2018 workshops

Milan, 6 April 2018

MET decamped to the International University of Languages and Media (IULM) in Milan for the first of our 2018 workshop days.

The day kicked off with two parallel workshops: Corpus guidance: a tool for understanding professional language usage, change and variety with Mary Ellen Kerans and The discussion section in academic research articles: patterns, practices and insights for editors and translators with Oliver Shaw.

​Attendees in both sessions had the chance to test out their newly acquired knowledge, proving that there’s nothing like hands-on training. Besides working with desktop analysis tool AntConc, Mary Ellen's group looked to see if they could answer any fresh work-based language questions through corpus guidance. Oliver's group devised strategies for editing and translating the work of EAL academics and used them to tackle example texts.

   
Photos: Valerie Matarese

After a well-earned lunch in the university canteen, participants enjoyed two short talks: the first, by Prof. Giuliana Garzone of IULM welcoming the group to Milan, and the second, by Valerie Matarese introducing MET, during which Valerie, who’s never missed a METM, charted MET’s 14-year history, explaining who we are, what we do and even exploring the various incarnations of the MET logo.

  
Photos: (L) Valerie Matarese; (R) Elizabeth Garrison

The day's programme culminated with a MET medley of talks given by our industrious organizers Alan Lounds, Marije de Jager and Michael Farrell. Alan had his willing audience parsing sentences during his talk, which dealt with the trickiest of punctuation marks, the humble comma. Marije leaned on her experience to shine a light on false (and fantasy) friends and examine the impact they have on editing non-native English. Last up, after defining what transcreation is and how it differs from more traditional services, Michael led a group therapy session to unmask any closet transcreators.

    
Photos: Valerie Matarese

But it wasn’t all hard work. Besides networking over dinner and drinks, attendees took full advantage of the wonderful host city and joined together for a group walk, taking in the Duomo, La Scala Opera House and the Galleria shopping arcade, to name but a few highlights.

   
Photo: Alan Lounds

Our thanks go to IULM for kindly letting us use its premises and to our organizers Alan, Marije and Michael for putting together such a riveting programme.

Oliver Shaw tweeted, “I'm tickled to see that @METMeetings has consolidated its member base in Italy and I look forward to many more events in this beautiful country” – and we couldn’t agree more!