In institutions across the world, translation training is accorded sacrosanct status in translation studies. Recent developments in translation and technology, combined with the increasingly prominent role of translation in the global marketplace, have given the discipline a renewed significance both academically and culturally. In Palestine, however, translator training has for many years subsisted on limited resources, despite the fact that translation, in most Palestinian universities English departments, has been a requisite course in English language and literature degrees at undergraduate level for the past four decades. Drawing on first-hand experience from teaching undergraduate translation courses at Al-Quds University and An-Najah National University, what this article attempts to investigate, then, is the status of translation teaching at the undergraduate level at English departments in Palestinian universities. To that effect, the paper uses a selective body of authentic translation examples and outlines some important issues which are indispensable to undergraduate translation teaching. The study offers advice and guidelines to university professors and instructors who do not have degrees and/or training in translation and find themselves obliged to teach undergraduate translation courses at their respective English departments.
Translator training has made a significant contribution to translation in the job market worldwide. The issue of curriculum development has always been part of such training which can pave the way for employability. This issue should then be given due attention in view of recent developments in the field of translation and technology, and the considerably larger and more robust job market. This article aims to explore the status of professionally-oriented translation, curriculum-wise in Palestine as illustrated in two Palestinian universities offering MA in translation in the hope of giving some advice to developers of academic postgraduate translation programmes. First, the article closely examines the course description of the courses (core or elective) in the two universities. The article then shows that although most of the courses offered help graduates manage to get jobs or moonlight, the curricula seem to fail to match the employability in the growing market place, as some courses at these universities, with a varying degree, are unrelated to the local job market. The article concludes that (1) the issue of curriculum permanent planning and design in the light of the job market becomes vital in translation, or training and education; (2) developing a curriculum should be responsive to local, regional and international translation industry demands, and thus it might contribute to sustainable development in the Palestine translation industry; and (3) information technology-based courses should be given more attention and developed so as to keep abreast of today's rapidly technological developments, since these courses might qualify graduates to cross various geographical borders to compete globally with peer translators.
This paper investigates the problem of terms of address (social honorifics) in Arabic-English translation. In order to highlight the problem under discussion, the study uses five honorifics, identified by the researcher as comprising difficulties to translators, from Mahfouz’s (1947) famous novel Ziqaq-Al-Midaq. Twenty M.A. students of translation at An-Najah National University served as the subjects in this study. They were asked to translate these address terms in the light of their original contexts. The study also looks into Trevor Le Gassick’s renditions of these terms in his 1975 translation of Mahfouz’s novel. The present study argues that relational terms of address are harder to translate than absolute ones due to the fact that relational honorifics have drifted extensively from their traditional usages and acquired new significations which are initiated for social purposes. يتناول هذا البحث مشكلة صيغ التخاطب في الترجمة من العربية إلى الإنجليزية. ولبيان أهمية المشكلة، تستخدم الدراسة خمس صيغ للتخاطب يرى الباحث أن فيها ما يشكل صعوبات للمترجم. وقد اختارها الباحث من رواية "زقاق المدق" (1947) لنجيب محفوظ. وتقوم عينة الدراسة على عشرين طالباً من طلبة ماجستير الترجمة في جامعة النجاح الوطنية، فقد أسند إليهم الباحث مهمة ترجمة عبارات من صيغ التخاطب التي أخذت من سياقاتها الأصلية في النص. كما ضمن الباحث الدراسة ما يناظر ذلك من ترجمة ليجاسك (1975) لرواية نجيب محفوظ. وبينت الدراسة أن ترجمة صيغ المجاملة أصعب بكثير من ترجمة صيغ التخاطب الموافقة للحال وذلك لأن الاستخدام التقليدي لصيغ المجاملة قد تجاوز حده المألوف على نحو ما يتجلى في الاستخدامات الجديدة التي تمليها الأغراض الاجتماعية.
This study is designed to evaluate the two academic translation training master’s programs at two local public universities in Palestine in view of burgeoning market demands. The study reveals the weaknesses and strengths in both training programs, a step which is believed to be necessary to evaluate trainers’ current practices and provide formative data about these programs and programs operating in similar contexts. To achieve this objective, the modules of the courses, the teaching and assessment methods and the challenges facing implementing and developing the curricula are all studied, bearing in mind the job market. Two questionnaires were also administered to students and translation professionals. The questionnaires address the current market demands for translator training, the performance level of novice translators, the nature of the courses and the challenges that are likely to face developing and implementing the curricula, and the methods of teaching and assessment. The study findings reveal that there are significant shortcomings in the curricula, namely the theoretical training is overemphasized and stakeholders’ involvement in the review and design of the translation program curricula remains significantly undervalued. Finally, the study identifies the emerging translation text genres that occupy a significant niche in the local translation market.
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