Session

05

Aimee Benavides

The Role of Consultant Interpreters in the Remote Interpreting Market

Bio

Aimee Benavides is a Federally Certified Court Interpreter since 2015 and California Court Certified Spanish Interpreter since 2003 after getting her start as an Administrative Hearing interpreter in 2001. She has over 18 years of experience as an interpreter, having been a full-time staff interpreter and currently a freelance interpreter. In addition to having worked extensively in court, she specializes in technical agricultural conferences and training workshops, focus groups that require simultaneous interpreting into English, and educational interpreting. She has presented workshops and webinars regarding transcription and translation as well as how to best use online resources to research for translations and interpreted events. During the pandemic, she has become very familiar with Zoom and has devoted many hours with a team of colleagues sharing their experience. She lives in Central California with her husband and 2 children. She is passionate about the profession and enjoys seeing all that can be accomplished when we work together. benavidesinterpreter@gmail.com

Session Abstract

This session will cover various remote interpreting platforms as well as videoconferencing and phone conferencing programs not designed for interpreters that are currently being used in courts and by businesses. This workshop will be an interactive discussion including steps interpreters can take to ensure that language access and the interpreters' needs are taken into account for specific assignments.

Session

07

Dr. José Dávila-Montes

Textual analysis for persuasive features in Translation

Bio

Dr. José Dávila-Montes is a Full Professor of Translation and Interpreting at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and was the founder of the legacy Translation and Interpreting Office in 2005.

He studied at Barcelona Autonomous University (Barcelona, Spain), where he obtained his BA + MA in Translation and Interpreting and a PhD in Translation and Cross-Cultural Studies. He also studied at Dublin City University (Dublin, Ireland), Toyo University (Tokyo, Japan), and the State University of New York at Binghamton (New York), where he obtained an MA in Spanish Literature.

In the past, he coordinated a fully online MA program in Audiovisual Translation by the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain. He has also taught Translation, Interpreting, Spanish, and Japanese Language since 1999 at Barcelona Autonomous University (Spain), State University of New York at Binghamton (USA), Dublin City University (Ireland), and Hunter College of New York (USA).

Before becoming a full-time professor, he worked for over a decade as a professional translator, interpreter, localization project manager, editor, and project director for a number of publishing houses, producing encyclopedias, dictionaries and other reference works, multimedia products and language courses, and being involved in the publishing of over 150 titles and tens of thousands of pages.

Session Abstract

This presentation will explore corpus-based computerized textual analysis methodologies focusing on persuasive features in texts and their translations. It will showcase the application of corpus linguistics to discourse analysis and the intersections between text and ideology as an element frequently overlooked in translation. By mapping the use of specific rhetorical devices in texts of persuasive natures it will seek to awaken the awareness of considering non-semantic factors in the translation of persuasive and literary texts.

Session

08

Yuliya Speroff

Interpreting Idioms and Cultural References

Bio

Yuliya is a Russian-English CoreCHI™ and WA DSHS-certified medical and social services interpreter based in Seattle, Washington with over 10 years of interpreting experience. Yuliya also holds an MA in Business Management and is certified as both an English and a Russian language instructor with more than 10 years of teaching experience. Yuliya has found a way to share her passion for the interpreting profession through teaching interpreting workshops and writing in The Medical Interpreter Blog (https://medicalinterpreterblog.com/), which focuses on providing medical interpreters with resources and information for continuous professional development. In addition, Yuliya shares useful resources and relevant news in her Facebook group, Interpreters and Translators in Washington State, which welcomes interpreters working in the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere to join and participate in this wonderful online community!

Session Abstract

Interpreters invest a significant amount of time in learning professional terminology, such as terminology related to medical, legal, educational or social services, as well as the ins and outs of the US healthcare, school and criminal justice systems—and rightly so. However, interpreting encounters in all of these settings are not all Latin-based legal terms, dense medical jargon or educational abbreviations—they involve real people speaking real language, which may include small talk, stories, jokes, idioms, and cultural references. While it might seem that interpreting idioms is less important than getting the medical facts right, idioms may contain key messages such as descriptions of a patient's progress (or lack thereof) as well as speakers’ attitudes about the situation. In fact, being able to understand and deal with colloquialisms and idiomatic expressions in all their working languages is an essential part of a professional interpreter’s skill set.

This 1-hour workshop will introduce participants to types of idiomatic expressions commonly encountered in spoken discourse and equip participants with strategies for interpreting idioms and cultural references. The participants will be able to apply their newly acquired skills through self-guided practice activities provided by the presenter.

Session

10

Daniel Tamayo

Simultaneous Remote Interpreting in the time of COVID: A practitioner's experience

Bio

Daniel Tamayo is a Translation and Interpreting practitioner and trainer. He is the owner of GlobalTradu Language Services. He started interpreting insurance matters in 1993, med-legal cases in 2000, and since 2007 he has specialized in conference interpreting, nationally and internationally, in the following areas: Economic development, public policy, education, immigration, public health and environment studies. He interprets at UN climate summits and indigenous issues conferences regularly. Additionally, he serves as an English<>Spanish technical translator and as a Spanish editor and proofreader.

Mr. Tamayo completed a Master's Degree in Translation Studies from the Graduate School of Translation, Interpretation, and Language Education at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS), where he also studied Conference Interpreting and Court Interpreting. He also completed a Master's Degree in Hispanic Language and Civilization from the University of California Santa Barbara, graduate and undergraduate courses in Economics, and a Bachelor's Degree in International Management.

He teaches Translation and Interpreting at Cal State University, Fullerton, and at the University of California Riverside. He taught Spanish at Cal State Polytechnic University for 9 years.

He is a member of the Professional Development Committee of the Spanish Division of the American Translators Association (ATA) and a board member and member of the team of trainers for the California Healthcare Interpreting Association (CHIA). Mr. Tamayo has been a regular presenter at conferences and seminars of T&I organizations and universities in the US and abroad since 2009.

Session Abstract

This presentation will address simultaneous interpreting on online platforms. It will include some tips and observations for before, during and after an interpreting assignment in simultaneous mode. Some key areas to be highlighted include: simultaneous interpreting training and practice, assignment preparation and research, interpreting in simultaneous mode online, team interpreting, and interpreting technology considerations.

Session

11

Julie Samples & Valentin Sanchez

Covid-19, Indigenous Rights, Farmworkers, Workers’ Rights and Claims

Bio

Julie Samples has been an attorney with the Oregon Law Center since 2001. She is currently the Managing Attorney of the Oregon Law Center's Hillsboro Farmworker office (as of August 4, 2020, the Gresham Farmworker Office). Julie has experience in all aspects of litigation involving farmworkers’ employment issues, occupational health and safety, farmworker housing and discrimination laws. She co-led a nationally recognized project on reducing workplace sexual harassment against indigenous farmworkers and also served as Project Coordinator on three phases of a nationally funded project related to the reduction and prevention of adverse health effects of pesticides on indigenous farmworkers in Oregon.

Valentin C. Sanchez was born in San Juan Cahuayaxi, Oaxaca, Mexico. Valentin is a community educator with the Oregon Law Center’s Farmworker Program. He speaks Mixteco, Spanish and English. He has worked as a farmworker in Mexico and in California and Oregon. He joined the Oregon Law Center in 2002 as a community educator, first in the Woodburn Farmworker Office and now in the Hillsboro Farmworker office (and as of August 4, 2020, the Gresham Farmworker Office). Valentin provides community education to farmworkers in Oregon and conducts outreach at places where farmworkers live and gather. He has developed radio announcements, outreach materials including sociodramas in Spanish and Mixteco on various topics including pesticide issues. He worked on all three phases of the Prevent and Reduce Adverse Health Effects of Pesticides on Indigenous Farmworkers and is a co-author of several peer-reviewed articles regarding this work. He was instrumental in the design and production of a 30-minute pesticide video in various indigenous languages including Spanish.

Session Abstract

Each of these presenters draws upon almost two decades’ experience of community outreach, farmworker education and representation in farmworker claims. Their presentation will review the most important OSHA regulations applicable to farmworkers and how the Covid-19 virus has changed the workplace environment for farmworkers and what precautions to protect farmworkers have been introduced. The speakers will address the practical aspects of the use of PPE in environments where it may be uncomfortable and/or awkward as well as the need for other pertinent hygiene measures. The discussion will also include relevant changes to Oregon OSHA regulations resulting from the pandemic. Attention will be given to the terminology related to the various medical issues that have historically affected farmworkers because their workplace and the work tasks they carry out. There will also be a brief overview of the types of accidents that occur depending upon the crop and type of tasks performed. Finally, attendees will be introduced to samples of the outreach materials used to draw attention to the important health and safety issues affecting farmworkers and their communities.

Session

13

Host: Allison A. deFreese

Literary Translation Open Mic

Bio

Allison A. deFreese, MA, MFA, MAIT, is an Oregon-based literary translator and poet. Her work has appeared in Arkana, Asymptote, the Bangalore Review, CrazyHorse, the Decadent Review, and Waxwing. She has several book-length literary translations forthcoming in summer, 2020, among them María Negroni’s genre-defying collection Elegy for Joseph Cornell and Soaring to New Heights, the autobiography of NASA astronaut José Moreno Hernández who previously worked as a child migrant farmworker and was the first person to speak Spanish from outer space. Allison A. deFreese's translation of Verónica González Arredondo's award-winning book I Am Not That Body, a work addressing immigration and the disappearances of girls and women making the journey to the U.S. Border, won the 2020 Pub House Press (Montreal) international chapbook manuscript competition and was published on June 20, 2020—the solstice.

Session Abstract

Please join OSTI for a virtual Literary Translation Open Mic!

Bring a work in progress to read or come and listen to poems, short stories, and creative nonfiction from around the world! We want to hear you!

To sign up for a five-to-eight-minute spot to read or present at one of two live, virtual events to be held during the 2020 Oregon Society for Translators and Interpreters conference, please email Allison deFreese at: AlasVerdesTranslationNW [at] gmail.com. We hope to see you there!

Session

15

Lúcia Collischonn

Translating the exophonic text: On keeping the exophony of Yoko Tawada in translation

Bio

Lúcia Collischonn is a PhD student in Translation Studies at the University of Warwick. She holds a BA in Translation (English-Portuguese) and MA in Comparative Literature from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil. She has a special interest in the works of Yoko Tawada, having recently translated the novel Etüden im Schnee into Portuguese, published in Brazil in 2019, and Der erste Nachtgesang into English for the online journal No Man’s Land. New German Literature in English Translation (2018). She takes special academic and professional interest in exophony in creative writing and translation. Research interests include: translation theory and practice, literary theory, contemporary and world literature, Portuguese- and German-language literatures, transnational literature and adaptation studies.

Session Abstract

Exophony, that is, when a writer adopts a foreign language to write literature (Wright, 2008; Tawada, 2013) poses special challenges to literary translation. However, not all texts written by a writer who is a non-native speaker of that language are overtly exophonic. I would argue that texts which present a strong ‘surface aesthetics’ (Anderson, 2010; Wright, 2013)—that is, that make a point of questioning the new language and keep its exophony in the surface—are harder to translate because they break the illusion, the unspoken agreement of suspension of disbelief that readers experience when reading a translation (Briggs, 2010). I would argue then that the translation of an exophonic text results in a text that cannot hide its ‘translationness’. Taking into account Wright’s proposal of a method/theory of how to approach the exophonic text in translation, and using my experience of translating Yoko Tawada’s Memoirs of a Polar Bear into Brazilian Portuguese, which was the focus of my master’s thesis, I would like to further the discussion around translating exophony and help cement a path for future translation projects, using examples from exophonic texts and their possible translations into English.

Session

16

Helen Eby

A financially sound business plan for T and I

Bio

Helen Eby is an ATA-certified translator (English > Spanish and Spanish > English). She is also a Spanish state-certified (Oregon) court interpreter and a medical interpreter certified by the Certification Commission for Healthcare Interpreters (CCHI), the National Board of Certification for Medical Interpreters (NBCMI) and the Oregon Health Authority.

One of her major interests is guiding translators and interpreters who are just entering the profession. She also volunteers on the Oregon Council on Health Care Interpreters.

She has been an independent translator and interpreter since 1985. In this presentation she seeks to share some of the business practices that have been effective in her work and that she has learned in business workshops.

Session Abstract

In this session we will consider the business of interpreting/translation from a variety of perspectives to develop a successful business plan. This includes, among other things, evaluating the quality of the product being offered, how the client sees it, how to promote it, what the competition is, what the market may bear, the cost of doing business, basic accounting and invoicing, follow-up practices for sustainability, and client follow-up and satisfaction.

Session

19

Ann Mbacke

The Power of Compassionate Listening

Bio

Ann’s work focuses on using the power of compassion, and truth-telling to bring out the best in others. This has involved defining and identifying the connection between violence and trauma. Having served for over fifteen years as a middle and high school teacher, program facilitator, social worker with an emphasis on serving individuals with lived mental health experience and developmental disabilities, trainer, and therapeutic touch practitioner. Ann brings a wealth of knowledge to help bridge the gap that so many of us seem to feel and or see going on around us. It is her core belief that we are one and the differences are to be appreciated and accepted but fear and or misunderstanding gets in the way and can lead to violence. Recognizing that the only way to understand someone else is to adopt a philosophy of radical compassion while being willing to hear and have empathy with someone’s story is key to overcoming violence against one another. Having worked with many individuals and youth who have suffered from trauma in some way, Ann recognized that pain can be a great motivator to do good or it can lead to the entryway of hate (self) projected out to others as violence. This leads to a pattern of dysfunction and anger that can spiral a young person or adult into addiction, low performance in school, hate, suicide, bullying, physical violence, mental illness (Depression, Anxiety, and more). Ann’s work helping youth, students and adults started early when at 14 she decided to volunteer with the American Red Cross Youth working with children with disabilities as a Camp Counselor and the Detroit Urban League as a Community Tutor, during this time Ann was in major transition as a teenager herself having the experience of being homeless and a ward of the court until she became emancipated at the age of seventeen. Ann’s dream and purpose in this work is to serve to instill confidence and love in others so that they are inspired to be the change in the world. One of her greatest hopes is to live in a world without war where everyone matters! Ann is committed to serving and advocating for peaceful ways of resolving conflict and integrates mindfulness and a spiritual philosophy into her work. She recently served on the Core Committee for the local Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) in Santa Barbara (www.avpsantabarbara.org) working to develop programs and workshops that support youth who are at risk of dropping out of school and or entering into the criminal justice system. Ann started her volunteer work with AVP in Oregon as a community member attending her first workshop at the Oregon State Penitentiary facility for men in Salem. Since that time she has facilitated workshops in Santa Barbara and continues to support the work of non-violent conflict resolution meeting the core tenant of AVP’s transforming Power. Ann has also served as a community facilitator with Pace e Bene (www.campaignnonviolence.org) facilitating non-violent workshops to large and small groups throughout the central-southern California area. In this capacity she also spoke about the Model of Compassion, creating a Good Neighbor Policy, and how to develop Right Relations to build community and prevent violence. She has also worked with the Fellowship of Reconciliation as a Facilitator and Paul K. Chappell as a co-facilitator over the past few years as well as other non-profit agencies.

Session Abstract

The goal of this presentation is to support participants to engage in compassionate ways of seeing and perceiving other people, this may fall under the category of personal development. The presentation will focus on the principles of compassionate listening that goes beyond theory and into application. We will discuss the implications of how we perceive one another and how the use of language can be a barrier or a positive factor. It really is a matter of perception, whether learned through social norms or developed by experience. The presentation will support participants in self-identifying potential blocks to creating open conversations to develop a shared sense of community.

Session

20

Cynthia Roat

Making the Tough Decisions: Ethical Decision-Making for Healthcare Interpreters

Bio

Cynthia E. Roat is an interpreter trainer and international consultant on language access in health care and patient navigation. A native of upstate New York, she spent a decade working in rural areas of Latin America before moving to Seattle to earn her master’s degree in International Public Health from the University of Washington. Ms. Roat entered the interpreting world in 1992 and quickly became certified by Washington State as a medical and social-service Spanish-English interpreter. Her interest in systems change, however, led her to teach interpreters, trainers and medical providers the basics of interpreting practice and to consult with healthcare administrators around the country on how to improve their language access programs. Most recently, Ms. Roat spent three years at Seattle Children’s Hospital, managing their unique Bilingual Patient Navigator program, before returning to her national consulting work.

Over the past two decades, Ms. Roat has made significant contributions, both in the U.S. and abroad, in many areas of language access. She is the author of a wide array of key resources in the field and the primary developer of the original version of Bridging the Gap, for many years the country’s most widely offered training for health care interpreters. Her most recent book, Healthcare Interpreting in Small Bites, is being adopted as an ancillary text in many interpreter training programs.

Ms. Roat has consulted for a variety of large medical centers and healthcare systems. Always concerned about building grassroots capacity, Ms. Roat has been a mentor to interpreters, trainers and Language Access Coordinators around the U.S. She is a founding member of the National Council on Interpreting in Health Care (NCIHC), where she currently serves as Treasurer; she is also a founding member of the Washington State Coalition on Language Access (WASCLA), and a former board member of the Northwest Translators and Interpreters Society (NOTIS), where she currently organizes regular interpreter training workshops through the Medical Special Interest Group. She is known nationally as an engaging speaker, a knowledgeable resource, and an energetic advocate for language access in general.

Session Abstract

The world of the healthcare interpreter is fraught with difficult ethical dilemmas and the need for making in-the-moment decisions. For example, if a patient asks that certain information not be interpreted, do you keep it confidential even if the non-disclosure may harm the patient? Do you interpret everything accurately even when the message could impact or destroy the patient-provider relationship? Do you withdraw from a medical encounter that is too complicated for you when that means the patient will get no interpreter at all? How is an interpreter to decide?

This four-hour interactive webshop will introduce healthcare interpreters to a process for thinking about these difficult situations and for quickly making ethical decisions about what to do.

The class will begin with a quick review and comparison of two Codes of Ethics: the National Code of Ethics for Interpreters in Health Care and DSHS’s Interpreter, Translator, and Licensed Agency Personnel Code of Professional Conduct.

Participants will then learn the ethical decision-making model included in the California Healthcare Interpreting Association’s Standards of Practice. Concrete examples will be used to show how to apply the model to real-life situations.

Finally, participants will break up into small groups to consider specific ethical dilemmas. Groups will apply the CHIA model and come up with one or several acceptable responses to the dilemma. These will then be shared with the larger group for consideration and further discussion.

Session

22

Dr. Yasmin Alkashef

Perfect Your Sight Translation: A Workshop for Arabic Interpreters [Arabic]

Bio

Yasmin Alkashef is an ATA-certified Arabic-English translator/Interpreter and a registered court interpreter originally from Cairo, Egypt. With an MA and a pending PhD in translation and interpreting studies from Ain Shams University, Alkashef practiced translation and conference interpreting across the Middle East for almost 10 years. She also taught translation and English as a second language at Ain Shams University and the American University in Cairo. Alkashef moved with family to Oregon in 2015 and has since worked her space out in the US market. Alkashef now offers a wide range of language services including localization, linguistic QA, voice-over and language testing in addition to translation, interpreting and interpreter training. Alkashef is a proud mother of two and has traveled extensively for work and leisure with her family.

Session Abstract

Sight translation is the third and most commonly neglected sister of simultaneous and consecutive interpreting. Mastering sight translation involves skills and confidence. This workshop aims to prepare Arabic interpreters to tackle sight translation in different settings. Through hands-on practice, the workshop addresses Arabic-language-specific challenges at different linguistic levels ranging from lexical and syntactic difficulties to text-typology, register, politeness, and forms of address. Finally, working on embellishing intonation, pauses and presentation will enable participants to feel more confident about their sight translation delivery. These skills are covered through examples from texts commonly encountered during interpreting in court, healthcare and school settings such as: plea forms, police reports, consent forms, assessment reports, and patient intake forms. Participants will practice using bi-directional material and will collectively come up with strategies and solutions for the problems they encounter. By the end of the workshop, they should have an enriched toolkit with skills that can make sight translation more manageable.

Session

23

Laura Nagle

Yesterday’s Texts, Today’s Resources: Research Methods for (Literary) Translators

Bio

Laura Nagle is an ATA-certified translator working from French and Spanish into English. She is currently translating Prosper Mérimée’s genre-defying 1827 book Le Guzla, ou Choix de poésies illyriques recueillies dans la Dalmatie, la Bosnie, la Croatie et l’Herzégowine. She also works frequently as a legal translator and enjoys working with classical musicians and performing artists on the translation of promotional materials and program notes. Laura lives in Indianapolis.

Session Abstract

Translating a literary work from an earlier era poses a unique set of advantages and challenges. The opportunity to bring a long-neglected work of literature to the attention of a new audience is thrilling, and the translator may enjoy an unusual degree of autonomy in interpreting the source text. However, the translator must manage questions and doubts independently, as recourse to the author is impossible.

In addition to considering approaches to foreignization or domestication, the translation of an older text for a twenty-first-century readership requires the translator to evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of archaization and modernization. Whether the translator aims to archaize or modernize the language, inventive use of online resources can aid in clarifying the linguistic and cultural context of a source text that dates back a century or more.

The presenter will discuss obstacles she faced at various stages of her translation, from French into English, of a work of satirical fiction written in the early nineteenth century. Excerpts from the translation and demonstrations of online research tools will be used to illustrate approaches to the text, but knowledge of French is not necessary for full participation in this session.

Session

25

Svetlana Ruth

Americanisms: To use or not to use? [Russian]

Bio

Svetlana Ruth is a Certified Medical Interpreter (NBCMI and OHA) and a Licensed Interpreter Trainer since 2017. Her interpreting career started in 1994 interpreting for the Peace Corps in Latvia, the World Council of Credit Unions, the World Affairs Council of Oregon, and Portland Public Schools. While living in Portland, she has worked as a bilingual Domestic Violence Advocate and volunteered in public schools and libraries. She became a medical interpreter in 2015.

Svetlana has offered 9 interpreter training courses to date and multiple workshops and presentations. In 2020 she successfully adapted her training course to a remote version on Zoom. She loves sharing knowledge and experience with other interpreters and hopes to continue supporting colleagues in the future.

Session Abstract

Participants will examine research on the use of American terms by Russian speakers and analyze different requirements and expectations for written and oral translations. They will practice translation and interpretation in groups and engage in live discussions.

Session

26

Dr. Richard Safrin

How to Decipher a Complete Blood Count (CBC)—For the Uninitiated

Bio

Richard Safrin is a board-certified anatomic and clinical pathologist who received his MD from the UC San Diego School of Medicine in 1980. He completed a two-year fellowship in Medical Microbiology at the same institution, achieving subspecialty board certification in that field in 1986. Following a year wandering in the desert (actually, a one-year contract to provide pathology services to eight hospitals in Southern Nevada), he and his family moved to San Diego, California, where he has lived and worked as a pathologist since 1987.

He has worked in a number of hospitals and free-standing clinical laboratories in the San Diego area, as well as labs in such far-flung locales as Hayward, California, and Shanghai, China. He holds a faculty appointment as Clinical Associate Professor of Pathology at the UCSD School of Medicine, and is actively involved in teaching medical students, residents, and fellows. While his interests span the broad field of pathology, his favorite section of the clinical laboratory is microbiology. In addition to clinical practice and teaching, he has published a number of articles in the peer-reviewed medical literature

Session Abstract

This session will use sample laboratory reports, photomicrographs, and a few interesting real-life examples.

Erythrocytes, leukocytes, and platelets—oh my! Have you ever been mystified by these blood-related terms while interpreting a patient visit or translating test results?

The presenter, a practicing physician for over 30 years and a microbiology expert, will use sample CBC reports and photomicrographs to introduce basic hematologic concepts, with a handful of interesting real-life cases as examples.

Participants will leave with a fundamental understanding of how healthcare providers use CBCs to diagnose and treat patients. They will also be able to decipher the common abbreviations and alternative terms used for the different test measures included in a CBC.

This presentation will be in English only.