Lost in Translation Studies?

Although some study programs offer courses and insights on the day-to-day work of professional translators, or even mandatory internships (emphasising the goal of translation studies to prepare and train professional translators) there’s been some discussion whether current translation study programs can still keep up with the rapidly developing translation industry. A valid question, if you ask me, given the fact that a couple of years ago I still had to take exams aided only by a physical dictionary over 30 years old! But before I get into it, let me catch you up on a few things.

What are translation studies?

For those who don’t know, translation studies is an academic field that focuses on the systematic exploration of the theory, practice, and application of translation, interpreting, and localisation. At universities, there is often a rather distinct separation between these three, leading to multiple different study programs, such as Translatology or even Conference Interpreting. As an interdisciplinary domain, translation studies as a whole draws extensively from various supporting fields, such as comparative literature, computer science, history, linguistics, philology, philosophy, semiotics, and terminology. 

Sounds a bit complicated, doesn’t it? In practice, it’s actually a lot more straightforward.

What do you actually learn at university?

Depending on the study program you choose (and the country or region your university is located in) you generally get a good mix of courses in linguistics and translation/interpreting. This could be something like ‘Introduction to linguistics’ or different translation classes from or into your mother tongue. Many study programs offer different languages and language combinations to choose from, although these are (at least in Germany and most European countries) usually limited to English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish–also called EFIGS, used for the most frequent languages in the field of software localisation (usually video games). 

Depending on the language(s) you choose, you’re  expected to already have pre-existing knowledge and receive only a few advanced language courses to polish your skills. To supplement that, you’ll usually get history and culture lessons in the corresponding country your chosen language is spoken in. The goal is to not only equip students with the best possible language skills, but also to offer them proper translation/interpretation practice and give them a feel for cultural nuances and subtleties.

Although I did my Bachelor in International Communication & Translation and my Master in Literary Translation at university, not college, both of my study programs were actually very practical and involved a lot of different translation classes. We covered multiple topics and genres, ranging from video game localisation to retranslating classic literature. In my Master’s, we even had a whole module dedicated to professional knowledge that included block seminars with professional translators and classes focusing on freelancing, order procurement, taxes, etc.

So, yes, you get a solid base of language skills, historical background and cultural nuances in a translation related degree. You don’t, however, necessarily learn that much about the industry itself, given the fact that many lecturers work in the academic field of translation, not in the corporate world. For my more hands-on practice, I would have to wait until joining Locaria.

Becoming a professional linguist

I had my first foray into the industry during university (in video game localisation) before taking the plunge full-time at Locaria. I was pleasantly surprised–and also a bit overwhelmed–by the amount of tech and other helpful tools that exist to make my job as a human translator easier, more efficient, and overall: a bit better. Whether it’s smart (although sometimes not so smart) CAT tools used for machine translation, proofreading software that makes sure I always strike the right cord for a specific target group–and don’t miss that devious comma for the third time–or LLMs that provide useful input to get the creative juices flowing. You name it, it seemed to me that someone had thought of a tool for it. 

Considering the lack of proper training on CAT tools or really anything AI-related in my studies, you can probably imagine that it took some time to get used to all these tools and fancy abbreviations used by my much more experienced colleagues. Once you get the hang of them though (with the help of special training modules and many supportive team members and PMs), they’re actually not that different from everything you normally do inside your head while translating or crafting meaningful writing pieces–they just eliminate some of the tedious time-consuming jobs and save you from the frustration of wracking your brain for that one word that seems to elude you.

In a way, I’m glad that I had to translate my way through university ‘on my own’, but a bit more tech-related training and fewer mediaeval dictionaries wouldn’t have been such a bad idea, would they? In any case, at Locaria, I now get to combine my acquired linguistic abilities and culturally honed skills with useful tools and AI technology in order to efficiently create meaningful content–that still radiates a human touch.

Author: Ann-Sophie Flock, Junior German Linguist at Locaria

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