| | Powwow Report for Mexico - Mexico City (Dec 8 2001)
| Report from Margaret Schroeder | We met at the Caf� del Bosque, a popular lakeside brunch place located in the middle of Mexico City's Chapultepec Park. The first to arrive was our organizer, Amieva. Soon other participants began joining the group one by one. Though we started out as strangers, our common interests quickly helped to break the ice.
Scheduled for 10:00 am, the Powwow started at... well, let's say 10:00 "Mexican time". Suffice it to mention that some members who arrived at noon were not the least bit late. As for the finish, a few members took in the afternoon matinee for a session of "critical analysis of subtitling in popular American cinema".
One of our goals as translators is to facilitate communication between nations, peoples and individuals. In today's Internet era, ProZ is one of the ways in which we can meet each other virtually and present our services to the world. The Powwow allowed us to get to know the real person (and in some cases, the real name) behind the ProZ profile.
Mostly in Spanish, but also in French, English and a little bit of Italian, the conversation touched on a variety of subjects, some of them related to language, and some simply to life. Languages, life as a translator or interpreter, books, sayings, childrearing, food, and much more were among the topics that were food for conversation.
The first topic was professional associations. No agreement was reached about forming a translators' association. We are an independent bunch, apparently.
Books were also a topic of common interest. It seems that nearly every translator has a pet book that he or she would love to translate. But how to get it published? One of us is a publisher, and she had a few tips and suggestions. One idea is to break into the market with a book whose author has passed away more than 50 years ago. The copyright has expired, and the text has become public property.
Participants included both translators and interpreters. We compared notes on the challenges and skills involved in these related, but distinct tasks. It has been said that every translator should try interpreting to improve her speed, while every interpreter should take a shot at translating to improve her meticulousness.
The name Champollion came into the conversation. Was it the translator of the Rosetta Stone, or the creator of <A HREF="http://champollion.net">Wordfast</A>? Perhaps both!
We touched on the past; the Golden Age of Spanish. One of us had posted the following delightful passage in the Spanish forum of ProZ (feedback welcome):
"... y no por esto quiero inferir que no sea loable este exercicio del traduzir porque en otras cosas peores se podr�a ocupar el hombre y que menos provecho le truxessen" ["...and by this I do not mean to imply that this excercise of translation is not laudable, for there are worse things with which a man might occupy himself, and to less benefit."] -Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, author of El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha.
The twin topics of growing old, and the difficulty of translating wordplay, met in a discussion of the sentence, "Age is a question of mind over matter, if you don't mind, it doesn't matter." But is it true?
Speaking of the "untranslatable", a book recommended for every translator's personal library was <A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1889330469//ref=sr_1_4_1/104-1620329-7575117">They Have a Word for It: A Lighthearted Lexicon of Untranslatable Words & Phrases</A> by Howard Rheingold.
More levity: A friend of a friend saw an advertisement claiming: "Ferrari for sale. $500." She went to see if it could be true. It was, and soon she was the happy owner of a Ferrari, dirt-cheap. She asked the seller how it could be possible. The lady explained, "My husband went off with his secretary, and he told me to sell all his things and send him the money."
Which led to a discussion of interesting websites, such as <A HREF="http://www.urbanlegends.com/">www.urbanlegends.com...</A> with something for everyone.
Another topic that generated lively conversation was Paris. It turned out that some of our members had at one time been near neighbours in that city, without knowing it.
Last but not least, a quote regarding one of the greatest pleasures of our profession: "Under the reign of the Caliph Harun Al-Rashid, whose feats are celebrated in the Arabian Nights, translators were paid the weight of their manuscript in gold." (Secrets of the Great Pyramid by Peter Tompkins, Ch. 2.). Indeed, it was thanks to the Arabs that "the great heritage of learning" received from the Greeks and the Romans was preserved, later to be retranslated into Arabic from the languages of Western civilization.
We had such a good time that the idea of making the brunch a weekly affair was proposed�the suggestion was half-serious. We do intend to meet again soon; perhaps in January. We hope that other Mexico City ProZ-ers can join us. The Powwow bulletin board showed that there are a lot more out there who would be interested. The participants in the first Mexico City Powwow hope to meet more fellow ProZ-ers in person at our next event. Stay posted for details.
Present (in alphabetical order):
"Amieva" Magal� Amieva Lavigne
Claudia Esteve
Carolina Rold�n M�ndez
Caroline Cochin Rold�n
"Escrutador" Felipe Castillo
Gilda S�nchez
"Goodwords" Margaret Schroeder
"Solange" Georgette Mondrag�n
Gilda S�nchez
-Reporter
Margaret Schroeder
-English version
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ProZ.com users and members who attended
 : organizer  : photos  : report  : host |
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Postings from ProZians who attended this event Dec 2 '05 Margaret Schroeder: Nuevo pow-wow el 17 de dic.
Ver detalles al http://www.proz.com/powwow/773 | Apr 6 '02 Margaret Schroeder: Conferencia este miércoles
La UNION LATINA y la RED IBEROAMERICANA DE TERMINOLOGÍA
Invitan, en colaboración con la UNIVERSIDAD INTERCONTINENTAL
y la ORGANIZACIÓN MEXICANA DE TRADUCTORES
a la conferencia
TERMINOLOGÍA Y TRADUCCIÓN - TERMINOLOGÍA PARA LA PROFESIÓN
que impartirá Leticia Leduc, traductora, terminógrafa y docente en traducción
y terminología
el Miércoles 10 de abril de 2002 de las 10:00 a las 13:00 horas
en el auditorio Fray Bartolomé de las Casas de la
UNIVERSIDAD INTERCONTINENTAL
Insurgentes Sur No. 4135
Col. Santa Ursula Xitla
Delegación Tlalpan
C.P. 14420, México D.F.
E N T R A D A L I B R E
INFORMES: [email protected], tel. 5487-1418
[email protected], tel. 5559-1860
____________________
UNION LATINA - MEXICO
Morelos 74, San Jerónimo, CP.10200 México D.F.
Tel. 5559-9870 Tel./fax 56830542
Horario de oficina: de 10:00 a 15:00 horas
http://www.unilat.org/dtil
| Mar 5 '02 Margaret Schroeder: Martes, el 5 de marzo, en Xochimilco
Una disculpa por escribir en inglés, no quiero que sufren mis torpezas del español.
And another apology for the last-minute notice, but this only got arranged tonight for the following day.
A ProZ colleague from overseas is briefly visiting Mexico with his wife and would be interested to meet any of us who might be free. I'm taking them on a tour of Xochimilco, and anyone who might be able to join us at the Embarcadero Tuesday morning at approximately 10:30, please call me to get the place and exact time, and to make arrangements for finding each other. Si puedes venir, háblame al bíper al 5171-4907 (número directo), dejando tu recado, o al celular al 04455-9105-1026. | Jan 15 '02 Margaret Schroeder: Informe del Powwow del 8 dic. .
Ya se ha publicado el informe del encuentro del diciembre pasado (en inglés). Ver http://www.proz.com/?sp=event/powwow_reports_view
¡Espero ver a los fantasmas (los que se apuntaron pero no aparecieron) para el próximo, cuando y donde sea! |
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