From QERC to Viva Oklahoma: It's been a good summer.

It’s been over three months since I’ve done anything with my blog. (By the way, this blog posts to FB as a note. If you read it on FB and want to check out the blog, go to http://www.goglobalatsnu.blogspot.com.) By mid-April, I was so overwhelmed with all that was going on that I decided something had to give or I would go bonkers, and the blog was one of those “somethings” that had to give. Now that the end of summer and the start of the new school year are in sight, I think it’s time I get back to blogging about SNU’s great opportunities for going global.

In April, I went to Costa Rica to spend several days working with SNU students studying at QERC. It was my second visit to QERC. What a great place to spend a semester and what a great opportunity for SNU student! Want to know more about QERC? Check out http://www.snu.edu/qerc.

As soon as the semester was done, I went to Austin for the annual meeting of the Association of Language Companies (http://www.alcus.org), which is a trade association for language service providers. Of all that I learned at the meeting, the one item that will have the most impact on my teaching at SNU is the awareness of the growing impact of technology on the translation and interpreting industry. That means that more of that element must be integrated into SNU’s Spanish-English Translation major. (Dicho sea de paso, which is Spanish for “by the way,” I’m writing this blog post on a MacBook Pro, a first for me. Part of integrating more technology into our translation major means accepting that not every translator prefers a PC. Life would be some much simpler if that were so!) I’ve also subscribed to the trade magazine Multilingual Computing and will have copies of that magazine available for SNU students.

Soon after my Austin trip, I went to Boston to attend the annual meeting of the New England Translator’s Association (http://netaweb.org/cms). Why go all the way to Boston to attend a translator’s meeting? #1, it had some great speakers scheduled. #2, my two daughters live in Boston. (Which reason do you think was the most important?) One of the downsides of being located in Oklahoma is the lack of local professional development opportunities for translators and interpreters. There are enough translators and interpreters in Oklahoma that we should be able to get together and start doing some local continuing education. This is a project I hope to work on during the year. If we get something going, it will provide support for aspiring translators and interpreters as well as for those who are already working in language services.

This past weekend (07/25), the company in which I am a partner (http://www.multilingualservice.com) had a booth at the Viva Oklahoma Hispanic Exposition in Oklahoma City. I have some photos of our booth on my FB wall if you’re interested. I think it was a successful effort for us. We even got to pitch our services to Drew Edmondson, Oklahoma’s Attorney General and aspirant to the governor’s office. Perhaps we’ll get to translate some material for his campaign.

Speaking of translating for prominent events, our company will do some translation for the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum’s “Arte en la Charerria: The Artisanship of Mexican Equestrian Culture” exhibit, October 10, 2009-January 3, 2010 (http://www.nationalcowboymuseum.org/events/event.aspx?ID=127). The museum description says, “Arte en la Charrería contains more than 120 examples of the excellent craftsmanship and design distinctive to the Mexican cowboy. The exhibition introduces audiences to the work of talented Mexican artisans who manufacture the articles and costumes that embellish and distinguish the charro tradition.” A great opportunity to see a little of Mexico’s influence on the U.S. cowboy culture.