Starved For Russian Translation Skills
We all know how important food is to every human being, so it is natural to attract the interest of students involved in translation studies programs.That is because people from all backgrounds and cultures feel strongly about this issue. Regardless of the language that a person speaks, everyone involved in translation, from beginning students to highly skilled professionals, have a set of beliefs that pertain to it. That is because all of us are emotionally related to food. It is not only an important part of our lives, it also plays an important role in celebrations such as national holidays, religious celebrations, birthday parties, wedding receptions, and gatherings with friends and neighbours.
All translation students and professionals have opinions about food and just about everything related to it. While Russian Translation Professionals enjoy talking about borscht, German Translation workers are proud of their sausage, and Medical Translation workers just want us all to eat healthy. In addition, all translations workers have some sort of preference when it comes to a particular style of food such as fast food, junk food, ethnic food, cafeteria food, restaurant food, airplane food, and the “food” you buy to snack on at a movie theater. Besides, we all have our own preferences about what we like to eat our food with – some people consume more salt and pepper, other less, some people like ketchup, other do not, and so on.
Our activities in our series of articles titled, Eat The Russian English Translation, are focused on food. While the subject is confined to food, we offer a wide range of various instructional activities relating to language studies. One article may say something about verbs, another may deal with vocabulary, and the next may be about a writing topic. Some days, only a word game will fill the bill—something that will wake students up to paying attention to the languages they study.
A large part of the activities in our series of writings include games and encourage creativity. That is because in my opinion playing with language is very important in building language skills. Students need to be initiated in the strange, enchanting and powerful world of the words. English teachers have to do their best to turn kids on to language. Play is a powerful tool to do so.
This series of articles was my idea, however, I am not the only major contributor to it. Actually, my contribution was only a small part of the effort that was put in making it possible. Sarah Von Seggern, a German to English Translation worker and Michael Antipov, a Russian Translation professional, worked alongside me and assisted in so many ways—writing, proofreading, fact-checking, you name it. I also have to thank to Sandra Hernandez, a Spanish Translation professional, who also cooperated with me in the development of this series. I hope you enjoy The Translation Is Ready and find it useful in your translation teachings.
What stories about food are discussed in your classroom? Do you discuss a time when you were unsuccessful in preparing a special meal? Do you relish remembering the great homemade ravioli of your great-grandmother? Did something funny happen to a family member in a restaurant? Do you have your little jokes about how you all hated to eat the food, prepared by a relative because it tasted terrible?
In the first assignment, you are asked to write about a story relating to food. If you need some help thinking of one you may ask your classmates, friends and instructors to make suggestions. If you can’t think of anything at all, write about anything you remember and is related to food – maybe a special occasion where food was served, or special meal.
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