ABSTRACT
Our experience is that many students who take a course in translation do so with the belief that people either have the aptitude for translation or they do not; sometimes they even report their own lack of aptitude. As teachers of translation know, some people are naturally better than others. However, it is our firm conviction that aptitude for translation is no different from ability in other areas: teaching and practice can help anyone to improve, including the most gifted. Anyone who has taught translation knows that a structured course will help most students to become significantly better at translation — often good enough to earn their living at it. This book offers just such a course. The discussion is systematic and progressive, offering lots of practice in developing rationales for solving different sorts of translation problem. It is not a course in translation theory but in translation method, encouraging thoughtful and logical consideration of possible solutions to practical problems. Theoretical issues do inevitably arise and our approach is informed by developments in translation theory, but our aim is to develop proficiency in the method, not to investigate theoretical implications for their own sake. Interesting and valuable discussions are available elsewhere. We particularly recommend the following useful overviews of translation studies: Bassnett (2002); Gentzler (2001); Hatim and Munday (2004); Munday (2001); Tymoczko (2007).
