TCK. Third Culture Kid. It’s the technical name for children raised across cultures. With that early multilingual and multicultural exposure, a good number of TCKs end up in jobs that require an ability to easily move between languages and cultures – like translation and interpretation.

So I invite you to meet Susan Rials, MITA’s Communications Director and consummate TCK. The daughter of a US military family, Susan grew up in cities spanning the continental US and in Taiwan. She studied French and Spanish in college, and then followed up with a year of school in Europe. Shortly after her return to the US, she went to work for Berlitz Translation Services.

After sixteen years with Berlitz, Susan embraced the freelance life and has never looked back.

However, her experience as an in-house translator, multilingual editor, project manager and resource manager has given Susan an unusual insight into the relationship between contractor and agency. “My approach.” she shares, “is to do the best work I can, to learn from successes and failures and to be open to feedback and communication from colleagues and clients alike.”

Susan uses humor to connect with her clients and colleagues, dispel tension and make her job fun. Once, as a new manager in her Berlitz days, she was conducting her very first interview of a freelance translator. The candidate was a distinguished gentleman who had just arrived from China. Susan began fiddling with a paper clip in an attempt to calm her nerves. All of a sudden, the paper clip flew out of her fingers and whizzed right past the translator’s left ear. The candidate kept his calm, and so did Susan. “Congratulations,” she told him, “You have passed the serenity test portion of the interview.”

One big perk that Susan finds in her work is the opportunity to constantly learn. Another is that she never need wear shoes to work. To learn more about Susan, her story and the presentations she has given, visit her website at www.barefoottranslator.com.

Through the years, Susan has written several articles for industry publications and given presentations to national and local groups. Everywhere she moves, she makes a point of becoming involved in the local translator and interpreter community – and MITA is all the better for it!

Susan Rials is a Spanish/French/Portuguese>English translator who can be reached through her websites, www.barefoottranslator.com and www.susanrials.com, or by email at susanrials@gmail.com

“March comes in like a lion”, folk wisdom tells us, and given the winds that have raced across North Texas of late, the analogy seems accurate.  It also got me thinking about the layered meanings of the word “wind”.

In many languages, wind means far more than the movement of air.  It may symbolize change, unpredictability, inevitability.  It is a force that can be harnessed, but never  tamed.

In English, “wind” is found in a multitude of idioms.  A (very) few of these are listed below, along with a definition and an example of usage.  So here’s my challenge: what is the best idiomatic way to translate the meaning and tone of these into your non-English language?

get wind of – to learn of something, usually through unofficial means (Henry caught wind of our plan to surprise him on his birthday.)

knock the wind out of my sails – to have my momentum stopped by a sudden challenge (Henry’s announcement that he would be out of town knocked the wind right out of my sails.)

three sheets to the wind – also “two sheets” or “four sheets”, but the meaning remains the same: to be drunk.  Very drunk.  (Kate was so upset over Henry’s plans that she overdid it on the margaritas and ended up three sheets to the wind.)

bag of wind – also “windbag”, someone who is full of pretentious talk but not much else (Geoff said he could change Henry’s plans but we all knew he was just a bag of wind.)

be in the wind – this one has two very different meanings.  On the one hand,  “about to occur”; on the other hand, “on the run”.  (As it turns out, when Henry realized the party was in the wind he took things a step further. He snuck out the back door, stole my cousin’s car and now he’s in the wind.)

see which way the winds are blowing – to determine the most expedient course of action based on current conditions. (Geoff could see the way the winds were blowing and decided it might be wise to change course and  also leave town.)

between wind and water – similar to being between “a rock and a hard spot” or “the devil and the deep, blue sea”, except that where the other two idioms focus on the lack of viable options, this one  speaks to the vulnerability of a precarious position.  (Meg found herself between wind and water, not knowing whether to throw her support behind her boss, Kate, or her landlord, Geoff.)

twisting in the wind – this one also has multiple meanings, all in some way alluding to the gruesome image of death by hanging.  The meanings range from a dire punishment for crimes committed, to a loss of support or answers.  (So there I was, twisting in the wind as my henchmen abandoned me and no one had word of Henry’s whereabouts.  For a moment, I got angry and swore I’d see that Henry twisted in the wind.)

it’s an ill wind (that blows no good) – the word “ill” in this context means bad, not sick, and the phrase   means that something good comes for someone, even in calamitous times.  The idiom is often shortened to simply “it’s an ill wind”, with the rest implied. (Then I realized I had overlooked something.  Cake.  Chocolate cake.  Henry in hiding, Geoff gone, Kate drunk, Meg waffling… and me with all the cake.  It was indeed an ill wind that blew that day.)

 - Carol Shaw, MITA Reader Editor

Happy 2013!

     Here’s wishing everyone a happy and prosperous journey throughout the year, both personally and professionally!
     Several people have sent links to articles, training opportunities or tools that might be of interest. If you come across any as well, please send them in for a future Grab Bag!

Cheers,
The Reader

For your reading pleasure:

Found in Translation: How Language Shapes Our Lives and Transforms the World is a fantastic look at our world, written by Nataly Kelly and Jost Zetsche (available at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and other retailers.)  A recent review by interpreter Michelle Hof in her blog included a few questions, which Nataly Kelly kindly answered.  Anyone interested in the follow-up can find the article at http://theinterpreterdiaries.com/2013/01/15/found-in-translation-book-review-nataly-kelly-responds/

 Resources:

A handy site for research: https://www.khanacademy.org/

Literary translation, anyone?  Check out: http://k1nlitra.ca/

How about a little medical interpreting practice? http://practiceinterpreting.com/

Or learn about all sorts of things at https://www.coursera.org/

 Security:

And finally, a brief word about security. Scammers and hackers are busy people: be careful when opening attachments or links, especially from unexpected sources.

The other day, an email dropped into my inbox that appeared to be from the manufacturers of my accounting software.  They notified me of a glitch in my current version and provided a link for a patch to fix the problem.

Something about the wording raised a flag with me, so I rolled my mouse over the link and looked at the actual website address that popped up (usually on the lower left side of the screen.)  Sure enough, the link actually led to a site completely unrelated to my accounting software people.

Problem avoided.  But it served as a good reminder to keep a weather eye out and exercise a little judicious caution when clicking on links.

All roads may lead to Rome, but Martina Heine-Kilic’s path to Dallas crisscrossed the Atlantic.

Born in Ravensburg, Germany (home of the Ravensburger puzzles), Martina moved to Mexico as a teenager.  While her parents lived in Morelia, Michoacan (Mexico) where her father worked, Martina and her sister lived the grand adventure, living and studying in Mexico City.

After graduating from high school, Martina spent a year in Morelia and travelled extensively.

Mexico was followed by France, where Martina worked as an au-pair in Paris and attended the Institut Catholique. The next move was back to Germany, where she obtained her Master’s degree in translation (Spanish and Italian) from the Ruprecht-Karls-University Heidelberg, Institute of Translation and Interpretation.

Her next move came with a bonus. During a year in Trieste, Italy on a scholarship from the European Union, Martina met her husband, Gordan (who is Croatian, further expanding the family linguistic mix.)  Back in Heidelberg, Gordan worked at the Max Planck Institute and Martina at Springer Verlag.  Settling down, you think?

Not quite.  Three years and one daughter later, Martina and Gordan moved across the ocean to live and work in Denver, Colorado. But one more move was in store.  In 2004, the family (now including a son born in Denver), moved to Dallas where Gordan took a position with UT Southwestern.  Martina felt the need to get out of her office for a while.  After meeting Yvonne Stegall at an ATA conference, Martina went to work as a Project Manager at Transnation for three years before the freelance bug bit her again. She recently added voice talent to her list of services.

Martina’s move to Dallas provided MITA with a dedicated member of the Steering Committee, currently serving as our treasurer.  So, hurrah for the grand adventure that crossed her path with ours!

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For more about Martina,check out her website, www.heinewords.com

Every so often, someone comes across a fun or interesting blog that relates to our industry.  For your reading pleasure, the Reader would like to share some of these with you:

http://localization.it/tale-of-a-professional-translator-and-the-developer/

http://www.aipti.org/eng/articles/art20-weird-opinions-on-translators-and-how-to-educate-the-public.html

http://rpstranslations.wordpress.com/2012/08/17/when-law-enforcement-agencies-do-everything-they-can-to-avoid-hiring-a-real-interpreter/?goback=%2Egde_138763_member_148071302

http://patenttranslator.wordpress.com/2012/07/09/the-real-barrier-to-entry-into-the-translation-profession-is-extremely-high/

Enjoy!

(The Reader Editor is chasing a few deadlines.  As soon as they are met and conquered, another introductory post will be uploaded. Next up: Martina Heine-Kilic!)

Editor’s disclaimer: I have no idea if MITA’s own Biljana (Billie) Karamehmedovic ever had a crystal ball when she was a little girl in her native Croatia.  But…

Let’s pretend for a moment that she did.  Let’s imagine that one day, the crystal ball promised her, “you will go on a long journey”. Chances are that no one, least of all Biljana, could have imagined just how far that journey would take her.

Born and raised in Croatia, Biljana lived in Bosnia and then traveled to the USA as a war refugee in 1995.  She lived first in Wisconsin and then California. In 2010, Biljana moved to Texas, making her home in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

She has a background in civil engineering, as well as teaching, healthcare and natural health.

An independent interpreter and translator, Biljana’s working languages are English<>Croatian, Bosnian and Serbian (including Serbo-Croatian, Montenegrin and Yugoslavian). Her translation specialty is natural health and alternative medicine.

As an interpreter, Biljana focuses on healthcare. She is a nationally accredited Associate Healthcare Interpreter™ by Certification Commission on Healthcare Interpreting.  Passionate about increasing the number of qualified interpreters, Biljana teaches a community and healthcare interpreting course.

In her “other life”, Biljana is a Certified Natural Health Practitioner and Certified Holistic Nutrition Practitioner counseling on the principles of Natural Hygiene. She is currently pursuing a Naturorthopathic Doctorate Degree at the University of Natural Health, Jackson, MS.

Somewhere in all of this, she finds the energy to ably devote time and service to MITA’s Steering Committee as the 2012 president.

Quite a journey for that little girl from Croatia!

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To contact Billie, email her at BiljanaKaramehmedovic@gmail.com

Somewhere in the hustle and bustle of this summer, the MITA Reader moved from one blog host to another.  This was done as part of the upgrades our Steering Committee has made to the back end of our web presence.

Some front end changes you may have noticed are that MITA has entered the Twitterverse (@dfwmita) and we sport a fantastic new logo.

Our Steering Committee is entirely volunteer, and we have some wonderful, dedicated people in the service of our community.  Over the next few weeks, the Reader will be publishing short biographies of our Steering Committee so that we can all get to know them better.

The Reader will also be offering short reviews on assorted software and hardware tools available to translators and interpreters. If YOU have recently acquired something new, attended a conference, read an interesting book, learned something, taught something, or just stumbled across a little tidbit that might be of interest to our community, please email me at editor@dfw-mita.com.

In the meantime, bear with me, please, while I adventure through the learning curve of the new blog.

Happy Labor Day, All!

CShaw
Editor