WSU Marks International Translation Day with Second Annual Translation Week Event
OGDEN, Utah – Students and community members will have the chance to learn more about Weber State University’s new programs in localization and translation at a series of virtual events next week, Sept. 28-Oct. 2.
The events are all part of Weber State’s second annual “Translation Week,” hosted by the Department of Foreign Languages to mark International Translation Day, which occurs each year on Sept. 30. In addition to featuring Weber State’s localization and translation programs, this year’s events will include a panel on healthcare interpreting, a presentation on U.N. interpreting, a discussion of the movie “Arrival” and a bad translation contest.
Localization and translation are related disciplines, but localization is lesser known, despite its significance as part of the language-services industry, a global market worth about $50 billion annually. The industry also includes translation and interpretation.
“Localization is about making a product or a service suitable and marketable to different global clients, taking into consideration language and culture, as well as legal and technological aspects of the country where the product or service is being marketed,” said Youn Soo Kim Goldstein, the new Ambrose Amos Shaw Assistant Professor of Localization and Translation in the Department of Foreign Languages.
Weber State became the only higher education institution in Utah to offer an associate’s degree in localization in fall 2019, the same time it first offered a minor in the subject. It is the second institution to offer the minor, joining Brigham Young University, which first offered a minor in 2016. In fall 2018, the Department of Foreign Languages launched a bachelor’s degree in Spanish Translation.
“Weber State University is one of the best universities for learning a language in the state of Utah, and we’re one of the first departments to recognize a real need for this localization minor,” said Kacy Peckenpaugh, associate professor of German and French, in a department video about the new program.
The programs in localization are open to students in any major and are particularly beneficial for students studying subjects like technology, engineering or communications, Goldstein said.
“We have so many students at Weber State who have high language abilities after they come back from being immersed in a language during their missions abroad for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” Goldstein said, “so Translation Week is a good way for them to explore what’s available out there after college.”
Senior Madison Johnson is one of these students. She returned in late 2016 from a church mission in Mexico and was the first student at Weber State to declare the major in Spanish translation. Studying translation “opens up a field of more opportunities,” she said, including a project she’s working on for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Through Weber State’s R.E.A.L. Projects program (Real Experience Applied Learning), Johnson and a partner are creating translation guides for the church. The guides identify areas of church texts that might be difficult to translate and provide assistance to translators on those points. Her translation courses at Weber State have made the project much easier, she said.
She thinks she would have connected with the church project earlier if she’d spent more time at Translation Week last year.
“Go and participate in Translation Week and see what happens,” Johnson said. “It’s definitely worth it because you meet some wonderful people.”
Prospective participants should register for each event so they can be sent a Zoom link to join the event online. Links to registration are available on the Translation Week website.
The United Nations designated Sept. 30 as International Translation Day in 2017 in order to “pay tribute to the work of language professionals, which plays an important role in bringing nations together,” according to the United Nations . Weber State’s Department of Foreign Languages held its first Translation Week two years later, in the fall of 2019.
For more news about Weber State University, visit weber.edu/wsutoday.
Megan Olsen, Office of Marketing & Communications
801-626-7948 • meganolsen9@weber.edu- Contact:
Youn Soo Kim Goldstein, assistant professor of Localization & Translation
801-626-6183 • younsookim@weber.eduMadison Johnson, Spanish Translation student
madisonjudd@mail.weber.edu