CPD Roundup: November 2024
Welcome to November’s CPD round-up! This is where I share a quick summary of the continuing profession development (CPD) I’ve completed during the month.
The Institute of Translation and Interpreting recommends that all members, including Qualified Members (MITIs) like me, do at least 30 hours of CPD per year. I normally end up doing rather more than that, and I normally only include subject-knowledge CPD (and sometimes some translation skills CPD) in this public summary. You can find out about the other types of CPD that the ITI recommends here and my previous summaries here.
Subject knowledge
EU-Taxonomie-Bewertung prüfungssicher durchführen (Tanso Technologies)
[Carrying out EU Taxonomy assessments in an audit-proof manner]
Recording: https://www.tanso.de/en/webinare/eu-taxonomie-bewertung-prufungssicher-durchfuhren
I’ve written previously that I attend these sorts of webinars not so much to learn about something like the EU Taxonomy itself (this was, after all, aimed primarily at companies that are less familiar with the process), but rather to stay up-to-date on the terminology and language being used within the field. But I did actually learn a few things here about what auditors are looking for when they assess a company’s compliance, so that was useful too!
Can we build a resilient water system? (RSK)
Recording: https://rskgroup.com/events/can-we-build-a-resilient-water-sector/
This was a really interesting discussion to listen in on, especially as it’s not something I know enough about to have formed a strong opinion on. In some ways, though, the conversation did feel quite familiar – the biggest challenge to ensuring resilience in the UK water supply is years of underinvestment in the infrastructure and the tendency to stack problems up for the future rather than tackling them now. The panellists also discussed how data and systems are more vital than ever when it comes to managing and optimising our water supplies. But also, interestingly, it’s important not to become over-reliant on any one system or technology. Resilience isn’t just about the actual resource, i.e. water, but also about the resilience of the system.
Steps towards a sustainable fashion industry (ITI SHEA [Sustainability, Horticulture, Environment and Agriculture network of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting]
Recording: internal only
I have to be honest, I’m always a bit wary about anything including the word “fashion”. It always conjures up images in my mind of ridiculous price tags for clothes that no one would wear in real life and produced as a result of goodness-only-knows how many environmentally damaging process, which I think goes to show just how dominant the idea of “fast fashion” has become. Fortunately this is where Sustainable Fashion Week, the subject of this talk, comes in, to showcase a form of fashion that is fun and creative, but also less environmentally damaging. It probably won’t surprise you to hear that I am a particular fan of their “soil-to-soil” philosophy!
Translation skills
Revision club
A revision club is a peer-learning exercise where a small group of translators get together to sharpen our translation skills. This normally involves one person translating a document as practice and the others reviewing it for potential improvements. It can also take the form of a ‘slam’, where everybody in the group translates the same text and then compares versions.
This month’s revision club was a piece on spotting greenwashing, In terms of the actual content, it was fairly straightforward – there was no ambiguous phrasing, unusual terminology or culture-specific issues to navigate. Instead the biggest challenge was choosing the appropriate tone for the target text. If a company’s marketing materials were found to be “en anomalie”, were there “anomalies”, “discrepancies” or “inaccuracies”? If you’re not a French speaker, the answer might seem obvious – “anomalie” = “anomaly”, but is this a false friend? Is “anomalie” stronger in French than “anomaly” in English? Should a particular characteristic in a piece of marketing “make you think twice” or “raise a red flag”? These are the sorts of issues that a translator has to think very carefully about when working on your texts.
Monthly chat: maintaining your languages (ITI East Anglia)
Every month in the East Anglia regional network of the Institute of Translation, we have an informal “chat” about a selected topic, where we swap tips on things like how to use LinkedIn effectively or financial planning. These aren’t normally relevant for this summary, but this month’s topic was maintaining your languages – both source languages (i.e. what we translate from) and target languages (what we translate into). It might seem surprising to a non-translator that this is something we have to actively think about, but most of us aren’t lucky enough to live in settings where we get to use both (or all) of our languages on a regular basis. For example, I read and write in French and German every day, but I don’t get as many opportunities to use them aloud, so I went along for some tips on how to keep those skills sharp.