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Translation slam

 

The five days of workshops and presentations at SAM 2018 will wrap with a translation slam.

The translation slam held at the end of the 2016 edition was such a success, that we’ve decided to bring it back this year!

 

What is a translation slam?

It’s a friendly competition between two translators who are asked to translate the same text independently and without consulting each other. On the day of the slam, they present their finished work before an audience – and each other – and compare and discuss their strategies and choices. The audience is welcome and even encouraged to ask questions, make comments, provide suggestions, and share their own translations.

 

Although the word ‘competition’ suggests a win-lose situation, there are no winners or losers. It’s all done in good fun. Nobody wins a prize and nobody’s work is disparaged. That’s not the point of the exercise at all; its purpose is to share insights, compare viewpoints, and show that there is no ‘definitive’ translation.

 

The texts and the slammers’ names will be provided to SAM attendees before the start of SAM.

 

In the meantime, feel free to download the FR>EN slam and the EN>FR slam from the 2016 edition.

 

For more information about what a translation slam is, check out Chris Durban's blog post and the article Gained in Translation.