Translating in Professional Contexts

The programme addresses an international audience with very good command of English. It is intended for scholars, intercultural theorists and translator trainees who are interested in deciphering the intricacies of intercultural variation manifested through meaning transfer. Trainees who do not speak Greek may be introduced to variation reflected by and/or shaping the target socio-cultural context.

All course units aim at heightening perception of the contribution socio-linguistic awareness can make to establishing appropriateness in a target version. It shows that translation practice eloquently registers intercultural variation which would have gone unnoticed otherwise.

Unit 1: Translating in a glo/cal setting

The unit provides a rather broad account of how aspects of meaning-making change in translation.
This is shown through real-life translation data, with a view to raising trainees' awareness of the range of intercultural variability realized in intercultural transfer. The unit uses a framework for identity construction suggested in professional communication analysis and shows how translated data manifest shifts which implement principles of the identity construction framework.

Unit 2: Values in corporate advertizing through translation

The unit explores advertising strategies involved in cross-cultural transfer of promotional material  in automobile industry to provide evidence of creative thinking in professional translational practice and to encourage focus on cultural aspects of commercial  material mediation. 

Unit 3: Media translation training:choice and political meaning

The unit highlights translation as mediation which has the potential to drive the interest and values of some locations and political action or players, with a view to modifying perception of political landscapes and the demographics of inclusion and exclusion. 

Unit 4: Constructing the self and other in tourism translation

The unit focuses on cultural and linguistic variation inscribed in tourism web-texts on target Greek destinations addressing an international audience. It draws on past research (but provides fresh new examples of variation) to show that messages are not transferred intact in English and  that the identity of the target destination is reshaped in non-random ways pertaining to local conceptualizations of the environment, perceptions of the journey and tourist roles.

Unit 5: Discourse patterns and translation in academia

The unit suggests that translators should be made aware of potentially subconscious variation between L1 and L2, which they may want to make use of in order to enforce the communicative potential of texts. The phenomenon the unit tackles is the vagueness/specificity variable across English-Greek respectively, which may go unnoticed, unless focused upon in training settings. The assumption is that awareness of intercultural variation across languages and genres may improve translator-trainees' intercultural sensitivity and improve target version texture.

Unit 6: Issues in audiovisual translation: subtitling

The unit highlights audiovisual translation issues as manifested in subtitling English-Greek and Greek-English audiovisual texts. It provides a brief account of audiovisual translation types and focuses on certain types of shifts in Greek-English subtitling of a museum video presentation.It shows that subtitling can be a powerful tool in translation training and language learning, in that it provides a context for trainees' to observe how languages interact through translation, as manifested in subtitling song lyrics. 

Trainees are assessed through weekly assignments following the relevant academic material.

Online and distance training learning at National and Kapodistrian University of Athens offers a new way of combining innovative learning and training techniques with interaction with your tutor and fellow trainees from around the world.

The e-learning course is implemented via a user-friendly educational platform adjusted to the Distance Learning Principles. Courses are structured as weekly online meetings; interaction with the course tutor and other trainees takes place in a digital learning environment. The courses are designed to fit around your schedule; you access the course whenever it is convenient for you, however within the given deadlines.

The whole world becomes your classroom as e-learning can be done on laptops, tablets and phones as a very mobile method. Learning can be done on the train, on a plane or even during your trip to Greece!

The educational platform is a portal that offers access to electronic educational material based on modern distance learning technologies. The computer based nature of training means new technology is being introduced all the time to help trainees engage and learn in a tailored way that will meet their needs. E-learners have access to the educational platform with their personal code number in order to browse all relevant training material and interact with their instructors.

Moreover, an online communication system through own personal e-mail account is available in order to make the process easier and more interactive. Trainees can contact directly their tutors or the administration office of the course and share any concerns or anxieties related to the course in order to make the most of their experience.

Every week e-learners are provided with the relevant material, delivered either in the form of video-lectures, text notes and relevant presentations or as a combination of them. The educational material of the course is uploaded gradually, per educational unit. During the course, important info for the smooth conduct of the educational process, such as timetables for the submission of the exercises are announced on the Announcement section of the platform.

For successful completion of the course the e-learner should have fulfill her/his academic obligations, meaning should have submitted all corresponding assessment exercises and have achieved at least an average of 50% grade in the corresponding tests for each module. The score scale ranges from 0 to 100%. Finally, if the total score on one or more lessons of the programme does not exceed 50%, students can ask for reassessment.

During the course trainees will be attending a training experience designed by academics and lecturers from the National University of Athens as well as from other Universities, Research Institutes and Cultural organizations around Greece.

Interactivity, flexibility and our long tradition guarantee that studying with us will offer a successful and rewarding experience. Finally, access to a large variety of material and online resources available in each unit aims to excite your curiosity and guide you in exploring further your favourite topic while the online material which can be downloaded will give you the opportunity to quickly refresh your memory after the completion of the course.