I have a conspiracy theory: translation degrees are not really for teaching people to be translators. Rather, they're for culling all the people who are not suited to being translators.
I've found in my own education that I learned far more in practica and in the workplace than in the classroom. After all, in an average day at work, I translate more than I did in a whole semester of class.
So what's all this classroom time for? So that all the students who lack the temperment or mindset or target language fluency to be translators will either flunk out or drop out from frustration. They introduce us to concepts that cannot be translated the same way word-for-word and inherent structural differences and phrases that are never translated the same way twice and "translate the meaning, not the words" and "there is no one right answer" in order to frustrate us. Arbitrary grading and one prof's standards contradicting another prof's standards simulate the vagaries and fickleness of different clients. Exercises and tests are designed not so much to test our knowledge, but to give failing grades to people whose language skills are just not good enough, and to give the highest grades to the students whose work would need the least revision in a practicum.
It's not as bad a trial by fire as something like boot camp or med school, but it's intended to make people who are less likely to be good translators not want to be translators.
2 comments:
I don't know about that. I got great marks at school and in practicum. But I still hated translation in the real world. Something about staring at a computer all day without any real human contact just makes my translation less enjoyable. Kinda sucks that they accustomed us to group work in school. No one translates like that in the real world.
That's true, I forgot about that. It was a huge deal for me in my practicum - not so much the isolation (I'm a severe introvert, as you can probably), but the fact that I was Just. Translating. All. Day!
We were actually discussing introversion and extroversion at work today, and surprising number of my co-workers are extroverts, which is really strange considering the nature of the work. The ratio basically reflects the general population, while I was expecting it to be weighed more in favour of the introverts.
The problem with group work in school, and the reason why it can never reflect reality, is that no one is in charge. Everyone in the group gets weighted equally and has to deal with the consequences of the decisions equally. In real life, there is always someone in charge of a work group who signs off on things and takes ultimate responsibility should something go wrong.
Post a Comment