12 translators

Cape Town

Today was the AGM, an event that I used to try to avoid.  Unfortunately, I know far too many people now, and so it’s hard to slip out unnoticed.  The meeting was as tedious as always…most of the things that have to be done are legal requirements of the Dutch government,  and don’t contribute much to anything.  I know very little about the Dutch government, but if the rules that this organization runs by are any example, it may be a little overly zealous in its regulatory function.

The best part of the meeting was actually watching the translators.  IFLA operates in seven languages, so all of its big meetings have a lot of simultaneous translation going on.  From where I was sitting, I could see into the translation booths, which were perched high up above the podium. There were 12 translators, so I was trying to watch their lips to figure out the relationship between 7 languages and 12 translators…are some languages easier?  is it harder to get translators for some languages?  Enquiring minds want to know.

Dinner tonight, with the Copyright committee, was at a very classy restaurant in a gated area of Cape Town, at the Cape Grace Hotel.  It’s quite expensive, as hotels go, but the meal was very reasonable.  The menu included some local options: springbok, kingklip, extremely large calamari and something that looked like a small orange mussel. I had chicken.

Generally when committees go out for dinner, we just split the bill, but tonight we were treated by the librarian from Johns Hopkins University, which was really a treat. He said it was because it was so reasonable…but there were 15 of us, so it was still quite a stretch.  Food is remarkably reasonable priced here…most of the entrees at dinner were between 150 and 200 Rand, which translates to about 15 to 20 USD.  South African wine is also remarkably cheap…often about 100 Rand for a bottle, so about $10. Taxis are also cheap – I don’t think I’ve taken one for more than $5, except for the ride in from the airport.  I have no idea, however, how much money people make. I just looked up librarians’ salaries, however, and they average 170,000 per year, or$17,000.  They must find it a shock when they travel to North America for meetings.