Translation Colleges in Illinois

The UNIVERSITY of CHICAGO - The Graham School of General Studies

Program Description

Introduction to Translation Theory

The goal of this course is to provide students with a foundation in the theory, practice, and ethics of translation. Translation involves two basic skills: ability to read the source language and ability to write in the target language. Mediating between those two skills is what might be called translation judgment.” It is this hard-to-define judgment on which the Graham School’s program will focus.

Specifically, the foundation course will address the history of translation, types of translation (semantic or literal translation versus communicative or target-language-driven translation), translation ethics, and the business of translation.

Legal Translation

This course will provide an overview of the nature of legal translation. Because a legal document, when executed, bears legal liabilities, the translation of a legal document usually has the same legal effect as the original. As a result, there are high requirements for accuracy in legal translation in meaning, tone, and style The characteristics of legal translation in general will also be discussed. This course will also cover the different areas of legal translation: corporate, litigation, intellectual property, and tax. Their respective features in translation will be reviewed. This course will give an overview of the different bases of legal systems and how to research legal issues in the countries of the various language pairs. Finally, it is important for the translator to understand cultural and linguistic differences that shade meaning in a legal text. The differences among language pairs offered in the Graham School of General Studies curriculum will be emphasized.

Commercial Translation

This course will focus on business and financial translation. Students will be expected to develop an understanding of the terminology and concepts most often encountered in business and financial translations and will be encouraged to read the financial press daily to aid in this process.

Students will be required to develop a language-specific glossary of terms, indicating their usage in various contexts, based on the course readings and assignments and any research they do to complete the assignments. Students will also be expected to hone their terminology reserach skills. This is particularly important for the ever-evolving terminology of finance and investment banking, as this terminology is rarely found in bilingual sourrces. Students will also be taught to seek and evaluate target language parallel documents for their translations whenever possible and will be asked to share these documents with their practicum colleagues and their instructor. Some of the topics to be covered in this course are lettters of credit, securitites issues and markets, vrious forms of debt, and annual reports.

This course includes two components. The first component consists of three consecutive days of classes in Chicago. The second component is an eight-week practicum which participants complete online from their own homes or offices. Grading will be based on the final course glossary, on the parallel documents students provide, and on the practicum weekly assignments.

Building Your Translation Business in Troubled Times

This course will focus on tips for building your freelance translation business, including:

Creating an effective freelance résumé, especially for beginners coming from other careers. How to build your client base, especially getting those key first chances. Avoiding pitfalls and career-crushing bloopers. Working with translation companies. Invoicing. Insurance. Websites. Calculating what your services are worth. Earning potential. Bookkeeping. Producing quality translations. Contracts or less formal agreements and other legal issues, including breach of agreement, client due diligence. Subcontracting (translations and/or editing your own work). Tax concerns.

We will also touch on hardware and software needs, building a virtual and hard copy reference library, and tips on working more efficiently. Bring along details of your favorite reference sources so that we can all share our knowledge. We will spend a lot of time on question-and-answer periods and in discussions, so come armed with questions and ideas.

We will discuss the skills required for success in the translation business, along with networking opportunities and professional associations that will help you attain your goals.

No discussion would be complete without touching on translation business ethics. There will also be a discussion of the pros and cons of freelancing versus running a translation company and the different skills needed for each. While the main focus will be on translation, many of the topics will also apply to interpreting.

Costs

$1,450 each course.

Editor notes

The Chicago University offers a selection of four very interesting courses. One translation introductory course comprising the basic aspects of the profession; two courses of specialization that will prepare you to be an expert in legal and commercial translation, and a specific course for those wishing to build their own translation business, which will teach you every aspect involved in working on a freelance basis.

Link

https://grahamschool.uchicago.edu/php/translationstudies/

Contact Information

Translation Studies Certificate Program, University of Chicago Graham School, 1427 E. 60 St., Chicago, IL, 60637

Phone 773-702-1682

E-Mail: s-medlock@uchicago.edu

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - French Translation Online Certificate Courses

Program Description

The Professional Development Sequence in French Translation at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is a graduate-level certificate program offered to students who have already completed a BA in French or have a BA in another subject and native or near-native knowledge of French and English.

The program requires that you take five courses, all delivered completely on-line, including the two foundation courses entitled Techniques in Translation I & II (FR 419 and FR 421). Electives can be drawn from other courses offered to meet the 5-course requirement, including History of the French Language (FR 417), French Lexicology (FR 591), Techniques in Scientific Translation (FR 591), and Commercial and Economic French I and II (FR 485 and FR 486). Although you are required to take three of these electives, you may take as many as you please.

Courses

FR 417: History of the French Language
Introduction to the historical development of the French language, from its Latin origins to the present. Analysis of texts from a variety of genres across the written history of the language, and an examination of the social role of the language in the definition of France.

FR 419: Techniques in Translation I
This course focuses on practical techniques for translating literary and non-literary texts from French into English and vice versa. Areas covered include: language-specific strategies for French/English translators, the importance of context, common pitfalls to avoid, making use of translator's tools, and analyzing other translations. Students will do some translation work in both directions, but most of their work will be done into their native language.

FR 421: Techniques in Translation II
Continuation of FR 419. A working knowledge of the tools, techniques, and strategies available to translators is assumed, so students enrolling in this course should have already taken an introductory translation course (such as FR 419) or should have some previous translation experience. Students are expected to choose and translate page-length texts into their native language, as well as correct, edit, and offer feedback to their fellow students.

FR 485: Commercial and Economic French I
Studies French business practices: company structures, selling and buying techniques, banking, import/export and other commercial negotiations, employment, formalities, and conventions of letter-writing; involves both theory and practice.

FR 486: Commercial and Economic French II
Emphasizes business correspondence and simulation of business practices in the areas introduced in FR 485; also focuses on geographic and economic topics pertaining to France within the European community and Europe in general.

FR 591: Autonomous Technology-Assisted Language Learning
This course is designed to appeal to a wide range of graduate students who are interested in second language learning from one or more of the following four perspectives: (a) second language teaching and/or teacher training, (b) second language acquisition research, (c) the development, implementation and/or evaluation of technical tools (software and hardware) for second language learning, and/or (d) personal improvement in second language proficiency in any language at the intermediate to advanced level.

FR 591: Scientific Translation
This course is an introduction to the translation of scientific texts from French into English and from English into French. We will explore the question of what constitutes a "scientific" text, looking at the styles and characteristics of a variety of texts, including popular science magazines, textbooks, medical texts of all types, and formal, published research papers. At the end of this course, students will be familiar with the wide variety of texts that fall into the category of "scientific" and will have developed strategies for translating them. We will also explore the question of how much "science" a translator has to know to work on texts in this category and how to develop themselves as translators in specialized areas of scientific translation. There is no textbook required for this course. All course documents will be posted on the course web site. Students are advised to purchase Jean Delisle's La Traduction raisonnée for reference. This text is the foundation of the introductory courses and the principles will be applied to this course.

Costs

Check with the institution.

Editor notes

The graduate-level course offered by the University of Illinois covers the history of the French language, translation techniques, specialization in Commerce and Economy and a rare field of specialization: Scientific Translation.

Link

http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Comparative_Literature/undergrad/

Contact Information

2090 Foreign Languages Building, MC-158
707 South Mathews Avenue

Chicago, IL 61801 US

Deborah Windes
Academic Outreach Program Director
800-252-1360

outreachinfo@uiuc.edu

Illinois Translation Schools