본문 바로가기
  • Home

Translation education in the Japanese university setting: developing global communication skills for students

Kayoko Nohara 1

1Tokyo Institute of Technology

Accredited

ABSTRACT

In this essay, I explore the meaning and potential of teaching translation and popularizing the use of translation studies (TS) in a university setting. TS has managed to establish roots for itself, slowly but surely, over the last two decades in Japan. Universities are offering more and more courses that treat translation within the context of intercultural communication, literature, and linguistics, and invigorating academic societies. The effects of translation education on students are diverse and beyond simple foreign language learning: Translation is vital in enabling people from different cultures and even different lifestyles to interact. Japanese industries want global talents to have the ability to apply their knowledge and skills especially in science and technology in the appropriate contexts, and to benefit others by sharing information as they work in groups to formulate designs for technological innovation. These human resources have to render their messages of information in the proper format and communicate it in a way that suits their intended audience. In other words, what people need to transcend professional boundaries and collaborate with a diverse community in international society is the “ability to translate.” Learning how to translate, then, helps free people from the shells of their individual thinking patterns and acknowledge the need for flexibility and adaptability from a meta standpoint.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.