Today, I wanted to address ethics and ethical considerations in my practice. It’s a very important part of our practice, mainly because I work in the courts. However, I would like to stress that having a very strong sense of ethics is important for all translators and interpreters, even if they don’t work in a legal setting. Continue reading “Ethical Considerations for Interpreters”
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Four Things to Know About Our Practice
I’m lucky to be a translator and an interpreter. My work is an intellectual exercise that reveals to me the common concepts that underlie the grammar of my three languages (Farsi, French, and English). In this post I would like to address some common questions we field “in the trenches” at The Farsi Language Center, on any given day. I hope it answers some of your questions, too! Continue reading “Four Things to Know About Our Practice”
Doing Business in Iran: The French Connection
Farsi, or Persian, is my mother tongue. Like English, Farsi has taken a large amount of loan words from the French language, despite being structurally different from it. Continue reading “Doing Business in Iran: The French Connection”
What’s in a Name?
In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Juliet famously sums up her exasperation with the war between the Capulets and the Montagues by lamenting, “…a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.” I think Shakespeare was showing that Juliet was wise beyond her years when she made that observation. Continue reading “What’s in a Name?”
The Human Cost of Bad Translation
My mother is not fluent in English, and that fact counted heavily against her on a call to an insurance company recently.
The call was about an important question relating to my mother’s account, so I joined her to make the call. The person on the other end of the phone said they had to verify my mother’s identity, and so they needed her to speak, not me, her daughter. The operator asked what language my mother speaks, and put us on hold while they found a Farsi interpreter.
The Importance of ATA Certification
The American Translators Association (ATA), a well known international organization, offers a translator certification—a distinction that puts all translators, regardless of work status, in a better position to market themselves. For Farsi translators and interpreters in particular, the ATA certification is more than just a suffix.
I am very passionate about the mission of the organization and the importance of these certifications for the following reasons:
- It distinguishes those who are qualified to translate from those who are not; and
- An increase in Farsi translators will support the Farsi-English pairing. As of now, this pair has not been established at ATA, and the ATA is not recognizing Farsi as a language.
The Origins and Meanings of Financial Sayings and Idioms
I find this article to be both essential and amusing. How many times have I wondered where an English idiom came from and if it does convey the meaning I am looking for. Find out for yourself. Read more.
