Patty Bucek

Project Coordinator

I was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela. My first language is Spanish and I have been interested in foreign languages since I picked up my first English textbook when I was ten years old. I studied Education with a concentration in English and French in Venezuela before moving to Texas in 2002.

My husband and I met online when I was 16 years old. I wanted to be in touch with English speaking people and the Internet craze was booming. I didn’t expect to end up marrying my pen pal 5 years later, but I’m certainly grateful I did.

My first job was as an ESL teacher for children. A job that taught me so many things, but the most important of all is that it made me fall in love with teaching and working with kids. I worked with children for 7 years before making a career change after college.

I graduated from the University of Texas with a major in Linguistics and a minor in Italian. It was a dream come true when I found out I could actually major in such an interesting subject as Linguistics. I am fascinated with the intricacies of language. Historical Linguistics and Language Acquisition are my two favorite subjects in the Linguistics field.

I love working at McElroy Translation as a Project Coordinator because it allows me to use all my linguistic skills by being in contact with so many different languages and I get to be in touch with different kinds of people.

I love spending time with my two little dachshunds, Turbo and Tabatha, or “the kids” as my friends prefer to call them. I am certainly not a geek, but I do play World of Warcraft whenever I have some spare time.

McElroy Touts Technology, Honors Translators at ATA Conference

Always a loyal attendee of the American Translators Association annual conference, this year McElroy celebrated 40 years by staging an exhibit in November at the Orlando, FL conference. And we did it with style—honoring translators by kicking off our oral history project, and showcasing innovation by debuting the McElroy Hub.

Read about the 2008 ATA annual conference with additional remarks by Chief Editor, Mark Ritter.

Portuguese

McElroy is continuing this series of interviews that highlight some of the characteristics of languages used in doing business globally. This month, we look at Portuguese.

Portuguese is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia and northern Portugal. Though it originated in Portugal, today Brazil accounts for about 190 million (83 percent) Portuguese speakers globally, whereas Portugal has just 10.6 million of them (4.6 percent). Though both countries speak Portuguese, the dialects vary (different spellings for hundreds of words and a difference of three alphabet letters). Because of the much larger population in Brazil, the Portuguese parliament recently passed a law that changed the language of Portugal to the type of Portuguese used in Brazil.

This month we dive into this language and learn some of the characteristics that are unique or different from English and/or other languages, pitfalls to avoid, and five tips for assessing professionally qualified translators.

Read full Translator interview.

McElroy Gives Back—Khabele School

Staff at McElroy Translation recently met some new neighbors—students from the Khabele School a few blocks away—looking for support in their efforts to clean up the adjoining Duncan Park. The City of Austin had pledged a grant to assist them, but they needed to raise matching funds to receive the grant.

The Khabele curriculum is designed to inspire and nurture self-generating learners. Khabele teachers are trained to create compelling classroom environments in which students exercise extraordinary influence in the learning process. In addition, teachers integrate multiple modalities of learning within their semester unit plans.

The Khabele culture is one of their most defining features. Most people who visit their campus immediately feel it. Their students, parents, and staff are extraordinarily joyful and self-expressed. This general sense of wellbeing comes from the staff’s commitment and proficiency in creating a safe, respectful and inspiring environment. Khabele is centered around freedom, trust and responsibility.

One of the main benefits of Khabele is the opportunity to go through middle and high school as part of a close-knit community. They pride themselves on continually facilitating close and meaningful relationships among all students, teachers, and parents. They boast small classes, weekly all-school meetings, student leadership programs, and communication workshops for students, and teachers. In addition, parents participate in a series of workshops called Parent Summits throughout the year. Parent Summits are designed as an opportunity for parents and teachers to support each other in developing parenting and leadership skills.

We were thrilled to be able to provide matching funds for the students, allowing their project to move forward. We invited them to visit us for our holiday “parking lot party” last week and we were delighted to welcome them, and we were even more delighted when students and staff provided some beautiful caroling from our front porch.

For more information, please visit www.khabele.org.