I love hot links!

O.K. The title for this blog is a tease. I’m not talking about the kind of hot links you eat (although I do love those). I’m talking about the kind that you click on from your Internet browser. I usually blog (goglobalatsnu.blogspot.com) about global opportunities at SNU or going global locally (i.e., global issues in the Bethany/OKC area). With this blog post, I thought I would just share some links that should be of interest to novice translators, aspiring translators and translation students. At the end, I’ll also include a link to a funny take on Twitter as well as a link to Pat Buchanan putting his foot in his mouth on Hispanics in the U.S. If those last two links sound more interesting than the translation links, just skip to the end of the blog.

Yesterday I spoke with a student who is very interested in translation. I always like talking to students who are interested in translation. In the short time that I had with the student, I answered some questions and tried to explain a little bit about career opportunities in translation. That’s the kind of talk you can’t do very well in a few minutes. So, my suggestion to students (and others) interested in translation is to check out some translator/translation blogs. A good place to start would be with Masked Translator at maskedtranslator.blogspot.com/. I don’t know who Masked Translator is, but he/she says,

"I am the Zorro of the translation blog world! Masked Translator is not trying to sell you anything or self-promote. Masked Translator just wants to tell it like it is about the real life of a professional translator."

Besides the interesting posts by Masked Translator, on the right side of the blog there is a list of links to other resources. Many of those other resources will have links to even other resources. From one location, you can discover endless possibilities to help you get a feel for what the world of translation is all about. Be sure to click on the link to the Translation Journal blog (translationjournal.blogspot.com/). From there, you can click on the link to Translation Journal (translationjournal.net/journal/). Translation Journal is a great translator resource.

While you’re clicking on links, check out ProZ.com (proz.com/). ProZ is a translator resource site/translation job clearing-house that is full of information. Of course, every aspiring translator/translation student should check out the website of the American Translators Association (ATA) at atanet.org. When you navigate to places like ProZ.com and the ATA website, spend some time following links and seeing what information is there. All of it will give you some insight into the life and work of translators. Also, check out regional translator associations. I’m a member of the Mid-America Chapter of the American Translators Association (ata-micata.org/), the regional association that covers Oklahoma, and the New England Translators Association (netaweb.org/cms/), the translators association that has events in Boston where two of my children live. (I’m always looking for an excuse to go to Boston to visit them.) Most regional translator associations hold monthly, semi-annual or annual conferences and workshops and would welcome aspiring translators at those events.

I’m always also on the lookout for interesting translation related links. I recently found a short article in the Wall Street Journal on the work of a British playwright/translator. You can read the article (Turning Paris into Brooklyn) at online.wsj.com/article/SB123758495427799425.html. If you’re a comic strip fan, you might like Blondie’s comic strip for 03/25 (blondie.com/dailies/index.asp).

Finally, as promised, a Twitter link and a Pat Buchanan link. First, check out the funny take on Twitter at dailymotion.com/video/x8puil_twouble-with-twitter-soustitre_creation. Next, ask yourself why Pat Buchanan is so afraid of Hispanics in the U.S. (dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/3/24/712489/-Buchanan-still-scared-of-the-scary-Latinos).

Ciao!

March Madness!

March Madness! The sweet sixteen! The final four! Some of you know and care about all this. Others know what it is and wish it would go away. Still others probably don’t have much of a clue. Of course, I’m talking about the NCAA collegiate basketball championship. However, that’s not the whole story because the March Madness that is coverd by ESPN and other national networks is all about the men’s NCAA Division I basketball championship. Being from Oklahoma, I’m a big fan of OU’s powerhouse women’s basketball team, but I have to listen to a bunch of boring stuff on ESPN to get to anything that is said about women’s basketball. I also teach at a school that’s not even in the NCAA. It’s in the NAIA. You won’t hear anything about NAIA March Madness, not even on local TV, not to mention the NCAA Division II and III schools and their tournaments. March Madness is all about the big boys. That probably makes sense. The different national associations and divisions in sports are designed so that the big guys don’t beat up on the little guys.

Small universities like Southern Nazarene University sometimes tout their programs with the preface, “For a small university, we have one of the best.....” I’ve heard that phrase or one like it many times at SNU. The implication is that we can’t compete with the big guys, but we’re great when compared with the small fry. It’s like the difference between the NCAA and NAIA in sports. President Obama may not go on ESPN and give his choices for the brackets for the NAIA version of March Madness, like he did for the NCAA brackets, but hey, we’re still pretty good when compared with schools our size.

However, I know that at least one program at SNU can compete with the best of the big boys and come off quite well. I would put SNU’s International Studies Program (ISP) up against any program, no matter the size of the school offering the program, with the assurance that we would shine. Let me explain.

SNU’s ISP prepares leaders for the international arena, including business, government agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGO’s, both faith-based and secular). What does a recent graduate need in order to have a successful start in that arena? First, the graduate needs to have a good understanding of how language and culture shape and interact with all aspects of people’s lives. ISP majors at SNU must complete 15 credit hours of language and culture study as part of their core major requirements. Second, the graduate needs to have a good overview of international politics, history and geograpy. Those areas intertwine with everything done in the global arena. ISP majors at SNU must complete 15 credit hours of history, political science and geography study as part of their core major requirements. Third, the graduate needs basic business management skills, the kind of skills that are needed to run any type of organization in our globalized socio-economic system. ISP majors at SNU must complete 15 credit hours of management study as part of their core major requirements. Fourth, the graduate needs to have well developed skills that set him or her apart from other recent graduates and that make the graduate the kind of human resource asset that every organization needs. ISP majors at SNU must complete an additional 15 credit hours in one of five specialty areas: History/Political Science, Business Management, Business Spanish, Teaching English as a Second Language or Language and Culture. Finally, the graduate needs to have recent challenging and relevant overseas experience. ISP majors at SNU must spend one semester or more in an approved study abroad program or in an approved overseas internship. Approved programs are selected specifically to meet the needs of ISP majors.

As you look at the ISP at Southern Nazarene University, one thing you realize is that it is not a major for those who don’t want to work. Just as sports teams don’t get to the championship, NCAA or NAIA, without hard work, ISP majors don’t make it to the end without a lot of hard work. It is not a major for the faint hearted. However, SNU’s International Studies Program is a major for those who want to make significant contributions in the international arena. Bring on the big boys. We can handle ‘em.

Twitter and Translation--A Great Combination

I admit that sometimes I am (way too) enamored of Internet technology. I started off my spring break by installing Google Chrome on my home desktop and laptop computers and setting up my iGoogle homepage with three tabs, one for English language news feeds, one for Spanish language news feeds and one with Twitter, Facebook and Digg feeds. I probably could become as equally enamored of gadgetry except that I don’t have the excess cash to spend on gadgetry. Since Internet technology is basically free, it makes it easy for a wannabe geek like me to experiment.

I’m also enjoying scouring online news for articles on the growing use of social networking sites, especially those that have an international angle. I first heard about Twitter when I read a story about a student arrested in Egypt in April 2008. He twittered his way to freedom (http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/04/25/twitter.buck/). Just today, I read a Wall Street Journal article about using Twitter to provide reliable news on the unrest in Madagascar (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123716141767335587.html). As you might imagine, I have become a big Twitter fan.

The WSJ article caught my attention for a couple of reasons. First, it was in the Wall Street Journal. That should not have been a surprise. Recently, the WSJ has been a good source for Twitter articles. It also caught my attention because it involved translation. Translation joined with Twitter to get the news out from a remote location without access to reliable, independent news...now that’s exciting stuff for a technophile translator/translation instructor. As I think about the impact of technology on translation, I get excited about next semester at SNU. I doubt that many students have the same enthusiasm as I do for the start of next semester. After all, we’re just barely half-way through this semester. However, I get to teach a course on the use of technology in translation. The big difficulty is going to be to cram it all into a 3-credit class.

One of the things I tell prospective translation students is that because SNU’s program emphasizes the development of advanced writing skills in both English and Spanish, it is an excellent program to prepare students for careers in international journalism. Perhaps in the not-too-distant future one of my former translation students will be using a cell phone and Twitter (or whatever comes along after Twitter) to report live on some significant breaking news event in Latin America. When they do, I just hope they remember to include me in on the news feed.

Getting back to my puttering around on my computers, I’m quite proud of how I have Google Chrome set up. I’ll be happy to send you some screen shots to let you know how cool it is. Just let me know.

Melting pot or mosaic?

Yesterday's local news included the observation that Oklahoma's march toward an "English-only" law for state government had taken another step forward. One of the bill's proponents used the "melting pot" analogy to support the need to prohibit state employees, including state legislators, from communicating with anyone in any language other than English. Growing up in the U.S., I heard the melting pot analogy spoken of with pride so many times that I did not question that it was the best way to look at integrating immigrants into a society. That is, I didn't question it until I moved to Canada.

A Canadian friend introduced me to the "mosaic" analogy of immigrant integration. His explanation was that in a melting pot, individual elements lose their distinctiveness. The elements contribute to the overall composition, but become just like every other element in the process. In a mosaic, on the other hand, the individual elements maintain their distinctiveness while making their own unique contribution to the total composition. Up close, you can see each element clearly and may even have trouble making out what the overall composition is. However, if you step back you can see how all the elements together make something that is obviously different and better than the mere sum of its parts.

My friend's idea was that Canada's approach was to encourage immigrants to maintain their distinctiveness even as they contributed to Canadian society. Of course, you can only push the analogy so far before it breaks down. No government of a country that experiences significant immigration has the resources to publish all its materials in every possible language or provide multilingual agency employees to speak to its citizens in every language represented in the country. Also, as Canada among others has experienced, conflicts among different ethnic, linguistic and immigrant groups is inevitable. People are not perfect. Neither are governments. Conflicts arise due to real or perceived injustices and must be dealt with.

Nevertheless, I like the mosaic concept. For one thing, it makes life more interesting. My wife and I live on the edge of Oklahoma City's Asian district. A great Asian supermarket is just a few blocks from our house. Also, within a few minutes drive we can choose from a nice variety of Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai restaurants. (The nearest Korean restaurant is not very close to our house. Sometimes we have to sacrifice and drive just a little bit farther.) On the other hand, if we're in the mood for Guatemalan food, we can go to the Guatemalan restaurant two blocks away, or drive a few more blocks to the Brazilian restaurant if one of us is in the mood for feijoada. If we want to buy a few Guatemalan products to fix our Guatemalan meal at home, there is a Guatemalan store less than a mile from our house, and for a Mexican meal, there is a large Hispanic supermarket going in within a couple of miles.

One of the tensions with both melting pot and mosaic changes is that as elements are added, the whole composition changes, and change makes many people uneasy. The difference between the two approaches is that melting pot changes are more gradual than mosaic changes and so less noticeable. On the other hand, mosaic changes can sometimes be jarring because they immediately stand out. So the choice between the melting pot and mosaic approaches is not one of change versus no change. Rather, it is a choice of how we deal with the change that immigration inevitably brings. Realistically we cannot, nor do we want to, halt immigration. Immigration is good. Immigration is what built our society. Except for a few of us, our heritage is an immigrant heritage.

Despite its inevitable conflicts and jolting moments, I prefer the mosaic approach. I like hearing a variety of languages spoken when I'm standing in line to check out at Walmart. I like the fact that when my wife and I go out to eat, we seldom go to an "American" restaurant because we have such good choices in "ethnic" food close to our house. I like the fact that I can learn about and from people of other cultures just by gettng acquainted with people who are around me every day. I don't mind having to select "1" for English and "2" for Spanish. If they throw in a "3" for Vietnamese, I might select that sometime just to hear what it sounds like. So my request to my Oklahoma legislators is please don't mess up this great experience we have in Oklahoma.

La misionera, la maestra and me

Two stories about communication, but first a note on Spanish (for those non-Spanish speakers out there): Spanish has masculine and feminine endings for nouns. Some nouns are either masculine or feminine, one or the other but not both, while other nouns can be both masculine and feminine, just not at the same time. Did I confuse you with that? Anyway, the Spanish word for missionary is misionero for a man and misionera for a woman ("o" for boys and "a" for girls).

First a story from our time of missionary service in Guatemala: Many missionary mothers, especially missionary mothers of small children, find that while their children are young, they don't have a lot of time to mish. Most feel a strong call to the mission field and want to be involved directly and hands-on with mission work. However, doing as much as they want is often difficult just because of household demands combined with the extra work that regularly goes with living in a less developed area outside the U.S. During one period in Guatemala, my wife, Laurena, was teaching health and nutrition in a rural area outside Guatemala City. At that point in our missionary career, that one teaching opportunity a week was about the only mishing she got to do besides attending Sunday church services. Laurena did not much like driving in Guatemala under the best of circumstances, and she really disliked driving on mountain roads. Since reaching the site where she was teaching involved driving on both mountain roads and rough rural roads in a rugged, short wheelbase, stiff suspension Toyota Land Cruiser without power steering, she asked me to drive her every week. Every week as we approached the teaching site, the neighborhood children would run along beside the car (which had to go very slow because of the bad roads) and shout "¡Ya viene la misionera! ¡Ya viene la misionera!" (The missionary is coming! The missionary is coming!) But in Spanish, unlike in English, it was clear that the kids were shouting that the woman missionary (misionera) was coming. In fact, I'm not even sure the kids thought of me as a missionary. I was just la misionera's driver. That one little bit of communication accuracy made an important difference in Laurena's perspective on her own ministry.

Next a story from tonight: I answered a call as I was sitting down to do some work on the computer. When I answered, "Hello," a tentative voice on the other end asked, "¿Está la Señora Johnson?" (Is Mrs. Johnson there?) The voice was tentative because the person on the other end didn't know whether I spoke Spanish. To that person, I was just the answering machine for the important person, their child's second grade teacher who happened to speak Spanish and was able to talk to them about their child in a language they understood. Laurena is a vital link between that family and the educational system. Without her, they would be lost.

Laurena and I became proficient in Spanish as a result of God's call on our lives to missionary service. God used that proficiency in Costa Rica, in Guatemala and even in New York and Montreal where we worked with Hispanic congregations. God gave us that gift of proficiency and is still using it where we are. I like to think that every semester as I work with SNU students, I am working with others for whom God's gift of language proficiency will be used all over the world, working in poverty alleviation or helping provide medical care or teaching children who need a teacher who understands their language and their culture. That's why I teach at SNU.

One tortilla is just as good as another...not!

I always enjoy reading Howard Culbertson's posts from Ecuador where he is teaching & studying at the Nazarene International Language Institute. Today, March 10, Howard posted a note regarding the differences among South American countries and how "North Americans" lump all Spanish-speaking people into the same category. (Of course, Mexicans are as North American as anyone from Oklahoma and they probably don't do the same kind of lumping as we Okies might do.) You can read Howard's Ecuador notes on Facebook.

Howard's observations interest me because they came right on the heels of a session I had with students on Sunday afternoon in which we talked about the differences among different Hispanic groups in Oklahoma. Brenda Rice, a bilingual nurse who works in an Oklahoma City clinic with a large proportion of Hispanic clients, spoke about her experiences in Mexico, Costa Rica and Oklahoma. One of the students who was there has a Mexican heritage and another student is an immigrant from Honduras. We talked about how non-Mexican Hispanics in the U.S. resent being lumped in with Mexicans. There is nothing wrong with being Mexican, but if you're Guatemalan you want people to know you're Guatemalan. Just like a Canadian probably would not want to be considered an American or English. Generally speaking, we're proud of our nationality. Then Monday evening in my International Business classs, we talked about culture and had to be aware that we were making sweeping generalities about cultures and cultural differences. It is hard to identify anyone as belonging to just one cultural group. Thus, when I try to help my students learn something about Hispanic culture, I also need to help them realize that I am generalizing across a group of people that sometimes seem to have more differences than similarities. There is no Hispanic culture; there are Hispanic cultures.

So, where do tortillas come into this? Simply put, not all tortillas are the same. Although I try to smile graciously when someone exudes about homemade tortillas in Oklahoma, I know that they do not approach Guatemalan tortillas. Guatemalan tortillas are thick, a whole lot thicker than Mexican tortillas, and soft and have just a hint of smoke in their flavor (that is, if they've been cooked outside on a hot comal). Put two warm Guatemalan tortillas together with a layer of black bean paste and a thick slice of slightly tart white goat cheese and you have a snack that puts the best PBJ to shame. Go ahead and offer me a hot, homemade tortilla and I'll eat it and smile, but all the while I'll be wishing it were a Guatemalan tortilla.

Doing good

It has taken a while for Southern Nazarene University's Morningstar Institute (http://morningstarinstitute.org) to crank up, but it looks like arrangements are falling into place to send Morningstar's first interns to Swaziland. Morningstar is an amazing opportunity for SNU students to combine academic work in the classroom with hands-on field experience in global poverty alleviation. Morningstar works very closely with the International Studies Program at SNU. A student does not have to be an ISP major to do a Morningstar internship, but Morningstar internships fulfill the overseas requirement for ISP majors and fits very well into the ISP curriculum, especially the Business emphasis track in the ISP. To me, a Morningstar internship should be a no-brainer for any student interested in working with an international relief/poverty alleviation oriented NGO after graduation.

To get an overview of all the global opportunities at SNU, check out http://goglobalatsnu.net.

2010 Study Abroad

This is specifically for current SNU students. When we return from Spring Break, it will be time to think about enrollment for the Fall 2009 semester. Believe it or not, it’s also time to think about study abroad for the Spring 2010 semester. The early application deadline for the Spring 2010 CCCU (bestsemester.com) programs is May 1, 2009. So if you’re thinking Spring 2010 study abroad with the CCCU, start thinking about starting to work on your early application. I’d say start working on the early application, but I know no one is going to do that until after Spring Break. So, just think about starting…and then start to work when you get back from Spring Break.

If you are thinking about studying abroad anytime during your college career, you need to make sure your advisor knows so that he or she can take that into account in giving you advice on course selection.

There are a couple of other programs besides CCCU programs that you might want to check out. The Nazarene International Language Institute (NILI) in Ecuador has summer as well as semester programs and the Institute for Global Education (IGE) Vienna program is a fantastic program that provides a lot of opportunity for exploring much of Europe.

I’ve posted links to the CCCU, NILI and IGE programs on the wall of the GoGlobalatSNU Facebook group. You can also find links to the programs as well as to the SNU contact people for those programs on the GoGlobalatSNU website (goglobalatsnu.net/abroad).

By the way, if you’re thinking about one of the CCCU programs for the Fall 2009 semester, there is still time to apply. The application deadline for fall 2009 is April 1.

Canadian chocolates and Guatemalan families

A few days ago in a note on Facebook, Howard Culbertson wrote about how living in a different country provided an opportunity to see things from perspectives that are different from our own. He specifically mentioned the perspective many Latin Americans have on Che Guevara that is different from the one held by many U.S. citizens. One of the surprises and pleasures of traveling is discovering how different people can look at the same event or cirucumstances and come away with different perspectives.

When we moved to Canada, we were introduced to the Laura Secord brand of chocolates and ice cream. With our children attending school in Canada, we were also introduced to Canadian history books. One of those books told the story of the Canadian heroine, Laura Secord, who helped British troops defeat Americans who were trying to invade Canada. It turns out that the brand is named after a Canadian heroine of the War of 1812. She is considered a heroine because she warned the British in Canada of an imminent attack by American forces. As a result, British soldiers aided by Mohawk warriers defeated the Americans at the Battle of Beaver Dams and prevented them from taking their outpost in Canada. Laura was sort of a female Paul Revere, except on the side of the British rather than that of the Americans. I wonder how it felt for my children to study a historical battle from the other side of the fence.

Sometimes the perspective we get to see when we travel is one that makes us stop and think about who has the right idea. For instance, when we lived in Guatemala, our children's pediatrican had studied and practiced medicine in the United States. One day, I got to talking to his wife, who was the receptionist at her husband's office. We talked about how long they lived in the States and how nice they found it there. I thought about all the conveniences the U.S. had compared to Guatemala and about how the doctor and his wife could have been a lot better off in the U.S. than in Guatemala. I asked her why they returned to Guatemala. During that time of my life, I truly believed that everyone wanted to live in the U.S. and anyone who had the chance would jump at it. Her response was that although the U.S. had a lot going for it, Guatemala was a much better place to raise a family. She talked about how U.S. families were so often torn in different directions by all their commitments and activities and about how Guatemalan families were a lot more united. I found this same attitude in the architect from whom we bought our house in Guatemala. He had the financial resources and other things going for him that would have made it possible for him to live in the U.S. However, he prized regular Sunday dinners with his children and grandchildren far more than the opportunity to make it big in the U.S.

The encounters with the wife of our children's pediatrician and with the architect from whom we bought our house occured early in our stay in Guatemala. I'm glad they did because they helped me understand that Guatemala's lack of conveniences in comparison with the U.S. was really a minor issue. In many important ways, Guatemala had a lot going for it that the U.S. was missing.

After living for many years overseas, I hope that I managed to bring back with me to the U.S. just a little bit of the important perspectives I ran into abroad. My children may remember the Laura Secord ice cream from Canada or Guatemalan tortillas and black beans. I remember those, but I also remember the people who helped me learn that it's a big, wide world and my view only captures just a little bit of it.