Me, Myself and I Translated: Day at UCC

To celebrate Translation Month in September, we in Project DaRT launched a competition for secondary schools in Munster to get students thinking about translation and its impact in their lives in creative ways. We challenged to translate something specific to them and their lives, and to consider translation both as a communicative process between languages as well as a metaphor for creative expression in different media.

The activity was inspired by the new Irish government’s Languages Connect strategy and aimed to promote translation as a means to realise it. We received 91 excellent submissions in total and the winners of the competition were invited to spend a day in UCC learning about translation, language and intercultural communication, as well as receiving their prizes and certificates and getting a chance to do a tour of our beautiful UCC campus.

@project_dart is welcoming 23 secondary school students to @UCC to celebrate their success in the Me, Myself and I Translated competition inspire by Languages Connect, the languages strategy for Ireland @langsconnect_ie #loveririshresearch

— Project DaRT (@project_dart) October 19, 2018

Looking forward to welcoming pupils from @StVincentsCork, @gcmhuireag, @colaiste, @ccn_school , @presballyphehane, @salesianpallas to celebrate their students’ success in the Me, Myself and I Translated competition with @project_dart @UccSplas and @CASiLaC_UCC #loveirishresearch

— Craig Neville (@craigjneville) October 19, 2018

The students arrived at around 10:15 in the morning and the day started with a short introduction to the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures and a presentation about translation.

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They then went on to spend some time engaged in a series of activities related to translation: they worked on comic creation and translation, represented languages in the body and learned about untranslatable words and cultural references, among other things:

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Translate your body into languages with Dr Barbara Siller from @UCC_German at the @project_dart celebration day for Me, Myself and I Translated with @UccSplas and @CASiLaC_UCC #loveirishresearch pic.twitter.com/AI98X0YRIZ

— Craig Neville (@craigjneville) October 19, 2018

After the hard work, the UCC Visitors Centre took them for a guided tour of the UCC campus (observatory included!)

Our secondary school winners for the Me, Myself and I Translated competition hosted by @project_dart touring @UCC with UCC School of Languages, @UccSplas and @CASiLaC_#loveirishresearch pic.twitter.com/oY1Sq34lCT

— Craig Neville (@craigjneville) October 19, 2018

After the tour, they were served lunch in the O’Rahilly Building, where their fantastic projects were displayed.

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To finish up the day, Professor Nuala Finnegan, Head of the Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies, spoke about the relevance of languages and translation in today’s world, and presented them with their certificates and awards for their work.

Professor Nuala Finnegan from @UccSplas talks to secondary students about language learning at @UCC at the end of our celebration of Me, Myself and I Translated hosted by @project_dart inspired by @langsconnect_ie pic.twitter.com/dOAFXw1Bzd

— Craig Neville (@craigjneville) October 19, 2018

Thank you so much to all of the participants, and many congratulations to the winners! We hope you enjoyed your day in UCC and that you’ll leave with a broad perspective on languages and translation and how their impact our day to day lives. We wish you all the best for the future!

Below are some more pictures of the day; if you want to find out more about our activities with students, translators and the broader public, do check our outreach section.