On Not Reinventing the Wheel: Sharing Resources, Ideas and Practices- Talk by Professor Judy Wakabayashi

The problem: One aspect of training professional translators involves acquainting students with a range of genres and specific fields that they might encounter in professional life. Instructors are faced with the challenge of discussing and evaluating translations in fields as disparate as the law, business, literature, current affairs, medicine, science and technology, despite having little or no training in these fields (much less all of them).

The 'work harder' approach: By dint of hard work it is possible to build up at least a basic understanding of such fields--the key concepts and structural differences (e.g., between civil and common law, or between the Japanese and American patent systems). Doing this in two languages, however, is arduous and time-consuming, and creating resources for students when one is not an expert in these fields runs the risk of passing on incorrect information.

The 'work smarter' approach: The alternative proposed here is to harness the knowledge of the EATPA community to create and share resources, alongside teaching tips and ideas. This session will focus on the idea of a resource-sharing 'bank' to which EATPA members can contribute and from which they may borrow. Pooling our expertise and building on and refining each other's teaching materials can reduce our individual workload and lead to better-quality teaching resources that will benefit instructors and students beyond our individual institutions.