Today’s post is all about the second day at the 8th edition of the SELM Conference. If you missed this event which was packed with presentations, giveaways, meetings and debates, keep reading! You can also check out our previous post Tatutrad at SELM 2018: Day 1 so that you don’t miss anything from day one.
The day kicked off with an opening plenary speech by Carla Botella Tejera, Yeray García Celades and Quico Rovira-Beleta. In the presentation To Intertext and Beyond. Documentation and Translation in Superhero Films, Yeray presented the research that he started working on in his bachelor’s degree final project, together with Dr. Carla Botella, and which he later expanded on in his master’s degree final project, in collaboration with the translator and adjuster Quico Rovira. This research analyses the intertextual relationships between the translations of superhero films and comics. Working in tandem, the three professionals complemented each other to explain what intertext is and why Spanish-dubbed films sometimes change or omit references to comics, and they used numerous examples to explain the strategies or resources used to deal with intertext-related issues.
Next up was the round table discussion, Humour and Translation: Tell Me What Makes You Laugh and I’ll Tell You the Kind of Person You Are…. In this discussion, a multi-disciplinary group comprising Prof. Patrick Zabalbeascoa, Dr. Juan José Martínez Sierra, and audiovisual translators Quico Rovira-Beleta and Juan Yborra Golpe pretended to be in a boxing ring where they fought to defend the dubbed film which best captured the humour of the original version. Using scenes from films, they showed the translation strategies used in the dubbing and, in some cases, even suggested ingenious alternatives.
The day continued with the presentation Stand Out From the Crowd: Adapt to Each Culture by Michael Cárdenas and M.ª Cruz Sánchez, from the translation agency Local Concept. This presentation gave us a better understanding of the figure of a vendor manager (essentially, the person in charge of scouting out and selecting freelance translators) and freelancers received advice on how to make their job search more effective and make their applications stand out from the crowd.
Here at Tatutrad, we’re always open to hearing from professional translators looking to collaborate with our translation company. Tatiana (tatiana@tatutrad.net) is our vendor manager and the person who will receive your messages and CVs. We also want to take the opportunity to give you a bit of advice when it comes to contacting translation agencies. Although it may seem obvious, including information such as your language pairs, the CAT tools you work with, your areas of expertise and rates in your email is key.
It was then the turn of our colleague Isabel Domínguez to represent Tatutrad in the round table discussion Who is Who in a Translation Company? The participants, including Juan José Arevalillo, Silvia Pravia and Alex Mallo, introduced us to the different positions in translation companies, as well as the already known figures of translator, proofreader and project manager. Talks like these are particularly interesting for those studying a degree in Translation and Interpretation or a specialised master’s programme and who still aren’t sure where to focus their professional career and are unaware of the various opportunities in the market for language and culture specialists. Many of these students may not want to become professional interpreters or translators, but don’t let that worry you; there are numerous career opportunities, including teaching, localization, SEO, protocol, international relations, spying, security forces and agencies, layout/design, language engineering, content writing, etc.
In the afternoon there was the opportunity for businesses and partners to come together—one of our favourite parts of the conference. Not only were there translation companies from Seville, but also from all over Spain. This springboard gives freelance translators the opportunity to contact professional translation companies in their search for new collaborations, and undergraduates and postgraduates to find translation agencies where they can do internships. If you are a student and would like to speak to us, you can get in touch with Alejandro (alejandro@tatutrad.net), our internship coordinator, so that he can explain the different university training agreements and how our internships work.
But the 8th edition of the SELM Conference didn’t end there. The conference also gave us access throughout the month of November to a series of online presentations related to translation, interpretation and teaching.
We want to take the opportunity to thank the Higher Institute of Linguistic Studies and Translation (ISTRAD) for their invitation once again to the SELM Conference, as well as all those who came and spoke to us to find out a little more about the translation company Tatutrad. See you next year!
Diana Lindo Cuéllar
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/diana-lindo-cuéllar-827a82a8
diana@tatutrad.net