The site is experiencing issues and is unable to fulfill your request at this time. If this problem persists please contact customer support. Translator Training - Expert Language Services. Academic Training in Principle. The basic approach to academic training for translators seems to remain unchanged from the time of the School of Scribes in ancient Egypt. Student translators are given short texts to translate, then their translations are evaluated by teachers, and finally the translations are discussed in great depth and detail among all the students in the class and the teacher. Variations occur in the length of the assignment, though 5. Academic training rarely if ever includes any theoretical work, though this could well be a result of the relative lack of material to present to students; a cogent theory of translation remains to be developed.
Academic training also tends to limit or exclude entirely matters related to terminology research and development, glossary or term database design and maintenance, or various computer technologies, running the gamut from basic word processing to localization of software source code. Academic training also rarely if ever includes content courses on, for instance, law, medicine, computer science, or other subjects that translators inevitably translate material on but almost have extensive, in- depth, formal academic training in. Last, academic training seems to stay away from the development or writing skills or cultural sensitivity, two areas which translators have to deal with every day of their working lives. In essence, translation training then consists of giving students plenty of time to do very short translation assignments, then analyzing those assignments in every last detail, and ultimately discussing the nature of their work, often with an extreme focus on student errors, in great depth. In other words, students get to make mistakes that have no ramifications in their professional careers, and presumably they learn from their mistakes, as well as acquiring familiarity with terminology and various kinds of source material. This system of education for translators places an extreme emphasis on the teaching faculty, making them responsible for selecting texts that reflect what the translation industry is currently asking translators to work on, evaluating student translations in a manner consistent with what the industry expects a translator to be able to produce, and discussing all student errors and other textual problems so as to guide the student toward developing translation skills that will meet with the industry’s demands and expectations. Training courses for translators learning to use SDL's translation software, CAT tools, terminology and localization software. People who searched for Online Spanish Translator Training Programs and Courses found the following resources, articles, links, and information helpful. Faculty must therefore be very proficient translators themselves, as well as capable educators. Needless to say, not everyone can teach, regardless of how well they know their subject matter. Merely possessing a mastery of a subject does not qualify someone to teach it. Teaching is a very difficult task. Imparting knowledge and experience to another person requires not only mastery of the subject matter, but also mastery of the communication of knowledge. Teaching translation is a very labor- intensive process, since each student’s weekly assignments have to be evaluated in great detail and with extreme precision. In addition, course materials should not be recycled; the translation profession change too quickly to allow last year’s translation texts to be used more than perhaps a couple of years in a row. Having students work on patents from five years ago may mean they will not learn the currently accepted format for a patent; having students work on a hardware or software manual from even three years ago will deny them much needed current terminology and subject knowledge. The same obviously holds for all subject areas. And by extension, the same will hold for any tests the students take. Translation faculty must as a result have considerable time and enthusiasm for their subject, as well as intimate familiarity with the current state of affairs in the industry. This does not mean, however, that faculty should be working professionals who just happen to teach a few classes here and there. Students require and deserve full- time attention, meaning that faculty at best should be doing part- time work as freelance translators. As an aside, I do teach one translation course each spring (entitled “The Business of Translation”); one of the reasons I do not teach more than that is my freelance business doesn’t allow me to. Covering the demands of my clients and the needs of the students in that one class pretty much absorbs all my working time. To teach more than that would, for me at least, be irresponsible. Finally, we have the issue of the administration of a translation program. Again, the people involved in running the program should have experience in the translation profession, as well as considerable ability to manage and oversee an academic program. This may seem obvious, but it bears mentioning because the supply of such people is sufficiently small that some programs do not have such people in their administrative ranks. While having any administrator is arguably better than canceling a program, the limitations of someone who does not know the translation profession in a position of authority in a translation program can lead to misunderstandings about the time, money, and academic resources (e. Is This The Best We Can Do? The above approach has been in use for thousands of years, give or take a bit of technology. The Thebes School of Scribes did not have the Internet, word processors, or MAT to contend with, but their methodology was roughly the same. Though I agree that practice is an essential element of training translators, I am convinced that other forms of learning should play an integral role. First, the volume of translation. Students who spend one or two years translating a thousand words per week are wholly unprepared for the daily demands of professional translation. The average translator produces in the neighborhood of two- to three- thousand words per day, with many doing considerably more. While students should certainly on occasion study one short text very intently as an exercise in learning how to analyze and parse a text, then create the best translation possible, they should also work on translating a normal day’s work for a practicing translator. Students need to acquire the speed and accuracy of a professional. This includes learning to type quickly, knowing how to work efficiently in current software applications and on the Web, and understanding what to do when a text does not yield to translation, whether because the printing is illegible or the writing is unintelligible. Translators who lack these skills will find the market unwelcoming and uncomfortable. Translation students also need to become very comfortable in the subject field or fields they will work in. Because most translators lack a thorough education in anything other than their languages, part of their education should include subject knowledge. This cannot come directly from the translation texts themselves, as the students simply do not generally translate texts of sufficient length or depth. Developing a thorough understanding of computer science by reading 1,0. So content coursework, presented in both of the student’s languages should be integrated into any translation program. What’s more, professional translators specialize. No translator works in every subject area; it is simply not practical to try to develop that much expertise and linguistic knowledge in that many subjects. Translators generally focus on a few related subject areas, depending on their backgrounds and interests, then cultivate their specialized knowledge and language skills so as to tailor them for translation in those fields. The same should occur in a translation program. After an introductory period of basic translation exercises and development of secondary skills like word processing and terminology management, students should pick a subject area and focus on that. A translation program should therefore offer academic tracks? This will not only develop their subject knowledge to a point at which they can confidently approach a text, but will also provide them with the terminology and knowledge of writing style necessary to create an accurate, readable translation. Subject fields should be selected based on what the market is demanding from translators. Certain fields, like computers/localization, are strong enough for all major languages that they should exist for all translation students. It may not be practical, however, to have certain translation languages working on certain subjects. For instance, how much medical research or fundamental science is done in Vietnam? Certainly some, but not enough to justify a Vietnamese- English translation student specializing in that area. The task of the translation school is to prepare translation students for the real world, so subject areas should be selected and developed in accordance with the market in the translation industry. Therefore, having all students in all language combinations work through the same set of exercises in broad categories of experience is not practical or fair to the students. A student with no interest in financial translation who is studying a language combination with minimal demands for such work will not benefit from such efforts as much as she might from doing more in an area that interests her and is in demand. Similarly, the market rarely if ever asks for translators who simply have a smattering of ability and familiarity with a wide range of texts, so graduating students who fit that description is less efficient than graduating students who can handle one subject very well. Next, technology. Different programs integrate various computer technologies and translation tools into the curriculum, with each language combination often functioning as a separate entity, and therefore each student getting a different level of training with these technologies.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
December 2016
Categories |