Translation in DCU

oasis18 · 07-03-2005 12:45pm #1

I am doing the Leaving in June and hope to study Languages and International Communications in DCU and if all goes well, the MA in Translation after that. Since I want to become a translator, I think this is the best degree course in Ireland. Has anyone on this forum studied translation in DCU who could tell me about their experiences on these courses? I really could do with some advice!!

Zyox · 07-03-2005 1:28pm

Que?

Winters · 07-03-2005 2:01pm

Your gonna go to dcu and not do ca?

/me scratches head

oasis18 · 07-03-2005 2:28pm

What's CA? And why do you ask that question?

Lantis · 07-03-2005 3:51pm

Because it's rare to have an internet person going to DCU and not doing CA. No, really.

I'm doing LIC, what languages are you looking at?

oasis18 · 07-03-2005 4:22pm

French and Spanish.

dundealgan · 07-03-2005 5:10pm

hey oasis, i am currently studying translation in dcu, i am in 3rd year of applied languages, this course has now changed its name to the course you want to do, but as far as i'm aware the content is much the same as before, with one or 2 differences.

I am doing german and spanish. I dont know exactly what you want to know so i will tell you how our course has worked so far..... In first year you dont have a choice regarding subjects (only your languages) and in second year you decide if you are going to opt for a translation or an intercultural route, they expect you to know at this stage what u want to do for the rest of your life!!

Well anyway, i chose translation as the cultural side involves essays, lots of essays, which i am not quite good at!

Third year is spent abroad, usually in the country of your beginners language, or if u have both at beginners level, then you have the choice.

dont really know what else you need to know, but i am more than willing to tell u anything u need to know :-) you can just post here if u like, or PM me and i'll give you my email address!

oasis18 · 08-03-2005 6:38am

Hi dundealgan, thanks for your reply. I'm kinda worried that this new course won't live up to my expectations. Is the standard of languages very high. I've already done school exchanges in Spain and Austria and have a pretty good level in both languages. What are the language learning facilities like in DCU and is the library well-equipped with foreign language materials?

thesteve · 08-03-2005 7:37am

My girlfriend did the MA in translation studies. We're now in Germany and she's working as a translator. But as far as I know, out of her course she's the one out of 4 doing translation, the rest are working customer service, etc... (Not saying this happens all the time, just stating what happened in her year)

dundealgan · 08-03-2005 11:30am

The standard of languages is pretty high, but as the classes are small enough they can cater to individual needss quite easily. The library is well equipped with dictionaries and resources etc, and i think if u already have an experience of studying abroad then you shouldnt have much trouble.

@ thesteve..... there were 15 people in my class in first year, now there are 5, yes the drop out rate is high but if you know it is what you want to do then you should definitely enjoy the course.

with regard to figures, last year, when there were more people in the class, the majority of people picked the intercultural option, only 3 of us picked translation, and we are all still here, whereas a lot of the culture students have dropped out.

lanny · 12-03-2005 1:03am

Hey, Im a final year student in Dcu doing the Applied languages degree german/spanish but I chose the Intercultural route, I prefer history, culture and writing...
In my year the dropout hasnt been too bad but during the year abroad last year there were a good couple of dropouts, twas a bit mad really.
I love the intercultural side as the translation is very grammatically disciplined (yawn!) and after my year in Spain in 3rd year my German has gone down considerably which is a big pity because I love it.
My year is half and half split in those doing Translation and those doing Intercultural - balanced enough, the Translation students all really like what they're doing but it's very tough, lots of mind-numbing brainbursting work, but hey, thats final year for you.
1st year is grand, lots of easy subjects thrown in too, 2nd yr starts to get tough and Dcu do really work you, it's 6 or 7 exams twice a year in all your different modules, so like a mini leaving cert twice a year at the end of each semester.
Sounds like you might have a good enough base of both German and Spanish Qasis18, some people in my german lectures haven't even been to Germany or Austria so your flying. Go for it!
It sounds like it's could be the way for you and Dcu are highly recommended for languages, great reputation in that area. There are really great lecturers and very dedicated, the librarys great, labs for language students, I think Dcu is good.
Good luck in june!

oasis18 · 12-03-2005 3:24pm

Thanks for advice Lanny. Just one question: Are all the language lecturers native speakers?

lanny · 12-03-2005 5:04pm

Hey, All of them no, for instance during the years you do have Irish lecturers teaching you your languages, especially in 1st yr and 2nd yr because it's funny but an Irish (or non native) language lecturer is often better at teaching you the grammar and technical side of the language becaue they've had to learn it that way too and they can be more objective in teaching it, they know what's difficult, where and why students fall down in a language, but as you progress the native lecturers are introduced in 2nd yr (all depending again) but now I've a mexican lecturer for Spanish and an Irish lecturer, both great, and for another spanish module I've a native, for German I've a native too and in 2nd yr I had a native. They're all really great in the department, for translation as well there are natives.
What else have you down on your CAO? What else are you interested in? Are you looking at Trinity too for the languages?

oasis18 · 13-03-2005 8:31am

Lanny,

I'm also applying to courses in Germany, as my Mum is German and some of my family lives there. My cousin already studies translation at the Mainz university in Germersheim, on the French/German border. She's has very good things to say about it. There are no good courses in translation in Irl. except for dcu, so I may have no choice but to study abroad. I have Arts courses down in the CAO, but I'd prefer to do a more practical course if you know what I mean.

The points are also quite low for translation in dcu. has this anything to do with the standard, do you think?

dundealgan · 13-03-2005 10:44am

i definitely dont think the points has anything to do with the standard, the standard expected from the students is very high, but it is up to the student to put the effort in, in order to get the most of the course, no point doing it otherwise. The points were high enough the year i came here, what are they now, just out of curiosity??

oasis18 · 13-03-2005 12:27pm

325 points last year. for the other language courses in DCU the points are higher eg. European Business with German is 385. I always thought points were related to demand for a course, and generally the higher the demand, the better the course ????

dundealgan · 13-03-2005 1:44pm

yeah thats the way it was when i filled in the cao form, they are higher cos they need maths, applied languages doesn't. But the points doesnt necessarily depend on the standard of the course, they fluctuate every year depending on the demand of the course, which is determinded by the leaving cert results of the people in the previous years, how high they scored in order to be able to get into a course.

Courses such as electronic engineering havent got very high points, so a lot of people can get into the course, but then they realise the standard is very high, hence the high drop out rate.

Lantis · 14-03-2005 10:55pm

As an add-on to the comments everyone's already said, one of the changes put in when AL became LIC is that you can choose whether to do one or two languages after first year. (Well, unless you're doing Japanese, but that doesn't affect you.)

And the fact that it has relatively low points doesn't mean that it's a bad course in bad demand, it just means that people aren't really leaning towards doing languages and nothing else, like computers or business.
And don't forget that the points released for the year are the lowest points of the people accepted.

As for the question of native speakers, it's a mix. All languages have natives and Irish teaching them. Though you usually have the Irish lecturers in first year, because you're more getting a grip on the technical side of things. Or so I'm told by my lecturers. In my case, I've an Irish lecturer for German and both an Irish lecturer and a native speaker for Japanese.

I've a couple of fluent speakers in both sets of my classes, and they've all said that even though they're fluent, it's still a new experience to look at it from the grammar side of things, and learn things the've been saying but never really noticed they've been saying.

Library's full of stuff for languages. You've got loads of shelves full of books for the various languages (and in the various languages), journals from other countries, grammar books, newspapers, videos, etc. etc.

Translation in DCU

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