Availability February - March 2012

I will be unavailable and unable to access email or mobile on Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 February, and unavailable but able to access email and mobile between 19-23 March.

UK Ministry of Justice interpreting services outsourcing: more comments

The new system for providing interpreting services to the Ministry of Justice in the UK continues to attract comments, which are mainly negative.

• The Lawyer: Lawyers slam Government’s new court interpreting system
• The Law Society Gazette: Language Barrier

Edit: Now the Guardian reports that courts are allowed to revert to the old system after the new supplier of interpreting services fail to supply interpreters. Courts given green light to hire own interpreters as ALS struggles to cope.

Ministry of Justice interpreting in the UK: Reactions

The Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI) has highlighted potential issues arising from changes to the way that interpreters are sourced for police and court work, and here are some early reactions.

• Criminal Defence Associates: article highlighting the letter from the ITI and their own concerns
• The Law Society Gazette: MoJ interpreting hub a 'false economy'
• Discussion on Radio 5 live (starts just after 52 minutes)

The ITI are also looking for more input on problems encountered under the new system (phone interpreting and other interpreting).

Availability update 2012

Please note that I will be unavailable or else have very reduced availability over the following periods (inclusive):

Thursday 16 - Wednesday 22 February: reduced availability, may not be contactable by phone but will be contactable by email.

Monday 14 May - Tuesday 5 June: unavailable, on holiday and attending IJET-23 in Hiroshima.

Training courses in early 2012

As well as the ITI Japanese Network workshops and AGM mentioned in the last post, here are some more training opportunities coming up early this year:

PharmaGuide, who have previously given their drug discovery course via eCPD's webinars, are running courses on Chemistry for Translators and Biotechnology for Translators on Saturday 21 January and Saturday 10 March in Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

Corinne McKay will be running a four-week online course from Wednesday 25 January to kickstart you into the process described in her book How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator. (Just don't believe the bit about European CVs!)

And Ros Schwartz and Chris Durban are presenting their popular sessions in Amsterdam on Friday 10 February, Style Matters. Chris Durban will then go on to present two more sessions the next day in nearby Amersfoot, Mystery Shopper and Finding and Working with Direct Clients. (Thanks to Kevin Lossner for the information.)

ITI Japanese Network Workshops and 2011 AGM

The 2011 ITI Japanese Network AGM and the first workshop day for 2012 will be held in York on Saturday 14 January 2012. The fee for attending the workshops is £25.00. (The AGM is as always free to attend, and is for members only.)

The workshops will be on patent translation (Japanese to English and English to Japanese) and training translators, plus our guest Nick Rosenthal, Chairman of Council of the ITI, will talk about becoming a full member of the ITI.

There will be an informal meeting at a pub on the Friday, a networking lunch is included in the price of the workshops, and there will also be a venue booked for dinner on Saturday afternoon.

Availability Christmas 2011/New Year 2012

I will be unavailable from 22 December 2011, returning to work on 3 January 2012. I will have limited email access and will only be contactable by mobile for the first week of that time.