Leading Online Training for Language Professionals

This engaging course will focus on the translation of 'regulatory texts' – documents written from an institutional perspective to regulate rights, services, and relationships between public services and citizens or residents. Unlike specialized legal texts, contracts, or agreements, this course will concentrate on legislative or institutional texts intended for the general public, such as those related to elections, welfare benefits, and school governance structures. Participants will delve into the nature of these texts, exploring the concept of institutional translation and “government by translation” (Koskinen, 2014). The course will also include a brief discussion on the ethics of translating these types of texts. While the translations covered in the "Translating Public Messaging – Introduction to Community Translation" course are clearly communicative and reader-oriented, those in this course may cater more to the official voice and power structures. This raises important questions for community translators about their roles and loyalties. As communication mediators, community translators often face a loyalty paradox where serving one party faithfully may impact the trust of other parties (Taibi and Ozolins, 2016). This short course aims to equip translators with the skills and knowledge to navigate these complexities, ensuring effective and ethical translation practices.