The Ordre des traducteurs terminologues et interprètes agréés du Québec offers several online courses and webinars on the topics of translation and managing a freelance business. Here we’ve rounded up the courses intended specifically for French-to-English translators, but you can also learn a lot from the English-to-French ones.
Description: Do we keep the accent on Montreal? How about Quebec? What has to stay in French and when? There are so many questions and not enough answers! This workshop is a primer for English translators working for Quebec clients. You’ll learn all about Bill 101 and how it applies to your work. You’ll also gain a few pointers on other challenges of translating in a Quebec environment. You’ll feel more confident that you’re doing the right thing and you’ll be ready with answers when clients ask for your advice.
Instructor: Grant Hamilton
When: Any time
Duration: 90 minutes
Price: $70 for members / $120 for non-members
Learn more: https://ottiaq.org/app/uploads/2020/04/bill-101_en.pdf
Description: When is a comma not a comma? When is a dash an ellipsis? A hyphen a solidus? This seminar provides a compelling comparison of English and French punctuation, so that you know exactly what to watch out for when translating from one to the other. On your punctuation marks, get set, go!
Instructor: Grant Hamilton
When: Any time
Duration: 90 minutes
Price: $82.50 for members / $145 for non-members
Learn more: https://ottiaq.org/app/uploads/2020/04/comparative-punctuation_en.pdf
Description: This presentation is designed to get you thinking in new ways to solve translation challenges. You’ll take away more than just specific ideas or turns of phrase—you’ll gain new insight into what makes English tick. We’ll be taking French sentences and paragraphs written in a typically abstract way and practice putting some oomph back into their English versions. You will then use this newfound approach to dazzle your clients with sparkling, idiomatic translations.
Instructor: Grant Hamilton
When: May 8, 2020, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Duration: 3 hours
Price: $95 for members / $165 for non-members
Learn more: https://ottiaq.org/app/uploads/2019/11/turning-abstract-french-into-hands-on-english.pdf
Description: Reviewing your own text is like hanging up a bulky painting—without some help and critical distance, it’s nearly impossible to get things right. Thankfully, however, a number of brilliant language artisans have devised tools and processes to consistently achieve quality, poise and balance in their work. This seminar explores crafty approaches that make all the difference, from sequence optimization to visual tracking, before moving on to English-specific issues, including punctuation, sentence structure, tricky terms, stylistic tweaks and more.
Instructor: Joachim Lépine
When: June 8 and 15, 2020, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Duration: 6 hours
Price: $165 for members / $289 for non-members
Learn more: https://ottiaq.org/app/uploads/2020/04/self-revision_webinaire2020-2-3.pdf
The American Translators Association has a long list of on-demand webinars about succeeding as a freelancer and specializing in certain industries. Here are a few that we think look interesting for freelance and in-house translators alike.
Description: Most translators are called upon to translate a contract at some point in their careers. What appears at first glance to be an easy task can turn out to be more complicated than it looks.
Instructor: Thomas L. West, III
When: Any time
Duration: 1 hour
Price: $35 for members / $50 for non-members
Learn more: https://www.atanet.org/webinars/ataWebinar129_french_contracts.php
Description: Subject-matter expertise and terminology research methods are considered the top two skills needed by technical translators. Often overlooked, the ability to write well technically is a third skill that can be developed and used to improve translation quality quickly.
Instructor: Karen McMillan Tkaczyk
When: Any time
Duration: 1 hour
Price: $35 for members / $50 for non-members
Learn more: https://www.atanet.org/webinars/ataWebinar134_technical_writing.php
Description: Drafting the perfect translation—and proving you are worth the money—can get messy. Learn how to put that final shine on your work to set yourself apart as quality-oriented, no matter what your drafting process looks like behind the scenes.
Instructor: Carolyn Yohn
When: Any time
Duration: 1 hour
Price: $45 for members / $60 for non-members
Learn more: https://www.atanet.org/webinars/ataWebinar146_proofreading.php
Description: Good content, smart author, sloppy writing. How much clean-up can a translator do without straying too far from the source? What elements of style and grammar does the translator need to keep when working with “dirty text”?
Instructor: Carolyn Yohn
When: Any time
Duration: 1 hour
Price: $45 for members / $60 for non-members
Learn more: https://www.atanet.org/webinars/ataWebinar152_copyediting.php
Description: Advertising campaigns gone wrong? Slogans laughable—or worse? It all comes down to transcreation. And this webinar is ready to show you how it should be done.
Instructor: Percy Balemans
When: Any time
Duration: 1 hour
Price: $45 for members / $60 for non-members
Learn more: https://www.atanet.org/webinars/ataWebinar167_transcreation.php
Description: Translating video games sounds like fun, and it is! But any game localization expert will tell you it’s also one of the most challenging jobs in the industry. Find out what’s expected of translators working in this specialty and what skills you would need to develop to break into this field.
Instructor: Paula Ianelli
When: Any time
Duration: 1 hour
Price: $45 for members / $60 for non-members
Learn more: https://www.atanet.org/webinars/ataWebinar176_games_new.php
Description: How do you produce scientific texts that read as if they have been written by a native English speaker? Attend this webinar to learn the techniques that will make you a valued collaborator and go-to editor for scientific publications. More than theory! “Before” and “after” examples offer attendees a solid learning experience.
Instructor: Karen Tkaczyk
When: Any time
Duration: 1 hour
Price: $45 for members / $60 for non-members
Learn more: https://www.atanet.org/webinars/ataWebinar207_editing_nonnative_english_scientific_writing.php
Editors Canada offers a wealth of live and recorded webinars. None of this training addresses translation per se, but it is a great resource for improving your grammar, style, and revision techniques. We’re big fans of Frances Peck’s courses in particular (side note: if you haven’t bookmarked Peck’s English Pointers, you should).
Description: When readers are confronted with wordy and inflated prose, they can easily miss or misinterpret the author’s message—or they may give up reading the document altogether. As editors, one of our tasks is to ensure that authors write with clarity and precision instead of wandering into verbal “swamps.” In this two-part webinar, you’ll learn how to identify and correct wordiness, repetition, inflated language, and weasel words. You’ll also become familiar with the key components of plain language, good paragraphing, and bias-free writing.
Instructor: Kathryn Dean
When: Any time
Duration: 3 hours
Price: $112.50 for members / $150 for non-members
Learn more: http://training.editors.ca/webinar_recording/from-wordiness-to-plain-language-editing-with-style/
Description: What you learned in English class will help you with syntax about as much as what you learned in driving lessons will help you with mechanics—you get by fine until one day you find yourself stopped in the middle of a sentence with smoke coming out from under the hood. In this webinar, we’re going to learn how to take apart sentences the way a mechanic takes apart an engine.
Instructor: James Harbeck
When: Any time
Duration: 90 minutes
Price: $56.25 for members / $75 for non-members
Learn more: http://training.editors.ca/webinar_recording/a-linguists-guide-to-grammar/
Description: In this webinar, we’ll dust off the most intriguing old-school syntax techniques and explore how they can punch up your copy. We all know that rearranging a sentence can make it sharper and stronger. But why? What logic lies behind that magical untangling?
Instructor: Frances Peck
When: Any time
Duration: 90 minutes
Price: $59.50 for members / $85 for non-members
Learn more: http://training.editors.ca/webinar_recording/sentences-with-style/
Description: In this webinar we’ll cover the top punctuation pitfalls and predicaments facing writers and editors. After a brief look at past and present trends, we’ll demystify the comma; dip into semicolons, colons, quotation marks, and hyphens; and discuss when to stick to the rules and when (judiciously) to bend them.
Instructor: Frances Peck
When: Any time
Duration: 90 minutes
Price: $59.50 for members / $85 for non-members
Learn more: http://training.editors.ca/webinar_recording/punctuation-period/
Description: Is impact accepted as a verb? Why are prevent and avoid so often confused? Is it okay to verbify? This webinar examines these and other usage questions and problems. We’ll examine usage issues affecting today’s speech, journalism, and other writing. We’ll also examine the top five usage myths, discuss the best resources for clearing up usage questions, and—of course—practise.
Instructor: Frances Peck
When: Any time
Duration: 90 minutes
Price: $59.50 for members / $85 for non-members
Learn more: http://training.editors.ca/webinar_recording/usage-traps-and-myths/
Happy learning!
OXO ayuda a las organizaciones internacionales a comunicarse de manera efectiva en todas las regiones del planeta. Dado que proporcionamos soluciones de servicios lingüísticos personalizados a las marcas más importantes del mundo, nuestra experiencia en traducción y localización nos permite la implementación de productos y servicios en más de 20 idiomas, de manera puntual y continua. Gracias a nuestra experiencia de más de dos décadas, entendemos sus prioridades.
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