Modern Languages at Aberdeen University

Everyone in Languages at Stirling, and beyond, has been very concerned to read about developments across Languages, Translation and Interpreting at the University of Aberdeen and we wanted to express our solidarity with our colleagues there, across French, Gaelic, German and Spanish.

We have a long history of connections and friendship (academic and otherwise) with Aberdeen and we hope to be able to continue to see those connections and friendships thrive over the coming months and years.

We have co-supervised and continue to co-supervise PhDs together: our former student, Fraser McQueen, currently at the University of Bristol where he is a Lecturer in French and Comparative Literature, was jointly supervised by Fiona Barclay (Stirling) and Nadia Kiwan (Aberdeen). Aedín ní Loingsigh (Stirling) is currently co-supervising a SGSAH-funded student in Translation Studies with Nadia and Nicki Hitchcott (St Andrews). Others of us have taught or, indeed, studied at Aberdeen: Cristina Johnston was a Teaching Fellow in French there in 2004-2006 before joining Stirling, while Pete Baker and Fiona Noble (both now in Spanish and Latin American Studies at Stirling) studied there as undergraduates. Pete’s PhD was supervised by mentors who had taught him at Aberdeen, while Fiona stayed on at Aberdeen to complete her MLitt, PhD and PGDE, as well as working there as a Teaching Fellow. Our (now retired) colleague, Alastair Duncan, also did both his undergraduate degree and his PhD at Aberdeen.

We’ve been involved in external examining at each other’s institutions which has often led to research collaborations between colleagues: Trevor Stack (Aberdeen) was one of our externals in Religion at Stirling for many years, Nina Parish (Stirling) is a current external at Aberdeen. And we’ve been delighted to welcome colleagues from Aberdeen to speak at research events over the years, most recently Ed Welch, who is also Chair of the University Council of Modern Languages (Scotland), with Stirling colleagues, including Nina Parish, Pete Baker and Elizabeth Ezra also having given research papers in Aberdeen.

‘Aberdeen 2040’, the University’s strategic plan (available in Arabic, Gaelic, BSL and Braille, as well as in English), proudly asserts that: ‘Through outreach and the exchange of ideas, we will teach and research across borders. We already rank among the best for our global outlook. We will continue to expand our networks and partnerships, and seek new opportunities for international and intercultural exchange.’ These are fantastic aims for any global University to be working towards and achieving them is dependent on Universities being able to support ambitious, resilient, interculturally literate graduates, equipped with the wide range of skills that will allow them to contribute to local and global communities. These skills are precisely those that are fostered through the study of languages, from Gaelic to German, from French to Spanish, and far, far beyond.

We hope that Aberdeen finds ways to support colleagues across Languages as they work on creative solutions to the extremely challenging circumstances they are facing and we look forward to finding more ways to work with them over the months that lie ahead.

‘Languages really can take you anywhere!’

Continuing with this week’s accidental blog theme, it’s great to be able to post this update from one of our recent graduates, Nicole, who offers another example of the surprising directions you can go in after a degree involving languages:

‘I can’t believe it’s been 3 years since my last graduation ceremony at the University of Stirling. After graduating with a BA (Hons) in French and Spanish I decided to return to do a Masters in Translation Studies with TESOL.

After graduating, I decided to take a few months to relax whilst still working in my retail job. However, as those few months ended, COVID was just beginning. As a new graduate, I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do next, and it seemed like a daunting few months ahead whilst I looked for a job. I’d always imagined I’d return to Spain or France again to work as a language assistant for another year after graduating, but given the travel restrictions at the time I decided it wasn’t for me. Unfortunately, I was gong to be working in retail for a bit longer than I’d hoped.

I stayed in my retail job for around a year, until a job as a project manager at a translation company popped up. I decided to apply and I was lucky enough to be offered the job. I worked there for around six months, in an incredibly fast-paced (and sometimes very stressful) environment. I certainly learned a lot about how the industry really works and how it compared to what I’d learned during my Masters degree.

After six months, I applied for a job closer to home which is where I am still working today. I work for an online company specialising in plants and garden supplies, and which sells in several different countries in Europe. I am responsible for managing anything which needs translated to be sold in EU countries, as well as doing some general content writing for the website.

Of course, the horticulture industry is definitely not where I expected to be working, but I think it’s proof that languages really can take you anywhere! I’m grateful to have a job that I enjoy and where I still get to use and incorporate languages every day. And I hope it’s an uplifting reminder for anyone recently graduated, or anyone in their final year who may be unsure about the future, there’s a job out there but it may be where you least expect it.’

Many thanks to Nicole for this fantastic post (and for your patience while you waited for us to actually get it up on the blog!) and thank you for the very kind words of encouragement to future Languages graduates.

Languages Week Scotland: Exchanging ideas through Erasmus mobility

In the Autumn, our colleague Aedín ní Loingsigh spent part of the semester on an Erasmus teaching exchange at our partner institution, the Université de Limoges. Languages Week Scotland seems like an excellent opportunity to post her blog article about the experience:

“This past November, I had the immense honour of spending three weeks as Visiting Lecturer for the University of Limoges Masters programmes in ‘Identité et Transferts culturels’ and ‘Management interculturel’. During my time there, I delivered a series of practical translation classes as well as interactive lectures and seminars on Translation Theory.

Given how brief my visit was, my aim was to design classes in a way that encouraged the students to use our contact time to explore connections between aspects of the content we were translating and the questions raised by certain theoretical approaches. An overarching question of much of our time together was the question of translator ‘neutrality’, including the issue of whether a translator should be visible and whether particular texts and contexts require a ‘suitable’ translator, and, if so, who that might be.

We began by looking at the translation theories and practices of Quebec’s Quiet Revolution feminist communities. At the same time, we translated a text written by Lou Sarabadzic on langage inclusif. It was wonderful to see students respond to the ideas of feminist translation and explore the gendered nature of language — and its playful possibilities. Suffice to say that in one class we had a memorable exchange regarding the ingenious and creative use one small student group made of the American term ‘period’ (full-stop) when discussing translation choices in English for an emphatic use of ‘voilà’ in Lou’s feminist text. We also had constructive fun looking at Google Translate in real time. We saw just how biased Machine Translation can be, why the study of gender in translation matters, and how we might translate in a gender-aware way.

We also spent some time looking at the controversy surrounding the Dutch translation of Amanda Gorman’s poem ‘The Hill we Climb’, which she read at Joe Biden’s inauguration in January 2021. I was impressed with the students’ thoughtful and open-minded engagement with this complex issue and their willingness to look beyond simplistic representations of the debate. (I should say I was also impressed with their patience when technology failed and we had to try and appreciate Gorman’s powerful reading of her poem on my small laptop screen as opposed to the large projector screen.) We discussed whether it is possible to be ‘neutral’ in translating this poem, whether ‘translator invisibility’ is desirable for all translation contexts, and whether there is an ‘ideal’ translator for a text who fully understands the experience and position of the source-text author. Finally, we mentioned the idea of a translation collective where diversity of experience and opinion is maximized.

One of the topics I particularly enjoyed was tourist translation. We didn’t spend a lot of time on this, but I am keen to explore it more in the future, preferably on location! On one of my many delightful walks in Limoges, I took some photographs to discuss with students the linguistic landscape of the city. Not surprisingly, the city’s key sites have lots of examples of translation, not least the amazing Musée national Adrien Dubouché — an unquestionable highlight of my time in Limoges for the sheer breadth and informative layout of its porcelain collections. In class, we looked at some images of the Découvrir Limoges plaques visitors will notice as they explore the city, and we discussed the challenges and choices made in some of the very condensed translations of the source text.

We also looked at monolingual French signs that might be usefully translated for visitors. One of the most memorable things I saw in Limoges was evidence of an effort to highlight visually more of the city’s long history of producing decorative objects, most famously in porcelain. Scattered around the city centre, if you keep your eyes open, are public stairways with an occasional stone balustrade replaced by one in porcelain. Intrigued, I eventually found an explanation on a sign, but with no translation. So, one of our final tasks at the university was to translate this text. I have suggested to the students that they take their excellent collective translation further and suggest to the City of Limoges that they produce *paid* top quality translations for other public information signs, including, yes, the very funny one we also looked at encouraging people to clean up after their dogs — we never did decide what to do with the opening clause: ‘Pour favoriser l’intégration de votre chien….’ To be continued.

My time in Limoges was too short. I know for certain that I learned as much from the students as I hope they did from me. I know I enjoyed the company and the warmest of welcomes from staff more than I think I let them know. I came back to a university system in the UK about to go on strike. I’m not going to romanticise university life in France. But my own experience in Limoges showed me that, for now at least, university life there seems to have held on to the precious time that is needed for a genuine exchange of ideas. I hope to be back. Thank you.”

Many thanks to Aedín for sending this blog post and, more importantly, for having gone to Limoges in the first place. Our Erasmus partnerships remain incredibly important to us (as do our non-Erasmus ones!) and it’s fantastic when colleagues also manage to benefit from them. And thanks to our friends in Limoges for the great welcome! This new semester will also see other teaching exchanges – we’re looking forward to welcoming Ruth Menzies from the Université Aix-Marseille to Stirling in March and, as it happens, Cristina Johnston will be delivering a guest lecture (virtually) to students on the University of Passau‘s BA in International Culture and Business Studies tomorrow morning. More to follow!

2021 Finalists and their Plans

As we may have mentioned once or twice on the blog, this has been an incredibly challenging year in so many ways and for so many people. For our finalists, whose semesters abroad were interrupted by Covid, it has meant that they weren’t able to return to campus from those semesters to exchange tales of their travels with their friends and to settle into their final year of undergraduate studies. Instead, it has been a year of online classes, online assessments, online feedback sessions and so on.

In light of such difficult and strange circumstances, we have all been impressed by the commitment, engagement and good humour with which our finalists have approached this year. With all that in mind, it has been particularly lovely to hear back from so many of those finalists in response to our traditional request for info about plans for life after graduation. Regular blog readers will doubtless have followed these posts from year to year and it’s great to see the same diversity of plans and the same enthusiasm for the months and years ahead from this year’s graduating cohort. As ever, we wanted to share their plans with you (with their permission!) so, in no particular order, and with some longer individual posts to follow, here goes…

Victoria, who has just completed her BA Hons in International Politics and Languages, has accepted a conditional offer at the University of Edinburgh to continue her studies with an MSc in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies. She also intends to continue learning Arabic and to do an internship in Morocco next summer to investigate the field of Gender Studies in North Africa more fully. Scott, whose BA Hons was in French and Spanish, is also building on his interests in Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies and looking for a range of academic fields to investigate in preparation for a planned Master’s. If Covid and the Foreign Office allow it, he’s hoping to be in either Iran or Tajikistan this time next year conducting some kind of area research, much like what he was able to do during his semester abroad.

Like Victoria, Lochlann has also just completed his degree in International Politics and Languages and is planning to move to Edinburgh but is hoping to manage to spend some more time abroad as he thinks about possible postgraduate studies. Having done a Combined Honours programme, he’s interested in a Master’s in either Translation or International Relations further down the line. And postgraduate study is also on the horizon for Emily, who has completed her BA Hons in French and History, and who is planning a summer of part-time work and free-lance translation before starting her Master’s in Publishing at Edinburgh Napier in the Autumn.

As for Julia, who is graduating with a BA Hons in French, during her Semester Abroad at Université de Tours in the Val-de-Loire region in central France, she had the opportunity to take informal conversation classes with French students who were studying medicine. This really sparked her interest in teaching English abroad so she has accepted an offer to study an MSc TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) closer to home at the University of Glasgow. Teaching is also on the horizon for some of our other finalists and, as ever, those teaching plans take different forms. Callan, for example, who has just successfully completed his BA Hons in French with Spanish and Professional Education, is off to the Scottish Borders in the Autumn for his probationary year as a secondary school languages teacher. And Stuart, who has just finished his BA Hons in French and Spanish, is planning to spend a year as an English Language Assistant in Spain (he previously spent a year in Quebec as an ELA) before undertaking a postgraduate qualification in teaching, hopefully in France. Nathan, who has just finished his BA Hons in French with us, is taking a gap year in the first instance and then has his sights set on time in Strasbourg, CELTA qualifications and perhaps a career in teaching further down the line. And, Christina, who has completed her degree in Modern Languages and Business Studies, is also taking a year out before undertaking a postgraduate qualification in Education and TESOL, and hoping very much that travel will be possible again soon.

Natasha, who has just completed her BA Hons in International Management with European Languages and Society, has managed to spend some much-needed time traveling and exploring the Scottish Highlands before leaving the UK. She is currently spending a month in Andalucía (Spain) where she is putting her language skills to the test. In July, she will temporarily return to her family home in Germany where she plans to continue the job application process, get vaccinated, and consider returning to a summer option/opportunity in Switzerland. In terms of longer-term work plans, like others in our graduating cohort, she has TESOL on her mind but she is primarily focused on working in a Marketing or Communications role wherever the wind takes her. 

And then there’s Paige, who has just finished her BA Hons in English Studies and French: ‘I started studying English Studies and Secondary Education at Stirling University before changing to English and French after thoroughly enjoying studying French as an additional module in first year. I was particularly excited about the opportunities in France and French-speaking countries that studying French would give me, especially the opportunity to live and work in France as an English Language Assistant for a year with the British Council. As a future teacher I knew the classroom experience would be invaluable and this opportunity would even allow me to see if teaching is the right career path for me. Now that I’ve finished my degree, I’ll be studying to become a Secondary school English teacher. However, after my experience of French at Stirling and particularly due to my experience as an English Language Assistant, I plan to teach English as a foreign language in France in the future (instead of teaching English literature in Scotland/ an English-speaking country). Working as an English Language Assistant has given me the desire to teach English in other countries such as Japan, China, Vietnam… before returning to settle in France: my second home. I can’t wait to qualify as an English teacher and I’m excited for my next chapter!’

Cameron, who studied French with Spanish and Education at Stirling, really enjoyed his time abroad in third year, which he spent living and working in a small Spanish town and then travelling around French-speaking countries in Europe (including France, Monaco, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Belgium.) When the pandemic passes, he’d really love ‘to live and work abroad again as it was such an enriching experience.’ As he says: ‘I suppose that explains why my plans for next year include staying on at university to study a subject related to languages: I’ve applied for an MA in Translation and Conference Interpreting at the University of Leeds, as I really enjoyed studying translation in my last two years of university and I’d love to learn a lot more about interpreting. I’m not sure what the future holds after that, but I’ll be taking it step by step.’

And Adriana, whose degree is in Business Studies and French, is planning to work in Gibraltar, hopefully in an area related to event production or similar, but more generally in a post that will allow her to develop her professional experience in Business or Management. She’s planning to do that for the next year or so with a view to then doing a Master’s in Event Organisation – ideally in a country she hasn’t lived in before – to be able to work as part of an event company.

We’re looking forward to adding to this list of plans over the coming days and weeks and, above all, we wish all of our graduates the very best in all their endeavours and we look forward to hearing from them over the months and years ahead!

Conferences, Launch Events and Scholarships

It’s hard to believe that almost three weeks have already gone past since the last French at Stirling blog post. It’s been another busy period for staff and students alike but, as the dust starts to settle a little, this seems like a good time to catch up with some French at Stirling news.

Often, for some of us, the Summer months would mean attending conferences and giving papers. Although that isn’t happening in the real world at the moment, lots of these events have gone online and Julie Hugonny, in particular, will be flying the French at Stirling flag over the coming months. In fact, Julie just gave a paper at the University of Maynooth’s ‘Femmes dérangées, femmes dérangeantes’ conference earlier this month. Her paper (‘Evelyn Habal: Everyday Magic’) examines the character of Evelyn Habal, an actress and prostitute in Villiers de l’Isle-Adam’s L’Eve Future, who is reviled for deceiving men with her artificial beauty and her insincere words. But, as Julie explored in her paper, what this scathing description implicitly recognizes, is her ability to create the perfect woman, every day, with makeup and tulle. Julie will also be giving a paper entitled ‘The Last Man on Earth – A New Myth for a new Trauma’ at the Fates and Graces Mythologium conference in Washington DC and another entitled ‘Mary Shelley’s Last Man. The Delusions of Prophecy’ at the Collapse and Extinction: Art, Literature and Discourse Conference at Stockholm University.

And, back in March (so apologies for not having included it closer to the time) Nina Parish gave a paper on ‘’The UNREST project: War Museums, Memory and Interpretation’, about the Horizon 2020-funded project she worked on before coming to Stirling (www.unrest.eu) at the Modern Languages Research Forum at the University of Aberdeen in March.

At the end of last month, Aedín ní Loingsigh was involved in the launch of the Stirling Centre for Interpreting, Translation and Intercultural Studies (SCITIS),directed by Raquel de Pedro Ricoy. The research centre aims to foster national and international cooperation in the fields of Translation Studies, Interpreting Studies and Intercultural Studies, and to address issues that are relevant to increasingly globalised, diverse societies in ways that have an impact on policy and practice. To celebrate the launch, we were delighted to welcome Charles Forsdick (University of Liverpool) to give a short talk followed by a Q&A with audience members. Until recently, Professor Forsdick was AHRC Theme Lead for ‘Translating Cultures’ and oversaw a portfolio of around 120 grants in the fields of translation, interpreting and multilingualism. The exciting launch of SCITIS coincides with a period of unprecedented change in the world. As Professor Forsdick traced how ‘Translating Cultures’ has helped to develop and enrich understandings of global, multilingual transmission and translation in different interconnected contexts, the launch event also gave us an opportunity to explore with him the role and significance of translation and interpreting during the current international health crisis and the move towards a ‘new normal.’ Congratulations and good luck to all our Translation and Interpreting colleagues for the new Centre. You can keep up to date with SCITIS news on Twitter here!

And finally, following on from our RATE nominations last month, more congratulations to Stirling students and staff. Well done to Year 3 English and Film and Media student Oliver whose research project was awarded a Carnegie Vacation Scholarship. Oliver will be working on ‘ 21^st-century Exoticism in Western Cinema’ and Elizabeth Ezra will be supervising the project over the Summer. And congratulations also go to Beth, who is just completing Year 2 of her BA Hons French and Spanish, and who has been awarded a Stevenson Exchange Scholarship to undertake research alongside her British Council Assistantship next year. Beth’s project, which she shaped working with Jean-Michel DesJacques and Cristina Johnston, will look at France’s relationships with its former colonies. She is keen to examine how present-day memory plays into these, the controversies and power imbalances that exist, as well as the ways in which the relationships are represented through museum collections. Thanks to the scholarship Beth plans to travel to Paris, Genoa and Molenbeek in Belgium to gain a holistic understanding of the documentation of immigration from post colonised countries. As she explains: ‘I knew I wanted to find out more about this so I am very grateful to be given this opportunity to build on my current understanding and to have the freedom to travel more than I’d be able to without this grant. I’m excited to study at a university in France too and meet locals my age.’

And last but definitely not least, Elizabeth Ezra’s book Shoe Reels: The History and Philosophy of Footwear in Film, co-edited with Catherine Wheatley, has been nominated for the Kraszna-Krausz Book Award for an ‘outstanding or original contribution to the literature of photography or the moving image’.

More exciting French at Stirling news to follow over the weeks ahead!

Motivation in an upside-down year

As another week gets underway at Stirling – under sunny skies, at least for the moment – it’s time for another great update from one of our recent graduates. Nicole studied with us as an undergraduate and then came back as a postgraduate student, finishing her degree a year and a half ago:

‘I can’t quite believe almost 3 years have passed already since graduating from my undergrad in French and Spanish at Stirling. As I am writing this post, I feel slightly stuck in limbo between studying and getting a “real job”.

After graduating in June 2018, I opted to continue my studies at Stirling. I am always grateful to have been taught by Stirling’s amazing languages department, and so it was the perfect place to pursue further study. This time around I chose to study a Master’s in Translation Studies and TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). The translation aspect of my fourth year French modules played a big role in piquing my interest in the subject and so I decided that was the direction I wanted to go. When I found out that Stirling also offers TESOL at Master’s level I decided to combine both, since so many years of learning foreign languages had also piqued my interest in how English is both taught to and learned by speakers of other languages. I graduated from my Master’s degree in November 2019, just a few months before the beginning of the pandemic. At that time, I had hoped to continue in my retail job for a few months whilst deciding what I wanted to do next.

I had hoped to potentially return to France or Spain the following September, perhaps to work as an English Language Assistant again. However, once we were amid a global pandemic, I decided that perhaps travelling to another country to work may not be the safest thing to do. I, of course, had hoped that life would, by now, be back to normal and job opportunities would be more at hand than they were a year ago. For the time being, I’m keeping up my French and Spanish while on furlough by doing some tutoring for National 5 students who are currently learning from home and who are all grateful for the extra help at the moment. Despite a year which has turned life upside down for all of us, I am remaining motivated and I have hope that there is light at the end of the Covid tunnel.’

Many, many thanks to Nicole for sending through this post, the kind words about French and Spanish at Stirling and for the photos – always grateful for virtual travel at the moment and it’s nice to be reminded of how beautiful a town Limoges is! We’re all keeping our fingers firmly crossed for light at the end of the Covid tunnel very soon and wish you all the best for the future.

Student Successes

We’re a week away from the end of teaching and a few hours away from the weekend, and this seems like an excellent time to post congratulations to some of our students.

Félicitations, firstly, to Ewan, Agathe and Shryia who graduated yesterday from our postgraduate Translation programmes, and to their French dissertation supervisor, Aedín ní Loingsigh! Their graduation ceremony was online, with well-deserved congratulatory speeches from our Chair in Translation, Raquel de Pedro Ricoy, as well as our Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Gerry McCormac, and our Chancellor, Jack McConnell. And as our colleague, Liam Bell, in Creative Writing highlighted, there really is something lovely about the hope represented by the work our postgraduate students have carried out from March, and the start of lockdown, and August when they submitted their dissertations.

And a second set of felicitations to final year undergraduate student Christina who studies Modern Languages and Business with us. Christina’s entry to the Institut Français d’Ecosse’s Creative Writing competition, organised in collaboration with Napier University, was awarded the ‘Coup du Coeur du Jury’! You can read her entry (inspired by ‘Ne me quitte pas’ by Jacques Brel and ‘Are you with me’ by Nilu) on the IFE’s website and, as Christina says, ‘I’m thankful for the opportunity, I love creative writing in my spare time and having the chance to write something like this in a different language was a challenge but also new and exciting. I hope everyone who reads it enjoys it and I hope to enjoy the little confidence boost it gave me.’

A brilliant way to end the week and congratulations all round from all in French at Stirling.

‘Studying a Masters in 2020 has more than equipped us for the challenges to come’

It’s been great, over the past few weeks, to be able to post about the virtual outreach work our Language Ambassadors are doing and about research and publication news, reminding us all that student and academic life continue, even in the current challenging context. In a similar vein, we’re really pleased to be able to post the following article by Agathe and Ewan, very recent postgraduate students who can give their perspective on the highs and lows of the past academic year:

‘We’ve both recently come to the end of our Master’s degrees in Translation Studies at Stirling. Although our programmes of study were slightly different – MSc in Translation and Interpreting for Agathe, and MSc in Translation and TESOL for Ewan, in conjunction with the Faculty of Social Sciences – we worked together in translation workshops throughout both semesters.

There is no denying that the past academic year was a challenging one, and probably not in the way that either of us expected. Towards the end of our first semester, there was a prolonged UCU strike which resulted in disruption to our normal schedule for classes, although we were grateful to the academic staff for giving up their time to continue giving us help and advice when we needed it. We even had a teach-out so we wouldn’t be at too much of a disadvantage.

Not long after the strike ended, the university campus closed completely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although some of our remaining classes took place online, it wasn’t the same as being on campus. It was particularly overwhelming for international students. The question of whether going home to your loved ones or staying in Scotland – in case things improved – was all we could think about for several weeks. And even when the decision of staying in Stirling was taken, it didn’t bring much peace of mind. The uncertainty of it all and the worries it brought definitely didn’t help us to put the preliminary work on the dissertation at the top of our list of concerns. Then of course, it was already the second semester exams. However, pandemic or not, things always happen quicker than you think. Our advice would be to keep this in mind, before you dive into the preparation for tests, which will leave you with very few moments to work on your dissertation.

We initially thought it would be a short-term closure, but eventually weeks turned into months, and we found ourselves with a translation project dissertation looming ever closer, with limited access to academic staff and no access at all to the university library (for either resources or dedicated study space).

Fortunately, Aedín ní Loingsigh, our dissertation supervisor, was on hand to provide as much support as possible online during the initial months of lockdown. In the early stages, working from home was difficult. In the age of Netflix and social media, and with the option to do literally anything but study at our disposal, it was amazing what we found to do to help us procrastinate!

We both live in Edinburgh, so in the latter stages, as freedom of movement increased again, we were able to meet up for coffee and help each other. We found it was particularly helpful to be able to bounce ideas off each other and clarify linguistic issues with someone who is a native speaker of the source language we were working from. During these latter stages, Aedín made a couple of trips to Edinburgh too in order to give us some face-to-face (socially-distanced!) consultation time, which was particularly helpful. She was able to point us in the direction of useful e-books to use in the continued absence of the university library. We are genuinely beyond thankful for her, because she didn’t necessarily have to do it; but she knew it’s much easier to raise issues face-to-face rather than by emails or zoom calls.

We were initially a bit pessimistic about obtaining our Master’s degree under such circumstances. We were scared of what it would mean for us, professionally speaking, for the years to come: would our diploma be of less value? Would that mean fewer professional opportunities for us?

Eventually, and after the stress of the dissertation being behind us, we came to realisation that we should actually feel quite proud of ourselves for having completed our programme of study in such a turbulent year, because we’re now certain that if we can succeed even in the face of a global pandemic, then there is no telling what we can achieve in the future. Additionally, our teachers reassured us that the diploma will still be of the same worth.

To that end, we are now starting to form a plan of how we want to proceed now that our degree has come to its conclusion. We both joined the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI) as Affiliate Members and intend to make full use of their training resources and networking opportunities. Ewan is in the middle of setting himself up a website to market himself as a freelance translator, and he’s starting to send out his CV to translation agencies to try and get a foot on the ladder. Agathe is on the same process, although she is more turned towards literary translation, which involves constant research for new material to translate, contacting publishing houses, while also keeping up with interpreting training.

The last thing we should mention is more of a warning than a piece of advice. Getting started as a translator is quite confusing and blurry. Despite many interesting classes about working as a translator or interpret in daily life, where we had the chance to meet with professionals, some aspects of the job remain a bit obscure. The financial aspect of it for instance: how much should we charge for a translation? Or what exactly do we exactly to do to go freelance, especially when you just graduated and have no experience? Regarding literary translation, how do you approach publishing houses, knowing that you need to be in contact with both the English ones and the French ones (in Agathe’s case)? Especially since there can be several publishing houses for one book: should you contact the author then? Their agent?

That is the one thing that we are both worried about; a shortage of time to discuss career prospects with professionals from the industry. Although we had the chance to attend lectures with people who have been in the industry for a long time, we realise with hindsight that we didn’t take the opportunity to ask them meaningful questions about starting out as freelancers and about even some of the most basic things (such as pricing ourselves, initially finding clients, etc.).

However, we are aware that the answers for those questions are part of what we will have to figure out along the way. We know it won’t be an easy journey to begin with, but we’re optimistic and feel that studying a Masters in 2020 of all years has more than equipped us for the challenges that are to come.

As a final point, we would like to say that we’ve both really enjoyed our respective programmes of study, so we would both highly recommend them to any prospective students.’

Many, many thanks to Ewan and to Agathe for having found the time to put together this post, among all of the other demands on their time, and we wish them all the very best for a successful future in Translation and Interpreting. Keep in touch!

Translation and TESOL: ‘A whole world of new ideas and concepts’

As regular blog readers will know, alongside our wide range of undergraduate programmes, colleagues in French at Stirling also contribute to Literature and Languages’ postgraduate programmes in Translation Studies and it’s always great to see French graduates coming back to undertake postgrad work with us. Today’s update comes from Ewan, who has done just that and who is in the first semester of our MSc in Translation with TESOL:

‘I graduated from Stirling in 2013 with a BA (Hons) in French and Religion. Following my graduation, I undertook a course in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL), ultimately gaining a certificate for 120 hours of training.

Initially, I gained teaching experience in 1-1 sessions with adult learners in Edinburgh. These informal sessions were enough to help me build up a portfolio and establish my reputation. I worked with adults and students from a variety of nationalities, including French, Spanish and Polish.

In 2016, I moved to Łomianki, near Warsaw in Poland to begin work as an extra-curricular English teacher in a secondary school. I was tasked with providing extra support to children who were struggling with English lessons, to help them ultimately catch up with their classmates. Whilst in Poland, I also worked as pastoral assistant to an English-Speaking church in Warsaw. The clergy in the church were Polish but were ministering to the international community in Warsaw, and therefore needed language support in their day-to-day ministry. It gave me the opportunity to learn about the incredible history of Poland, culminating in a trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau, which continues to haunt me to this day.

In 2017, I moved to Tours, in France’s Loire Valley. This is where I had spent my Erasmus semester as an undergraduate so I was incredibly excited to return. In Tours, I spent 6 months teaching elementary school children (including a very competitive brother and sister). This was a challenge, as I’d never dealt with that age group before, but the experience of being back in Tours and exploring a city I loved so much cancelled out all my difficulties. I even took the plunge and tried escargots; something I hadn’t been brave enough to do during my Erasmus experience!

My ultimate aim has always been to undertake a Masters in TESOL, with a view to eventually owning my own language school. It’s a massive aim, but I’ve never been one to do things in half measures! And, so when the opportunity arose, I returned to Stirling in September of this year to undertake an MSc in Translation with TESOL. I chose this course because it combines both of my “specialist” subject areas. I get to study towards ultimately becoming a professional TEFL tutor, whilst also maintaining work in French (and dabbling in other languages). The course doesn’t limit my final career options; I can branch off and work in the field of translation after graduation (perhaps while I work to secure a teaching position).

It feels great being back in Stirling. I have fond memories of my time as an undergraduate, and really it feels like I’ve never left. There are only 4 of us studying translation this year so the classes are quite relaxed and we’ve all got to know each other really well, which I like. The course has been far more interesting than I could ever have imagined, too. Just like at undergraduate, my mind has been opened to a whole world of new ideas and concepts. And I love it!’

Many, many thanks to Ewan for finding the time to send us this great update and we wish you all the best for the MSc and ultimately setting up your own language school.

Articles, Books and Conferences

As well as launching language websites and giving introductions to films, French at Stirling colleagues and students have been up to all sorts of French-related activities over recent weeks. More on some of these will doubtless follow in due course but, by way of a quick overview…

Anyone with an interest in contemporary French politics and society should look out for Fiona Barclay’s article ‘French citizenship campaigners may find acceptance depends on far more than official papers’ published online in The Conversation in early October. Fiona also gave a talk at the Alliance française in Glasgow on 5^th November about the French settlers of Algeria which included a local pied-noir amongst the attendees.

Fiona and Beatrice’s Ivey’s MOOC ‘Remembering Empire’ is coming to the end of its first run with around 350 people registered at the last count. The MOOC will be left open for new participants to join and will remain live until April so it’s not too late to sign up!

Next week will see a fine Stirling contingent giving papers on a wide range of topics at the annual Society for French Postcolonial Studies conference in London. This year’s conference theme is ‘Postcolonial Realms of Memory in the Francophone World.’ Fiona and Beatrice are both giving papers as part of a panel on ‘Memories of Algeria’, along with Susan Ireland of Grinnell College. Fiona’s paper is on ‘Fraternity in French Algeria: (post-)colonial conceptions of republican citizenry’, while Beatrice will be talking about ‘Ahmed Kalouaz, Childhood and Colonial Memory in Ecriture Jeunesse.’ Fraser McQueen is the third member of the Stirling cohort, with his paper on ‘Memories of Empire in France’s Literary Grands Remplacements.’

Hannah Grayson has two co-edited volumes that have come out over the past few months: Rwanda since 1994: Stories of Change published by Liverpool University Press and After the Genocide in Rwanda: Testimonies of Violence, Change and Reconciliation with IB Tauris. And to return to the online publication The Conversation, our French and Translation colleague, Aedín ní Loingsigh is one of the co-authors of this fantastic article on bilingualism and dementia: ‘Bilingualism and dementia: how some patients lose their second language and rediscover their first.’ Aedín’s co-authors are Ingeborg Birnie (Strathclyde), Thomas Bak (Edinburgh) and our former Stirling colleague, David Murphy (Strathclyde).

More news to follow!