As a lector at the English Department (Faculty of Philosophy, University of Nis), I have become aware of the fact that one of the most challenging and demanding tasks our students are engaged in during their studies is translation. More than their other language courses, this one requires paying close attention to different language levels, style and cultural contexts (to mention but a few) both of the original and the target language texts. However, the only context most of them translate in is that of the classroom, while the only audience they translate for is the course instructor (not even their colleagues in most cases).

Fully conscious of this situation and also aware of the far greater complexity of working on a ‘real’ translation, a group of professors and lectors from our department decided to set up a project for volunteer students who were willing to experience the whole process of translating a literary work. What made the students take the whole project very seriously and work on it with a lot of devotion and enthusiasm was the fact that the final product would be published – thanks to the financial support of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Department of State, USA and the American Councils for International Education. This meant that our student translators were now charged with much greater, but also shared responsibility as they were no longer translating just to get a passing grade. That was the first time they had to think about the audience other than the course instructor and view translation as a means of intercultural communication. In addition, as the process gradually evolved, the students came to realize that translating a literary text is nothing less than producing a new work of art, an extremely challenging task that involves making a lot of well-informed choices.

This project was carried out by a group of third- and fourth-year students of English Language and Literature at the English Department, Faculty of Philosophy, Niš, during the 2006-07 academic year (November – May). It involved 21 volunteer students in translating ten stories by J. D. Salinger, published in the U.S. newspapers from 1940 to 1946, and not yet translated into Serbian. The students were divided into pairs or groups (they were free to choose who they wanted to work with) and each group chose a story or two to translate (depending on the number of group members and the length of the stories). The meetings with the whole group and the coordinators were organized approximately once a month and took the form of workshops structured around the

potential problems individual groups had identified in the course of the translation process. What were the objectives of the project? To start with, we wanted to provide our students with an opportunity for creative expression through a voluntary activity since there are very few extracurricular activities that can help them fully engage in their field of interest, develop it further and recognize their strengths through practical work. Another important goal was to provide the participants with an opportunity to face and try to cope with some of the challenges translation poses by experiencing the whole process of translating a literary text, which included getting acquainted with the author, his work, the period, the cultural context, translations of the works by the same author, the translation itself, checking and rechecking it, discussing and deciding on the most appropriate solutions within groups, peer assessing other stories and coming up with the final version, ready to take responsibility for the choices they had made. Yet another important objective was to raise our students’ awareness of the importance of the cultural context for a good translation. Consequently, the very choice of the texts to translate provided them with numerous opportunities to further develop their linguistic and cultural competencies. Finally, but as importantly, we hoped the project would help the participants gain valuable experience with team work, raise their awareness of the importance of each individual’s contribution to the success of the group and further develop their negotiation and social skills necessary for team work.

We’ve obviously set a very demanding task before our students! Now what was the role of the coordinators? It was a bit difficult to make it clear to the students that our role was not one of authority – we were not there to say what was right and what was wrong, nor to evaluate their work (as they indeed expected us to, at least in the beginning) but to set up workshops, raise questions we thought should be addressed in whole-group meetings, set peer feedback tasks and facilitate discussion! We tried to explain that it was up to them as translators to make choices and take responsibility for them. It was only when it was absolutely necessary that we interfered.

What you can see in the photo below is the final product of the project – a 120-page book entitled “Studentski prevod 10 novinskih priča Selindžera”!

The final product of the Ten Stories project. If you would like to use it with your students, please contact us at sanja@americancouncils.org.yu , nina.lazarevic@gmail.com or savic.milica@gmail.com. We'll be happy to send you a free copy if we have some more left J

Once again I would like to congratulate our students on all the work they did along with regular requirements they had to meet for all the courses they were taking at the time. They have used all their knowledge, skills and experience and invested a lot of time, effort and care into this book. And all of the coordinators are happy to say that we believe we have recruited a talented and enthusiastic team of future translators.