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By: Erik Angelone

Want to learn more about Kent State’s online M.A in Translation? We recently interviewed Andrew Tucker, a Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Modern and Classical Language Studies here at Kent State.

Mr. Tucker specializes in Spanish translation and teaches a variety of courses within the program. With a pending Ph.D. in Translation Studies from KSU and years of diverse experience working in the translation field, Mr. Tucker is a great resource for anyone considering Kent State’s translation program!

Continue reading to learn more about the courses Mr. Tucker teaches, his work experience, the advantages of Kent’s program, and much more!

1. What courses do you teach in the translation program?

I teach the first-semester introductory translation practice course and the more specialized Commercial, Legal & Diplomatic Translation course in the Spanish track of our online M.A. in Translation. Below is a short description of each course.

• SPAN 68010: The Practice of Spanish Translation – This course gives students extensive practice in translating a wide range of texts from Spanish into English. Additionally, students will become familiar with and learn to apply different types of resources while translating. This course also looks at translation as both a process and a product.
• SPAN 68250: Commercial, Legal & Diplomatic Translation – In this course, students get extensive practice translating a range of legal, commercial, and diplomatic text genres and developing methods for tackling unfamiliar specialized language. While translating, you’ll create resources to develop knowledge of specific topics. Then, you’ll use this knowledge to make informed translation decisions. Sharpening your research skills is important because translators often encounter difficult concepts for which there are few reliable resources. They are also called upon to evaluate the output of other translators and machine translation. After translating, you’ll reflect upon your personal translation process in order to better identify and allocate the resources needed to work effectively and efficiently. Finally, you’ll consider several aspects of doing business as a translator.

2. Where is your expertise in the field?

As with many translation teachers and researchers, I have an interdisciplinary academic and professional background. I studied Spanish at the bachelor’s level and Hispanic literature and linguistics at the master’s level.

However, learning Spanish in the classroom was not enough to translate well. So, I moved to Mexico City after finishing my master’s and spent four years at a law firm translating for foreign investors doing business in Mexico and for companies involved in litigation resulting from the Great Recession. While working at the firm, I began studying translation formally, building my client base, and teaching translation.

Studying translation and business law was necessary to improve my knowledge of my clients’ and colleagues’ worlds—something my previous studies had not prepared me for. I worked closely with attorneys from several specialty areas, not only translating but also helping them write texts that would be read by foreign attorneys seeking information on changing Mexican legislation.

I began freelancing in 2009 and was a full-time independent translator by 2012. Since then, I’ve worked closely with Mexican and American law firms, corporate clients, and agencies, as well as individuals who need personal translation services in domains as varied as contemporary art, financial news, and educational policy. I’ve also taught and developed translation courses at Universidad Anáhuac México and Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), and I’ve presented on translation throughout the Americas and Europe.

My students come from all over the place. Some have worked for the Mexican Office of the President, others for large international consulting firms and in their own translation companies. There have even been a couple from the other side of the world translating into their third language.

I came to Kent State to pursue a Ph.D. in Translation Studies after becoming interested in translator education. At Kent, I’m researching ways to improve online translation practice courses like the ones you would take as part of Kent’s M.A. in translation.

3. What are some of the advantages of studying translation online at Kent State?

At Kent State, we use many of the same tools translators use in their daily workflow—not just your typical translation tools, but also essential word-processing and cloud-based suites. We do this in professionally relevant ways. In the near past, many translators didn’t have to use such a wide and changing array of technologies to collaborate and interact with others the way they do today. We’re aware of this at the curricular level. In many ways, the way students work in our online M.A. reflects the way translators work in the field. This helps our students avoid that sense of shell shock some people experience when entering the industry.

Our specialized legal and commercial practice course takes a comparative approach to the language variants used in specific countries and equips our students with methods they can apply when encountering unfamiliar texts in the wild. This is essential when working with languages like Arabic, French, German, and Spanish, which are languages used to transact business in multiple countries with different legal and commercial traditions.

Finally, we incorporate process-oriented approaches into our training. These are very helpful considering our program is asynchronous, meaning students aren’t required to communicate in real-time. This allows our instructors to get to know students’ personal translation processes and give tailored feedback aimed at improving students’ translation skills and abilities.

4. What makes the field of translation such an exciting prospect for the future?

The same thing that has always made translation exciting: digging into a huge variety of topics—it never gets boring. Now and in the future, translators must be able to adapt to changing markets and tools while attaining a high level of subject-matter specialization and writing like the pros.

Ready to Enroll?

To start the application process, fill out the short form on our admissions page, or, if you would like to learn more about the program, contact us today. We look forward to having you as a student!