Translate is the  action and effect of translating  (expressing in one  language  something that has been previously expressed or that is written in a different language). The term can refer both to the interpretation given to a  text  or  speech  and to the material work of the translator.

This concept has its etymological origin in Latin. Specifically, we can determine that it comes from the word  tradition , which can be defined as the action of guiding from one place to another. And it is made up of three different parts: the prefix  trans -, which is synonymous with  “from one side to the other” ; the verb  ducere , which means  “to guide” ; and the suffix – cion , which is equivalent to  “action” .

For example:  “The Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges made translations of works by Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, George Bernard Shaw and other great authors” ,  “The translation of this film is very bad” ,  “The speaker speaks too fast, I think that the translate is not including all its concepts . ”

Types of translate

The types of translate are various. Direct translation is   carried out from a foreign language to the language of the translator (such as the case of Borges translating a text by Poe). Reverse translation ,  on the other hand, takes the form of the translator’s language into a foreign language.

However, we cannot ignore that there is another classification of translation. In this case, within it we find categories such as  judicial translation , which is that which takes place in front of a court.

On the other hand, there is  literary translation  which, as its name indicates, is the one whose object is literary works of various kinds, be they stories, poems, theater or novels. All of this without forgetting what is known as  informative translation,  which is responsible for doing the same with all types of texts and documents that aim to make known a matter in question.

The difficulties that students who begin their translation courses have when they first face the task of producing a TT from a TO are varied, but in general terms they are related to an exaggerated concentration on linguistic aspects and a lack of of attention to the discursive or communicative aspects of the situation of enunciation, origin and end of the translation.

It is the teacher’s task, as  Gile  (1995: 21) points out, to emphasize from the beginning the fact that translation has a communicative function and that only with this in mind is it possible to successfully approach the learning of  translation techniques .

Logically, anyone who is starting out in training in the area of ​​translation will make mistakes (otherwise they would not be starting out in the learning process of said trade), but what is striking is how common it is to find in their texts not only false meanings, but also a large number of editorial errors until reaching the point of meaninglessness.

I do not propose here to elucidate the reason for these failures in students or to what extent they have to do with poor handling of the SL or the TL , 1 since, as I have pointed out, I consider that if they were not in that translation  situation   they would commit many fewer errors.

The truth is that the failures that usually occur regularly in the first translation courses are basically the following: (i) a strong attachment to the words and linguistic structures of the OT when producing the TT.

( ii ) a counterproductive clinging to the bilingual dictionary to find out the meaning of unknown words as soon as they find them in the OT; ( iii ) problems in recognizing the logic or structure of the TO and in apprehending its general meaning without getting lost in the details; ( iv )  production of texts that  “sound like a translation”, or in the well-known “third language” (Rossell, 1996: 18) ; (v) inadequate handling of TL when it comes to translating into the foreign language;

( vi ) an inappropriate perception of the sentence as a formal unit; ( vii ) a neglect of the communicative intention of the TO and its transmission in the TT; ( viii ) little awareness about their own translation process (decision justification); ( ix ) lack of critical stance towards the linguistic-discursive quality of the OT provided to them.

In summary, especially at the beginning, the translation student focuses his attention on the linguistic differences between the SL and the TL and does not adequately put his linguistic-discursive skills into practice, it is difficult for him to let go of the words to keep the ideas and he lacks of sufficient awareness about the fact that you are immersed in a real communication situation.

Faced with this reality, I wonder to what extent the methodologies applied in our translation classes allow us to overcome these obstacles.

Based on my experience as a graduate of the EIM, and without failing to recognize the efforts of teachers to include awareness exercises and constant analysis to overcome in one way or another the obstacles that prevent their students from advancing in their training as translators, I consider that it could be useful to include some unconventional exercises in the translation class -without eliminating the traditional ones that are commonly carried out-, in order to help overcome the aforementioned failures. Traditional exercises work, but I think they should be complemented with others of a different nature to give even better results.

I would like to draw attention, however, to the difficulty of overcoming the sentence as a formal unit in traditional translation exercises. In EIM translation classes, students generally receive a TO that they must analyze and translate at home. Then, in class, different students read part of their translation aloud, write it on the board, or project it on the wall, implying that the “translation units” are sentences or paragraphs.

Translations are almost always analyzed, therefore, sentence by sentence – or paragraph by paragraph -, which has the consequence that the TT is not seen in the analysis as a single “functional unit” ( Nord , 1996: 320).

The fact of not studying the TT in its entirety in class means that linguistic mechanisms that go beyond the sentence and that are fundamental for the cohesion of the text are rarely discussed. Discussions are often limited to the way a certain idea was formulated, without going beyond the sentence or paragraph. And since each student has prepared a probably very different proposal for the term text, the formulations analyzed do not always adapt to each other, which prevents everyone in class from generating an acceptable, well-cohesive TT.

With these deficiencies in mind,   as well   as the need to strengthen the discursive skills that students neglect when they begin to translate, I proposed to take into account the contributions made by various specialists in the area of ​​translation didactics, who have considered it important to include certain exercises in translation class that are not commonly known.

The objective of this work is, therefore, to present a didactic proposal for the area of ​​translation teaching, made up of a series of non-conventional exercises that can be carried out as part of translation courses, with the aim of overcoming the failures described above.

The work could be useful as a methodological tool not only for translation teachers at the EIM and for those who work in other institutions that train translators, but also for teachers of other subjects prior to translation courses, in which they could begin to strengthen the aforementioned competencies  with a view to future training in translation.