Request for information What participants say about TIP-Lab "These intensive sessions helped translators improve their writing skills and gain confidence. The event also provided an opportunity to exchange information and ideas with professional colleagues from different cities and countries." "He (the distance learning workshop instructor) allows for individual style and interpretation. Not all the comments suggest revision, for he is quick to highlight an element that is done with particular skill. Excelente solución! speaks by itself." "While caution is often well advised when purchasing a new product or service, the risk involved with the money paid wasn't even considered. I had confidence in the organizers' reputation. That confidence was well-placed and, for me, the return on my investment exceeded the workshop fees." "[The workshop] was very valuable in identifying areas that I need to work on. All mistakes and suggestions were addressed very clearly and a solid foundation was provided. Encouragement was also given when a sentence or word was translated in a creative and appropriate way. The revisions helped me to gain insight into the areas where I need to concentrate my work. The list of books and dictionaries provided at the beginning of the workshop was also a great resource. The comments showed the knowledge, interest and professionalism put into the revisions. The precise, clear corrections and notes gave me a clear vision and understanding of the points I urgently need to focus on. I also became much aware of the importance of research while doing a translation." — MR, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA "A estas alturas de la vida me es casi imposible sentarme en un salón de clase para tomar cursos de traducción. Este sistema es sumamente práctico y útil para los que trabajamos a tiempo completo y tenemos otras obligaciones. Debido a que los textos que generalmente traduzco son muy distintos, estos ejercicios me han hecho pensar un poquito para buscar las soluciones correctas. Además, al hacerlos me he visto obligada a realizar más investigaciones y usar recursos que normalmente no utilizaría. Los comentarios de Leandro son muy claros, acertados, objetivos, interesantes, amenos, agradables, bien fundamentados. Es increíble el respeto que muestra por el trabajo del traductor y por el cuidado y pulcritud que pone en sus escritos. Además está abierto al diálogo y preguntas lo que facilita el proceso. Sus comentarios positivos también ayudan mucho a subir la moral". — PS, Hillsborough, New Jersey, USA "[Leandro's] comments and observations were clear and understandable and helped me hone in on areas where I needed to pay more attention. The translation he chose each time was indeed helpful in the sense that it gave me another perspective on the translation. Obviously, it was a better perspective; therefore, I was able to learn from it." — RV, Daly City, California, USA "[The reviser's comments are] subtle and direct at the same time. Encouraging when positive, and not crushing when negative, so that it made one want to do a better job each time. The translation chosen was valuable in that it gave one some perspective on the relative quality of the translated texts." — MPQ, Chicago, Illinois, USA "The detailed comments were wonderful! Like the best of teachers, Leandro balances constructive criticism with plenty of praise and encouragement. Even in correcting the most egregious errors, he acknowledges our thought processes and the struggle we went through to come up with exactly the wrong word. The "Notas generales" are insightful and humorous: a pure delight to read! I found the selections of texts to translate fascinating and very challenging. Perhaps my greatest weakness is punctuation. This may be because I work primarily in interpretation, rather than in written translation. I must thank Leandro for his endless patience with me on this point. I kept making the same errors in punctuation over and over, from the first exercise to the last, despite his careful and tireless explanations of the use of comillas and rayas. I think I will have to break down and buy a manual of style and study it!" — PH, Kanehoe, Hawai, USA "The workshop opened my eyes to a whole new area of translation that I really wasn't aware of—namely, the translation of texts that have more to do with stylistics, phrasing, idioms, etc. than with terminology. Unlike the legal texts that I usually translate, which are laden with technical terms and require a lot of dictionary research, the texts in the workshop didn't involve much terminology at all. As a result, there was almost no need for anything beyond a good general dictionary (a monolingual one and a bilingual one). Instead, the point was knowing how to phrase things in Spanish. I found the comments thorough and very helpful and enjoyed reviewing the model translations. It is extremely helpful to see how other people have resolved problems that one has struggled with oneself. Leandro's comments were uniformly insightful and informative. In general, I found the course excellent." — TW, Atlanta, Georgia, USA "Después de la primera devolución ya empecé a notar que el curso valía la pena, que las correcciones eran no sólo atinadas sino al mismo tiempo tan bien formuladas que eran siempre bien recibidas, y que el excelente humor de quien nos evaluaba 'suavizaba' nuestros desaciertos. Me sentí muy cómoda y valoro el empeño por destacar los aspectos positivos de mi trabajo". — MGE, Santa Rosa, provincia de La Pampa, Argentina "Deseo expresar mi más sincera gratitud por la calidad de este curso (o "intercambio") a distancia. Me parece una experiencia realmente enriquecedora desde el punto de vista lingüístico, y además me ha dado la oportunidad de conocer a profesionales que residen en otros lugares del país". — CR, Buenos Aires, Argentina "The workshop was extremely valuable. Not only the comments that Leandro makes but also his willingness to further clarify any doubts or specific grammatical rules or questions. In my case this second point made all the difference, I had had questions that I discussed with many colleagues for +years but were never settled until Leandro explained them. This course has given me more confidence. I did gain awareness of my weak and my strong points. I did know what my weak points were and this course confirmed it. I make recurrent mistakes which I did not know about. Also I gained a lot about different styles of translation and now I realize how much more is there to learn. As I said before, Leandro points out good and bad decisions and he offers alternatives." — MR, Albuquerque, Nuevo México, USA "This has been a wonderful and rewarding experience, and I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate you and Leandro on its success and to thank you for all your hard work in organizing and coordinating it. Leandro's comments served to clarify some Spanish grammar and style rules which I was unaware of. He also reminded me of some tranlation techniques and rules that I knew but had forgotten. As a non-native speaker of Spanish, I was already well aware of my weakest points [and] of the preponderance of regional terms (in fact, I almost decided not to participate in the workshop because my Spanish is mostly Mexican-based and Leandro is Argentine...). However, not only was Leandro very sensitive to this issue, he increased my awareness of the importance of targeting your translation to your audience." — KK, Austin, Texas, USA "The workshop was extremely valuable for me because we worked with texts that posed different challenges and difficulties and because the translation was read and annotated by a knowledgeable and experienced translator. It helped me to expand my vocabulary in both languages and to be more creative in the use of my native language. [...] I now have a better understanding on how to avoid certain errors, as well as the areas where I have to work harder in order to achieve better results. I realized, much to my surprise, that I had been misusing certain expressions. I also noticed that sometimes I had difficulty understanding the meaning of certain sentences, and therefore my rendition in Spanish was not accurate. With this understanding, I now will develop strategies to tackle that problem. In the past, I have hesitated in adding a term or a brief explanation where I felt it was necessary in a translation, and with the workshop, I gained insight on this issue. Having a model translation was useful especially to see the way another person had translated the sentences that I had had problems with. It was also good and encouraging to see that parts of my translations were similar to the model. I learned how to improve my work by seeing the solutions presented by others. [The workshop] is well planned and organized, and it is fun. I would encourage you to continue doing this good work. Every step was well coordinated and the communication was cordial and timely." — AAM, Lakewood, Colorado, USA "This translation workshop has helped me to realize that I have to pay more attention to my work. Sometimes I overlook mistakes because the text looks pretty simple, and that is when I get distracted. Most of my mistakes are related to this bad habit. "The comments and observations about my translation were clear and understandable. I carefully read the comments and each one of the observations on my translations and on the selected ones in order to avoid making the same mistakes again. The general notes were useful to see a variety of ideas and mistakes." — CR, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA "The workshop was very valuable in improving my translation skills because above all it was very thorough in the kinds of observations made by the revisor. Not only did he look at grammatical and syntactical issues but went deep into terminology and the very accurate use of terms. His feedback was very rich as it provided good explanations of why one term was better than another while providing good information on reliable sources for consultation. The revision was very analytical, and in great detail, which also teaches us a lesson of how careful we need to be as translators in looking at every detail to be accurate and consistent." — MZ, Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom |