More conference news...

Yesterday morning's program was devoted to the annual meeting of all ATA members, which I decided to skip, as I have nothing valuable to add to the discussion.

My day began by walking to the Marriott from my base near the United Nations (keeping an eagle eye out for DelFloria's dry cleaning shop, but that's another memory). Once in the vicinity of the conference hotel, I kept walking, past The Lion King, past Hamlet (starring Jude Law), and past the Kodama restaurant, where I had lunch on Thursday.

I ended up at another Japanese restaurant called Ryo & You, where I had a very nice meal. Unlike the Kodama, where most of the staff is Hispanic, the staff at the Ryo & You were Japanese, upon whom I could practice my fledgling Japanese phrases. The lunch special was excellent, but the memory I will take away from the place is the wall of sake bottles labeled with the names of their respective owners, allowing ongoing consumption of the contents whenever they return to partake of a meal.

The sessions I attended were excellent. The first was a terminology "bootcamp" aimed at transltation-related terms. As a translator who came into the business with no formal linguistics training (as opposed to language education, which I do have), I have increasingly begun to understand how the lack of ability to express ideas about what I do acts as an impediment to growth.

The second session I attended was related to conference interpreting and was most excellently presented. (It also gave me another data point in support of my idea that good interpreters are good performers, in the sense of performing for an audience.) I picked up more tips in this session than I do in most such sessions.

In between, I wandered the exhibitor area. There would appear to be an ever-increasing number of software products out there intent on competing with Trados, one of the currently better-known translation memory products.

One of these is Snowball, a product being promoted by an affable fellow from Denmark, Erich Hegenberger. I had run across Erich on Twitter some time back, and did a cursory evaluation of an early version of the product (and even provided feedback, some of which influenced the current iteration of the product). I look forward to spending some more time with the updated version of the product once I get back home.

The evening was taken up with the annual Slavic Languages Division dinner, which was held at the Russian Samovar restaurant on West 52nd. A more complete report will appear later, as I am on the hook to provide a review of the festivities for the Division's newsletter.

Cheers...

You just never know...

I got up pretty early this morning and decided to go for a walk. I've been walking quite a bit during this trip, which is probably good for me overall.

When I got into the elevator, I encountered an individual in tights, wearing a German flag as if it were a kilt and Germany's colors as "war paint" under his eyes.

To make the long trip down to the ground floor pass more pleasantly, I asked what the occasion might be. I was told today was some kind of "Friendship Run" that was taking place as a runup to tomorrow's New York Marathon. Indeed, when the elevator stopped at the ground floor, I emerged into a lobby filled with other Germans attired much the same way as my elevator-mate.

As I gained the sidewalk outside my hotel, I noticed a general hustle and bustle in the direction of First Avenue, so went in that direction just in time to catch an individual passing out of sight carrying a model of the Eiffel Tower on his shoulders:


As I walked downtown, I notice police setting up orange traffic cones and redirecting traffic in preparation for the event. Eventually, at 5th Avenue and 42nd Street, I came across the main axis of the event.


It was a strange mix of national pride and Halloween that I probably did not fully fathom. However, a good time was had by all, I have no doubt. (This reminds me: I shall have to take the Marathon into account tomorrow as I prepare to quit this burg.)

The ATA sessions today were okay, but I should have exercised more care in selecting them, as they largely covered subject matter that I was already well familiar with. After the conference, Jim W. and I went past a long avenue of tourist-y restaurants on 45th Street and found a small sushi joint on 9th Avenue. I've known Jim for years through the ATA, and he was gracious enough to invite a bunch of us to visit his house not far from Atlanta back in... was it '02? How time flies.

I need to pin down when my flight leaves tomorrow. More later, maybe.

Cheers...