Even before applying to be an intern at Translation Excellence (TE), the idea of translation deeply interested me. As a French and Spanish major, I was drawn to the idea of working for an industry whose primary goal is to facilitate communication among people across the globe. It was for this reason that I decided to enroll in a translation course at the Université de Nantes in Nantes, France. By the time the semester was over, my interest in the field had grown significantly. I applied to TE and then enrolled in another translation course, this time at the Universidad de Salamanca (“USAL”) in Salamanca, Spain. Learning about translation in two entirely different settings – two countries, even – has given me an interesting insight into the study of translation and the various methods utilized to train future translators.
The two courses were similar in that the vast majority of the students in each class were native speakers of their respective languages, so the experience I had was, I am sure, quite distinct from my classmates’, particularly in Spain. However, the classes differed in many significant ways. Most importantly, we were expected to translate both from French to English and from English to French at the Université de Nantes, whereas my course in Spain focused only on English to Spanish translations.
Concerning teaching style, each professor approached the subject from a different perspective. In Nantes, my professor typically gave us one or two texts a week to translate at home; the following week, we would correct the texts as a class. Only two were submitted for credit, and our midterm and final exams included two translations each: one from French to English and one from English to French. It was not academically rigorous, but I was able to gain an interesting perspective on the different challenges that translating to and from my native language presents. While I found English-to-French translation more difficult, it did offer some benefits: I could always understand the English text, so even if I did not know the exact words or phrases in French, I could manipulate the language to convey a similar message. When translating from French to English, however, not knowing a word in the source language renders translation nearly impossible, for context simply cannot always provide enough information to indicate the meaning of a word.
My professors in Spain approached the subject from a considerably different angle. We were given a total of five graded texts to translate throughout the semester; however, in addition to each translation, we were asked to provide a complete justification for nearly every word translated. Thus, a two-page translation would typically require five to six pages of justifications. While this was challenging and often frustrating, my translation skills grew significantly during the experience. This course differed from my French class in that we were given a variety of texts to translate – prose, academic articles, and news clippings – whereas my course at the Université de Nantes focused only on fictional pieces.
In all, the opportunity to take translation courses in both France and Spain has proven very valuable. Working under multiple professors has provided me with a number of translation techniques, all of which will be useful over the course of the summer.
Where have you taken translation courses? Have you ever taken them abroad? Let us know in the comments!
