Languages and the Media 2012: Imperial College contributions

Members of the Translation Unit at Imperial College attended last week's Languages & the Media conference in Berlin. 

Titled Translating in MultilingualCommunities, the event brought together academics, industry professionals and other interested parties from across the range of audiovisual translation. Attending from Imperial were Lindsay Bywood, Jorge Díaz-Cintas, Arista Kuo, Emmanouela Patiniotaki and Adriana Tortoriello.

Jorge Díaz-Cintas chaired several panels, including one entitled The Client Side: Localisation, International Broadcasters and Content Distributors. 

Three PhD students presented papers:

Lindsay Bywood, along with Yota Georgakopoulou, presented the results of the first evaluation of the Sumat system, a statistical machine translation system for subtitles.

Arista Kuo spoke on Myths and Realities of Working as a Subtitler: Survey Results on Subtitlers’ Working Conditions.

Emmanouela Patiniotaki presented a paper on Access to Online AV Educational Material.

(Lindsay Bywood)

Translation Technology Workshop - Introduction to Subtitling - 8 December

Translation Unit - Imperial College London

Introduction to Subtitling

Saturday 8 December 2012

There are still places available for the Introduction to Subtitling workshop being held by the Translation Unit at Imperial College on the 8^th December 2012.
This is open to professionals as well as students.

Course Content

After a definition and  a survey of the different types of subtitles, the interaction between text and images will be discussed and  you will learn about the technical issues that constrain subtitling in terms of time and space. We will then take a look at the different conventions applied in what is considered standard practice in interlingual subtitling, and examples of strategies such as  segmentation, condensation and reformulation will be offered.

During this practical workshop, you will work with clips and will carry out some of the tasks pertaining to subtitling, like the spotting or cueing (i.e. deciding the in and out times of the different subtitles) as well as the actual translation of the clip following the appropriate limitations imposed by the medium. WinCAPS, a state-of-the-art professional subtitling program, will be demonstrated so that  you can experience the technical and technological dimensions of subtitling.

An insight into the working environment will also be presented and some time will be left at the end for questions. A list of useful websites and other sources of information will be given to all the participants.

Course Trainer: Adriana Tortoriello
Standard fee: £115
Student fee: £65

For more information visit www.imperial.ac.uk/humanities/translationgroup/translationtechnologycourses  

To apply for a place, please fill in the following form: www.surveymonkey.com/s/TranslationTechnologyCourses

Dr Rocío Baños Piñero

Practical Translation Coordinator

Translation Studies Unit

Imperial College London

Sherfield Building, Room S310
South Kensington Campus

London SW7 2AZ

www.imperial.ac.uk/humanities/translationgroup

http://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/r.banos-pinero

Imperial College is a partner of the EU project ClipFlair

www.clipflair.net

Lawrence Venuti at UCL, 13 December

Imperial College London's Translation Unit has a longstanding working relationship with the MA in Translation at UCL. UCL students can take one module at the MScTrans, either 'Language and Translation' or 'Translation Technology'.

UCL will be hosting Lawrence Venuti, professor of English at Temple University, Philadelphia on 13 December, 6pm. 

The lecture is entitled
Genealogies of Translation Theory: Schleiermacher

Address:
Anatomy JZ Young Lecture Theatre (entrance opposite 131 Gower Street)
University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT

The lecture contrasts instrumental and hermeneutic models of language and translation, and the translation commentary they generate. The instrumental model views translation as the reproduction of an invariant form, meaning or effect. The hermeneutic model treats translation as an interpretation of a source text that remains subject to transformation during translation. 

The analysis of Friedrich Schleiermacher’s lecture “On the Different Methods of Translating” (1813) which follows, suggests that Schleiermacher’s hermeneutic approach to translation is pre-empted by a residual empiricism that detaches the interpretive act from its context while privileging the values of a cultural elite in the service of Prussian nationalism. 

The lecture argues that translation research and practice should replace empiricist-based instrumentalism with an understanding of translation that employs a more sophisticated version of the hermeneutic model. It conceives of translation as an interpretive act that potentially initiates a mutual interrogation – of the source text and culture and of the translation and its cultural situation. This approach is illustrated through a reading of Susan Bernofsky’s 2004 English translation of Schleiermacher’s lecture.

Speaking Cypriot in Cyprus and Beyond

With the support of the Centre for Hellenic Studies of King's College London and SOAS, and in partnership with Imperial College London,  the European Commission Representation in the UK is holding two fantastic events,  under the Cypriot Presidency of the EU,  to highlight the language and culture of this Mediterranean paradise:

1. 'Speaking Cypriot in Cyprus and Beyond', on 21 November 2012 from 6:00 to 9:00 pm
2. 'Cypriot identities in Literature: At a crossroads between East and West', on 12 December from 6:00 to 9:00

The events will take place at the premises of the European Commission's Representation in London and will be followed by a reception with a cypriot twist!

Participation is free but you need to register by sending an email to the addresss included in the invitation:
joanna.zywotko@ext.ec.europa.eu

Translation Technology Workshop - Subtitling for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing

Translation Unit - Imperial College London

Subtitling for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing

Saturday 17 November 2012

There are still places available for the Subtitling for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing workshop being held by the Translation Unit at Imperial College on the 17th November 2012. This is open to professionals as well as students.

Course Content

The course will start with an introduction to deafness aimed at becoming familiar with the audience. The specific requirements of subtitling for the deaf and hard-of-hearing (SDH) – textual, tone of voice, speaker identification, sound effects – will be highlighted. The conventions and norms in place will be discussed. 

An insight into subtitling for deaf children will be presented and issues related to subtitling for young audiences will be discussed.

A state-of-the-art professional subtitling program, WinCAPS, will be used by the participants to carry out subtitling tasks on clips provided by the trainer. This practical part is aimed at introducing technical aspects of subtitling and at gaining an understanding of the potential offered by subtitling programs.

A list of useful websites and other sources of information will be given to all the participants.

Course Trainer: Soledad Zárate
Standard fee: £115
Student fee: £65

For more information visit www.imperial.ac.uk/humanities/translationgroup/translationtechnologycourses  

To apply for a place, please fill in the following form: www.surveymonkey.com/s/TranslationTechnologyCourses

Europe House event on subtitling

Imperial College Translation Unit was proud to co-host a seminar entitled An introduction to subtitling: bridging the language and culture divide together with the European Commission Representation in the UK, and the VSI Group. The day-long event took place at Europe House on 26^th October, 2012 and also featured invited guests from the industry.

The seminar examined some of the most significant changes to have taken place recently in the subtitling field and included talks on the audiovisual industry and language-specific subtitling workshops, followed by an early-evening panel discussion attended by over 70 participants. 

Taking part from Imperial were Jorge Díaz-Cintas, Lindsay Bywood, Adriana Tortoriello and Emmanouela Patiniotaki. Feedback from the event was excellent, and there are plans to repeat it in future. (Lindsay Bywood)

Guest speakers Autumn Term

After a successful visit from Dr ZoË Pettit, University of Greenwich, who spoke about ‘Audiovisual Translation and Multilingual Films: A South African Perspective’, Imperial College’s Translation Unit continues its guest speakers programme.

For the Autumn term the Translation Unit is happy to welcome

Prof. Anthony Briggs, Birmingham University and Visiting Fellow at Bristol University, UK. He will talk about From Syllable to Sentence: The Shifting Challenge of Literary Translation on 30 October 2012

Dr Carol O'Sullivan, University of Portsmouth, UK. Her topic on 13 November 2012 covers Access All Areas? Localization and the Textual Problems of Verbal Visual Codes

Prof. Raquel Merino, Universidad del País Vasco, Vitoria, Spain. The talk on 27 November 2012 will cover Translation, Literature and Audiovisual Media: The Case of Censored Musicals in Franco's Spain

Seminars are free and open to everyone.
Venue: Huxley Building, South Kensington Campus, Lecture Theatre 144 (easiest access via Queen’s Gate)

Time: 4-5pm

More information can be obtained via the Translation Unit website.

Visiting Translator from DGT

Imperial College London's Translation Unit is happy to accommodate for three weeks Marcin Kotwicki from the European Commission's Directorate-General for Translation (EC's DGT). Marcin is visiting us as part of the VTS programme, the Visiting Translator Scheme. 

Marcin joins us for several classes, sitting in as an observer. He will also hold several sessions especially for the Translation Unit 201213 students. These will cover: an introduction on the DGT, a more in-depth focus on the tools the many translators in the DGT use in their everyday translation work and a more in-depth look into recruitment procedures.

You can find more information about the DGT on http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/programmes/index_en.htm

And more on the VTS on http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/programmes/visiting/index_en.htm
 
Imperial College's Translation Unit is also part of EMT, the European Master's in Translation (EMT), http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/programmes/emt/index_en.htm
 
Members of staff of the Translation Unit also sit on the LIND-Web board, http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/programmes/languageindustry/index_en.htm
 

Translation Technology courses

This week the schedule for Saturday courses in Translation Technology by Imperial College's Translation Unit were made available.

The courses are run in the Translation Lab, Room S309, Level 3, Sherfield Building.South Kensington Campus.

To register in one of the courses, please fill in the form at www.surveymonkey.com/s/TranslationTechnologyCourses

To pay for your course, please use one of the links below:
Standard fee: £115
Student fee: £65
Imperial College staff member fee: £65

Autumn Term 2012

Subtitling for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing: Soledad Zárate
Saturday, 17 November 2012
10:30 - 16:30

Introduction to Audio Description: Josélia Neves
Saturday, 24 November 2012
10:30 - 16:30

Introduction toSubtitling: Adriana Tortoriello
Saturday, 08 Dec 2012
10:30 - 16:30

Spring Term 2013

Introduction to Déjà Vu: Mark Shuttleworth
Saturday, 19 January 2013
10:30 - 16:30

Introduction to Desktop Publishing for Translators: Ana Luiza Iaria
Saturday, 26 January 2013
10:30 - 16:30

Advanced Subtitling: Adriana Tortoriello
Saturday, 09 February 2013
10:30 - 16:30

Audio Description in Museums: Josélia Neves
Saturday, 23 February 2013
10:30 - 16:30

Introduction to Dubbing: Frederic Chaume
Saturday, 2 March 2013
10:30 - 16:30

Project Management for Translators: Lindsay Bywood
Saturday, 23 March 2013
10:30 - 16:30

Summer Term 2013

Introduction to SDL Trados Studio 2011: Rocío Baños
Saturday, 13 April 2013
10:30 - 16:30

Interpreting and Technology: Óscar Jiménez Serrano
Saturday, 27 April 2013
10:30 - 16:30

Term Extraction and Terminology Management: Bettina Bajaj
Saturday, 11 May 2013
10:30 - 16:30

Language Industry survey

LIND-Web, the Language Industry Web platform of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Translation is continuing its search for data on developments in the European language industry.

Therefore it organised a survey. This is for language service providers operating wholly or partially within the EU, which includes companies, freelancers, associations and other bodies in the field of the language industry.

It should not take more than 5 minutes to complete the questionnaire (once started the window of completing the survey is half an hour).

Should you be in need of preliminary findings, please go to Nino Platteel's Statistical Criteria for Establishing an Identity for the Language Industry.

LIND-Web was the outcome of a Study on the Size of the Language Industry, a study conducted on behalf of the DGT by LTC's Adriane Rinsche and Nadia Portera-Zanotti.

Dr. Jorge Diaz-Cintas and Christophe Declercq, two members of Imperial College London's Translation Group, are members of the LIND-Web Board. Other members include people from the DGT itself, representatives from LionBridge, FIT, EUNIC, the EUATC and GALA.

You can follow LIND-Web on Twitter. The entire first LIND-Web Platform Forum, 'Share, Cooperate, Grow' is available online still. Perhaps one of the most important outcomes of the Forum was the recommendation to offer free software to universities (around 8:12).