December 23, 2010

Brassens in English

Georges Brassens (image: G. Bochenek)
"Translating his works into English is demanding — and it's discouraged quite a few singers. But now French-American composer Pierre de Gaillande has produced an album of Brassens' songs, titled Bad Reputation." Listen to Scott Simon's  National Public Radio music interview of December 18, 2010 to hear the results. A Propos thanks Joan for sharing this link!

December 10, 2010

Translation as Literary Ambassador

Photo: William P. O'Donnell
for The New York Times
"Hoping to increase their tiny share of the American book market, foreign governments and foundations are plunging into the publishing fray in the United States." Read Larry Rohter's full article (originally published in the New York Times on December 7, 2010) to learn more.

November 9, 2010

Adios FLD

Virginia Fox
Dear fellow members of the FLD,

Mylène and I are concluding two exciting and wonderful years as the administrators of the French Language Division. We have been very proud to serve our over 2,000 members for the last two years, and are particularly happy with the wonderful speakers we presented at the ATA conferences in New York and Denver. We are also very pleased with the dynamic new administration team elected during the Denver conference.

We wish to thank everyone who has helped make our tenure so successful, in particular:

Dominique Blachon
, the discreet yet highly efficient moderator of our very useful and dynamic list

David Heath, our wonderful webmaster

Elisabeth Lyman, the former newsletter editor and now fantastic blog editor

Karen Tkaczyk (and the other members of the nominating committee) for finding such strong candidates this year to lead our organization over the next two years

And also a big thank you to those who made the Denver conference so special and successful. Firstly, the soul of the conference our incredible speakers:

David Jemielity (this year's Division Distinguished Speaker or DDS, senior English translator and head of translations at Banque Cantonale Vaudoise in Lausanne, tenured faculty member at the University of Geneva's School of Translation and Interpretation, with special interest in target-text effectiveness in financial translation and translation process design and management), Grant Hamilton (former DDS, owner and manager of Anglocom, Inc., an agency located in Quebec mainly serving advertising agencies; Grant also teaches FR to EN translation for marketers and advertisers at New York University), Frédéric Houbert (former DDS, teaches legal translation at the University of Cergy-Pontoise in France; he is also the author of Dictionnaire des Difficultés de l'Anglais des Contrats and Guide Pratique de la Traduction Juridique), Betty Howell, Véronique Ponce, Bruce Popp, Karen Tkaczyk and Agnes Meilhac, and Marianne Reiner.

More detailed presenter bios can be found here, and abstracts of their sessions can be found here.

If you missed the conference, I highly recommend that you listen to the sessions on the conference CD that will soon be made available by the ATA.

And last but not least, we would like to thank Corinne McKay for organizing a delicious and very pleasant dinner at the Rodizio Grill. She kept her cool while accepting last-minute reservations and made sure everyone had a great time. It's amazing how much work is involved in planning a successful dinner; thanks Corinne!

Please help us welcome the new administrative team: Bruce Popp and Anne Goff.

Bruce Popp, our new administrator, has a PhD in astronomy from Harvard University. He is a US Patent and Trademark Office Registered Patent Agent, a freelance translator specialized in the translation of patents from FR to EN, and a former member of the board of directors of the New England Translators Association (NETA), based in Massachusetts, near Boston the site of our next ATA conference!

Anne Goff, our new administrative assistant, has an MA in French translation from the University of Surrey in England. She is currently a freelance FR to EN translator specialized in marketing and human resources. She intends to increase the visibility of the FLD and expand the information provided to members via modern networking tools such as Twitter. She is based in Sacramento, California.

It is a great pleasure to be able to hand over the administrative duties to such a strong team, and we are looking forward to supporting them over the next two years.

Finally, thanks to all of you out there for your continuing and renewed support of our division. You are the heart of this organization, and your contributions are its true value. The administration provides the structure, but the members provide the content: we need your feedback, suggestions, conference reviews and impressions, blog entries and other contributions.

We know we're leaving the French Language Division in good hands. We wish you all the best.

À bient sur la liste et le blog !

Virginia Fox and Mylène Vialard
Outgoing administrators of the FLD

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October 6, 2010

Café des Traducteurs in Paris

One Saturday morning every month in Paris, area translators and interpreters can be seen making their way whether by bus, métro or Vélib' to the Café du Pont-Neuf in the 1st arrondissement. They head up the stairs, claim their croissant and coffee, chat a bit with friends and colleagues, then take their places around two long tables in the specially reserved meeting room and turn their attention to the front, where a speaker prepares to present the month's topic.

These are the popular Café des Traducteurs informal breakfast meetings organized by the Ile-de-France section of the Société Française des Traducteurs (SFT). A French-language presentation (last month translation instructor Nicolas Froeliger gave an overview of "la traductologie contemporaine") provides material for stimulating discussion among participants and with the speaker. Each Café des Traducteurs is also a great opportunity to meet and network with other translators and interpreters and as one attendee put it a fun way to get out of the house and away from the computer for once! Participants registering in advance are also entered into a drawing for a chance to win a book.

The coordinators of the Café des Traducteurs warmly encourage translators and interpreters living outside France to attend if their travels should bring them to Paris the last Saturday of the month. Participation is open to anyone interested in translation/interpretation there's no need to be a member of the SFT, or even a translator for that matter. Just bring 8.50 (in cash) to cover the cost of the breakfast, which includes a hot beverage, orange juice and croissant.

FLD Administrator Virginia Fox attended during her recent trip to Paris    


To register for an upcoming Café des Traducteurs event or request more information, contact delegation.idf-matinales@sft. fr. 
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