This past October, I attended the 66th annual ATA conference in Boston, courtesy of the generous Charles M. Stern grant from the New York Circle of Translators. At first, as a stubborn person, I struggled with the decision to apply, but once I came to terms with it, I realized it would be a wonderful learning and networking opportunity that would not be so taxing on my income.
It was my first time attending an (in-person) ATA conference since 2015 in Miami, and I have to confess I forgot how grand and overwhelming it can be.
HELP (Hug, Eat, Learn, Party)
OK, not exactly in this order, but I needed a catchy acronym.
Learn
The Portuguese Division Distinguished Speaker sessions with Flora Thomson-DeVeaux were outstanding and made me see literary translation through different eyes after learning about her process to translate the Brazilian masterpiece Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas (The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas).
Two interpreting sessions really stood out: Melissa Mann and Elena Langdon’s Checklists and Decision Tree for Success, and Chantall Portillo and Richard Hall’s Co-Interpreting in Teamed Assignments, where it was clear that interpreters cannot simply behave as colleagues on assignments, but must be true partners.
Overall, there was an impressive selection of sessions to choose from. However, many of them overlapped, making it difficult to follow those in which I was interested. There was also a big gap in the calendar on Thursday and Friday morning, which I believe could have been used better when scheduling sessions, so as to reduce the overlaps.
That being said, the sessions I attended clearly taught me new skills and made me think about my technique in both interpreting and translating.
Hug, Eat, Party
The fun part was not lost on me. Reuniting with old friends and colleagues and making new ones was a blast, and so was the networking, which I hope will lead to future opportunities.
I also had the chance to hang out with a couple of friends who live in the area, one of whom grew up on the same streets as me in Rio, Brazil.
I am very thankful for this opportunity, and I hope these new connections will lead to more work, but I am not sure I will attend next year’s conference. It is my stance that the ATA should do a better job of listening to its members. It is also about time to change a few of its practices, such as having a lavish and costly conference, changing how members pay for their membership (an annual membership should start counting on the date the member pays for it), and others.
We will see what comes from this conference and from ATA’s future.
Keeping my fingers crossed for now.
BIO: Yedda Araújo is a Brazilian Portuguese ↔ English translator and interpreter residing in the greater NYC area, specialized in legal, financial, journalism and marketing translations, and court interpreting.
She has a B.A. in Marketing and Advertising from Universidade Federal Fluminense in Brazil, a translation certificate from NYU, and works as a per-diem interpreter for NY State Courts.
In her free time, her passion is rock ‘n’ roll concerts (Bruce Springsteen is her favorite), museums, travel and swimming.