Students of the specialty “Philology” of the Faculty of Humanities of the National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic” Iryna Lobko (group 501-HF), Svitlana Kis (group 401-HF), Sofiia Dmytriuk (group 401-HF), Ilona Yeshchenko (group 401-HF) and Krystyna Yeshchenko (group 401-HF) joined the volunteer internship on the Crowdin web platform, which took place from 16 to 29 August 2021 in an online format.
Internship participants were students from different cities of Ukraine, and the online format of the event allowed them to actively share their opinions and quickly get answers to questions that arose during the introduction to the new platform and the use of unfamiliar translation tools. An additional advantage became the absolute freedom to choose a comfortable time to work on translation. A necessary requirement for obtaining the certificate was the mastering by participants from 4,000 to 8,000 words on projects that are publicly available on the platform for volunteer localization. Upon successful completion of the training, all representatives of Poltava Polytechnic received certificates and gifts from the organizers.
The main mission of the internship was to involve active youth of Ukraine in the development of Ukrainian-language content and popularization of educational materials translations. That is why this volunteer program was opened for students interested in developing translator’s professional skills and wanting to try their hand at interesting educational projects.
A must-translate project was FreeCodeCamp, a resource with lessons that introduces students to HTML, CSS and JavaScript, where students move on to project tasks that they complete individually or in pairs. After completing all the tasks of the project, students collaborate with other non-profit organizations to create web apps, share practical cases.
Localization of this educational resource is provided by Khan Academy Ukraine, whose activities are aimed at disseminating knowledge among Ukrainian native speakers interested in programming and creating their own websites or web apps. After completing the main part of the translation, students had to divide into pairs and evaluate each other’s work, point out possible mistakes and discuss different translation options in controversial moments.
At the participants’ choice, many projects were presented, in addition to those already proposed by the organizers. Among the selected ones were Life is Feudal (RPG game with open world and exciting aspects of survival), Microsoft MakeCode (free online platform for learning coding, where everyone can create games, encode devices and even mods for Minecraft), etc.
“During my internship, I gained enormous practical experience, as students-translators from all over Ukraine became participants of this program. We had a group chat for getting acquainted and interacting, where we could discuss tasks, ask for advice and just make new friends from different cities. On the platform itself, it is possible to consult with other users about the translation of certain units, which is also extremely handy for the development of translation skills and networking. Participation in such programs is a unique opportunity to “level up” one’s own professional skills and acquired knowledge,” – commented master’s student Iryna Lobko, a participant in the program.
“Taking part in various conferences, webinars, seminars and trainings, internships is an important element of the activities of the students’ scientific club “Philology”, aimed at promoting the comprehensive professional development of our students. During the two-week internship from Crowdin, philology students learned to use one of the leading platforms for localization, improved their general knowledge on how to prepare various products to enter a foreign market, received practical advice from experienced industry workers as well as links to useful resources for further study of localization. The experience gained is a great start for future translators, as localization is becoming one of the leading areas of translation activities,” – accentuated Head of the scientific club, Candidate of Philology, Associate Professor of the Department of Germanic Philology and Translation of the National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic” Anna Pavelieva.
Crowdin is a web-based paid platform created in 2009 by Ukrainian programmer Serhii Dmytryshyn to manage translations and localizations, along with software documentation. The system is aimed at developers, localization managers and marketers and is optimal for localizing software, mobile apps, websites, web apps and documentation for them, as well as automation and organization of translation processes.
Previously, lecturer and students-philologists took an innovative speech course from an Australian university, mastered new language skills and practical tools in a course from a British university and learned how to prepare for any English exam.
Media Center of
National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic”
