fun and useful event!
Since I am in a profession where I mostly work from home and have little direct contact with colleagues, it always makes a welcome change to meet up with fellow translators - some who I knew from last year's event, others who I had only interacted with online, and some completely new people too. Aside from the opportunity to socialise (the "play" aspect to the day), it offered some much-needed perspective and insights on work in the translation sector. The translation "duel" offered a glimpse of how other people might approach translation problems - something that is always helpful to prevent you from getting too stuck in your own way of doing things. Meanwhile, the talks expanded my awareness of the bigger picture of the world of translation: even though I may not be planning a full-time career in literary translation or to replace my keyboard with a headset just yet, I have a clearer sense of the possibilities that are out there (and, at the very least, have learned a few handy tips for dictating text messages on my smartphone, which I recently discovered already has Dragon installed).
Many thanks to all the speakers, and above all to the German Network coordinator Cherry for organising another fun and useful event!
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