SPAN 315 - Introduction to Translation: Spanish/English
Course Description:
Students perform introductory translation assignments from Spanish to English and vice versa. They develop an understanding of translation theory through reading and class discussion and come to understand communicative translation and compare it to a direct, word-for-word approach. Problematic grammatical, discursive, and pragmatic issues are analyzed and the grammar of Spanish is reviewed in detail. Taught in Spanish.
Reflective Narrative:
This was one of the more fun classes I got to take while here at CSUMB. This one, taught by Professor Oliva and fulfills MLO's 1 and 2, taught me a lot about how to translate things well, and what makes a good translation. It is vital that we be faithful to the original text's meaning and purpose, and we must respect what it says. It also requires a knowledge of the theme in both languages and cultures. We learned about False Friends (Librería does not, in fact, mean Library, but instead Bookstore. Instead, we should use the word Biblioteca for Library), how to turn a word into a smaller version of that word by adding -ito, -illo, or -ico, and how to best translate words in English that might have a few different meanings in Spanish. For example, in English, we would use the same word to describe people above a certain age as we would use to describe antiquated furniture: old. However, when translating to Spanish, do we want to use antiguo, anciano, viejo, vetusto, mayor, or milenaria? We must ensure we are being respectful in translation, and that was a really eye-opening lesson to learn. My favorite part of the class, though, was learning to translate jokes in a way that would make sense in both languages. These are some examples of what typical assignments would look like where we would translate the given phrases.
Students perform introductory translation assignments from Spanish to English and vice versa. They develop an understanding of translation theory through reading and class discussion and come to understand communicative translation and compare it to a direct, word-for-word approach. Problematic grammatical, discursive, and pragmatic issues are analyzed and the grammar of Spanish is reviewed in detail. Taught in Spanish.
Reflective Narrative:
This was one of the more fun classes I got to take while here at CSUMB. This one, taught by Professor Oliva and fulfills MLO's 1 and 2, taught me a lot about how to translate things well, and what makes a good translation. It is vital that we be faithful to the original text's meaning and purpose, and we must respect what it says. It also requires a knowledge of the theme in both languages and cultures. We learned about False Friends (Librería does not, in fact, mean Library, but instead Bookstore. Instead, we should use the word Biblioteca for Library), how to turn a word into a smaller version of that word by adding -ito, -illo, or -ico, and how to best translate words in English that might have a few different meanings in Spanish. For example, in English, we would use the same word to describe people above a certain age as we would use to describe antiquated furniture: old. However, when translating to Spanish, do we want to use antiguo, anciano, viejo, vetusto, mayor, or milenaria? We must ensure we are being respectful in translation, and that was a really eye-opening lesson to learn. My favorite part of the class, though, was learning to translate jokes in a way that would make sense in both languages. These are some examples of what typical assignments would look like where we would translate the given phrases.