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Summer School 2012

STOP PRESS:

Summer School 2012 is now full and online booking is closed. If you wish to be put on a Waiting List (in this case, please indicate your Language 1 and Language 2 if applicable), or to be added to the Mailing List for information on this project, email useyourcontact@bbk.ac.uk.

The Summer School programme can be found here.

Use Your Language, Use Your English 2012 Poster [PDF]

Read the press release, Translator training, about the success of last year's Summer School.

 

Use Your Language, Use Your English: The Project

In July 2010, the AHRC awarded a grant under its Language Skills Training (Specialist) Collaborative Research Training Scheme to a research-training project entitled Use your Language, Use your English. The project is coorganised by Professor Naomi Segal (Birkbeck, University of London), Professor Debra Kelly (University of Westminster), and Ros Schwartz, professional translator and member of the Translators Association of the Society of Authors.

Details of the organisers can be found here. [PDF]

The training is open to any native speaker of English who has one or more other language(s) at advanced level. Training is provided by seven professional translators (into English from Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish) and a professional editor.

Details of the tutors can be found here. [PDF]

 

Summer School 2012

Following the great success of last year’s Summer School, we are delighted to announce Summer School 2012. This five-day event will take place at Birkbeck, University of London (43 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PD) on 9-13 July 2012. Since last year we have added two more languages: Chinese and Polish, and all the courses run last year will continue, with the same popular tutors.

Programme: The Summer School comprises two 2-hour workshops each day in translation into English from Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish – and an editing skills course for all. There will also be games, a competition, the opportunity to meet publishers, and guest lectures and discussions. A full programme will be available on this website in due course. Please note that places are limited to 100 overall, and no language-group will run with fewer than 5 students.

Fees: Full fee: £400; student fee: £250. Bursaries available.

How to apply: Online booking will open on this website in February 2012. Payment must be by credit card and in sterling. If you want to be considered for a bursary, tick the relevant box and then complete the Bursary Application form on this website: the closing date for receipt of the form is 20 April 2012. Once complete, the Bursary Application form should be scanned and attached to useyourcontact@bbk.ac.uk or posted to Prof Naomi Segal, Birkbeck College, 43 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PD, UK. If you want to attend the Summer School dinner, tick the box and add £40 to your payment; and if you want a room in the student hall (see below), tick the box and add £190 to your payment.

Accommodation: The Summer School is running shortly before the Olympics and the Bloomsbury area is a designated area for the press and media. You are therefore strongly urged both to book on the course and to arrange your accommodation as early as possible. There are many hotels in the area, and these are currently taking summer bookings; a list of suggestions is shown on this page.

If you're interested in booking hall rooms please contact us directly because we have block-booked 30 single rooms in Commonwealth Hall, one of London University’s international student halls, for the five nights 8-12 July inclusive, on a first-come-first-served basis. The rooms include bed, desk etc; they do not have en-suite and you would share the bathroom & a basic pantry, but breakfast is included, and you can also get dinner in hall by booking on the day for £6. Further information on this accommodation can be obtained from info.gardens@london.ac.uk. To obtain one of these rooms, make sure you tick the box on the booking form and add £190 to your payment.

Online programme

The Online Programme is free of charge and open to anybody anywhere in the world who is a native speaker of English with an advanced knowledge of Arabic, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian or Spanish, and an interest in learning editing skills. To register, email useyourcontact@bbk.ac.uk

Exams

From February 2012, you will be able to take an examination in any of our languages/editing; fee £250. There will be one general exam in each of the nine languages and editing, each consisting of three passages, all to be completed. There will also be the option of electing to take an exam in a specialized field, such as Spanish sports, Russian politics, French 19c history, etc – these specialist fields are nominated by the candidate who also selects the text to be translated/edited. All exams are double-marked. Booking for this too will be on an online form via this website: probably available in early March 2012.

Database for Academic Translators and Editors [DATE]

If you have passed our exam, you will be able to enter yourself on our Database, which will be searched by anyone looking for an excellent Anglophone translator/editor. Further details and the link to DATE will appear in March 2012.

Events 2011

In the first year, 2010-11, the project included two class-based courses, the Taster Event (April 2011) and the first Summer School (July 2011).

Videos from 2011 Taster and Summer School.

Feedback from Taster event 2011 (see section below)

Feedback from Summer School 2011 (see section below)

For further information, see our Frequently Asked Questions. If you have any other queries, email useyourcontact@bbk.ac.uk

Taster event 2011

The Use your Language, Use your English Taster Event took place on 8-9 April 2011. It consisted of classes in translation into English from four languages: French, German, Russian and Spanish. You can see a copy of the Taster Event programme here [PDF], plus some sample translation texts and sample quotations from the participant feedback can be found below.

Video of the introduction to the Taster Event 2011

Translation texts from the Taster Event

Taster Event sample feedback

  • What did you find most useful...? ‘Meeting professional translators, learning that academic and literary translation is a viable (part of one’s) career, finding your “voice” as a translator, identifying particular challenges of different kinds of texts.’
  • How did the Taster meet your needs? ‘Good opportunity to meet people from diverse academic backgrounds & discuss the translation process in detail from different perspectives. Very challenging & engaging selection of texts.’
  • Any other comments? ‘An excellent project in a world where would-be translators can often feel ignorant of where/how to start & unsure of how to meet/work with their peers.’
  • ‘A really useful & enjoyable two days.’

For any other information, email useyourcontact@bbk.ac.uk

Summer School 2011

The Use your Language, Use your English Summer School took place on 18-23 July 2011. It was a six-day course, consisting of classes in translation into English from seven languages – Arabic, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish – and a course for all in editing skills. There were also guest lecturers from the UK and Europe, panel discussions, tips from professionals on how to enter the field, games and many other activities.

 

Feedback from the Summer School 2011

Summer School 2011 Sample Feedback

  • What did you find most useful...?
    • 'The type of texts & the quality of discussion, caused by the participants as well as those leading the groups – it was a most stimulating week!'
    • 'I was hugely impressed by the range of evening speakers – I now feel much less naïve about translation & publishing in general!'
    • 'Variety of talks, teaching styles & techniques & meeting community of translation enthusiasts. Quality of the speakers & tutors. Applied nature of course – much practical advice.'
    • 'The opportunity to discuss an emerging translation in great depth, listen to other people’s issues and ideas, with in-depth input from distinguished translators – translation is normally a somewhat lonely activity.'
  • How did the Summer School meet your needs?
    • 'It gave me the confidence to feel that I cd approach literary translation as a profession & that it is becoming less of a dream and more of a real possibility.'
    • 'Very well. I’m interested in both literary translation and academic/other texts, and this gave practice of both & invaluable info about how to try to find work. The plenary talks were very enlightening too, and the activities fun & informative.'
    • 'Provided practical advice about the industry which is difficult to find out!'
    • 'By creating not only a stimulating academic environment, but also by providing lots of practical tips about how one may enter the world of translation/editing as a professional career. It was also great to make so many useful contacts.'
  • Any other comments?
    • 'An excellent experience. Great opportunity to network – tutors very approachable. Tea, coffee, lunch, biscuits all helped!'
    • 'Both the Taster and the Summer School have been by far the most useful experiences to me since I decided to become a translator. I wonder if it will be possible to participate in future events? Also, the idea of organising participants past (and future) in some way and holding future events wd be very, very appealing.'
    • 'I liked the way the editing sessions were spread over the week. It could have been boring doing only one language but having two editing sessions kept the language sessions fresh. There was a good variety of material in the short texts we edited which meant that we were exposed to lots of different types of translation and on our last morning we translated some literature, rather than our usual long text, which meant that we stayed engaged.'
    • 'Thank you so much for a brilliant course. It was wonderful to meet so many inspiring people, both staff & students alike. I felt really privileged to be working with ‘la crème de la crème’ of the translation world.'

 

This project is run by:

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And funded by:

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