News & views
This section aims to provide a variety of information by and about Fry & Bonthrone, as well as items of interest to our own and our clients’ industries. New material will be added as and when it becomes available. All articles, downloads, and references are given in their language of publication; no translations are provided.
We welcome your feedback as to the topics that you would like to see discussed here or any questions, comments, or suggestions.
News
This section contains past and present news items sorted by date.
2011
November 2011:
DTT seminar – Finanzberichte nach IFRS/DRS
As in past years, Robin Bonthrone will be speaking at the annual seminar on financial accounting and reporting run by the Deutscher Terminologie-Tag e.V. The event, to be held at the Best Western Hotel in Cologne on November 25/26, 2011, is targeted at translators, interpreters, terminologists and students. It aims to provide a basic overview of the IFRSs and reports prepared in accordance with them, along with an analysis of the English and German terminology of the IFRSs and relevant German accounting standards. On the first day, to be held in German by Jochen Treuz, participants will run through the IFRSs and the structure of the primary financial statements, as well as looking at current trends and issues. On the second day, Robin Bonthrone will examine translator resources, German IFRS financial statements and accounting policies, new pronouncements and IASB projects, and new developments in German accounting (GASs, BilMoG). He will also look at the principles involved in financial reporting translation, as well as style and register issues, and will round off the seminar with a terminology clinic for participants.
Further details of the seminar are available (in German) on the DTT website at http://www.iim.fh-koeln.de/dtt/IFRS_2011_Ankuendigung_20110410.pdf.
November 2011:
Deborah Fry to speak at équivalences 2011
Fry & Bonthrone Managing Partner Deborah Fry will be speaking at the équivalences 2011 conference organized by Swiss professional association ASTTI in Berne on November 18, 2011. The event, entitled “Technical Challenges in Translation”, will look at the increasingly complex working environment for translators today, which requires far more than core linguistic skills. Topics covered include translation tools and their deployment in practice, and the issues facing translation services. Deborah Fry’s contribution, entitled “Is Being a 'Good Translator' Enough? Technology, Language, Domain and Business Skills in a Changing World”, will take a look at the wider business and professional context for developments and provide practical advice for translators seeking to negotiate these challenges.
For further details of the conference (in German, French and Italian), please visit the ASTTI website at http://www.astti.ch/de/kollegen/veranstaltungen/jahreskongress.
October 2011:
ATA pre-conference seminar: “Researching and Translating IFRS Reports”
Fry & Bonthrone Managing Partner Robin Bonthrone will be holding a language-neutral pre-conference seminar at the 52nd annual conference of the American Translators Association (ATA) in Boston from October 26 to 29, 2011. The afternoon event on Wednesday October 26 is designed to introduce the IFRSs and the principles underlying them. It will give translators a framework for researching and translating IFRS-based financial reports, including insights into the link between aspects of translation theory and financial reporting principles.
For further details of the seminar and the conference as a whole, please go to http://www.atanet.org/conf/2011/.
October 2011:
ATA conference presentation: “Style and Register in Translations of German Financial Reports”
In addition to his pre-conference seminar, Fry & Bonthrone Managing Partner Robin Bonthrone will give a presentation at the American Translators Association (ATA) 52nd annual conference in Boston from October 26 to 29, 2011. The one-hour session on the morning of Friday, October 28, 2011, examines questions relating to style and register in formal German financial/legal text genres. For example: When can we use the passive voice? How closely do we have to stick to the structure of the source text? Should we prefer “foreignization” to “domestication”? Does substance always lead form?
This presentation describes some of the problems and offers solutions to these and related issues using examples from published German financial reports and their translations.
For further details of the presentation and the conference as a whole, please go to http://www.atanet.org/conf/2011/.
July 2011:
Fry and Bonthrone Partners to Speak at Third ASTTI Summer School for Financial Translation
The Third ASTTI Summer School for Financial Translation will be held in Spiez near Bern, Switzerland, from 6-8 July 2011. This biennial event, which is organized by the Swiss Association of Translators, Terminologists and Interpreters, offers an advanced multilingual training program for specialist translators in the area of finance and accounting.
Fry & Bonthrone Managing Partners Deborah Fry and Robin Bonthrone are among the speakers at the Summer School. On Wednesday 6 July, Deborah Fry will be examining the thorny question of quality in financial translation in both a plenary presentation and a practically oriented workshop. On Friday 8 July, Robin Bonthrone will run a translation and terminology workshop on the IFRSs, including the topic of “Accounting for Weapons of Mass Destruction”.
The programme for the Summer School is available at http://www.astti.ch/images/stories/Sommeruni_2011_Programme.pdf.
2010
October 2010:
German accounting updates at ATA conference
The American Translators Association (ATA) is holding its 51st annual conference in Denver, Colorado, from 27 to 30 October 2010. The event offers around 150 educational sessions covering over a dozen languages and specializations. The ATA conference is traditionally the world's largest annual event for translators and interpreters, attracting up to 2,000 participants from over 30 countries.
This year, Fry & Bonthrone Partnerschaft Managing Partner Robin Bonthrone will be presenting a one-hour session for German-to-English translators entitled "German GAAP and BilMoG – German Accounting Principles 2010". The session is designed to give financial translators an update on recent changes in German accounting legislation resulting from the BilMoG (German Accounting Law Modernization Act) and the resulting new terminology encountered in German GAAP financial reports.
For further details of this year's ATA conference, go to http://www.atanet.org/conf/2010/.
September 2010:
ITI Masterclass in Financial Reporting: Standards, Terminology and Style
Robin Bonthrone and Deborah Fry will be holding a masterclass on financial reporting for the UK’s Institute of Translation & Interpreting in London on September 10, 2010. Their seminar is specially designed for translators who already specialize in this field and who are working into English. Participants should have intermediate knowledge (at least two years’ experience) of the field. The one-day seminar will be delivered in English.
Session 1 will provide an overview of the International Financial Reporting Standards, including a discussion of recent events and an outlook on future developments, plus a run-down of primary and secondary resources of use to translators. Session 2 will look at key terminology questions associated with into-English translation of financial reports, while session 3 will address the registers and stylistic requirements of into-English texts. Examples (both good and bad) will be provided and, time permitting, terminology and stylistic queries submitted in advance will be addressed.
For booking details, please see http://www.iti.org.uk – ITI Events – ITI.
July 2010:
SFT Summer School for Financial Translators
The French translator and interpreter association SFT is running its fifth Summer School for Financial Translators from 7 to 9 July 2010. This year's event is being held in Luxembourg and is hosted by BGL BNP Paribas. In addition to speakers from Banque de Luxembourg, Bourse de Luxembourg, BGL BNP Wealth Management, the European Investment Bank and other institutions, leading financial translators will be making presentations on specific issues related to financial translation.
Fry & Bonthrone Managing Partner Robin Bonthrone will present a session entitled "IFRSs: Application Guidance for Translators" on the first day of the conference. On the second day, he will join prominent financial translators Chis Durban, Dominique Jonkers, David Jemielity and Joao Esteves-Ferreira in presenting afternoon translation workshops designed to give hands-on practice in specific areas. Robin Bonthrone's session, aimed at German-to-English translators, will use examples from recent German reports and compare them with equivalent original English texts to analyse the terminology and style of selected accounting policies and notes disclosures in German financial reports.
2009
December 2009:
City University seminar: Successful annual report translation
On December 4, 2009, Deborah Fry will draw from Fry & Bonthrone’s extensive experience to take a look at content, style and process issues involved in annual report translation. Aimed at practising German – English translators, the seminar will touch on legal and accounting requirements, target audiences and text registers, translator roles and requirements, the project framework, weasel words, and general stylistic and cultural issues. Where appropriate, text analysis and translation exercises will underpin the presentations.
A detailed program and registration information is available on the City University website at http://www.city.ac.uk/translation/courses/cpd/financial-reporting.html.
November 2009:
Crisis, what crisis? Industry, what industry?
Deborah Fry is to speak at the IALB/ASTTI conference in Geneva on November 13-14, 2009. Organized jointly by the International Association Language and Business (IALB) and the Swiss Association of Translators, Terminologists and Interpreters (ASTTI) under the auspices of FIT Europe, the event is entitled “The World in Crisis – and the Language Industry?” In her presentation “Crisis, what Crisis? Industry, what Industry?”, Deborah Fry will examine the financial and economic crisis and its effects on an industry that is already undergoing profound change. Leading on from this, she will identify key business drivers and critical success factors for language services providers.
The full program and registration details can be found on the conference website at www.ialb-astti.org/en/index.html.
November 2009:
DTT seminar – Finanzberichte nach IFRSs
As in past years, Robin Bonthrone will be speaking at the annual seminar held by the Deutscher Terminologie-Tag e.V. on financial accounting and reporting. The event, to be held at Cologne University of Applied Sciences on November 27 28, 2009, is targeted at translators and terminologists. It aims to provide a basic overview of the IFRSs along with an analysis of the English and German terminology of the IFRSs and relevant German accounting standards. The first day is designed for English-German translators. On the second day, Robin Bonthrone will examine translator resources, German IFRS financial statements and accounting policies, and new developments in the IFRSs and German accounting legislation (BilMoG), as well as holding a terminology clinic for participants.
Further details of the seminar are available on the DTT website at www.dttev.org.
October 2009:
ATA 50th annual conference preconference seminar
Robin Bonthrone will be holding a preconference seminar entitled “Accounting for the Financial Crisis: The Terminology of Financial Instruments Accounting Under IFRSs” on Wednesday October 28, 2009, before the start of the American Translators Association 50th annual conference in New York. Using German and English terminology as examples, the seminar will examine the complex concepts and terminology of accounting for the financial crisis, referring specifically to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs). Starting with the terminology of the relevant standards in both languages, it will analyze issues such as hedge accounting, risk disclosures, and changes in accounting pronouncements in response to the crisis – from the "fair value option" to the latest proposals on fair value disclosures. This will be followed by an analysis of how German industrial corporations and banks reported their financial instruments accounting and risk management activities in 2008 and 2009.
Registration details can be obtained from: https://www.atanet.org/conf/2009/.
2008
August 2008:
Three new German Accounting Standards (GASs) issued in 2008
The German Accounting Standards Board (GASB) has issued three new German Accounting Standards (GASs) in 2008, all of which have now been published by the Federal Ministry of Justice. These new standards are:
GAS 15a Group Management Report Disclosures and Narrative Explanations Required by Takeover Law
GAS 16 Interim Financial Reporting
GAS 17 Reporting on the Remuneration of Members of Governing Bodies
Details of these standards are available from the website of the Accounting Standards Committee of Germany (ASCG) at www.standardsetter.de. The standards (German and English texts) can be purchased from Schäffer-Poeschel Verlag (www.schaeffer-poeschel.de). The English translations of these standards were provided by Fry & Bonthrone, which also translates annual reports and other accounting-related documents for the ASCG.
2007
June 2007:
Robin Bonthrone and Deborah Fry to speak at ASTTI Summer School
Robin Bonthrone and Deborah Fry are both giving afternoon seminars at the ASTTI Summer School for Financial Translation, to be held in Spiez near Bern, Switzerland, from 11-13 July 2007. The event, which is being organized by the Swiss Association of Translators, Terminologists and Interpreters, offers an advanced multilingual training programme for financial and banking translators. Robin Bonthrone’s seminar is entitled “German Financial Reporting Update 2007”, while Deborah Fry is talking about “Translating Investor Relations Texts - What, How and Why”. Robin Bonthrone is also taking part in a roundtable discussion on training opportunities and learning strategies for current and aspiring financial translators.
For further information about the Summer School, see
www.astti.ch/uni-e/index.html
June 2007:
Vahlens Großes Auditing Lexikon to be published in July
C.H.Beck Verlag/Franz Vahlen will be publishing “Vahlens Großes Auditing Lexikon” in July 2007. This comprehensive German-language reference work for the auditing profession has been edited by Prof. Dr. Carl-Christian Freidank, Prof. Dr. Laurenz Lachnit and WP/STB Jörg Tesch. It includes several entries on the auditing profession in various countries that were translated by Fry & Bonthrone.
For further information (in German) about the Lexikon, see
www.vahlen.de
2006
December 2006:
XBRL German GAAP taxonomy published
The definitive second version of XBRL Deutschland’s German GAAP taxonomy, with English labels by Robin Bonthrone, has now appeared. This extensive bilingual taxonomy enables users to map their in-house financial statement line items to a standard set of English and German tags and captions, and hence to exchange information rapidly and reliably. In future, this concept will form the preferred basis for the new system of filing accounts electronically within Germany.
For further information about XBRL in Germany, see
www.xbrl.de
December 2006:
Robin Bonthrone to speak at DTT seminar
The Deutscher Terminologie-Tag e.V. will be running another of its successful seminars entitled Einführung in die Bilanzierung nach IAS/IFRS für Übersetzer und Terminologen in Düsseldorf on 1-2 December 2006. Aimed primarily at language practitioners, the seminar will give an overview of the IASs/IFRSs and the terminology of financial statements prepared using them. In his Saturday session, Fry & Bonthrone Managing Partner Robin Bonthrone will present German IFRS primary financial statements and IFRS accounting policies and notes disclosures, as well as holding sessions featuring an analysis of sample texts and a terminology clinic.
Further details of the seminar will be posted shortly on the DTT website at www.dttev.org
November 2006:
ATA conference presentations by Robin Bonthrone
Fry & Bonthrone Managing Partner Robin Bonthrone will be giving two presentations at the ATA 47th annual conference in New Orleans, USA, from 1-4 November 2006.
A preconference seminar on 1 November entitled German GAAP Today – A Crash Course for Translators and Interpreters will focus on German GAAP primary financial statements, including problem “weasel words” and revised terms resulting from the new resources, followed by a textual analysis of a “how not to do it” translation and a translation exercise that will highlight issues when translating narrative disclosures. All participants will receive a set of illustrative bilingual single-entity primary financial statements.
German Tax Today, a regular conference presentation to be held on 2 November, will address the main types of direct and indirect tax in Germany, and the most common scenarios in which translators are likely to encounter tax terminology. It will also examine the mechanics of VAT (Umsatzsteuer/value added tax) and the taxation of funds, as well as (if time permits) the German thin capitalization rules (“Gesellschafterfremdfinanzierung”).
For further details of the ATA Conference, see www.atanet.org/conf/2006
2005
Synoptic translation of German accounting legislation published
IDW-Verlag is publishing a new version of Deutsches Bilanzrecht/German Accounting Legislation at the end of 2005/beginning of 2006. The book, edited by Gerd Fey and Guido Fladt from PricewaterhouseCoopers, is a completely revised and updated version of the standard work known to date by the names of its previous editors, Brooks & Mertin. It contains an overview of German financial accounting and reporting principles, a comparison of IFRSs, US GAAP and HGB, and a synoptic translation of key provisions from the relevant legal texts (German Commercial Code, German Stock Corporation Act, German Limited Liability Companies Act). The translations were provided by Fry & Bonthrone Partnerschaft.
2004
Robin Bonthrone to speak at XBRL conference
Fry & Bonthrone Managing Partner Robin Bonthrone will be speaking at the 10th XBRL International Conference in Brussels on November 15-19, 2004. The title of this year’s Conference is “Financial Reporting Goes Global: XBRL and IFRS Working Together”. Robin Bonthrone, who is the joint coordinator for the German translation of the International Financial Reporting Standards and who recently joined the German XBRL jurisdiction, will be speaking on issues relating to the translation of taxonomies in general, and on current and future taxonomy translation projects in Germany.
For details of the conference and how to register, see
www.xbrl.org
For news about XBRL in Germany, see
www.xbrl.de
Vision for the World to launch English website
Vision for the World e.V., which aims to prevent and cure blindness in the Third World, will launch an English version of its website in November. The Erlangen-based charity, founded in November 2002 by a group of medical professionals and business people, runs a series of projects in various Asian countries, often in conjunction with the Christoffel Blindenmission. The English texts were provided pro bono by Fry & Bonthrone, which also translates the association’s regular newsletters.
For further details of the charity’s activities and how to become a member, see
www.vision-for-the-world.org