ATA Membership: Gains for someone living in India? Thread poster: Roomy Naqvy
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Roomy Naqvy 
India
Local time: 04:05
English to Hindi
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Dear Colleagues,
What are the benefits of an ATA membership for me, who lives in India and whose languages are not available for accreditation tests?
| | | | | Apparently no gain | Oct 15, 2003 |
On the face of it there does not seem to be any gain. For, the ATA cannot be in a position to accredit one in an Indian language.
I am reminded of an incident in my own life. I hold the Kleines Deutsches Sprachdiplom awrded by the Goethe Institut on behalf of the Ludwig Maximilian Universität, Munich. Max Mueller Bhavan, Pune was the exam centre. When I applied for the post of a fulltime translator in Mecon, I was asked to produce a certificate from the Government of India to the effect t... See more On the face of it there does not seem to be any gain. For, the ATA cannot be in a position to accredit one in an Indian language.
I am reminded of an incident in my own life. I hold the Kleines Deutsches Sprachdiplom awrded by the Goethe Institut on behalf of the Ludwig Maximilian Universität, Munich. Max Mueller Bhavan, Pune was the exam centre. When I applied for the post of a fulltime translator in Mecon, I was asked to produce a certificate from the Government of India to the effect that this diploma was recognized by it. I wrote back saying that the Government of India has no qualification to recognize an international diploma awarded by a German university.
Likewise it is inconceivable that the ATA can vouch for Hindi and Gujerati.
All the best,
Narasimhan Raghavan ▲ Collapse
| | | | Marc P (X)
Local time: 00:35
German to English
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| Apparently no gain | Oct 16, 2003 |
Narasimhan Raghavan wrote:
On the face of it there does not seem to be any gain. For, the ATA cannot be in a position to accredit one in an Indian language.
I don't see why not. ATA can presumably "accredit" translators for Indian languages in the same way as for any other languages. The problem has more to do with whether it can find suitable assessors or not.
"Accreditation" by the ATA is as far as I know something of a misnomer, as it implies some form of official recognition, which I understand is not the case.
I wrote back saying that the Government of India has no qualification to recognize an international diploma awarded by a German university.
The Government of India can presumably do whatever it likes within its own jurisdiction. Just like the German government, which rules upon the status of foreign qualifications in Germany.
What about Indian translators' associations? The only one I'm aware of is the Indian Scientific Translators Association. Why not join that? Are there others?
Marc
| | | | Csaba Ban
Hungary
Local time: 00:35
Member (2002)
English to Hungarian
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| ATA terminology / advantages | Oct 16, 2003 |
Namaste,
First of all, ATA "certifies" translators. However, the rules of "credentialing" will change as of Jan 1, 2004, and from that time on the process will be called indeed "accreditation".
Currently, there are about 12-14 languages and almost twice as many language pairs in which ATA offers accreditation (to use the new terminology).
(English is always one of them, i.e there is En-De or Hu-En, but there is no Fr-Es, for example).
I live in Hungary and transla... See more Namaste,
First of all, ATA "certifies" translators. However, the rules of "credentialing" will change as of Jan 1, 2004, and from that time on the process will be called indeed "accreditation".
Currently, there are about 12-14 languages and almost twice as many language pairs in which ATA offers accreditation (to use the new terminology).
(English is always one of them, i.e there is En-De or Hu-En, but there is no Fr-Es, for example).
I live in Hungary and translate mostly En-Hu, but also Hu-En. After successfully passing the ATA test for En-Hu, I have found ATA membership quite rewarding ever since. U.S. clients find me and ask for my services on a regular basis.
If you feel that there is a substantial demand in the U.S. for translations from English into Hindi, Marathi, Bengali or any other major Indian language, you might find it worthwhile to pay for membership.
Apart from this aspect, I do not find it useful for someone living in India, or anywhere else outside the U.S. for that matter.
all the best,
Csaba ▲ Collapse
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Marc P (X)
Local time: 00:35
German to English
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| Benefits of membership | Oct 16, 2003 |
Csaba:
Professional associations offer a number of benefits, and more direct access to customers is only one of them. Journals and access to electronic mailing lists are just two of the benefits which are also available to members in other countries. The emphasis on joining associations in order to gain a "qualification" which will hopefully make a translator more attractive to potential customers is, I think, too one-sided.
Marc
| | | | | There are recognitions and recognitions | Oct 16, 2003 |
For example, a medical degree in India may or may not be recognized abroad. Similarly the Indian government may or may not recognize a foreign medical degree. Same is the case with science, engineering, architecture etc. But the case I mentioned is entirely different. The Indian government is just not qualified to decide upon a foreign language diploma (in my case German diploma) awarded by a competent foreign country, say Germany (in my case). Similar is the case of a diploma in Hindi or Sanskr... See more For example, a medical degree in India may or may not be recognized abroad. Similarly the Indian government may or may not recognize a foreign medical degree. Same is the case with science, engineering, architecture etc. But the case I mentioned is entirely different. The Indian government is just not qualified to decide upon a foreign language diploma (in my case German diploma) awarded by a competent foreign country, say Germany (in my case). Similar is the case of a diploma in Hindi or Sanskrit or Tamil. The government of a foreign country, where these languages are not in use cannot decide on the validity or otherwise of the diploma in these languages. Perhaps they can employ some external experts for this purpose, if there is a crying need. Otherwise no.
There is an intersesting sequel to the Mecon episode mentioned by me in the earlier posting. Afterwards I attended nother interview for the post of a French translator in IDPL, which accepted without murmur the Diplome Superieur awarded by the Alliance Francaise de Paris. The company was quite happy with my work. And we had a good time lasting 12 years of fruitful work.
N.Raghavan
MarcPrior wrote: Narasimhan Raghavan wrote:
On the face of it there does not seem to be any gain. For, the ATA cannot be in a position to accredit one in an Indian language.
I don't see why not. ATA can presumably "accredit" translators for Indian languages in the same way as for any other languages. The problem has more to do with whether it can find suitable assessors or not. "Accreditation" by the ATA is as far as I know something of a misnomer, as it implies some form of official recognition, which I understand is not the case.
I wrote back saying that the Government of India has no qualification to recognize an international diploma awarded by a German university.
The Government of India can presumably do whatever it likes within its own jurisdiction. Just like the German government, which rules upon the status of foreign qualifications in Germany. What about Indian translators' associations? The only one I'm aware of is the Indian Scientific Translators Association. Why not join that? Are there others? Marc ▲ Collapse
| | | | Dyran Altenburg (X)
United States
Local time: 18:35
English to Spanish
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Csaba Ban wrote:
First of all, ATA "certifies" translators. However, the rules of "credentialing" will change as of Jan 1, 2004, and from that time on the process will be called indeed "accreditation".
I'm afraid you have it backwards.
ATA issues an accreditation certificate and will change the denomination to certification in the coming months.
Not an easy task as, contrary to what happens here in the US, certification in several countries implies that the person has a translation-related university degree and/or has passed fairly difficult exams issued by government authorities.
[Edited at 2003-10-16 16:33]
| | | | Lincoln Hui
Hong Kong
Local time: 06:35
Member
Chinese to English
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You can still be listed in the ATA directory, even if you don't live in the US or take the certification exam, and people can find you through the directory from time to time.
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Adieu
Ukrainian to English
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| There's two different elements | Jan 31, 2021 |
ATA membership = pretty much nothing on its own, sort of like being a sponsoring member on an internet forum... oh, you get a gloss magazine newsletter thingie. And some coupons.
ATA certification = pay a fee, sit and pass a written exam in a specific language pair. They also demand some sort of education or work experience to qualify, iirc, although whether or not they check anything at all is unknown.
Then, iirc, you need to keep paying the membership to keep the cert... See more ATA membership = pretty much nothing on its own, sort of like being a sponsoring member on an internet forum... oh, you get a gloss magazine newsletter thingie. And some coupons.
ATA certification = pay a fee, sit and pass a written exam in a specific language pair. They also demand some sort of education or work experience to qualify, iirc, although whether or not they check anything at all is unknown.
Then, iirc, you need to keep paying the membership to keep the certification "valid".
So no certification = no point. ▲ Collapse
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