22/05/2013, by CLAS
Translating the heroines of Latin American Independence
On Thursday 25 April 2013 a group of budding linguists from Bluecoat School and Bilborough College attended a translation workshop in the School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies. The aim of the session was to translate a number of biographies from English into Spanish that would be included on the Genderlatam database (this forms part of the AHRC-funded research project Women and Independence in Latin America). The students also had the opportunity to provide feedback on a pilot version of the database application entitled Heroines and Heroes of the Latin American Wars of Independence that will eventually become available for use by schools.
The session commenced with a briefing from Dr Maria Thomas (research assistant on the Women and Independence project) and was followed by a group discussion on how to approach the translation of a text. Student ambassadors from the department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin-American studies then worked with small groups of pupils to translate the biographies. All school students who attended were presented with a certificate to acknowledge their contribution to this important project and their names will also appear on the official list of translators. They were also invited to participate in the poetry competition that is being run as part of the project.
Although the content of this session was challenging (as translation is a subject that is normally studied at university rather than at school), the feedback from the students who attended was very positive:
‘I learned some new vocabulary and practiced some tenses that I don’t normally use.’
‘It was a good way to learn a language. I learned to use the passive voice.’
‘It was a lot more fun than I expected. I really enjoyed it.’
Those who were initially apprehensive commented that they had enjoyed the interactive nature of the session and that they had found it useful both to improve their grammatical knowledge and their vocabulary. They were also keen to discover more about the Latin American wars of Independence. The School hopes to build on the success of this session and run further translation workshops in the future.
For further information on Genderlatam, see http://www.genderlatam.org.uk/genderlatam/index.aspx
For further information on Translation Workshops contact April Perrie on april.perrie@nottingham.ac.uk
For information on the Centre for Translation and Comparative Cultural Studies see http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/ctccs/index.aspx
An excellent way of learning a language in its historical context and as a tool for historical research. You have opened a window onto a new world and they have had a peep! Well done everyone involved.