By The College of Liberal Art’s translation studies minor allows students to heighten their language proficiency in professional and community settings.
The program, which is housed in the Clorinda Donato Center for Global Romance Languages and Translation Studies on campus, was named after program director and Italian and French professor, Clorinda Donato.
“A translation studies minor informs students about the increasingly wide ranging field of translation studies and interpreting, two aspects of the same area which is translating or interpreting messages, texts, video, film from one language to another or multiple languages,” Donato said.
The center advises that a student already has proficiency in the language they choose to apply for translation specialization.
The required classes for the minor are:
- An elective in a language (3 units) or a score of 4 or 5 on an AP Language Exam or by taking a language proficiency exam in an elected language.
- TRST 201 – Meaning in Transit: An Introduction to Translation Studies
- TRST 301 – Translation: Ethics, Theory, and Practice
- TRST 401 – Translation Workshop
- An elective in the student’s major (3 units)
The first two courses, Translation Studies 201 and 301, give students a theoretical foundation, while Translation Studies 401 is a workshop that gives students technological and technical tools. Audiovisual, subtitling and computer assistant tools with translation memory are also introduced in the class.
If a student has fulfilled the language requirement/elective but wants to learn another language, it is highly encouraged as translators are often asked to work in another language besides their two studied primary languages.
“We recommend that student’s learn in language families because you can learn more quickly,” Donato said.
She said that the more languages a person knows the better because a person’s ability to learn and make connections heightens.
“Some years ago already 57% of students who came to Cal State Long Beach spoke another language [besides English] at home, this is a huge resource,” Donato said.
Students at Long Beach State are able to take their knowledge from being heritage speakers of a language or having studied a language in high school, into understanding how to create professional opportunities with that language.
“We really encourage students who have a background in any language to add this minor to their major, it goes well with every major,” Donato said.
Department Chair of Romance, German, Russian Languages & Literatures and Professor of French and Francophone Studies, Aparna Nayak, said the translation studies minor expects students to bring their language skills and what they will give you is the theoretical foundation.
“Translation doesn’t happen in a void,” Nayak said. “There are cultural aspects, ethical aspects, there are political aspects, religious aspects, there are social issues that a machine can’t always translate.”
Translation exists in any sphere in the world, so the need for translators and interpreters is tremendous right now, and always has been.
“Even if becoming a translator is not necessarily a goal, having that theoretical foundation and some of the skills you gain will help you really in many different careers,” Nayak said.
“We are offering next semester a course on localization, [which] is the process of rendering a product comprehensible to a different culture,” Nayak added. “Movies get localized, video games, it’s not just the language, it’s not just rendering word for word, you also have to make cultural content understandable to the target cultures.”
Nayak said, “Language acquisition is a slow and painstaking but immensely satisfying process.” “When you can read to a person not just verbally but intellectually, emotionally at a human level to a person from another culture, it is one of the most beautiful things.”
Understanding world cultures also gives students access to cultural capital so that when they are out in the professional world they have the tools to communicate with people at a different level.
Associate Director of the Clorinda Donato Center, Professor Manuel Romero, is the best person to contact to declare the translation studies minor. An advisor meeting is then set to discuss course plans before the student can officially declare.
