Rest of the ATA Conference

We started the day by going to the first time ATA attendee’s part and it was pretty much a waste of time. They encouraged us to develop our specialties but I don’t have any. So every session was an hour long, with a half hour break between each one.

Next, there was a meeting for all the members and since we weren’t, a few of us walked around town. It was still pretty early in the day, around 10am, so there weren’t a lot of people around. We went into this sheepskin store and they had alpaca fur and it felt like a cloud, it was so soft and light. They also had this ugly coat selling for $1200 and I thought it was the most hideous thing I’d ever seen.

The next session was for the Annual Meeting of the Spanish Division and it was the highlight of the meetings. The lady told us to be nice because it’ll get us farther. She bragged about how she was nice to the lady at the hotel desk and so she gave her a room on the top floor and got all these perks. Then she talked about how the quality of a translation depends on whether you specialize or not, because the more you know about a subject, the more you’re able to dig through your memory and find the words. Next, service. She stressed creatively solving problems for your client, not complaining, and never saying a job can’t be done. Then she talked about technology and how you must invest in the good hard/software and it must be top-of-the-line. You have to invest money to make money. One thing I was thinking throughout her presentation is that it sounds like I’m going to have to get a regular job, hopefully still speaking Spanish, and then just do translations on my own, on the side. Lame! For some reason I was thinking right away when I graduate there would be people lining around the block to give me their translations because I have a degree in it and most people don’t. Big wakeup call at this conference. I didn’t really have an idea of what I wanted to do with my skills, but now I have even less of an idea and I feel even more confused. But the lady also talked about knowing your strengths and weaknesses and not telling clients you can do things you can’t. She said you need to choose at least two verticals (industries to work in) because if one goes under, you’ll still have a means to get income. She suggested doing volunteer work to build a reputation and a resume. She concluded with what companies value the most: accuracy, timeliness, availability, flexibility, and a neat format. So at the beginning of this session, I thought it was really good and that I was going to learn a lot, but after a while she started talking about all the new things she’s bought with the money she’s earned and it seemed like all she did was work. I don’t want to be like that. I don’t want money to be the center of my life and the most important thing. Her life seemed very materialistic and I felt sorry for her. It sounded like she works all the time.

            Also during this session we had another moment of silence for a fellow translator of the ATA and I was very touched. It’s something you don’t see very often in the Church and it was kind of nice.

            The highlight of this session was when a lady who we had met the night before at the welcome dinner stood up and spotlighted us as BYU students there. She was glad and thankful we were there and said we were the future of the translating industry. J I really appreciated her enthusiasm because it seemed there were a lot of people who could care less that we were there.

For lunch during the two hour break we walked around town and ate subs at this hole-in-the-wall place that was fantastic.

Then I went to a session called “Speak Out” that wasn’t good. It was about gaining more confidence in speaking in front of an audience. I don’t really have issues with this, so I didn’t really get much out of it. But one good thing she said was that instead of imagining the audience naked like some people say, she suggested that you pretend to be someone else.

I think I went to another session but I couldn’t remember it.  

I think my favorite part of the day was the speed-networking. It was kind of like speed-dating, where you move from person to person and you have two minutes to give your schpeal. I was really nervous and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go; several of my classmates were going back to the hotel to freshen up and start the night life early, but I had brought business cards, and dagnabit, I was going to use them! I had passed out a few earlier in the day, but I really passed them out here. I met a lot of people that I could tell really wanted nothing to do with me because I was just a student and I couldn’t give them any networking. I met one guy who told me to talk to Sundance if I’m interested in subtitling. After a while I got frustrated with people not taking me seriously, but instead of getting mad, I decided to be humble and ask them what advice they had for me as a beginning translator. I found this approach worked better than getting mad would’ve. J Some advice they gave me was begin to be a volunteer translator, be patient with myself and the process, specialize but don’t worry about finding my niche right now, get my name out there (scary!!), and use the best technology.

After the networking, we walked around town some more. There were a lot more people out and about and it was sad to see all the homeless people, but it was extra sad to see some laying in garbage and smoking cigarettes or drinking. I refuse to give people money if they’re just going to spend it on booze and cigarettes. Problem is, you never know what they’re going to buy. I also loved riding the free bus the city provides on this one street. I reminded me of my mission. :) We ended the day watching “When in Rome” from Netflicks. It was a great little girl’s night.

Day 2

This morning we got to sleep in and it was fantastic.

First session was called “Beyond Subtitling.” The lady said there are two main subtitling agencies, located in Los Angeles and London…as in London, England. I went to this session because I thought I might be interested in working with this, but everything is done on the computer and computers freak me out! The main programs are SWIFT, WinCABS, and Spot, además de otros. She said lately there’s been a loss in DVD sales due to Netflicks and all the other online streaming websites you can download movies from. In London she said they have a three week program where they teach SWIFT. So I guess I’m going to have to go there for a month and learn it. J

Next session was the preparation for the certification exam that some people are doing tomorrow. I went just to see how it would be like, and they just went over some old exam questions and asked what people thought would be the correct translation. My favorite part of the session was one of the slides that said “lastly but not leastly.” J that just makes me so happy. It was funny cause they’re translators talking about making idiomatic and correct statements, and they make that mistake. Haha. But it seemed just like my translation class.

For lunch, we went to the Noodle Company and I ordered mac and cheese. It was really good. Somehow I got stuck at the guy’s table.

Next session was Translating Religion. I thought it was going to be more about how to translate religious themes, but instead he just talked about all the different translations of the Bible.

My last session for the day was Translation in Every Cereal Box, about translating children’s books. She said that children’s books translated into Spanish often use words too advanced for the kids and that in Spanish kids learn by syllables and in English we learn how to pronounce whole words. This presentation made me want to buy children’s books in Spanish. I also want to translate some from Spanish to English because the lady showed us several examples of some books that were translated, and they were great!! I think it would be extremely valuable for our children to grow up learning about other cultures.

For dinner tonight we went out with our Profe and a couple other people. We went to Paramount Café, and because we’ve been eating out twice a day since Wednesday, I just ordered a small salad, but because the waitress brought me the wrong one, I got the meal for free!! Yes!! Afterwards, we just walked around town again and it was fun. We walked to the Capital building and saw a bunch of cool things. It’s been fun getting to know everyone. Oh, and I discovered my cell phone takes better pictures at night than my camera. Lame.

Day 3

Last night we played UNO with a bunch of girls in my hotel room and it was really fun. Apparently we were really loud because a hotel staff knocked on our door and told us someone complained that we were too rowdy. Haha.

So I stayed up late and woke up early…nothing unusual about that.

First session started at 8:30 and it was about localization, which means taking everything about a certain product and specifying it towards a certain culture or region. It was pretty interesting and it was cool because I had already learned about this in my translation class and also my computer translation tools class.

Next session was about Mexican slang and I really enjoyed it. The presenter gave us a sheet of paper with almost 100 slang words and phrases. I didn’t recognize most of them at first. It was interesting because apparently there are words to describe the action of wrapping up a body tightly and dumping it in a ditch, like a gang or the mafia would do. There’s also a word to describe the action of wrapping the eyes and mouth with duct tape, dumping the body in a ditch, and then pouring caustic acid over them. Hm. Hopefully I will never have to actually translate a document about this…

After that session they finally brought out the coffee and most importantly, the hot chocolate. I drank so much hot chocolate these past few days. Mm. I don’t have any at home and I used to love drinking my mom’s homemade hot chocolate when I was a kid. It’s so good!!

Next session was about interpreting the “se” in cases of domestic violence. The Spanish “se” is the passive voice, a way of taking away the action from yourself or putting blame on something else. For example, instead of saying “I burned the cookies” you would say “the cookies were burned,” therefore taking away the responsibility of you burning the cookies. “Se” is used an awful lot in Spanish, but in English it can be kind of awkward. I really enjoyed this one because she talked about how problematic it can be if in court the defendant uses the passive voice to not fully admit their guilt. It’s not the interpreter’s responsibility to decide or pass judgment, so what do you do? She suggested you keep the passive voice and let the judge clarify by asking, “ what do you mean the letter got lost?” By the end she almost had me convinced I wanted to be a court interpreter, but I then I woke up and realized I still don’t.

Next, we went to lunch at a pizza place called Mario’s Two Fist Pizza. It was pretty good. It was here that we decided as a group that we wanted to leave a bit early for the airport due to the “terrorist” activity in Chicago. (turns out we didn’t need to leave early at all. oh well. live and learn.) But after lunch I bought a picture frame to commemorate the trip. I love picture frames. Back in Decatur I have a bunch of empty frames waiting for the perfect picture. Sometimes I just by the frame just for the frame, not intending to ever put a picture in it.

After lunch some people and I decided not to go to the last session cause we’d only be there for a half hour, so we headed back to the hotel. A company here in town that has a computer translation program sponsored a few people and I to come to this conference, and so I had to wear this ugly gray polo the whole time. I was ecstatic to finally take it off and I want to burn it. J

So overall this was a great conference; I learned a lot about what I don’t want to do, although I have now even less of an idea of what I do want to do. I’m even more frustrated than before. I think I’m going to have to get a job just doing whatever. What about my education?!?!?!?! I feel like my degree isn’t going to get me anywhere and that it’s a pointless major. What people want to see is experience, not necessarily a degree. We were the youngest people there by at least 15 years.

I can’t even really begin to describe how I feel. It just feels like everything I’ve been working towards this past year and a half isn’t worth anything. I don’t know what’s wrong with me- my grades aren’t that important to me this semester, I haven’t been working that hard on studying or keeping up with school pretty much at all. My calling is going okay, but even there I don’t feel I’m really getting through to anyone. It feels like I’m just here, just existing, without really living. That’s a rather poetic way to describe it, but it’s true. I mean, what am I doing? What am I doing here in Provo, Utah, what am I doing in this major, and what am I going to do when I graduate? I have no idea what I want to do, where I want to live, and it’s really scary. Why couldn’t I have had these doubts when I still could’ve done something about it? I’m kind of stuck in this major, suck here in Provo till April. Come April I’m gone. I don’t know where, but I know I’m not staying here. Everything just feels wrong, and it’s felt this way for a few weeks now. What am I doing? It’s not like I’m doubting who I am, but for some reason I just don’t feel good about where my education is taking me, and I have no idea what to do about it. Believe me, I’ve been praying about it. But I haven’t been getting any answers. I went to the temple a couple times last week looking for answers and peace, but nothing came. I felt no sway one way or another. I feel like Heavenly Father is letting me stand alone in this one, maybe to test my strength of character or something. I just want someone to tell me what to do!! Tell me what I should study, where I should live, who my friends should be. I wish I didn’t have to think so much and worry about myself so much. But I guess if you took away all these choices we’d be following Satan’s plan instead of the Savior’s. I trust Heavenly Father. I know He has a plan for me, one that is better than the one I’m making for myself. Maybe that’s what’s going on; maybe this is His way of telling me to listen to Him more and not try to control my life so much. Maybe I need to let Him in more. I’m just so confused. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so confused or alone in my life. I just came home tonight feeling exhausted mentally and emotionally…and physically, for that matter. Someone, tell me what to do with my life!!