It helps to have worked as a diekeeper at an aluminum extrusion plant,
and as an interpreter at rolling mills in the US and Brazil. I feel at
home in an industrial environment surrounded by compressed air, high voltages
and temperature extremes, and understand the way plant equipment works
and fails. I am at home in a mine environment and parlayed the geology,
geophysics and soil dynamics I learned as an oil translator into a solid
grasp of mining.
Working as a roofing contractor and carpenter between semesters was just
the thing for a grasp of production, logistics, takeoffs, power tools,
bidding, scheduling and general business practices for industry. It was
also a hands-on education in safety, insurance and the importance of first-aid.
That is my hand, sadder but wiser.
Click for a larger image of a placer mine owned by my father, Jim Phillips,
in the early 1990s. That's a morning's yield--about $200 worth of Brazilian
gold. Since then I have translated a significant fraction of all the mining
legislation--particularly environmental and safety regulations--passed
by Brazil's Congress. From dust abatement through blasting vibrations and
water quality, I have the form, content and meaning at my fingertips.
And where will a translator find the specific terminology
used by engineers, vendors, transporters and manufacturers? There
is no published mining industry technical dictionary for English and Portuguese.
In order to keep on schedule with a large-scale bidding process, a translator
must have customized glossaries prepared in advance--before the deadline starts ticking away. I even make audio glossaries as review
material before interpreting assignments.
