BA Translation Studies Concentration

Translation is the oldest method used in teaching foreign languages. Other new pedagogies have sometimes supplanted it, but it remains at the heart of language teaching, often at the most advanced levels of mastery when nuance, context and the specificity of a language and culture can only be suggested through the trials, errors and impossibility of translation. Today, the difficulties of translating may seem solvable with technological tools, yet a successful translation is more than a mechanical transfer of meaning from one language to another, no matter how advanced the technology. Context, history, culture, ethical considerations, logic, rhetoric and politics all need to be considered and taken into account. Translation is that space where language, culture, history, politics and incommensurable difference all collide and sometimes cohere to make sense. At a time of intensive globalization, when cultures and languages seek common understanding, one could argue that it is an indispensable discipline.