How should you teach translation?

How should you teach translation? There's a good question, if there ever was one. As a student, in France, I was confronted to fairly "traditional" translation classes: we were given a literary text, and we had to translate it. Full stop. The linguistic challenges of the text were tackled, and working on a short story by Roald Dahl or texts by Iris Murdoch was certainly fun. But were these classes teaching us translation? No consideration was given to the context or the target reader, no critical analysis of the text was done with professional translation issues in mind. We translated, but that didn't make us translators.

Having now moved to the "other side of the desk", and teaching at Heriot-Watt University, where the courses are very much focused on translation and interpreting, I've had a chance to approach the question of translation classes from another angle – and with a renewed consideration for the purpose: the training of future professionals. Students come to us to learn a trade, not just language skills. Sure, they need to read (really, dear students: you need to read!). Culture is essential, humour and intercultural awareness is what raises us all above the level of Google Translation. But a good translator also needs, first and foremost, to know what's happening in the world – and to be familiar with issues which are the object of international discussions. Because these are the fields in which his professional skills will be needed.

So gone are the good old Lagarde et Michard; students now translate from The Guardian, The Economist, Le Monde, L'Express, El Pais, etc … They are given conference papers, they have to translate web-pages and most viciously, we even given them texts in pdf format (and ask for the translation in the same format, yes). Following the example of the excellent translation course at Pablo de Olavide, in Seville (check this space for Elisa Calvo's post, she teaches at this well-known Spanish university), students are now also given mock professional translation projects: they are organised in a team, one person is project managers, there are translators and editors, and of course, tight deadlines. They may even get a badly written text to tackle. Why ? Because there's more to translation than just words.

Fanny Chouc is a Teaching Fellow in French at Heriot-Watt University, and also co-organises career events on campus around translation and interpreting, in partnership with the ITI and Routes into Languages. She teaches on translation and interpreting courses. Follow the departmental blog and see what's happening in the School of Management and Languages on Twitter .