Translation syllabus

"Western Europe owes its civilisation to translators." (Louis Kelly 1979)

In Course AT3 and AT5 the Advanced English and translation programmes take up half the course each.

We offer general translation into English from German, Spanish, Italian and French.

Please state your chosen source language clearly on your Registration Form, e.g. AT3-G (German) or AT3-S (Spanish).

The level is that of intermediate to final examinations in European university departments of English and institutes of translation.

The translation classes are highly relevant to most examination requirements and give you more intensive and continuous practice than is usual at university.

The objective is to improve your all-round proficiency in translation into English. The approach will be hands-on and practical rather than theoretical.

The type and subject matter of the texts chosen will be determined by the examination requirements and interests of class members.

We normally include: newspaper texts of political, social, cultural or general interest, literary critical and literary texts, as well as texts about British life, culture and institutions in the source language. When required we can also offer texts of economic or linguistic interest. This is a general translation course and we do not do technical translation.

Among other questions, we shall consider: the type of text, register, tone and style; whether a literal or free translation is appropriate; the importance of really understanding the text in the source language; what the author wants to say, not just the meaning of the words; the need to be aware of stylistic devices; the need to be able to read between the lines and the problem of translating figurative expressions.

We shall observe the syntactic, grammatical and stylistic peculiarities of the source and target languages; we shall pay attention to false friends and the common mistakes that result from lack of concentration or carelessness.

In addition to translating whole texts, we shall do exercises that provide systematic practice in translating such items as false friends, prepositional idioms, participle and gerund constructions, time clauses and inversion.

Students are expected to prepare a written translation of a new text daily, which will be discussed and corrected in class the next day.

Preparation may be done individually or in groups. You may hand in a selection of your translations for individual comment.

For more information on the translation courses go directly to AT3, AT5 or AT2

What to bring with you

It is essential to have a good bilingual and monolingual dictionary. Please bring with you a selection of past examination texts set at your university. It will also be helpful if you bring a sample of corrected work from your university.