Translations with AM

WORKSHOP REPORT: Improving working conditions for interpreters

September 29, 2023by Agustina MarianacciLeave a comment

An interactive session was held on 16 September during the 2023 NZSTI Conference in Christchurch to address interpreters’ pay rates and working conditions in Aotearoa New Zealand. Over 50 people attended the workshop on the day. The focus of the session was to stimulate a discussion among practitioners and other stakeholders on industry challenges and possible solutions. The workshop aimed to enable dialogue and collaboratively devise pathways that could be actioned in the future. The facilitators Carolina Cannard, Agustina Marianacci and Dr Alejandra González Campanella are excited to share their workshop report with everyone who would like learn more about the discussions that took place during the session.

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Fair Pay Petition for Interpreters in Aotearoa New Zealand

September 11, 2023September 11, 2023by Agustina MarianacciLeave a comment

On 6 September 2023, Carolina Cannard hosted a virtual Q&A session to discuss the issue of fair pay for interpreters in Aotearoa New Zealand and share information about the advocacy work that she has been doing to address this.

I wrote a summary of the session for Word for Word, the blog of the New Zealand Society of Translators and Interpreters. The main topics covered were the following:

➡ MBIE’s research on interpreter pay inequities and working conditions
➡ Her data collection and the confidentiality of all collected testimonies
➡ The scope of the fair pay petition
➡ The issue of pay scales in the selection of Language Service Providers (LSPs) for the government’s panel of approved LSPs
➡ Future contact between interpreters and MBIE
➡ The need and implementation of obligatory NAATI accreditation as of July 2024
➡ How interpreters can contribute to this cause

To read the full summary, visit Word for Word and have a look!

Flagging Allyship Towards LGBTQI+ Service Users as Professional Translators and Interpreters

July 17, 2023July 15, 2023by Agustina MarianacciLeave a comment

In a professional development session organised by NZSTI – New Zealand Society of Translators and Interpreters on the topic of working with the ethnic queer community as translators and interpreters, Rainbow Path NZ and the professional linguists who attended the session discussed possible ways of flagging allyship to service users.

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Who could possibly defend us now? AUSIT Conference 2022

April 5, 2023by Agustina MarianacciLeave a comment

Who could possibly defend us now? Exploring the application of ally theory in community interpreting from a Latin American service-user perspective

Back in November, I presented at the 2022 conference organised by the Australian Institute of Interpreters and Translators (AUSIT). Days after, I flew back to Argentina and promptly forgot that it ever happened, until a dear colleague asked for permission to share the presentation with someone else.

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New Voices’ Special Issue on Trauma & Interpreting

February 8, 2023January 21, 2023by Agustina MarianacciLeave a comment

I believe it was 2021, in the very midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, when my dear colleague Alejandra González Campanella approached me with an idea: editing a special issue on a scientific journal about trauma and interpreting. “I’m in”, I said, even though I don’t think it was exactly an invitation. Since that day, it took us over a year to get that issue published. We contacted the New Voices in Translation Studies editorial team and never looked back. We happily became guest editors in a team of welcoming and flexible scholars who were happy to offer their support while also letting us lose to do what we thought best.

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Horizontal methodologies in community interpreting studies: Conducting research with Latin American service users in Aotearoa New Zealand

January 21, 2023January 21, 2023by Agustina MarianacciLeave a comment

Community interpreting norms and research have been heavily influenced by a Western-centric community of practitioners and an individualist, positivist philosophy. This has resulted not only in an entrenched emphasis on professional interpreters’ detachment, neutrality, and invisibility but also in research which often ignores interpreting service users from culturally and linguistically diverse communities. This article addresses the complexity of operationalising horizontal methodologies during interpreting research in an effort to centre marginalised voices and epistemologies. The study involved a research project conducted with the Latin American community in Aotearoa New Zealand, employing horizontal one-on-one and group dialogues to assess interpreting service users’ views on allyship and social justice in spoken-language community interpreting. In this article, horizontal methodologies are presented as a culturally affirming way for Latin American service users to co-produce knowledge, and for Latin American researchers to engage with their own identity, recognise their impact on society, and challenge colonial research practices and interpreting norms.

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Interpreting and Social Justice: NZSTI Conference 2021

October 1, 2021January 21, 2023by Agustina MarianacciLeave a comment

GETTING OUR HANDS DIRTY:Social justice and the application of the ally model in spoken-language interpreting from a service-user perspective

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‘How did he say that?’ interpreting students’ written reflections on interprofessional education scenarios with speech language therapists

May 1, 2021January 21, 2023by Agustina MarianacciLeave a comment

The project aimed to explore what interpreting students’ written reflections reveal about the impact of Interprofessional Education (IPE) on their development as future practising professionals. Student health interpreters from the Auckland University of Technology and postgraduate Speech Science students from the University of Auckland, who were already registered speech and language therapists (SLTs), had a shared 3-hour interprofessional education session which involved semi-authentic role play scenarios. Student healthcare interpreters took turns taking on the role of interpreter or client, while SLTs conducted assessment sessions as they normally would. Scenarios involved a child with language delay accompanied by a parent, and an elderly adult being assessed following a stroke. Student health interpreters reflected on the experience in written reflective assignments which were thematically analysed and coded into five main themes using NVivo software.) Student reflections showed that they had found the experience very beneficial, with comments focusing on the interpreters’ code of ethics; understanding each other’s roles and how these differ in the SLT context; collaboration between professionals; competence; and the importance of practice for problem-solving.

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To prepare for the machine learning evolution, translators need to be human

June 25, 2019June 25, 2019by Agustina Marianacci2 Comments

Machine learning is unstoppable. As a professional translator and interpreter, I am not scared. Technology has been making our lives easier for decades, offering tools that help us polish our skills to perfection. Technology has been helping us learn, teach and produce content, and yet fearmongering and lack of information have been instilling dread among us all.

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Webinar Review: Spanish legal translation – a comparison of two different legal systems

January 29, 2019January 29, 2019by Agustina MarianacciLeave a comment

Some months ago I wrote a review for Word for Word, a journal ran by the New Zealand Society of Translators and Interpreters, about a webinar I attended entitled “Spanish legal translation – a comparison of two different legal systems”.

You can find the full review here, together with other pieces on the ethics of machine translation, indigeneity and linguistic validation of patient-reported outcome instruments, among others. Go have a read! Do it!

Photo by Juanedc