Linguistic and Cultural Knowledge as Prequisites to Learning Professional Translation

1.4.3. "Ecole Supérieure d'Interprètes et de Traducteurs" at "l'Université Paris III" in 2004

For the grade of Maîtrise de Langues Etrangères Appliquées, mention Traduction Spécialisée, the school is open for candidates who:

· in addition to a high proficiency in the native language, possess a "perfect mastery" of one or two foreign languages;

· possess a sound general culture; and

· show particular abilities: the capacity of analysis and comprehension, the ability to synthesise and mastery of expression.

The candidates should possess a DEUG grade, which consists in two years of general university studies. They have, then, to receive tow tests. The first determines whether they are susceptible to be admitted (aptitude test). The second includes tests of text synthesis and comprehension, writing and translation (admission tests).

In addition to language and culture exams, some universities submit the candidates to intelligence tests. The Universidad Pontificia Comillas of Madrid in Spain is one example (Waddington, 2001).

As is clearly seen in these examples, the requirements include, not only linguistic knowledge, but also many other prerequisites. A relatively mature age, practical experience, sound general culture, some cognitive abilities and sometimes a university grade in any subject were required. Although this revealing report does not need to be commented on, we can just remark that these procedures reflect a deep consciousness of the value of the translator' s responsibility.

1.4.4. Views of Some Translation Scholars and

Teachers

Some translation scholars, who are also translation teachers, have given voice to their own universities' concern. This was through an online symposium held by the Spanish Intercultural Studies Group between the 17^th and the 25^th of January, 2000. We deemed some declarations worth citing in this context, as they are attempts to answer the proposed question, "Who should be trained?"

Daniel Gouadec (2000), from the University of Rennes 2 in

France, presents a paper of which the following statement is part:

"We all know, of course, that we would like to train the best students, preferably mature, with degrees in other disciplines and in languages. That would mean training them to become translators and not 'wasting time' on language courses, reviews of grammar, spelling rules, and so on."

(§ 6)

Roberto Mayoral (2000), from the University of Granada in Spain,

states:

"I believe that the students we accept into our courses should be
those with the most ability, regardless of their capacity to pay
fees. A certain personal maturity is also required if a student is

to become a professional translator [...]. This maturity does not corne automatically with age."

(§ ⁹)

Finally, as a response to the previously stated views, Yves Gambier (2000), from the University of Turku in Finland, presents a commentary that reflects the teachers' serious concern:

"Who should be trained? There seems to be a certain uneasiness on this question. We have no problem with the idea of people selecting the students who are to become our future medical doctors, engineers, architects or pilots, but apparently everyone can become a translator; the profession would be open to all, or at least to anyone with the necessary language competencies [...]. Gouadec and Mayoral both refer to `maturity', which might be a polite way of saying that young students are sometimes out of their depth.

If translation is a demanding profession, if it requires multipurpose high-level qualifications, why this timidity on the question of selecting our students?

Should our training begin straight after the students' final secondary-school exam? Should we not envisage prerequisites such as a long stay abroad, or a degree or diploma in another discipline? Why do we have aptitude tests which students must pass for conference interpreting but not for written translation?"

(§ 9, 10, 11)

Visibly, the question of "who should be trained" stands among the main issues preoccupying translation scholars and teachers. This reveals the importance of student selection in the path towards better translator training process and outcome.

In conclusion, the aim of the previous sections was to improve awareness of the actual challenges facing the translator and hence translator training The reviewed literature is expected to provide a conceptual basis for the hypothesised relationship between prior knowledge and translation learning. Furthermore, the examples provided on European and Canadian Translation schools and the scholars' views were expected to support the study's hypotheses in a more concrete way.