For translation makers – 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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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

My Journey as an Interpreter: Interpreting as an Ally

October 1, 2018October 1, 2018by Agustina MarianacciLeave a comment

It’s been nearly a year since my last piece and I have one excuse which is only partly true, but you’re gonna have to roll with it: I’ve been doing postgrad and working full time. However, because I truly love what I’m doing, I find myself permanently excited by the content I’m being taught. Around a week ago, I had an epiphany and managed to truly understand why I do what I do. Without further ado, this is my rant of 2018, just in time for International Translation Day.

Interpreting models have developed over the years to reflect interpreting theories and the evolution of our role. From machines to allies, interpreters are experiencing the consequences of greater social awareness and the acknowledgment of power intrinsic to our profession.

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Erasure through Translation: It Sucks

December 13, 2017September 14, 2018by Agustina Marianacci1 Comment

A month ago (and I’ve been postponing this piece for that long), I attended a course entitled Cultural and Bilingual Translation through Text Analysis, hosted by Dr Elaine Espíndola. Among other things, I found myself reflecting upon erasure through translation. I’ve been thinking about erasure of minorities a lot in 2017, but it never occurred to me that it could be linked to my very own profession.

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Certificate of Medical Interpreter Training

October 17, 2017October 17, 2017by Agustina MarianacciLeave a comment

Hello, everyone! It’s been a while! 2017 has been a long year, what can I say. I revamped this website, though, so you’ll have to give me some credit.

I’m back here to share this beautiful certificate I got from the people at NZTC Interpreting, from the New Zealand Translation Centre, one of the translation and interpreting agencies I work with as a freelancer.

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That Time I Dived into Coding

May 2, 2017August 31, 2017by Agustina MarianacciLeave a comment

I have some (wonderful) friends who work in tech, and one of them organises a coding workshop for beginners called Rails Girls, where women learn a bit about the Ruby programming language. The aim of the event is to encourage female presence in the tech world, traditionally dominated by men. I decided to enroll because… why not? It seems to me that basic coding knowledge would be very handy for any translator. It might even lead to website and other IT-related translation work. It might help with the creation of professional sites such as this one, which I’ve been looking into updating. The possibilities are always open.

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Treaty Times Thirty

March 24, 2017October 28, 2021by Agustina MarianacciLeave a comment

Somehow, while I was working on the translations into Spanish of the Treaty of Waitangi a year ago, I didn’t realise it would eventually become a book. I mean, I knew that was the purpose of it, but I didn’t envisage the final result.

Today I received the book in the mail and I have no words to express how absolutely perfect it is. The design is excellent. I mean, who came up with the idea of writing the originals in the flaps so that people reading the translations would be able to compare them to the source at a glance? That’s genius!

Congratulations to the New Zealand Society of Translators and Interpreters, I am so proud to have participated in this project and delighted to be a part of this beautiful community.