Written by Fausta Bauer

Translation may look like a straightforward process, you simply move words from one language to another, and you are done! But that is not always the case and some words or meanings become lost in the journey.

On the 26th of September the English Philology programme at Vilnius University (VU) organised the Anglistikos Akademija project. The session was opened by VU lecturer Rūta Burbaitė with her presentation Translation: There and Back Again. Her practical task invited students from Vilniaus Žemynos Progymnasium to test a theory of translation by translating several sentences from English into Lithuanian.

“The theory sees translation as a journey from one language to another, during which something is always lost. We can convey the meaning, but a small part of the original sense from the source language will always be lost due to the differences in languages,” explained Rūta Burbaitė.

The students received leaflets with simple English sentences, which they translated into Lithuanian. Afterwards, they exchanged their translations with nearby groups and translated them back into English. When they finally received their original sentences, the results made for an entertaining and informative conclusion. 

The students not only had the chance to test their English language skills in a fun and creative way, but also, through the discussion that followed, discovered what tends to be lost in translation including elements such as punctuation, capitalisation, and proper nouns.