Professional realism in practice

Abstract

This article describes an attempt to introduce the elements of collaboration into translator training in the form of a multi-stage translation project. The project was carried out during regular translation classes with the participation of 70 students (translating from Italian, French, or English into Polish). The project comprised the following stages (as prescribed by two standards: ISO 17100:2015 and ISO/TS 11669:2012). Stage 0: Project preparation (pre-production) – terminological work/dialogue list preparation; Stages 1 and 2: Translation and check of one’s own translation; Stage 3: Revision – work on bilingual texts – general correction; Stage 4: Review – work on TL texts – focus on factual errors; Stage 5: Proofreading – work on TL texts – focus on linguistic errors; Stage 6: Final verification and release. Each student was asked to work on a different text at each stage. The platform for exchanging files between the students was Trello, an online task management tool. The aim of the classes was to broaden the students’ view of the current translation market through hands-on experience and to develop their teamwork skills. This article presents the proceedings of the classes, the results of the opinion survey distributed among the participants, and discusses the potential difficulties.