Sam Graham

BA (Drama)/BEd (Secondary), Drama major, 1st Year

Course: ENG 102 (Winter 2021) with Instructor LeiLei Chen

Who was your community partner and can you describe the project objectives?

I worked with the Literary Translators' Association of Canada (LTAC) to explore the unique role that translators play in shaping the way we look at a text.

What was your biggest takeaway from your CSL placement? 

That translators can be a creative voice, too - their decisions affect our emotional response to a text, and the meaning we take away from it. Sometimes, they have to rewrite large chunks of text that wouldn't make sense if translated literally. It's amazing how much work goes into this discipline that, for the most part, goes unnoticed.

How can you apply any newly gained knowledge/skills to your future endeavours (courses/employment/volunteering)?

I've already found the knowledge I gained from working with LTAC to be helpful in my classes. It's very handy to be able to analyze texts from the perspective of their translator as well as their author. It's also affected my personal life - I have a newfound appreciation for foreign film and literature.

What are some of the ways that COVID-19 has affected your community partner or your placement? 

Because of COVID, I haven't been able to attend any of LTAC's in-person events. I attended their St. Jerome's Day presentation digitally, and interviewed one of their translators by email. It's unfortunate that I couldn't ask questions face-to-face, but I'm thankful that there were still plenty of opportunities to learn.