2013 January Lunch Talk - Chartered Institute of Linguists Hong Kong Society 特許語言學會 香港分會

 

Legal Translation and Interpreting in Hong Kong:
Challenges and Prospects
 
Speakers:        Mr Lee Tak Lun, Terence
                                   BA, MA, DipTrans, MCIL
 
                          Ms Wong King Yi, Ada
                                   BA, MA, MCIL
 
Time & Date:   1:00 pm on Saturday, 19 January 2013
 
Venue:             Founder's Room, YMCA, Salisbury Road, Tsimshatsui
 
Fee per person:HK$80(*members), HK$150 (non-members) (Lunch included)
* members ofthe Chartered Institute of Linguists Hong Kong Society
 
 
Abstract:
As a translator who has worked in a legal environment on a full-time basis for ten years, Mr Terence Lee will focus on the legal translation profession in the first part of the talk.  He will cover a broad range of issues, including the entry requirements for a legal translator, the wide variety of legal documents, the difficulties of legal translation, the techniques of solving the translation problems that are likely to encounter, and the hands-on skills to deal with translation projects.  In view of the proliferation of tertiary education places since the 2000s, he will also discuss how a translation graduate could stand out and become a competent legal translator, and the extent to which master degrees, public translation examinations and legal qualifications could be a stepping stone.  In addition, Mr Lee will share his views on the career prospects of the profession in Hong Kong.
In the second part, Ms Ada Wong will share her court interpreting experience.  Under the current legal system of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, court proceedings are conducted in two official languages: English and Chinese.  Court interpreting often constitutes a seemingly peripheral yet integral part of court hearings when multiple parties speaking different languages are involved.  This talk will give a brief introduction of the court procedures in Hong Kong, and discuss the roles of a court interpreter, skills in case preparation and daily work challenges.
 

Speaker Profiles:
With a translation degree obtained from Lingnan University, Mr Terence Lee has worked as a legal translator in law firms for ten years after spending seven years in the financial translation field.  Mr Lee obtained the Diploma in Translation in 2000 and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Linguists.  He got a Master of Arts in Translation degree from The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2008 and currently works as a legal translator in Reed Smith Richards Butler, which has merged with Reed Smith, a renowned international law firm with offices in the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.  Mr Lee serves the general translation needs of the firm’s Hong Kong office together with another translator.
Ms Ada Wong received her Bachelor’s degree in English and Master’s degree in Computer-aided Translation from The Chinese University of Hong Kong.  She became a member of the Chartered Institute of Linguists in 2011 before embarking on a career which enriched and utilized her knowledge of consecutive and simultaneous interpreting in legal environments.  With tremendous interest in language and translation, Ms Wong explored various research topics including language acquisition, translation of subtitles and machine-aided human translation.