Translating Rare Dementias. Making a Difference through Simulated Agency Experience.

Cockburn, O., Wang, C. and Aboelezz, M. 2022. Translating Rare Dementias. Making a Difference through Simulated Agency Experience. APTIS 2022 4th Annual Conference: Translation and Interpreting pedagogy in a post-pandemic world: New opportunities and challenges. University of Leeds, UK 18 - 19 Nov 2022

TitleTranslating Rare Dementias. Making a Difference through Simulated Agency Experience.
AuthorsCockburn, O., Wang, C. and Aboelezz, M.
TypeConference paper
Abstract

In the post-pandemic era, we are even more aware of the importance of preparing our students for translation in health contexts, not just to enhance their learning experience but also to help them realise their work’s value to translation users in real life. Funded by external and internal grants, in the 21-22 academic year we ran a medical translation project on dementia for our MA/MSc translation students via a simulated agency.

Dementia affects millions of people worldwide and 5-15% live with a rare form of dementia. To help people understand these rare dementias, the UCL-led Rare Dementia Support (RDS) service shares research-based, disease-specific information on their website, which is accessed from all over the world. This paper describes how UCL’s Centre for Translation (CenTraS) collaborated with the RDS to open up their website to speakers of other languages by setting up a simulated translation agency for CenTras students.

The extra-curricular scheme aimed to give translation students practical, hands-on experience of working within a team to produce high quality translations for an external ‘client’ (RDS). Thirty-three students volunteered to take part, producing translations into French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish, and Chinese (traditional and simplified). Students acted as translators and/or reviewers under the guidance of four CenTraS staff ‘project managers’. Thanks to grants from The National Brain Appeal and UCL, they were paid for their work in vouchers. Students’ names will also be added to the website to acknowledge their efforts, allowing them to provide evidence of work experience to future employers.

In this paper, we share the lessons we learned and challenges we faced. We discuss the feedback we received from students, and we talk about the amendments we have made to the scheme this year.

KeywordsTranslation, health, interdisciplinarity, translation agency, professional experience.
Year2022
ConferenceAPTIS 2022 4th Annual Conference: Translation and Interpreting pedagogy in a post-pandemic world: New opportunities and challenges

Related outputs

The Speaker Is Being Impolite. How Is the Interpreter Interpreting That?
Wang, C. 2025. Forthcoming. The Speaker Is Being Impolite. How Is the Interpreter Interpreting That? Across Languages and Cultures. 686.

Interpreting Impoliteness
Wang, C. 2024. Interpreting Impoliteness. 2024 School of Humanities Research Presentation Day. University of Westminster, London, UK 15 Feb 2024

Preface
Shih, C. and Wang, C. 2024. Preface. in: Shih, C. and Wang, C. (ed.) Translation and Interpreting as Social Interaction: Affect, Behavior, and Cognition Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 10-12

Seeing Omissions from inside the Interpreter’s Mind
Wang, C. 2024. Seeing Omissions from inside the Interpreter’s Mind. in: Translation and Interpreting as Social Interaction: Affect, Behaviour and Cognition Bloomsbury Academic. pp. 83-105

Thematic Section: Revisiting Mediation in Translation and Interpreting
Wang, C. and de Pedro Ricoy, R. 2023. Thematic Section: Revisiting Mediation in Translation and Interpreting. John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Introduction
Wang, C. and de Pedro Ricoy, R. 2023. Introduction. Translation and Interpreting Studies. 18 (2), pp. 255-260. https://doi.org/10.1075/tis.00056.wan

Beyond Europe. Before James Holmes
Zhang, S. and Wang, C. 2023. Beyond Europe. Before James Holmes. Nothing Happened: Translation Studies before James Holmes. UCL, London 09 - 10 Nov 2023

Impoliteness Interpreting: A Gender Talk?
Wang, C. 2023. Impoliteness Interpreting: A Gender Talk? International Symposium on Translation Communication and Intercultural Studies. Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 26 - 27 Jul 2023 Nanyang Technological University.

Roundtable: Situated Learning Experiences in Medical Translation. The Rare Dementia Project
Cockburn, O., Wang, C., Aboelezz, M., Stockings, D., Crutch, S. and Gubankov, N. 2023. Roundtable: Situated Learning Experiences in Medical Translation. The Rare Dementia Project. UCL.

Correlations between the Social Position of Freelance Conference Interpreters and their Strategies for Mediating Impoliteness
Wang, C. 2022. Correlations between the Social Position of Freelance Conference Interpreters and their Strategies for Mediating Impoliteness. Event organised by the Stirling Centre for Interpreting, Translation and Intercultural Studies. University of Stirling, UK 08 Dec 2022

Translating Cognitive and Linguistic Metaphors in Popular Science: A Case Study of Scientific Discoveries
He, Sui, Shuttleworth, Mark and Wang, Caiwen 2022. Translating Cognitive and Linguistic Metaphors in Popular Science: A Case Study of Scientific Discoveries . transLogos Translation Studies Journal. 5 (2), pp. 1-26 1. https://doi.org/10.29228/transLogos.45

Interpreting Politeness and Impoliteness
Wang, C. 2022. Interpreting Politeness and Impoliteness. Translation and Interpreting Studies - Online Lecture Series. The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, China 17 - 17 Oct 2022

A theoretical model to elucidate the elusive concept ‘voice' for interpreters
Wang, C. 2022. A theoretical model to elucidate the elusive concept ‘voice' for interpreters. Perspectives. 30 (4), pp. 569-584. https://doi.org/10.1080/0907676X.2021.1922472

Introduction
Wang, C. and Zheng, B. 2021. Introduction. in: Wang, C. and Zheng, B. (ed.) Empirical Studies of Translation and Interpreting: The Post-Structuralist Approach Routledge. pp. 1-5

In Other Words: What’s Happened to Metaphors in the Translation of Political Texts
Liu, Y. and Wang, C. 2021. In Other Words: What’s Happened to Metaphors in the Translation of Political Texts. International Journal of Translation, Interpretation and Applied Linguistics. 3 (2), pp. 16-30. https://doi.org/10.4018/IJTIAL.20210701.oa2

Explicitations in Political Texts and the Translator’s Rationale
Wang, C. 2021. Explicitations in Political Texts and the Translator’s Rationale. in: Wang, C. and Zheng, B. (ed.) Empirical Studies of Translation and Interpreting: the Post-structuralist Approach Routledge. pp. 137-155

Existing Literature and Pedagogic Practice on the Directionality of Simultaneous Interpreting from the Cognitive Perspective
Wang, C. and He, J. 2019. Existing Literature and Pedagogic Practice on the Directionality of Simultaneous Interpreting from the Cognitive Perspective. International Symposium on Translation, Interpreting and Cognition in a Global Vision. Fudan University, China 20 - 21 Apr 2019

Translators’ Mediation in Practice
Wang, C. 2019. Translators’ Mediation in Practice . University of Stirling, UK.

Can Computer-assisted Interpreting Tools Assist Interpreting?
Wang, X. and Wang, C. 2019. Can Computer-assisted Interpreting Tools Assist Interpreting? Transletters: International Journal of Translation and Interpreting. 2 (1), pp. 109-139.

Elucidate the elusive concept of ‘pleasant voice’ for interpreters: a case study
Wang, C. and Huckvale, M. 2018. Elucidate the elusive concept of ‘pleasant voice’ for interpreters: a case study. 2nd Conference of World Interpreting and Translation Teaching Association (WITTA). University of Westminster, London 13 - 14 Oct 2018

Decoding and Encoding the Discourse Meaning of Punctuation: a Perspective from English-to-Chinese Translation
Wang, C. 2018. Decoding and Encoding the Discourse Meaning of Punctuation: a Perspective from English-to-Chinese Translation. Babel | Revue internationale de la traduction / International Journal of Translation . 64 (2), pp. 225-249. https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.00032.wan

Interpreters = Cultural Mediators?
Wang, C. 2018. Interpreters = Cultural Mediators? TranslatoLogica. 1, pp. 93-115.

Bringing the cross-cultural dimension into interpreting assessment: Analysing the validity of students’ inferences of the pleasant voice construct
Iglesias Fernández, E., Wang, C. and Ouellet, M. 2017. Bringing the cross-cultural dimension into interpreting assessment: Analysing the validity of students’ inferences of the pleasant voice construct. Third International Conference on Interpreting Quality. University of Granada, Spain 05 - 07 Oct 2017

Translation Strategies for Cultural Contents of Scientific and Technical Texts
Wang, C. 2017. Translation Strategies for Cultural Contents of Scientific and Technical Texts. Proceedings of the European Academic Colloquium on Technical Communication . 5, pp. 47-67.

Translation Strategies for Cultural Contents of Scientific and Technical Texts
Wang, C. 2017. Translation Strategies for Cultural Contents of Scientific and Technical Texts. The European Academic Colloquium on Technical Communication Studies 2017. KU Leuven - Faculty of Arts, Campus Sint-Andries Antwerpen, Sint-Andriesstraat 2, 2000 Antwerp 28 Apr 2017 European Scientific Journal.

Interpreters = Cultural Mediators?
Wang, C. 2016. Interpreters = Cultural Mediators? Culture in Transfer: Translation and Transcultural Communication International Conference. University of Wroclaw, Poland 10 - 11 Jun 2016

Quantifying Assessment Criteria in Translator Training Courses: A Step Forward for Translator Trainers and Translator Users to Meet
Wang, C. 2015. Quantifying Assessment Criteria in Translator Training Courses: A Step Forward for Translator Trainers and Translator Users to Meet. New perspectives in assessment in translation training: Bridging the gap between academic and professional assessment. University of Westminster, London 04 Sep 2015

Ideology, ST Choices and Translation Strategies: a study of Nicky Harman translating Chinese fiction
Wang, C. 2013. Ideology, ST Choices and Translation Strategies: a study of Nicky Harman translating Chinese fiction. Reading the Target: translation as translation. University of East Anglia, UK

Translation students' use and evaluation of online resources for Chinese-English translation at the word level
Xu, M. and Wang, C. 2011. Translation students' use and evaluation of online resources for Chinese-English translation at the word level. Translation and Interpreting Studies. 6 (1), pp. 62-86. https://doi.org/10.1075/tis.6.1.04xu

Some issues in interpreting: politeness and professionalism
Wang, C. 2010. Some issues in interpreting: politeness and professionalism. Guest speech. St. Marylebone School London 15 Jan 2010

The pragmatics of corrections in first language acquisition: a relevance theoretic approach
Wang, C. 2009. The pragmatics of corrections in first language acquisition: a relevance theoretic approach. VDM Publishing House.

The pragmatics of corrections in the process of first language acquisition: a relevance-theoretic approach
Wang, C. 2008. The pragmatics of corrections in the process of first language acquisition: a relevance-theoretic approach. RASK: International Journal of Language and Communication. 27, pp. 3-85.

Permalink - https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/item/w0w68/translating-rare-dementias-making-a-difference-through-simulated-agency-experience


Share this

Usage statistics

48 total views
0 total downloads
These values cover views and downloads from WestminsterResearch and are for the period from September 2nd 2018, when this repository was created.