Translation

I had my first translation course today, both French to English (thème) and English to French (version). The theme seems like it’s going to be pretty easy – I won’t lose any points for mistakes like using the wrong prepositions. My professor is a cute, rotund British man who is jolly and speaks in both French and English. Although I am comfortable hearing French in the classroom, it is always comforting to hear English words. The prof is excited about having American students – he speaks English to us b/c he says it’s natural for native English speakers to speak it to one another (he obviously doesn’t know about the language pledge).

The second part of the translation class, version, seems quite difficult, as my level of French is at comprehension but certainly not translation, and definitely not minute details of translation like idioms. Today our “homework” (totally optional) was to translate a passage from a Eudora Welty short story, and I had difficulty just translating her metaphoric writing into common English. The professor warned us that it’s going to be a difficult course – if possible I may try to switch sections to find slightly more welcoming professor. I’m really excited about both sections of the class though. It’s unlike any class I’ve taken before and I think I will learn a ton from it.