On Friday 3 August, I attended the Painting with Words workshop with Ann Pattinson, hosted by the ITI up in Milton Keynes. I had been on the lookout for a not too "translation-y" translation CPD for a long time and this workshop turned out to be exactly what I wanted! 
Before the workshop, we are asked to clear our minds, turn off our laptops and write a 300-piece on whatever came to mind at the time. When I first sat down to tackle this task, it felt slightly daunting - translators don't normally have to come up with their own ideas! But once I had found a topic, I found that it didn't take long for the words to start flowing. These pieces were submitted anonymously to be discussed during the seminar.
Once we had all arrived in MK (on yet another scorching this day this summer), we had a general introduction to Ann's background and what inspired her to run this workshop. We also looked at how translators and translation had been perceived over time and how writing in your free time can help to improve your translations. 
It was then time to get down to the practical part of the day, which included working in groups to create characters, finding inspiration in sensual stimuli and writing a short piece based on this experience. In the afternoon, we all discussed our response to the morning's work, before looking at the anonymous pieces and analysing them in terms of the issues they might throw up during translation. I found this part particularly useful as it makes you realise that a lot of the things I had written were subconscious, so you cannot always curse your source text author for their choices (as they probably don't even realise they have done it!)
Although I had never really harboured any ambitions to become a writer, I learned how writing outside of translation can help you to understand how to better put ideas into words. And whether you are into all this colouring-in, dot-to-dot for adults or whatever other "mindfulness" activity is the latest trend, sitting down and writing in peace for a few minutes was great for switching off the work-side of my brain.  I hope to implement Ann's suggestion of setting aside some time for creative writing, even if it is just keeping a diary. I would definitely recommend this workshop and would love to see the ITI offering something similar again in future.

At the end of September, the ITI German Network hosted the annual Anglophoner Tag at the racecourse in Chester, attended by members of the host group, as well as translators from ATICOM, the BDÜ and Univeritas. It was my first time at an event like this - luckily the organiser Cherry had said that it was all very informal so I wasn't too apprehensive!

The theme of the weekend was "Food for Thought", of which there was plenty (as well as plenty of amazing food!). Unfortunately, I was only able to attend on the Saturday, meaning I missed out on a cheese tasting trip and a tour of the city.  Saturday kicked off with four presentations from members of the various groups present.

Reiner Heard, the head of ATICOM, gave us all food for thought with his talk on machine translation, which could potentially see translators moving away from their "bread and butter" work towards MT post-editing and premium language services. His presentation was based on an FIT position paper about the future of professional translators (http://www.fit-ift.org/position-statements/). He was followed by ITI member Gaby Cablitz, who gave a presentation on The Papalagi by Erich Scheuermann. The book had been heralded by alternative movements in Germany as a damning portrait of life in Western Europe (and still is by some unenlightened readers). It has, however, since been revealed that the "real life account" by a chief from the island of Samoa is a fake, created by Nazi supporter Scheuermann.

The next two presentations were a more literal take on the theme of the weekend. Regina Simmes from the BDÜ in Germany discussed soul food or "Seelenfutter". The concept originated in the southern states of the US but has since been "stolen" by corporations to promote their products. I gave the final presentation about a blog project undertaken by my sister. To celebrate her 30th birthday, she decided to eat her way around the world from A-Z and documented her efforts here.

In the afternoon, we competed in a tricky crossword contest, after having been given a few hints about the mysterious language of clues. Two translators from each language then took part in a translation slam. The English native speakers were tasked with translating an article about protesting vegans in Germany while their German counterparts had the tough job of recreating Jay Rayner's unique standpoint on chutneys. In the evening, we all met at the Boathouse by the River Dee for some good English pub food. 

Although I am not too practised at public speaking, it turned out that giving a presentation was a good tactic having never attended anything like this before. My sister's project proved to be an excellent talking point, which was great for a networking novice like myself! It was a great introduction to the world of translation-based events - especially thanks to Cherry and Michaela's hard work.  I am now looking forward to attending many more.

On Sunday 17th September, I attended an afternoon with Herta Müller, the Nobel Prize winning author, at the British Library. The event centred around a discussion between Müller and her English translator,  the American playwright Philip Boehm, all expertly and spontaneously interpreted by a lecturer from UCL.

I had not come across Herta Müller until we studied her book Atemschaukel (available in English as The Hunger Angel) in a seminar about German writers from Eastern Europe. I loved the book and its style of prose - many of the phrases that appear throughout the book are the compound nouns that are so popular in the German language, but used in a way that you have never encountered before. Take the "Atemschaukel", for example, which you would literally translate as "BreathSwing", or "Wangenbrot" ("cheek bread"). It is also an eye-opening read: The book covers a part of history that is not particularly well known here in the UK: the German-speaking minority in Romania and their deportation to Russian labour camps during the Second World War.

During the talk, Müller discussed the background to the book and how its distinctive style had developed. Originally, the book was due to be a collaborative effort between Müller and the German/Romanian poet Oskar Pastior, who had actually been deported to a labour camp during the war.  She described how Pastior spoke of his language being "broken" during his time at the camp and having to be rebuilt, which is how these new nouns were created. When Pastior passed away before their work could be completed, Müller wanted to capture his unique voice in the finished novel.

The discussion was also interspersed with readings from both the original German version and English translation of Atemschaukel, which was a real treat after enjoying the book so much.  The event concluded with a brief Q and A and - as the event took place a mere week before the German election - politics could not be ignored!