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American Translators Association Adds Croatian into English and English into Croatian to its Translator Certification Program by Paula Gordon |
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Members of the Volunteer Committee to Establish Certain South Slavic Language Pairs for ATA Certification continue their work towards establishing Bosnian/English and Serbian/English pairs in the ATA certification program as well. ATA-SSLI (i.e., ATA South Slavic Languages Initiative) is a Yahoo! group originally established as a forum for the Volunteer Committee, and now it is opening membership to all translators and interpreters between South Slavic languages and English. The address is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ATA-SSLI. For a brief description of this initiative, see Translation Journal Vol.7, No.3: http://accurapid.com/journal/25southslav.htm. For more information about the ATA practice test and exam, and the certification program in general, please see http://www.atanet.org/certification.
About ATA and the ATA Certification Program ATA, founded in 1959, is the largest professional association of translators and interpreters in the U.S., and has more than 8,500 members in over 60 countries. ATA is the U.S. affiliate of the Fédération Internationale des Traducteurs (FIT). ATA's primary goals include fostering and supporting the professional development of translators and interpreters and promoting the translation and interpreting professions. Membership is open to anyone with an interest in translation and interpreting as a profession or as a scholarly pursuit. All individual applicants are first accepted as associate or student members before gaining eligibility for active or corresponding membership. ATA has established a certification program to verify that individual translators meet professional standards. Written examinations lead to certification in a specific language pair and direction (from or into English). Certification offers objective evidence to both translator and client that the translator possesses professional competence in a specific language combination. More than 2,000 ATA members are currently certified, many in more than one language pair. A testament to a translator's professional competence to translate from one specific language to another, certification is awarded after a candidate passes an open-book examination administered under controlled conditions. Certification is available only to ATA members meeting certain eligibility requirements and remains valid as long as membership in the Association is maintained and continuing education requirements are met; certification automatically converts membership from associate membership to active or corresponding membership status. The certification examination tests the language skills of a professional translator, for example: • Comprehension of the source-language text—Translated text reflects a sound conceptual understanding of the material presented; • Translation techniques—Translated text conveys the full meaning of the original; common translation pitfalls are avoided; dictionaries are used effectively; sentences are recast appropriately for target-language style and flow; • Writing in the target language—Translated text is coherent; grammar, punctuation, spelling, syntax, usage and style are appropriate.
For more informaton ATA's website is http://www.atanet.org. For more information about the ATA practice test and exam, and the certification program in general, please see http://www.atanet.org/certification. Ann C. Sherwin's excellent discussion of translator and interpreter certification in the United States, Professional Certification: What is it? Do I need it? How do I get it?, can be found at http://www.atanet.org/acc/Article_Sherwin.htm. Information compiled from the ATA website and ATA-SSLI materials by Paula Gordon, Chairperson of the Volunteer Committee to Establish Certain South Slavic Language Pairs for ATA Certification |
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t its meeting on July 24, the American Translators Association (ATA) Board of Directors voted to approve the addition of Croatian into English and English into Croatian as language pairs in which ATA translator certification is offered. Practice tests are now available, and the ATA certification exam for both language pairs will be offered at exam sittings after 1 January 2005.