Tips 'n' Tools for Translators - newsletters

BDÜ links for refugees and helpers in Germany

nospam@example.com (Carl) — Thu, 24 Dec 2015 21:26:00 +0100

The Bundesverband der Dolmetscher und Übersetzer, or BDÜ for short, is a relatively large professional association for translators and interpreters in Germany and currently has well over 7,000 members. Over the last few months, a number of these members, including the staff who run the body at a regional and national level, have been asking themselves and one another how the BDÜ can help refugees who are now coming to Germany or have already been registered by the authorities and are now living in temporary homes, awaiting a decision on their official status.

In the latest e-mail newsletter sent out to members, one of the points mentioned is what the BDÜ has actually started doing for these needy people now, many of whom are from Syria and other war-torn countries like Eritrea and are applying for long-term residence permits without being able to speak a word of German: it has set up a special page on its national website listing numerous links to language resources of potential use to refugees and their helpers in Germany. Some of these resources are also intended for government authorities to help them interact with refugees and obtain the information they require to deal with applications, for example. So in short, the BDÜ sees its main role as acting as a linguistic and cultural consultant for these three groups of people.

The list of links has been arranged in appropriate categories such as 'General information about life in Germany', 'Learning German', 'Teaching German as a second language' and 'Help for refugees'. The last category includes areas such as interpreters' training on asylum issues and news for refugees in their own languages, as you can see below:

Some of the material listed is available in other languages than German, fortunately. Klett Verlag has produced a refugee guide on living in Germany, which is in English, Arabic and French as well as German, which is a good start in my opinion.

Apart from publishing this list of useful information for the various groups concerned, the BDÜ is also calling on its members to contribute to the Refugee Phrasebook, which is an ongoing project in which a practical phrasebook to help users with basic phrases and terms in German is being compiled with translations in various languages. Words associated with seeing a doctor or being in hospital in Germany are listed here with equivalents in 28 languages, apparently. A juridical phrasebook has just been started on this website as well, which lawyers are contributing to on a voluntary basis.

I wonder what supportive action is being taken by translators' and interpreters' associations in other EU countries affected by the current wave of immigration. What is happening in Greece, Italy and Sweden, for example? What does the umbrella organisation known as FIT have in mind, if anything? If you know of any similar projects outside Germany, please let me know about them.

Regards,

Carl

Related topics

Volunteering with the British Red Cross to work as an interpreter to help refugees

An article from August on ways of helping in the German capital: '10 ways you can help refugees in Berlin'

Volunteering to translate for a good cause, e.g. with Translators Without Borders

Images: logo © BDÜ, screen shot taken from the BDÜ's resources page, 'Hilfe für Flüchtlinge'.

A webinar on how CAT tools have changed

nospam@example.com (Carl) — Thu, 30 Apr 2015 11:37:00 +0200

If you are interested in hearing what a prominent speaker and writer on computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools has to say about the state of the 'art', a forthcoming webinar is likely to appeal to you.

Jost Zetzsche, the author of a newsletter on translation tools that I reviewed here back in August 2013, will be holding a webinar entitled 'Translation technology – what’s still missing and what has been fixed?' on 21 May (4 pm British time). This is actually a continuation of an earlier interactive webinar he held in January 2014 (see below for more details).

As the organiser, eCPD Webinars, explains in today's newsletter announcement about it, Jost 'will be talking about what has happened in the intervening 16 months and how, if at all, things could further improve for translators'. If you attend the talk, you will also be able to participate in it actively by asking Jost questions.

This webinar is free of charge, eCPD Webinars says. To sign up, just go to http://www.ecpdwebinars.co.uk/events_122730.html (or click here). Places are limited, but fortunately, the event will be recorded for later viewing.

Regards,

Carl

image: © eCPD Webinars

Related links

Jost's initial webinar on this topic, which can also be viewed free of charge (lasts 1 hr 11 mins).

The Tool Box Journal ('a monthly journal for people in the translation industry who want to get more out of their computers')

Subscribe to eCPD's free webinar newsletter on their website to keep up to date with their events.

The Tool Box Newsletter

nospam@example.com (Carl) — Fri, 09 Aug 2013 17:37:27 +0200

If you are the kind of translator who likes reading about the latest news from the translation industry, picking up tips about using your computer, learning about programs that can help you in your work and hearing an expert's opinions on new product developments, then you ought to have a look at Jost Zetzsche's "Tool Box" newsletter.

It comes in two editions: a basic one that contains several short articles and a teaser from a longer one, which is free of charge, and a "premium" version, which features all the articles in their entirety and a few more to boot, plus access to the archives, and is available at an annual subscription fee of $25. To get a copy, all you need to do is sign up for it, pick the edition you want and say which e-mail address it should be sent to, then it will land in your inbox on a regular basis.

The basic version of the current issue, no. 225, contains a piece on SDL Trados Studio 2014 and MultiTerm 2014, which are due out around the end of September this year. Jost discusses the revamped interface of Studio 2014, which – like Microsoft Office 2007 and later versions – includes a ribbon instead of drop-down menus. He also mentions Studio's new alignment tool, which has been integrated into the program for the first time and replaces the separate WinAlign application that was needed in earlier versions.

Apart from taking a look at SDL Trados's latest innovations, Jost also addresses the topic of machine translation (MT), looking at what offerings are currently available to freelance translators rather than large translation companies and corporate users, which have tended to be the focus of MT service providers up until now (the full version of that interesting article is in the premium edition).

What else is in the newsletter? Well, the basic version starts with a lengthy, descriptive piece on João Rodrigues, a Portuguese interpreter who lived in Japan in the 16th century, then it jumps to the fate of QuarkXPress, the DTP software that lost much of its market share to Adobe's InDesign, and goes on to mention CopyFlow, a tool that enables you to work on such DTP files. It ends with an announcement about an event to be held by an American translators' and interpreters' association in September where Peter Schmitt (University of Leipzig, Germany) will be talking about "new trends and risks at the translator's workbench".

One of the advantages of getting the premium edition is that Jost also discusses features of personal computers that can help you get more out of your own PC. So as you can see, the newsletter's a mixed bag of subjects with something of interest for everyone.

Hope you enjoy the read and find it helpful as well.

Regards

Carl

image: courtesy of Jost Zetzsche, International Writers' Group