I recently attended a translation workshop in Leeds organised by the Institute of Translation and Interpreting. My initial thoughts were that such a beautiful autumn day should be spent outside, preferably up a mountain, rather than poring over challenging texts, but, too late, the train was taking me to Leeds! Once everyone had gathered at the allocated venue, set within the large Leeds University campus, we split into language groups. I opted to join the relatively small group of translators working from English into French. More friendly and welcoming a group I couldn’t have hoped for! Everyone shared their background and interests, good humour and joking never far. We were given four different text types, ranging from general to legal and financial, including a more technical text on graphene. A review of Allo Allo! proved to be quite challenging: what is a translator to do with an English soldier dressed up as a gendarme pretending to be French with an English accent!!
Overall, the real benefit of the day was to make contact with other translators working in similar conditions and facing the same difficulties, as well as enjoying translating with them for a day. My conversation with a colleague on the train going home has certainly given me food for thought on voice recognition software, so maybe I won’t have to pay the osteopath’s bills much longer!
Next time I see an announcement for an ITI translation workshop, I will definitely sign up, no hesitation!
