watch out! translation change ahead!

the worlds of both translation and language learning could be about to change significantly. truly. watch this video and be blown away by the technological changes you will live through. may they bring our world closer together and build more understanding and peace.

great video argument for interpretation

After 35 years, the Dutch ministery of Health just stopped paying for professional interpreter services in health care.  Interpreters responded with this video.  Thanks to the interprenaut for posting.

la prensa chusma

the yellow press.  as rendered in this interview of Mariela Castro by Democracy Now!, which is anything but.

shantytown

As I've posted before, I don't like the term slum. Shantytown isn't much better as a term, but somewhat. The other option is squatter settlement - but it sounds very high register and does not include those that have gotten legal title. In English I prefer poor or marginalized neighborhood - self-built neighborhood is another option.

The terms for shantytown in Spanish seem to be quite country specific:
 
villa miseria, often shortened to just villa, seems very Argentinian, though maybe other Southern cone countries use it. Argentinians also sometimes use ciudades miseria

in Peru they are sometimes called 'pueblo joven'

in Mexico they are 'colonias populares' 
[correction! thanks to Atenea who writes: "A "colonia popular" in Mexico is not a shantytown. Colonias populares are low-income government developed housing complexes. The term we use to refer to shantytowns is "ciudades perdidas" (perhaps a bit worn out lately) and, more recently, "colonias de paracaidistas"]

in El Salvador the term is 'comunidades marginales', one of my personal favorites that I think travels well, ie, others will understand it even if they don't normally use it, unlike villa.
[huge thanks to Silvia who suggests comunidades marginalizadas - fantastic! so much better]

the other option is asentamiento informal, but that's pretty high register.

otras? sugerencias porfa!

[thanks to Ronald who writes that in Nicaragua they are called 'barrios' - pero ojo que en otros paises barrio significa justo lo opuesto]

general assembly

General assembly in the way the term is used in the occupy movement is usually asamblea popular, not general - though they are often just called 'asamblea'. 

Asamblea general is, however, used for the United Nations general assembly. 

There is a long history of holding asambleas in many communities and movements across Latin America, often coming more out of indigenous traditions than anarchist ones. 

how to interpret jokes (or not)

this video gets particularly useful around minute four

soberania semillera

soberania semillera: seed sovereignty

This concept was new to me when I heard it recently but instantly made sense.  It's more specific than food sovereignty, which is more specific than food security (seguridad alimentaria).

The term gets very low googlage but hey, I'm in favor of useful neologisms.

contrabandista

I learned from this article about the Wayuu, uno de los pueblos originarios en Colombia that traditionally engages in what is often called contraband, that a more respectful term for this is 'comerciante informal transfronterizo' or, in English, informal cross-border trader. The Wayuu's traditional territory crosses the Venezuela-Colombia border.

person with hearing impairment

persona con discapacidad auditiva

as with all forms of disability, it is more respectful to put the word person first, both in English and in Spanish, as opposed to, say, using 'hearing impaired person'


I was reminded of the term when my friend Andrea posted this story about kids fighting for sign interpreters in school

bullying

bullying: matoneo escolar (often shortened to just matoneo)

At the recent educators conference I interpreted for I heard several Mexicans use the English word, but in Colombia matoneo is used.  I'm not sure about other countries, any other versions out there? 

Matoneo has been in the Colombian news a lot lately because rates are way up and a student was killed recently.   A senator is asking for a national school emergency to be declared, details here.

referral

referral: remisión; derivación

as in, information and referral line, or referral to a specialist. derivación is very spainish :) (ie, Spanish from Spain) and I'm not sure that, say, low literacy folks from Mexico would understand it, though apparently it is technically correct (though it sounds odd to me because it is a false cognate).  Many thanks to the fabulous Ricardo Chaparro Pacheco for recommending remisión as the more common Latin American version. As he puts it "To refer someone significaría remitir a alguien a. Dada la noción de "especialidad" que implica, Remisión es ampliamente usada en relación con servicios médicos, pero también aplica para enviar a alguien a una consulta o ante una autoridad legal, o ante una institución particular."

I know a lot of hotlines in the US, including the Tenants Union line I staffed in Spanish, use recomendación instead to be more widely understood, but I think that can also lead to misunderstandings. Folks might thing that because I'm recomendandolos they'll get special attention when they get to the HUD office, or that I'm saying that this particular attorney is a good one, as opposed to simply being one who takes tenant cases.

grounded

grounded: arraigado

Props to my compa Kirsten from Codev. We're interpreting for the IDEA network conference "Teaching for Transformation: International Forum on Liberating Pedagogies and Resistance to Neo-liberalism" and she came up with this rendition.

When grounded is being used in a more new agey way, like, let's take a deep breath and get grounded, I've used mandemos polo a tierra, but when it's being used to say it's a grounded proposal, or she's a grounded leader, arraigada can work.

drones

drones: drones

I far prefer using drones than than the option aviones no tripulados or vehiculos aéreos no tripulados.

As my PhD adviser, Derek Gregory, has repeatedly argued, drones do in fact have a human flying them and making the decision to shoot or drop a bomb, it's just that they're sitting on the ground. This does not necessarily mean that they're farther away, in some sense they are much closer than a normal bomber pilot, because they can see the people on the ground in high resolution on their screen, just six inches from their face.

I also see 'drones' increasingly used in the media, as in the terrifying article below from El Tiempo.

Colombia pidió a EE. UU. más aviones para 'reducir a Farc a la mitad'

Colombia le pidió a Estados Unidos más helicópteros, aviones espía, 'drones' y asistencia en inteligencia como parte de la nueva estrategia del gobierno que busca golpear a las Farc y reducir su número de combatientes a la mitad en los próximos dos años.

Según Dempsey, que habló con los periodistas que lo acompañaron al viaje, los funcionarios colombianos le explicaron que los nuevos recursos servirían como un acelerador de la actual estrategia que buscaría obtener los resultados previstos en el menor tiempo posible.

...

Pero de acuerdo con un recuento del diario Wall Street Journal, que acompañó al general durante el viaje, Dempsey se mostró cauteloso frente a la solicitud, especialmente en lo relacionado con los drones.

Por un lado, dijo el general, ya existe una alta demanda por estos aviones no tripulados de EE.UU. en otras regiones del planeta como la Península Coreana, Oriente Medio y Africa.

"Antes de cambiar mis prioridades quisiera ver que los colombianos me convencieran de que realmente pueden alcanzar las metas que se han puesto y que estos recursos que nos han pedido realmente son la clave para acelerar los tiempos", dijo el General.

Además, fuentes militares indicaron que la transferencia o venta de 'drones' a Colombia es complicada pues el Congreso de este país se ha opuesto a compartir tecnología tan sensible con otros países, incluso como aliados de la OTAN, como Turquía.

Fuentes consultadas por EL TIEMPO, le confirmaron a este diario que el país está interesado en comprar de Estados Unidos al menos 10 helicópteros Black Hawk que son necesarios para darle más movilidad a las Fuerzas Armadas en esta fase de la nueva estrategia.

El proceso, sin embargo, es lento y complicado dada la gran demanda que también existe por este tipo de aparatos.

De acuerdo con fuentes militares, la idea de Colombia es añadir dos nuevas Fuerzas de Tarea Conjunta a las 5 que ya están en operación.

Adicionalmente, Dempsey confirmó que el Pentagono piensa enviar a Colombia a comandantes de Brigada de EE.UU. que vienen de prestar servicio en Irak y Afganistán y que son expertos en contrainsurgencia.

La idea es que los comandantes sean enviados al frente de batalla donde permanecerán dos semanas junto al Ejército y la Policia colombiana.

Los militares, que llegarían en junio, estarán ubicados en las zonas de operación de las nuevas Fuerzas de Tarea Conjunta entre ellas Vulcano, que está asentada cerca a la frontera con Venezuela. Según Dempsey, los militares compartirán experiencias más no estarán autorizados para participar en combate.

SERGIO GÓMEZ MASERI
Corresponsal de EL TIEMPO
WASHINGTON

icebreaker

icebreaker: actividad de desinhibicion, 'dinámica', dinámica rompehielo

I always heard these referred to as just 'dinámicas' in El Salvador (and word is that's true for most of Central America), but apparently in the southern cone rompehielo is used. In Colombia the term more widely used seems to be the more first formal one, which I would imagine would also be understood elsewhere, but then, rompehielo probably would be too, even if folks hadn't heard it before. Thanks to Flavia for this great link to a bunch of these rompehielos.

One of my favorite icebreakers is the telaraña: have people stand in a circle and throw a ball of yarn randomly across the circle, when you get it you say your name and one thing - maybe something relevant to the topic of the workshop or meeting. I even did this once at a large mixed baby shower where we each said our wish for the parents. Lovely. The photo is of this being done at one of the workshops of the Colombian Historical Memory Commission, photo by Jesus Abad Colorado. (More of his amazing human rights photography is online here.) I am working on translating and adapting this toolkit by the commission that is full of great techniques for doing participatory historical memory work in areas of conflict.

volunteer interps needed for great event in DC

wow, a trailer for a movement event? and there's a spanish version too. now all we need are some volunteers to help us make these events against US militarism in the Americas fully bilingual. Are you driving distance from DC? Can you please help? Or pass this word on to someone who might?

Interps are needed for both the conference and strategy sessions, and the camp. The camp sounds amazing - great chance to learn nonviolence skills in exchange for YOUR interp skills. Gas stipend available to get you there. If you can help contact nico (at) soaw.org

the R word

If you live in the US or Canada I hope you've been exposed to some of the wonderful campaign to ban the R word and replace "retarded" with intellectual disability. Sometimes the term developmental disability is also added - though this can lead to some confusion since, for example, not all people with Cerebral Palsy (CP) have intellectual disabilities - but when the terms are strung together it is often assumed that they are. Indeed, my friend who has CP and also a PhD has to regularly prove herself, since people see her body and assume that her mind is also disabled. The term 'developmental disability' means a lifelong disability attributable to mental or physical impairments, manifested prior to age 18. So as I understand it, all people with intellectual disability have a developmental disability, but the opposite is not necessarily true.

Some states in the US put a slash between the terms and use intellectual/developmental disabilities. Some groups use 'and', as in intellectual and development disabilities. Thanks to my friends Betsy and Tom who in the last few days talked through these terminology issues with me and suggest the use of 'or', as in 'intellectual or developmental disabilities'.

As far as the Spanish version of all this, it's pretty much a matter of cognates: discapacidad intelectual o de desarollo.

chucha

chucha is one of those words with what seems like a thousand meanings depending on the country. Below is a video making fun of these sorts of words. It's slow to get going but well worth the fun terminology lesson if you keep going. The many definitions of chucha come in around minute two.



thanks to Tedd for this link and to Victor Manuel for the reminder.

great translation tool

wordreference has added new search bar add ons for firefox since the last time I blogged about the tools I use

or if you prefer, they have also set up a keyword system

the new ones go in each direction, and also have synonyms, which are useful for going sideways when you're stuck (i.e. find another way to say it in the source language and then go to a source to target dictionary) - and include the Sp > Sp RAE (LA real academia)

back channel

back channel: un canal de comunicación discreto

This came up in this interview of former Colombian president Pastrana on the tenth anniversary of the peace negotiations - Pastrana said it in both English and Spanish interestingly.

warlords

warlords: señores de la guerra

unfortunately it doesn't sound as good if you're just talking about ONE warlord (it's Carlos Castaño in the photo). I haven't heard this term widely used in Colombia, but it's in the title of one of the best books on the paramilitaries in Colombia:

Los señores de la guerra: de paramilitares, mafiosos y autodefensas en Colombia by Gustavo Duncan

TRAINING coming up in interpreting for social justice

speaking of the fabulous Wayside, they have a training coming up
March 23rd - 25th, 2012

1100 Mill Pond Road
Faber, VA 22938
(434) 263-5115

GOALS:

• To build a cadre of skilled social justice interpreters in the Southeast and Appalachia who can empower immigrant communities by providing language accessibility to promote social justice
• To encourage local leadership in immigrant communities through sharing skills by training other community members in social justice interpreting
• To create multilingual spaces in social justice communities where language is used democratically as a movement-building tool of power

REGISTRATION FEES
(based on income)
Full and partial scholarships available

Income	Fee
Under $15,000	$170
$15 - $25,000	$200
$25 - $35,000	$240
$35 - $45,000	$280
$45 - $55,000	$325
over $55,000	$375

WHO THIS IS FOR:
Bilingual social justice activists and workers who would like to learn more about interpreting and translating in a social justice context to empower immigrant communities and build alliances across communities.

SESSIONS WILL INCLUDE:

• Interpreter Role and Ethics
• Interpretation modes
• Use of interpreting equipment
• Differences and similarities in social justice interpreting
• Impact of language barriers in social justice movement building
• How to create a multilingual space

Hands-on interpreting by participants throughout the workshop

Please Note: Participants should be able to commit to the entire program schedule (Friday 10 am through Sunday 4 pm).

Registration is based on a sliding scale. If you are paying for the workshop yourself, use your household income. If your organization is paying, use the organizational income. Registration includes three days of training, meals, lodging and linens.

Full and partial scholarships are available.

SIGN UP HERE

politiquería

politiquería: influence-peddling

this rendition caught my eye in Adam Isaacson's report on Montes de Maria over at the fabulous Just the Facts website. Sounds like politqueria is the least of the problems there.

why I don't love "language justice" terminology

I've been mulling over the 'language justice' terminology used by a lot of my compas who organize to make our movements more multilingual. I don't really like it. My sense is that it makes it sound like making the space fully bilingual is about justice for limited English speakers - or at any rate it seems easy for fluent English speakers to interpret it that way - rather than understanding that it benefits, say, limited Spanish speakers as much or more to have a broader more inclusive smarter movement with access to more experiences and insights. Rather than talk about 'language justice' I would prefer calling it the 'bilingual space committee' or what have you. Of course a bilingual space involves much more than interp and trans, but also bilingual facilitation and more (for how to see the great tips in the resource in this post).

Now if it's a matter of getting proper language interpretation in court, there I'm all for using the term 'language justice'.

But then again, I might be wrong about the connotations of the term - because this image is from the fabulous Wayside center, and though they use the term 'language justice', as they put it:

"Wayside has made a commitment to build and amplify voices and languages not often heard in organizing and movement spaces. We are working in Virginia and DC with organizations that see the need, and the organizing power, of connecting people across race and language especially in immigrant communities. When we begin to see language as a tool of empowerment that gives value to people's culture and way of being, our organizations grow in heart, experience, and perspective. When we begin to see that interpreting is not just for mono-lingual non-English speakers but in fact for everyone who is unable to understand all languages present in a conversation, we can begin to see people working from abundance and not deficiency. When we interpret well, we open space for the jokes, the perspectives and the soul of everyone in the room to come through, building deeper solidarity, democracy, and a broader movement for change."

(fabulous! pero ojo: I prefer to use the term limited English vs. non-English since most users of interpretation will actually speak some basic English, and using the term non can reinforce the idea that interpretation is only for those who speak no English at all)

leaders

leaders: lideres y lideresas

I've been seeing this version in more Spanish language movement documents - recently in several from Bolivia. I have mixed feelings about it. I wish lideres was seen as including women, but I guess this highlights the role of women leaders.

los indigenistas

indigenista: indigenist

over on my other blog (decolonizing solidarity) I posted the story of three international solidarity activists from the US who were killed in Colombia in 1999. In the Colombian press they are widely called "los indigenistas", which got me wondering how to say that in English and yes, you read that right - that cognate does exist in English. Ward Churchill calls himself one and writes in this Z classic that

"By this, I mean that I am one who not only takes the rights of indigenous peoples as the highest priority of my political life, but who draws upon the traditions—the bodies of knowledge and corresponding codes of value—evolved over many thousands of years by native peoples the world over. This is the basis upon which I not only advance critiques of, but conceptualize alternatives to the present social, political, economic, and philosophical status quo. In turn, this gives shape not only to the sorts of goals and objectives I pursue, but the kinds of strategy and tactics I advocate, the variety of struggles I tend to support, the nature of the alliances I am inclined to enter into, and so on."