DUBAI // Two universities are trying to address the country’s lack of trained translators.
The Canadian University of Dubai (CUD) will launch a bachelor’s degree in English language and translation this term. Until now, most translation degrees have been at postgraduate level.
And the American University of Dubai (AUD) is to open an Arabic language and translation institute this year and start offering a translation degree next year.
Between them, they will address what experts say are two key problems of translation in the UAE: that translation training is often an afterthought; and that translators’ skills are not suited to the fields in which they end up working.
The head of department at CUD, Dr Kathy O’Sullivan, hopes an undergraduate degree will encourage students to consider the field as a career option.
See: The National
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Thanks for posting this interesting article.
One would hope that the business communities and political leaders of UAE take public steps and issue statements of support to upgrade the status of the profession of translation so that it attracts Emirati graduates of those programs.
One would hope that more details of the actual contents of those undergraduate degree programs will be publicized to insure that the instruction and developed skills [1] wil... See more
Thanks for posting this interesting article.
One would hope that the business communities and political leaders of UAE take public steps and issue statements of support to upgrade the status of the profession of translation so that it attracts Emirati graduates of those programs.
One would hope that more details of the actual contents of those undergraduate degree programs will be publicized to insure that the instruction and developed skills [1] will fit the changing demands and complexities of the translating profession in and around the UAE and [2] the jobs for those graduates will be open there.
For the moment, non-Emirati bilingual expat translators -- mostly from Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Algeria, and Morocco -- continue to dominate the language services industry in UAE and adjacent GCC states.
Regards,
Stephen H. Franke
San Pedro, California
(Formerly of Saudi Arabia,
UAE, Oman and Jordan)
[Edited at 2012-08-31 00:13 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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