Did I not announce on this very blog that I would start blogging once my course began in October? And have I written anything in October?
I am well aware that I did write something before October, but the only month that would have counted was October and NO, I have not written anything in October, or November.
But now that we have December I am here to write about my course. How did it start?
TBH, it was a rough start. The first block was scheduled from October 4 to just last week, when the first assignment was due on November 20. I did get a 3-day extension, so I could hand in my TMA (tutor-marked assessment) a bit later.
The first block was about specialised translation, and there was a lot of repetition from the one year I already did at Portsmouth. I did not participate in any extra forum discussions and delivered only what was absolutely necessary: one forum discussion and the TMA.
I chose medical translation and was actually quite happy with what I produced: one translation, one commentary, one glossary, one corpus with 6 texts (3 in the source, 3 in the target language), and the forum discussion was added as an appendix to the TMA.
However, block 2 started right away, and I had not much time to overthink what I had produced in the TMA. Block 2 is about audio-visual translation (AVT): mainly subtitling so far (the next TMA will be a subtitling task); translation for dubbing will be touched upon but not deepened too much. I am totally new to AVT, so I am doing all the extra tasks that are not strictly necessary to pass the course.
Am I enjoying it? Yes. Do I see myself in the AVT business? No. Honestly, it is a hell of a job. Spotting the right moment to insert a subtitle and being concise enough to fit on the screen (39 characters per line, 2 lines per scene) while carrying the message is a special skill I definitely don't have right now. I guess I could practice a bit and gain experience, but the question is: Do I really want to?
Not sure about that. But I do enjoy it really, as it shows me a different angle of the profession that I have not been involved in so far.
I am not too optimistic for the following blocks, i.e. business and law, and the last block will be about marketing and literary translation. I am kind of looking forward to literary translation, but business, law and marketing are not my cup of tea.
Let's see if I can keep posting more regularly. I know I CAN do it, as I've already shown before October. ;)