Zhengyu (Yoyo) Fry
Translator or interpreter (or both): translator
Language(s) and direction(s): Chinese<>English
Location: Canberra, ACT
Practising as a translator/interpreter since: 2010
Member of AUSIT since: 2010
Main area(s) of practice: legal, medical, marketing
Q1:
How did you come to be a T/I?
A1:
Growing up in regional China, in an area where more than a dozen ethnic groups lived together, I have always been fascinated by differences between cultures and languages, and how they affect communication. After completing my bachelor’s degree in China, my passion for cross-cultural communication led me into working in the media and marketing industries. I then moved to Australia to focus on studying T&I at the University of Queensland. The course provided a solid theoretical foundation and valuable work experience to prepare me for becoming a translator. During my studies I joined AUSIT, and met like-minded colleagues and inspiring mentors. After completing my degree in translation, I worked as an administration officer with various government agencies in Queensland. Now I’m working solely as a translator.
Q2:
Tell us about a project you have worked on that was especially interesting or challenging (within the bounds of confidentiality of course).
A2:
Promoting regional Australia to inbound tourists has always been important for Australia’s tourism industry, and localisation of marketing materials is my passion. I was therefore very excited to be selected by a marketing company as the main translator writing a Chinese version of a tourism website. The most rewarding aspect of this project was that my client understood that translating text is not just word for word, so I was given enough freedom to be able to create the most effective and beautiful Chinese text based on the original English content. It was a satisfying process, changing sentence structures and employing Chinese expressions and idioms to meet the reading expectations of the target audience.
Alan Cockerill
Translator or interpreter (or both): translator
Language(s) and direction(s): Russian>English
Location: QLD
Practising as a translator/interpreter since: 1991
Member of AUSIT since: 2015
Main area(s) of practice: literary translation
Q1:
How did you come to be a T/I?
A1:
I studied Russian language at school, and I completed a BA (Hons) in Russian language and literature at Melbourne University in 1974 and a master’s in translatorship at the University of Queensland in 1986. My PhD, completed in 1994, was on the works of the eminent Ukrainian educator Vasyl Sukhomlynsky (1918–1970), who wrote in both Russian and Ukrainian. I spent 10 months studying in Moscow in 1987 and 1988, and during the Reagan–Gorbachev summit there I worked as an interpreter for the American journalist Charles Kuralt. I gained NAATI accreditation to translate from Russian to English in 1991.
Q2:
Tell us about a project you have worked on that was especially interesting or challenging (within the bounds of confidentiality of course).
A2:
In 2009 I travelled to Ukraine to conduct further research into the legacy of Sukhomlynsky (see above), who wrote inspiring accounts of his work as a schoolteacher and principal in the rural settlement of Pavlysh in central Ukraine, as well as hundreds of little stories for children. Since 2013 I’ve been translating these stories, and have published hundreds of them in a monthly newsletter for interested subscribers, and a short collection – illustrated by students from Ukraine and Belarus – under the title A World of Beauty, in English, Russian and Ukranian, as well as in Japanese (translated by my wife) and in Chinese. I’ve also translated two of his major works: My Heart I Give to Children and Our School in Pavlysh, and I plan to publish a collection of about 800 of his stories and vignettes in a single volume later this year.
