My dear fellow translators,

This thread on China gave me an idea. Is it possible to organise encounters of translators around European cities? Translating agencies (or anybody else) can be our sponsors. We could spend a week or two together exchanging experiences and sightseeing, socializing. Hotel accomodation is cetainly not a must. More private and personal one in pensions or with families would be quite all right for the occasion. We would have our own guides, people from the country where the encounter is taking place. I presume a lot of you would greet this idea. Anyway it would be nice to support it in written and to give suggestions how this can be realized.

Regards,

Ljilja from Serbia

Dear Ljilja,

I totally agree with you . Organising such event would give many of us the opportunity to meet, get to know each other, exchange ideas and experience. I` m sure the other translators would be happy to participate.

Azra

Hi, Azra
Thanks for being the first to support. I am staying in English because of our fellows. If you wish any contact to have further discussions in our mother tongue(s)!, feel free to contact me to the personal mail from my page.
Ljilja

I agree with you girls. It would be a great idea. In fact, I believe there are organizations that subsidize these type of reunions. A reunion of this type could offer two days of conferences from the different translators as well as sight seeing in groups.

Believe me, it is not the first time I have thought about something like this. And once and for all I would like to meet some of these translators.  

John

Hi, John

I see you live in Granada, Spain. Do you happen to know any Spanish institution or organisation that would be willing to pay for an informal encounter lasting for seven days? I don't think we need conference halls, perhaps something less informal would be more appropriate. Some premises where we could meet, mingle and liase.

This is the invitation for everybody. I guess that among us there are people with contacts that may be useful. Let's share them and see which ones we can  pull.

Thanks for such a quick reaction, John.

We'll hear soon again, hopefully:

Ljilja

Ljilja,

If we were to formally meet in Granada ( or any other place for that matter), it would take a lot of planning and would require some basic installations so as to make the trip interesting. By the same token, at least for now, I don´t forsee any other possibility than that of each guest or participant paying for their own trip.

Like I said, it would be interesting and would ( in my opinion) raise the category of TC as there would be conferences, cultural visits as well as lunches. As far as institutions are concerned, we would have to at least invite someone from the Faculty of Translators and Interpreters and we would have to approach the Andalusian government to see whether they could pitch in or not.

It would take a bit of preparation but like I said, it would really be a historical first in the history of TC.

John

Hi, John

I can't tell you how glad and relieved I am to see that there is someone who took it seriously. From the moment I have posted it, I've been thinking about organising. And you may be right. If we raise it to formal level, it may be easier. You are a TC master. Can you, the masters, be an official body of TC? Can you (personally) talk to these people (masters) and see what they think? Maybe you as a TC body could approach The Institute of Linguists and see their reaction. The point with government is all right, but can they help? Or can we count on them to pay for guests such as people from institutions? And what are the organisations or companies that could be the sponsors? Translating agencies, soft drink companies... Who can have financial benefit of our encounter? Coffee producers?

Granada is all right with me. Though at the moment I probably couldnot obtain visa for any country, I am postponing thinking about that. We have to organise first. How can we notify all the members about this whole thing?

Ljilja

Well,

If I were you, I would talk to the moderators and Anatoly. Then we could make an announcement. There would have to be a committee ready to organize the trip. Then you would have to send out invitations to TC members (masters and non masters) because a lot of our core members here are non masters. Obviously, those invited would have to tell the organizing committe whether they are coming or not and whether they can talk about a topic related to translation. Etc, etc,...

Of course, this is an outline and would have to be planned in detail.

John