CAT (computer-assisted translation) tools have been with us for some years now and are considered by many translators to be a mixed blessing. The most popular tool is expensive, works only on Windows, and is sometimes used by agencies to pressure translators to offer discounted rates for “fuzzy matches.” Omega T is an attractive option. It works on Mac OS and Linux as well as Windows, and it is free (though the developers welcome donations). It can help translators work more consistently and efficiently, increasing throughput and ensuring higher-quality output.
This will be a hands-on session, and participants will actually collaborate on the translation of a prepared text (Spanish to English) using Omega T to get a feeling of how the tool works in real life.
Working from his home on Cape Cod, our speaker, Terry Gallagher, has been a successful freelance translator for over 15 years, working from Japanese and German into English. His work is mainly for the financial industry, and recently he has diversified into other areas of business and legal translation. But he also translates “fun stuff.” His translation of Self-Reference Engine by Akutagawa Prize winner Toh Enjoe has been selected for the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize for Translation of Japanese Literature (aka the Donald Keene Prize) this year, and in 2014 it was honored with the Philip K. Dick Award Special Citation for Excellence. Other literary projects include Be With You by Takuji Ichikawa, the manga edition of the same title, and many short stories (The Stationmaster by Jiro Asada, ZOO by Otsuichi, and contributions to the anthologies Monkey Brain Sushi, Monkey Business Vol. 4, the Penguin Book of Erotic Stories by Women, Speculative Japan 2, Hanzai, and The Future is Japanese). He edits NETA’s quarterly newsletter, and served on NETA’s board of directors from 2007-2014. For 15 years before turning freelance he was a journalist for Reuters and Dow Jones in Tokyo, Bonn, and New York. Originally from Brooklyn, he has a B.A. from Brown University.
