DIDACTICS OF TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETING STUDIES

1. DIDACTICS OF TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETING STUDIES Conf. dr. RuxandaBontila Motto: “Carte frumoasă, cinste cui te-a tradus”

2. DIDACTICS OF TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETING STUDIES Motto: “Carte frumoasă, cinste cui te-a tradus”/ Handsome book, credit to thy translator

3. Didactics of translation and interpreting studiesTranslation politics: nuts and bolts 1. Do you agree? 2.Do you have your own examples? 3. Any remedy? 1. When translating, we can’t help rationalizing, i.e., recomposing sentences and sentence parts in accordance with some idea of discourse order; reducing the text to a linear order; homogenizing the text up to clarifying or even trivializing it. This is to say, the translated text (TT) is clearer but flatter.

4. Didactics of translation and interpreting studiesTranslation politics: nuts and bolts 1. Do you agree? 2.Do you have your own examples? 3. Any remedy? 1.Remedy-conclusion: be faithful to the text’s/protagonist(s)’ intention/ality.

5. Didactics of translation and interpreting studiesTranslation politics: nuts and bolts 1. Do you agree? 2.Do you have your own examples? 3. Any remedy? 2. There is the tendency/temptation of the syndrome of anticipation of and compliance with the reader’s expectations as another way towards the homogenization of the text.

6. Didactics of translation and interpreting studiesTranslation politics: nuts and bolts 1. Do you agree? 2.Do you have your own examples? 3. Any remedy? 2.Remedy-conclusion: double check source text (ST) instillations (quotations) so as not to impede textual demonstration.

7. Didactics of translation and interpreting studiesTranslation politics: nuts and bolts 1. Do you agree? 2.Do you have your own examples? 3. Any remedy? 3. There is no such thing as the untranslatable, rather the untransposable of those multi layered accumulations of significations around the core semantic meaning of the source cultural context.

8. Didactics of translation and interpreting studiesTranslation politics: nuts and bolts 1. Do you agree? 2.Do you have your own examples? 3. Any remedy? 3.Remedy-conclusion: what Ion Heliade-Rădulescu said about the merits of translation, they bring „foloase generale în paguba nimănui” (general benefits to nobody’s harm).

9. Didactics of translation and interpreting studiesTranslation politics: nuts and bolts 1. Do you agree? 2.Do you have your own examples? 3. Any remedy? 4.Literal transposition of idioms (e.g. see V. Alecsandri’s Chiriţa în Iaşi sau Două fete ş-o neneacă), besides being a source of humour, points out the metalinguistic dimension of languages.

10. Didactics of translation and interpreting studiesTranslation politics: nuts and bolts 1. Do you agree? 2.Do you have your own examples? 3. Any remedy? 4.Remedy-conclusion: Both socio-linguistic analysis and linguistic analysis are obligatory; the same in the case of borrowings.

11. Didactics of translation and interpreting studiesTranslation politics: nuts and bolts 1. Do you agree? 2.Do you have your own examples? 3. Any remedy? 5. An ethics of the translating act derives from the translator’s pre-established translation decisions (i.e. prioritization of form or content).

12. Didactics of translation and interpreting studiesTranslation politics: nuts and bolts Post Modernist Cliches ? • 1. The politics of translation of Publishing Houses is never as vivaciously supervised as in the present (see MagdaJeanrenaud, ‘A Case-Study: Polirom,’ pp. 179-220); • 2. Translators alongside critics, academics, teachers, journalists — the so called ‘taste makers’—are both empowered and empowering in the process; • 3. New criteria/ notions of translating strike forcefully the theoretic aporias of ‘untranslatability;’ • 4. New theories on translation impose new translating strategies with consequences on the status of translation (see MagdaJeanrenaud, pp. 246-9; 280-3); • 5. Besides the so called translation universals recorded by dictionaries, there is much talk about translation behaviour with reference to socio-cultural constraints characteristic of a culture, society, epoch; • 6. The ethics of translation imposes the principle of inter-culturality as an important identity tenet of the translator; • 7. The task of the translator has never been as demanding as always!

13. Didactics of translation and interpreting studiesTranslation politics: nuts and bolts Bontilă, R., (2006) “The literary translation: Felicities and infelicities”, Popescu, F. (coord.) Translation Studies: Retrospective and Prospective Views, Editura Fundaţiei Universitare „Dunărea de Jos”, Galaţi, pp. 5-15. Jeanrenaud, M. (2006) Universaliiletraducerii. Studii de traductologie, Iaşi: Polirom. Steiner, G. (1983) După Babel. Aspecte ale limbiişitraducerii(After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation, 1975), trans. ValentinNegoiţă şi Ştefan Avădanei, Bucureşti: Editura Univers. Todorov, Tz.(1996/1999) Omuldezrădăcinat, trans. Ion Pop, Iaşi: Institutul European

14. Merkel thanks Gorbachev on Berlin Wall anniversary(Monday Nov. 9, 2009, following a commemoration ) By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER, Associated Press Writer Kirsten Grieshaber, Associated Press Writer (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091109/ap_on_re_eu/eu_germany_wall_anniversary)

15. in-building translation skills exercises 1. What distinctive spoken/written mode features can you detect in the following writing? 2. What kind of audience does the text assume? 3. What shared knowledge does the text count on? • BERLIN – Chancellor Angela Merkel and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev crossed a former fortified border on Monday to cheers of "Gorby! Gorby!" as a throng of grateful Germans recalled the night 20 years ago that the Berlin Wall gave way to their desire for freedom and unity. • Within moments of a confused announcement on Nov. 9, 1989 that East Germany was lifting travel restrictions, hundreds of people streamed into the enclave that was West Berlin, marking a pivotal moment in the collapse of communism in Europe. • Merkel, who grew up in East Germany and was one of thousands to cross that night, recalled that "before the joy of freedom came, many people suffered." • She lauded Gorbachev, with whom she shared an umbrella amid a crush of hundreds, eager for a glimpse of the man many still consider a hero for his role in pushing reform in the Soviet Union.

16. in-building translation skills exercises 4. See to ways in which the writer achieves interpersonal management. 5. Identify genre conventions in the text and detail on how they confirm/disrupt textual intentionality. 6. Comment on the (un)predictability of textual prominence. • "We always knew that something had to happen there so that more could change here," she said. • "You made this possible — you courageously let things happen, and that was much more than we could expect," she told Gorbachev in front of several hundred people gathered in light drizzle on the bridge over railway lines. • Tears sprang to the eyes of Uwe Kross, a 65-year old retiree, who recalled seeing the start of the drama on Nov. 9, 1989 from his home, a block away from the bridge. • "That night, you couldn't stop people," Kross said. "They lifted the barrier and everyone poured through. • "We saw it first on TV, normally it was very quiet up here, but that night we could hear the footsteps of those crossing, tap, tap, tap." • Kross was among those who crossed early on — so early that nobody was yet waiting on the other side when they reached the West. He recalled hopping on the first subway to then-West Berlin's main boulevard, the Kurfuerstendamm. • "All hell was breaking loose there," Kross said.

17. in-building translation skills exercises 7. Enumerate the ways in which the writer understands to involve/detach the reader. 8. Explain how different actualizations of modality contribute to clarifying textual functions, genre type, textual conventions. • Merkel also welcomed Poland's 1980s pro-democracy leader, Lech Walesa, to the former crossing Monday, saying that his Solidarity movement provided "incredible encouragement" to East Germans. • The leaders were joined by prominent former East Germans such as Joachim Gauck, an ex-pastor who later oversaw the archives of East Germany's secret police, the Stasi. • "Those in government thought they were opening a valve, but once it was open much more happened," Gauck said of the border opening. "A collapse followed." • The bridge crossing was one of a series of events marking Monday's anniversary of the border's opening after the wall kept East German citizens penned in for 28 years. • Music from Bon Jovi and Beethoven was to recall the joy of the border's opening, which led to German reunification less than a year later and the swift demolition of most of the wall — which snaked for 96 miles (155 kilometers) around West Berlin, a capitalist enclave deep inside East Germany. • to keep somebody or something in a pen or other enclosed area • a small fenced area of land, or an enclosure within a building, used to keep farm animals

18. in-building translation skills exercises 7. Enumerate the ways in which the writer understands to involve/detach the reader. 8. Explain how different actualizations of modality contribute to clarifying textual functions, genre type, textual conventions. • The bridge crossing was one of a series of events marking Monday's anniversary of the border's opening after the wall kept East German citizens penned in for 28 years. • to keep somebody or something in a pen or other enclosed area • a small fenced area of land, or an enclosure within a building, used to keep farm animals

19. in-building translation skills exercises 9. Account for the criteria which informed your choice from a lexical field (ideological/cultural/ register/ jargon constraints). 10. Single out idiomatic expressions in the text and explain their contribution to the overall understanding/ effect/ intention of the text. • Memorials also were planned to the 136 people killed trying to cross the border. Candles were lit and 1,000 towering plastic foam dominoes placed along the wall's route to be tipped over later Monday. • Also expected in Berlin for the ceremonies were the leaders of all 27 European Union countries and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. • The wall's opening came hours after a botched announcement by a senior communist official on a cold, wet night in 1989. • At the end of a plodding news conference, Politburo spokesman Guenter Schabowski offhandedly said East Germany was lifting restrictions on travel across its border with West Germany. • Pressed on when the regulation would take effect, he looked down at his notes and stammered: "As far as I know, this enters into force ... this is immediately, without delay." • Schabowski has said he didn't know that the change wasn't supposed to be announced until the following morning. • East Berliners streamed toward border crossings. Facing huge crowds and lacking instructions from above, border guards opened the gates — and the wall was on its way into history.

20. in-building translation skills exercises 9. Account for the criteria which informed your choice from a lexical field (ideological/cultural/ register/ jargon constraints). 10. Single out idiomatic expressions in the text and explain their contribution to the overall understanding/ effect/ intention of the text. • Also expected in Berlin for the ceremonies were the leaders of all 27 European Union countries and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. • The wall's opening came hours after a botched announcement by a senior communist official on a cold, wet night in 1989. • (a job or task that has been done very badly) • At the end of a plodding news conference, Politburo spokesman Guenter Schabowski offhandedly said East Germany was lifting restrictions on travel across its border with West Germany. • (lacking tension or drama; working steadily and hard but not imaginatively; rigid; dull; doctrinaire) • Pressed on when the regulation would take effect, he looked down at his notes and stammered: "As far as I know, this enters into force ... this is immediately, without delay." • (to speak, or say something, with many quick hesitations and repeated consonants or syllables because of a speech condition or a strong emotion)

21. in-building translation skills exercises 11. Explain how the identified idioms are a barometer of the reader’s cultural competence (the encoding of beliefs/ common lore of a people/ generation/ community). • Merkel said she was among the East Germans who, hearing Schabowski's words, thought "something might happen on the evening of Nov. 9." Like many others, she made her way across. • By the Brandenburg Gate, the symbol of Germany's division and then of its reunification, which for nearly three decades stood just behind the wall in no man's land, Dieter Mohnka, 74, and his wife Helga, 71, shared a bowl of French fries on Monday afternoon and recalled the night the wall was opened. • "We were shocked when we heard that announced, simply astounded," said Helga. "The next morning we went straight to visit my aunt in the West." • Dieter, a high school teacher at the time, said he had long been fascinated with West Germany. • "I was born in East Germany, I went to school in East Germany. I was supposed to teach the kids about the wonderfulness of the East, when I was secretly watching TV from the West," he said. • "This is not just a day of celebration for Germans," Merkel said. "This is a day of celebration for the whole of Europe; this is a day of celebration for all those people who have more freedom."