On December 4-5, Lviv hosted the V Translators' Forum, which annually brings together interpreters and translators, lecturers and novice translators to exchange practical experience, certain life hacks and personal achievements in the field of translation studies. The scientific community of the National University ''Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic'' was represented by a scientist of the Faculty of Humanities – Candidate of Philology, Associate Professor of the Department of Germanic Philology and Translation Anna Pavelieva.
During two busy days, the participants of the Translators' Forum had the opportunity to join lectures conducted by interpreters and translators, lecturers from leading Ukrainian universities, localizers and authors of successful translation projects, editors and diplomats. Well-known translators, writers, editors Ostap Ukrainets, Mariana Savka, Olesia Yaremchuk, Fedir Sydoruk, Iryna Slavinska willingly shared their practical cases with the audience. Most of the events took place online with live broadcasts on the Facebook page and on the YouTube channel of the Translators' Forum.
This year's forum became a place for online meetings of like-minded translation specialists, who, during the forum, shared their own experiences and achievements, in particular, in such areas as oral and diplomatic translation. Meaningful reports on topical translation and narrow-profile topics provoked a lively discussion.
Within the framework of the program of the industry forum, Poltava Polytechnic scientist Anna Pavelieva attended two master classes by experienced translators, where she improved her skills of oral and diplomatic translation as well as shared her own experience with other participants. The lecturer became an active participant in two extremely interesting master classes – "Oral Translation" by professional translator Oleksandra Litviniak and "Diplomatic Translation" by Candidate of Political Science, diplomat and translator Yevheniia Haber.
Master class "Oral Translation" by Oleksandra Litviniak, a professional interpreter with more than a decade of experience, focused on the most effective exercises and techniques for training interpreting skills and memory development, ways to memorize large amounts of information, as well as translation stenography tricks. The speaker offered the participants a set of practical exercises for the development and improvement of several skills needed by each interpreter, regardless of the format in which he/she works – in the field of consecutive translation, simultaneous or so-called "whispering".
Much attention was paid to the issue of diction as one of the most important components of successful oral translation. In particular, the participants learned about why it is necessary and how to properly train diction before interpretation, why the translator needs tongue-twisters (not only to "to get into talking" before the morning translation, but also for training memory and perception of information by ear). Translator Oleksandra Litviniak also told how you can train your memory with exercises such as "repetition or translation of thematic rows", "snowball", "restaurant" (this exercise is better used in group forms of work), "shadow repetition", etc. In addition, she focused on the use of "forecasting" activity to develop interpretation skills.
The second master class "Diplomatic Translation" by Candidate of Political Science, diplomat and translator Yevheniia Haber was dedicated to the "pitfalls" of modern diplomatic translation. In particular, the translator spoke in detail about the cooperation between translators and diplomats, translation of official delegations and multilateral summits, political nuances and cultural aspects, the functions of diplomatic translators as well as the protocol and organizational support of meetings with translators, how successful or, conversely, unsuccessful translation can change results of diplomatic negotiations, whether translators should convey the intonation, emotions and non-verbal communication of politicians (for example, the statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and Italy to the media), how to correctly translate the uncertain status of territories and banned (terrorist) organizations.
In addition, the participants of the master class analyzed well-known and little-known translation incidents, such as how a translation error of the Ukraine President's office caused a scandal in Romania ("territories were occupied" vs. "territories were taken"), which of the translation options of ISIS (Islamic State) in English is correct and why, what role a definite or indefinite article can play in diplomacy, etc.
"The Translators’ Forum in Lviv is a significant event in the world of professional translation, which is worth visiting or at least watching on YouTube for all those involved in the field of translation studies. Last year I watched online broadcasts of all the master classes, and this year I managed to directly participate in two very interesting master classes from experienced practicing translators and, together with them, learn useful exercises for training diction and memory as well as try to understand the nuances of political translation. I learned a lot of useful things, and I will definitely use the knowledge gained during classes with students majoring in "Philology", – commented the Candidate of Philology, Associate Professor of the Department of Germanic Philology and Translation Anna Pavelieva.
Earlier, future translators exchanged experience of volunteering with Erasmus+ participants, a professional translator presented useful life hacks for a successful career as a philologist, and participants of the International Teleconference of Friendship presented scientific and educational cases of forming the communicative competencies for students.
Media Center of
National University “Yuri Kondratyuk Poltava Polytechnic”
