Your assistant in English
Your assistant in English
The English language is a compulsory subject in many schools, but how should it
be learnt productively?
Apart from the communicative approach, which focuses on using the language appropriately in real-life situations, there is also the translational approach that helps learners to gain explicit knowledge about how languages work structurally and conceptually. Though the translation approach is considered to be a bit outdated and less effective than the communicational one, its benefits should not be underestimated, and even more so neglected. Reading and translating authentic texts boosts one’s knowledge of both languages and cultures, as well as helps bridge the gap between two different linguistic worldviews. To crown it all, such stories as the ones we translated, give lots of food for thought, triggering hot debates in class.
be learnt productively?
Apart from the communicative approach, which focuses on using the language appropriately in real-life situations, there is also the translational approach that helps learners to gain explicit knowledge about how languages work structurally and conceptually. Though the translation approach is considered to be a bit outdated and less effective than the communicational one, its benefits should not be underestimated, and even more so neglected. Reading and translating authentic texts boosts one’s knowledge of both languages and cultures, as well as helps bridge the gap between two different linguistic worldviews. To crown it all, such stories as the ones we translated, give lots of food for thought, triggering hot debates in class.
«You can never understand one language until you understand at least two»
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Translation is a key element in studying a foreign language. Dealing with a specific text, a translator relies on a contextual rather than literal meaning of words. Translation implies numerous transformations of language constructions, not to mention specific words.
Any word is a bundle of semes, whose meaning varies depending on the context. While translating the book Planet Dancing, we used different Russian equivalents of the adjective “great”. Namely, “the great jellyfish” is a term denoting biological species, whereas in the phrase “a great grey bird” it is an evaluative adjective similar to “majestic”. This is a bright example of pitfalls in translation.
Any word is a bundle of semes, whose meaning varies depending on the context. While translating the book Planet Dancing, we used different Russian equivalents of the adjective “great”. Namely, “the great jellyfish” is a term denoting biological species, whereas in the phrase “a great grey bird” it is an evaluative adjective similar to “majestic”. This is a bright example of pitfalls in translation.
Before translating the short stories, we spent some time studying the textbook “The fundamentals” by E. Breus paying attention to specific language aspects and translation tools. For our project we chose a collection of short stories by an Irish author, whose literary works hadn’t been translated into Russian before. Patric McCusker is a contemporary biologist, lecturer and writer who focuses on biodiversity and nature conservation. His writing style is a blend of scientific journalism, literary fiction and memoir. His stories feature an amazing life of animal and plant species and their connection with humans.
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Patrick McCusker is an Irish author, lecturer in biodiversity, and nature conservationist who writes medical and religious thrillers. He has also won awards for his short stories and radio features. Here are some of his popular books: Planet Dancing, FEAR, The Extraordinary temptation
Most people might think that translation is just about getting words in the sentence replaced with their literal equivalents from another language, which is a terrible misconception. In this article, we would like to share a few translation tips, supporting them with some of the examples from the stories we worked on.
To start with, the grammatical category of gender in English differs somewhat from that in Russian. Genders in English are also divided into masculine, feminine, and neuter, but words can only be assigned to a particular gender through context and knowledge of their meaning. One of the difficulties in our translation was that the author used the pronoun he in reference to the noun bird, as it referred to a male bowerbird. Since the Russian word for “bird”(птица) is feminine in gender, we used synonyms like “the feathers one/feathered friend” or specified with “male bowerbird”.
The Russian language lacks the concept of articles, which when translating is compensated by using demonstrative or indefinite pronouns. Examples: “The sound too was ancient and unknowable to men.” “Этот звук тоже исходил из глубины веков и был непонятен человеку.” “The alligator was not a “big’un” as alligators go, but… “ ”Этот аллигатор не был огромен, но…” “Once,a boy driving three goats came to the river to drink.” “Один мальчуган,
пасший трех коз, подошел к реке чтобы напиться.”
Unlike the componential level of semantic equivalence, at the level of denotative equivalence, a semantic divergence is observed between the source text and the translation text. The equivalence relation here is based on equating different-yet related to the same objective
situation -semantic components. Example: “Reeds and herons werecompanions (a state predicate) from a long time ago, each incompletewithout the other.” “Тростник и цапли соседствуют (an actionpredicate) с незапамятных времен и неотделимы друг от
друга”
Furthermore, when translating from Russian into English, a translator often has to resort to converting active constructions in Russian sentences into passive constructions in English sentences, or visa versa, e.g. “Twice he had been defeated by the strength of the green alligator
with the one eye.” “Он дважды уступил силе зеленого одноглазого аллигатора.”
пасший трех коз, подошел к реке чтобы напиться.”
Unlike the componential level of semantic equivalence, at the level of denotative equivalence, a semantic divergence is observed between the source text and the translation text. The equivalence relation here is based on equating different-yet related to the same objective
situation -semantic components. Example: “Reeds and herons werecompanions (a state predicate) from a long time ago, each incompletewithout the other.” “Тростник и цапли соседствуют (an actionpredicate) с незапамятных времен и неотделимы друг от
друга”
Furthermore, when translating from Russian into English, a translator often has to resort to converting active constructions in Russian sentences into passive constructions in English sentences, or visa versa, e.g. “Twice he had been defeated by the strength of the green alligator
with the one eye.” “Он дважды уступил силе зеленого одноглазого аллигатора.”
Then, next step was reassemble all text in one book and create illustrations to them.
Pages of our book with illustrations made by us
After publishing a bilingual book with the original English text on the left and the Russian translation on the right side of the page, we decided to supplement it with a set of tasks to help our target audience consolidate knowledge of advanced grammar vocabulary. Thus, we created a test for each story, consisting of three parts: reading, vocabulary and
grammar.
grammar.
Then we asked our tenth-grade classmates to read the stories and complete the tasks.
We also asked them to express their opinions on whether such activities should be incorporated into the school syllabus.
We also asked them to express their opinions on whether such activities should be incorporated into the school syllabus.
Most of the respondents claimed that they enjoyed reading the stories about wild nature as well as completing the tasks and expressed their eagerness to deal with similar educational material on a regular basis in the future. Besides, they pointed out that scrutinizing the stories not only expanded their linguistic knowledge but also raised awareness about environmental issues, which we find absolutely rewarding.
Apart from improving language skills, we expect that our project will encourage certain students to consider the profession of a translator in the future. To reveal the specifics of this job to our audience, we interviewed Olga Ivanova Lapikova, who has been translating books professionally for 20 years. We asked her a few questions about what this profession implies and found out her opinion on the idea of using translation as a tool to master a foreign language.
In addition, we tried ourselves in the role of book illustrators. The jellyfish and the bowerbird were drawn using digital graphics.
Finally, in the process of translating and publishing the stories, we visited The International Book Festival in Moscow where we interviewed a number or editors, illustrators, writers, publishers and readers.
In addition, we tried ourselves in the role of book illustrators. The jellyfish and the bowerbird were drawn using digital graphics.
Finally, in the process of translating and publishing the stories, we visited The International Book Festival in Moscow where we interviewed a number or editors, illustrators, writers, publishers and readers.
To sum up, we hope that our project will be helpful for students, teachers and people who enjoy reading English literature.
Morekhodova Arina, Aslamazova Anastasia, Ulianova Marianna 10G; School No.548
Supervisor: Chesnakova Anna Aleksandrovna
Supervisor: Chesnakova Anna Aleksandrovna
