Sunday 30 November 2014

Looking forward to the ITI Conference 2015

Today I have registered for the ITI’s next conference (for the Saturday only) to be held at the Hilton Newcastle Gateshead in Newcastle-upon-Tyne from 23 until 25 April 2015. Its theme is ‘Renew, Rejuvenate, Regenerate – translating and interpreting in an evolving world’. The ITI Conference is a biennial event and attracts translators and interpreters from all over the UK and beyond.


Join us for the next ITI conference!

Since it is quite a distance between Bristol and Newcastle, I hadn’t been sure if I should attend the conference. However, I had already skipped the last one in 2013 as I didn’t find the venue overly appealing although I can see why Gatwick had been chosen as it was easy to reach for delegates from abroad. What’s more, I always enjoy conferences (for write-ups of previous ITI conferences see here, here and here). Therefore, I am now really excited about my upcoming foray north!


Overall, my reasons for deciding to attend are exactly those that Karin Krikkink describes on the conference blog: to make new friends and keep in touch with old ones, to network, to earn a few CPD […] points, to learn about what’s new in the industry, to get out of the office and spend a few days in a beautiful city abroad (let’s be honest, who doesn’t use conferences as a good excuse for a mini-vacation…), and perhaps most importantly to be inspired by all those colleagues who are also passionate about their jobs.

The most rewarding part of conferences to me personally, I think, is the chance to get out of the office for a couple of days to catch up with or get to know fellow translators and interpreters. I have so many wonderful colleagues, which is one of the aspects that make my job really worthwhile. However, as we mostly communicate online, I believe conferences offer the perfect opportunity to properly meet others in real life.



Meeting other translators in real life at conferences

You can keep up to date with the latest Conference news via the Conference website and by following @ITIConference on Twitter. The Twitter hashtag is #ITIConf15.


English is not my first language. Therefore, if you've just read this post and noticed any errors or unidiomatic expressions, please get in touch and let me know. Thank you so much!

Friday 14 November 2014

The revenge of the introverts

My favourite student job was a short stint at Siemens Healthcare in Erlangen in 2002 which involved testing newly developed software. I simply had to play around with it and try to find out where it didn’t work as it should. Or, in computer programming speak, my job was to define bugs. I was in a room with a lot of computer programmers. Among other things, they fixed the bugs that I and another student, who came in on different days, had identified. Work in this room was focused, productive, and above all quiet – just as work for me as a translator is today.


People doing quiet work, many of whom are introverts, have had a lot of good press in recent years. This is good news to all introverts, including geeks, nerds, and translators too: it is now okay to be an introvert! This has not always been the case. An article on Psychology Today in 2010 therefore even referred to it as the revenge of the introvert. Previously overlooked as people who love hiding behind their computer screens, they are now valued much more for what they’ve got to offer.




So what exactly defines the personality trait of introversion? Introverts enjoy solitary work, in particular work that allows them to dive in with few interruptions. They tend to be better at writing and listening than talking, and prefer one-on-one conversations to group activities. Perhaps, introversion can best be defined as a preference for low-stimulation environments.

 
Many introverts have had a profound influence on the world, and a lot of the products that we use and love today were in fact designed by introverts. One just has to think of a couple of famous introverts such as Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Immanuel Kant, Charles Darwin, Mahatma Gandhi, Vincent van Gogh, Queen Elizabeth II., Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Larry Page, Steve Wozniak, Mark Zuckerberg, Joanne K. Rowling, Claudia Schiffer, Joachim Löw, Angela Merkel, Michael Jackson, Steven Spielberg, or Emma Watson.




Are you an extrovert, an introvert, or an ambivert? According to the psychologist Jung, “there is no such thing as a pure extrovert or a pure introvert”. This means every single one of us is situated somewhere between the extreme ends of the introvert-extrovert spectrum.


For a closer look at how introverts interact differently with the world, I recommend this Huffington Post article, which has proved very popular on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook in the past few months.

Other recommended articles: