Introduction to CAT Portfolio

Dear Reader:

IIn the fall 2016 semester of my time at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, I had the opportunity to take an incredibly valuable course taught by Professor Adam Wooten called "Introduction to Computer Assisted Translation." Throughout the course, we learned how to work with a plethora of digital tools available to translators: term bases, translation memories, translation work environments, and much more.

However, we were also introduced to something that I would consider even more important: a way of thinking. You see, I had the privilege of growing up in the Silicon Valley, a place rich with creativity and innovation. When I was acquiring my bachelor's degree at UCLA, I was enamored with the university's dedication to fostering an interest in interdisciplinary studies. This entailed not only the intersection traditional fields of study, but also the utilizing of new technologies, such as in the case of Digital Humanities. What fascinates me is not technology in and of itself, but is its potential for enriching the the way we interact with the world.

Translation has the reputation of either being seen as something that is behind the times or on the verge of being swept away by the "imminent" spectre of machine translation. We've known human translation would become obsolete in the "next five years" for decades, now. What this course has given me is the tools and the mindset to see that reality: that technology can augment human translation, leading to more effective, efficient, and high-quality human interactions, stunning in their potential to bridge space, time, and culture.

The portfolio below features the end result of this semester: a project where we worked with a team on a translation project from start to finish: from proposals and client meetings to translation, delivery, and even a post-mortem. Our team worked remotely, translating a speech by a Russian professor of history, utilizing of Trados's termbase, translation memory, and package functions. Below, you will find our project proposal, our deliverables, and our reflection on lessons learned. During this project, I had the opportunity to play the roles of Project Manager, Engineer, and Translator, leading the work at all stages of the processes. The portfolio caps off with a link to an article that resulted from my work in this course. I hope these documents can help illustrate how I was introduced to a significant part of the Language Service ecosystem and realized that I've found where I belong.

Happy Browsing,
Lena Muratova

PROJECT PROPOSAL AND DELIVERABLES

The two images below link to a PDF of the Project Proposal that was presented at our client meeting and a ZIP file of the Deliverables that were sent to our client upon completion of the translation process. It includes a pseudo-translation, the translation memory, the source and target translations, and the term base for this project. I operated as a sort of team lead during the process, guiding the team through the project management, engineering, and translation branches of the process.

POST-MORTEM ON LESSONS LEARNED

Below you can find the presentation our team gave on the lessons we learned from running this project from start to finish. I continued to operate as team lead during the making of this presentation: setting up the collaborative environment, making sure the design was cohesive, and facilitating communication between members.

A REFLECTIVE BLOG POST ON TRANSLATION AND TECHNOLOGY

Below is a blog post where I discuss my predictions on the future of technology for professional translators. I address how the knowledge I gained from taking the Introduction to Computer Assisted Technology course has affected my understanding of the subject. Please click through the link to see the full text.

Technological Literacy, Translation and the Future