Tuesday, May 1, 2012
bullying
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.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
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.
Friday, April 13, 2012
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.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
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
Monday, March 26, 2012
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.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
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
Thursday, March 15, 2012
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.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
chucha
thanks to Tedd for this link and to Victor Manuel for the reminder.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
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)
Friday, February 24, 2012
back channel
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.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
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
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
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
| 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.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
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.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
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)
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
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.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
los indigenistas
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."
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
other resources to share with orgs that use interps
along the same lines, here are two more mainstream resources from the American Translator's Association
here is their promo text:
For non-linguists, buying interpreting services is often frustrating. Many buyers are not even sure they need a professional interpreter since they know someone who is bilingual and willing to help out.
Buyers simply don't see the same problems and risks of miscommunication that you see.
These potential clients need to know what you do and the value your services can bring to their business. That's where Interpreting: Getting It Right comes in. This straightforward brochure explains the where, why, and how of professional interpreting services. It's a quick read that offers practical, hands-on information for language services consumers, perfect for client education.
To preview this brochure online, click Interpreting: Getting It Right.
Translation: Getting it Right
There are hundreds of ways a translation project can go off track – ridiculous deadlines, misapplied machine translation, poor project management. You know because you've seen it all. But have your clients? Be sure they know the value you bring to their business and keep them coming back.
Client education is one of the best ways to build your customer base, and it's easy to do with the Translation: Getting It Right brochure.
ATA members can receive 20 free copies just for the asking. Contact the ATA Membership Services Manager for details.But what if your client doesn't speak English? The brochure is now available in a number of other languages. Check out the links below!
You can also preview this client education booklet online. Click to download a PDF version of Translation: Getting It Right.
Monday, December 26, 2011
great resource for organizations

if you work with or for an organization that wants to be more multilingual,
check out this fantastic resource by my friend Alice.
if the link above doesn't get you a pdf go here and scroll down to 'interpretation'
Saturday, December 17, 2011
social justice translation by Holdren and Touza
19 & 20: Notes for a New Social Protagonism (available entirely online here)
Colectivo Situaciones
Translated by Nate Holdren & Sebastián Touza
Introductions by Michael Hardt & Antonio Negri
An 18th Brumaire for the 21st Century: militant research on the Decemb
er 19th and 20th, 2001 uprisings in ArgentinaIn the heat of an economic and political crisis, people in Argentina took to the streets on December 19th, 2001, shouting “¡Qué se vayan todos!” These words – “All of them out!” – hurled by thousands banging pots and pans, struck at every politician, economist, and journalist. These events opened a period of intense social unrest and political creativity that led to the collapse of government after government. Neighborhoods organized themselves into hundreds of popular assemblies across the country, the unemployed workers movement acquired a new visibility, workers took over factories and businesses. These events marked a sea change, a before and an after for Argentina that resonated around the world.
Colectivo Situaciones wrote this book in the heat of that December’s aftermath. As radicals immersed within the long process of reflection and experimentation with forms of counterpower that Argentines practiced in shadow of neoliberal rule, Colectivo Situaciones knew that the novelty of the events of December 19th and 20th demanded new forms of thinking and research. This book attempts to read those struggles from within. Ten years have passed, yet the book remains as relevant and as fresh as the day it came out. Multitudes of citizens from different countries have learned their own ways to chant ¡Qué se vayan todos!, from Iceland to Tunisia, from Spain to Greece, from Tahrir Square to Zuccotti Park. Colectivo Situactiones’ practice of engaging with movements’ own thought processes resonates with everyone seeking to think current events and movements, and through that to build a new world in the shell of the old.
“If the insurrection in Argentina that began in December 2001 was our Paris Commune, then Colectivo Situaciones fits well in the position of Karl Marx. As Friedrich Engels was fond of saying, one of Marx’s many talents was to analyze the historical importance of political events as they took place. This book by Colectivo Situaciones, written in the heat of action, certainly demonstrates that same talent in full, delving into the complexity of concrete events while simultaneously stepping back to recognize how our political reality has changed.” – Michael Hardt, from the Introduction
Bio: Colectivo Situaciones is a collective of militant researchers based in Buenos Aires. They have participated in numerous grassroots co-research activities with unemployed workers, peasant movements, neighborhood assemblies, and alternative education experiments.
Monday, December 12, 2011
poder o potencia?
... This brings us to a second translation difficulty. Two Spanish words translate as the English word “power”: poder and potencia. Generally speaking, we could say that poder defines power as “power over” (the sense it has, for instance, when it refers to state or sovereign power) and potencia defines “power to,” the type of capacity expressed in the statement “I can.”[2] To continue with the generalization, it is possible to say that poder refers to static forms of power, while potencia refers to its dynamic forms. Potencia always exists in the “here and now” of its exercise; it coincides with the act in which it is effected. This is because potencia is inseparable from our capacity—indeed, our bodies’ capacity—to be affected. This capacity cannot be detached from the moment, place, and concrete social relations in which potencia manifests itself. This is the reason for arguing, in the article we are introducing, that anything said about potencia is an abstraction of the results. Whatever is said or communicated about it can never be the potencia itself. Research militancy is concerned with the expansion of potencia. For that reason, a descriptive presentation of its techniques would necessarily lead to an abstraction. Such a description might produce a “method” in which all the richness of the potencia of research militancy in the situation is trimmed off to leave only that part whose utilitarian value make it transferrable to other situations.
The thought of practices is thought with the body, because bodies encounter each other in acts that immediately define their mutual capacities to be affected. History can only be the history of contingency, a sequence of moments with their own non-detachable intensities. Miguel Benasayag argues that act and state—to which correspond potencia and poder—are two levels of thought and life.[3] None of them can be subsumed under the other. Either one takes the side of potencia or the side of the poder (or of the desire for poder, as expressed in militants who want to “take power,” build The Party, construct hegemonies, etc.).
Potencias found in different forms of resistance are the foundation of counterpower, but both terms are not the same. Counterpower indicates a point of irreversibility in the development of resistance, a moment when the principal task becomes to develop and secure what has been achieved by the struggle (Benasayag & Sztulwark 213). Counterpower is diffuse and multiple. It displaces the question of power from the centrality it has historically enjoyed, because its struggle is “against the powers such as they act in our situations” (MTD of Solano and Colectivo Situaciones, Hipótesis 891 104). To be on the side of potencia is to recognize that the state and the market originate at the level of the values we embrace and the bonds that connect us to others.
Potencia defines the material dimension of the encounter of bodies, while poder is a level characterized by idealization, representation, and normalization. Colectivo Situaciones avoid a name to define their political identity, which would freeze the fluid material multiplicity of militant research by subordinating it to the one-dimensional nature of idealizations. “We are not ‘autonomists’, ‘situationists’, or anything ending with ‘-ist’” they once told us. Identities have normalizing effects: they establish models, they place multiplicity under control, they reduce the multiple dimensions of life to the one dimension of an idealization. They make an exception with Guevarism, because Che Guevara clearly preferred to stay on the side of potencia and opposed those who calmed down concrete struggles in the name of ideal recipes on how to achieve a communist society.[4]
An investigation into the forms of potencia and the social relations that produce it can only be done from a standpoint that systematically embraces doubt and ignorance. If we recognize that the practical thought of struggles is an activity of bodies, we have to recognize as well—with Spinoza—that nobody knows what a body can do. To do research in the realm of potencia—to investigate that which is alive and multiple—militant researchers have to abandon their previous certainties, their desire to encounter pure subjects, and the drive to recuperate their practice as an ideal of coherence and consistency. In this regard, one might say that Colectivo Situaciones seek to concretely embody two Zapatista slogans: “asking we walk,” and “we make the road by walking,” such that, the act of questioning and collective reflection is part of the process of constructing power.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
improve your skills

check out tons of fantastic interpreter training resources here
such as how to take notes for consecutive - something not enough activist interpreters do!
my number one tip: ALWAYS have a notepad on you - you never know when you will have to jump into interpreting in social change settings.
number one sign of an amateur interpreter: they're doing consecutive without a notepad in hand.
(ok, maybe number two after someone saying "she said ...")
Monday, November 28, 2011
conejo
conejo: loopholeQue vivan los estudiantes!
"On November 9, Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos seemed to retreat in the face of a massive nationwide student strike that has lasted since October 12. Santos offered to withdraw his “educational reform” bill from the Colombian congress and sit down to negotiate with the student movement.
Students responded with a massive demonstration today that closed all of the major thoroughfares of the city. (See photos from El Tiempo, the main newspaper of Colombia.)
Speaking at the main demonstration in the Plaza Bolivar, surrounded by the Presidential Palace and the Capitol, former senator Piedad Cordoba warned students, “The proposal of Santos has a loophole. Students must continue their national strike … this mobilisation is a victory for mothers and fathers of families, for campesinos and for victims of the state.” (“La propuesta de Santos tiene conejo. Los estudiantes deben continuar el paro nacional … esta movilización es una victoria de madres y padres de familia, de campesinos y víctimas del Estado”, El Espectador, November 11)."
read the rest of this article here
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
ally

ally: aliado
this is an obvious one, but what may not be obvious is how the term gets used in movements in the US and Canada (and the UK?) to mean "people who recognize the unearned privilege they receive from society’s patterns of injustice and take responsibility for changing these patterns. Allies include men who work to end sexism, white people who work to end racism, heterosexual people who work to end heterosexism, able-bodied people who work to end ableism, and so on."
if you have a sense that your listeners or readers do not understand this movement use of the term, it is worth explaining.
(this definition of ally is from this article on tips for white allies in the occupy movement)
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
why interpreters matter
great way to promote the use of professional interps, way to go Texas Association of Healthcare Interpreters and Translators!
Thursday, November 3, 2011
fun ten minute animated history of the English language
This is the first of 10 one minute videos - the next in the series should pop up when this finishes playing or you can open it in youtube and they appear as links on the right.
