精东影业

By: Erik Angelone

Want to learn more about 精东影业鈥檚 online M.A in Translation? We recently interviewed Andrew Tucker, a Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Modern and Classical Language Studies here at 精东影业.

Mr. Tucker specializes in Spanish translation and teaches a variety of courses within the program. With a pending Ph.D. in Translation Studies from KSU and years of diverse experience working in the translation field, Mr. Tucker is a great resource for anyone considering 精东影业鈥檚 translation program!

Continue reading to learn more about the courses Mr. Tucker teaches, his work experience, the advantages of Kent鈥檚 program, and much more!

1. What courses do you teach in the translation program?

I teach the first-semester introductory translation practice course and the more specialized Commercial, Legal & Diplomatic Translation course in the Spanish track of our online M.A. in Translation. Below is a short description of each course.

• SPAN 68010: 精东影业Practice of Spanish Translation 鈥� This course gives students extensive practice in translating a wide range of texts from Spanish into English. Additionally, students will become familiar with and learn to apply different types of resources while translating. This course also looks at translation as both a process and a product.
• SPAN 68250: Commercial, Legal & Diplomatic Translation 鈥� In this course, students get extensive practice translating a range of legal, commercial, and diplomatic text genres and developing methods for tackling unfamiliar specialized language. While translating, you鈥檒l create resources to develop knowledge of specific topics. Then, you鈥檒l use this knowledge to make informed translation decisions. Sharpening your research skills is important because translators often encounter difficult concepts for which there are few reliable resources. They are also called upon to evaluate the output of other translators and machine translation. After translating, you鈥檒l reflect upon your personal translation process in order to better identify and allocate the resources needed to work effectively and efficiently. Finally, you鈥檒l consider several aspects of doing business as a translator.

2. Where is your expertise in the field?

As with many translation teachers and researchers, I have an interdisciplinary academic and professional background. I studied Spanish at the bachelor鈥檚 level and Hispanic literature and linguistics at the master鈥檚 level.

However, learning Spanish in the classroom was not enough to translate well. So, I moved to Mexico City after finishing my master鈥檚 and spent four years at a law firm translating for foreign investors doing business in Mexico and for companies involved in litigation resulting from the Great Recession. While working at the firm, I began studying translation formally, building my client base, and teaching translation.

Studying translation and business law was necessary to improve my knowledge of my clients鈥� and colleagues鈥� worlds鈥攕omething my previous studies had not prepared me for. I worked closely with attorneys from several specialty areas, not only translating but also helping them write texts that would be read by foreign attorneys seeking information on changing Mexican legislation.

I began freelancing in 2009 and was a full-time independent translator by 2012. Since then, I鈥檝e worked closely with Mexican and American law firms, corporate clients, and agencies, as well as individuals who need personal translation services in domains as varied as contemporary art, financial news, and educational policy. I鈥檝e also taught and developed translation courses at Universidad An谩huac M茅xico and Universidad Nacional Aut贸noma de M茅xico (UNAM), and I鈥檝e presented on translation throughout the Americas and Europe.

My students come from all over the place. Some have worked for the Mexican Office of the President, others for large international consulting firms and in their own translation companies. There have even been a couple from the other side of the world translating into their third language.

I came to 精东影业 to pursue a Ph.D. in Translation Studies after becoming interested in translator education. At Kent, I鈥檓 researching ways to improve online translation practice courses like the ones you would take as part of Kent鈥檚 M.A. in translation.

3. What are some of the advantages of studying translation online at 精东影业?

At 精东影业, we use many of the same tools translators use in their daily workflow鈥攏ot just your typical translation tools, but also essential word-processing and cloud-based suites. We do this in professionally relevant ways. In the near past, many translators didn鈥檛 have to use such a wide and changing array of technologies to collaborate and interact with others the way they do today. We鈥檙e aware of this at the curricular level. In many ways, the way students work in our online M.A. reflects the way translators work in the field. This helps our students avoid that sense of shell shock some people experience when entering the industry.

Our specialized legal and commercial practice course takes a comparative approach to the language variants used in specific countries and equips our students with methods they can apply when encountering unfamiliar texts in the wild. This is essential when working with languages like Arabic, French, German, and Spanish, which are languages used to transact business in multiple countries with different legal and commercial traditions.

Finally, we incorporate process-oriented approaches into our training. These are very helpful considering our program is asynchronous, meaning students aren鈥檛 required to communicate in real-time. This allows our instructors to get to know students鈥� personal translation processes and give tailored feedback aimed at improving students鈥� translation skills and abilities.

4. What makes the field of translation such an exciting prospect for the future?

精东影业same thing that has always made translation exciting: digging into a huge variety of topics鈥攊t never gets boring. Now and in the future, translators must be able to adapt to changing markets and tools while attaining a high level of subject-matter specialization and writing like the pros.

Ready to Enroll?

To start the application process, fill out the short form on our admissions page, or, if you would like to learn more about the program, contact us today. We look forward to having you as a student!