Heating up for terminology

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cologneThis year from 15 to 19 July it was Cologne’s turn to host TermNet’s International Terminology Summer School, which counted among its numerous participants 13 language terminologists and central terminology coordinators from the EU institutions.

It was a great opportunity to learn from experienced trainers and to network with more than 80 participants from all over the world and from different working environments with a link to terminology.

The presentations covered a wide range of topics, ranging from basic terminology principles and tools for terminology management, extraction and control, to data modelling, terminology workflows, terminology policies, ISO standards for terminology work, and copyright issues for terminology management.

The tools part was explored further with live demos of Multiterm (SDL) and Qterm (Kilgray).

The intense week of training finished with 13 short presentations of projects by the participants. Paula Zorrilla-Agut, from the Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union, presented the ECHA-term project, an online termbase in the EU chemical legislation field developed by the Translation Centre at the request of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA).

The presentation covered the scope and aim of the project, as well as the different development phases (basic and advanced features for the tool). Other topics tackled were the terminology workflow for the preparation of entries in 23 languages together with modelling of the data structure according to ISO standards and ECHA’s needs. Paula Zorrilla-Agut also gave a short overview of the interface and main features.

The presentation raised a lot of interest and was seen as successful in enhancing multilingual communication among experts and linguists in a very specialised domain.

Other interesting and motivating presentations were done by attendants from Symantec (terminology workflow), Focal (Irish-language terminology projects), German Section at the United Nations, FAO (FAO TermPortal), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (terminology work for experts), SEW EURODRIVE (automotive terminology), Hogarth (terminology in the transcreation process), and FLSmidth (enterprise terminology in a multinational cement plant), among others.

The main conclusions drawn by all attendants were the need to increase awareness of the importance of integrating terminology in the early stage of any core activity (and not just as a support task) and involving the relevant stakeholders in the process, having as a result significant qualitative and quantitative benefits leading to cost and time savings in the long run.

The training will be followed by an ECQA exam for the role of Certified Terminology Manager Basic and Advanced at the end of September.

Written by Paula Zorrilla-Agut, Terminology Coordinator, Terminology Team, Translation Centre for the Bodies of the European Union