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Arley J. Winter

Dr. Julie Doppel-Hicks

HONR 3791

April 10, 2014

Life in Translation

Anyone who has gone through the college experience can tell you that college is not just

a place of learning, but a place of enlightenment and self-discovery. Every class you take, pass

or fail, gives you knowledge that goes far beyond the information on the syllabus. Every

relationship you create, whether with a teacher, boss, friend, or partner, helps you learn a little

more about yourself and the world around you. Every experience, either on campus or off,

becomes a part of who you are. In my time at UNC Charlotte, I have experienced the good, the

bad, and the beautiful. Each one of my college experiences has shaped who I am today and

where I want to go from here. The “artifacts” I chose represent some of the most profound

aspects of my time in college, whether academically, culturally, socially, or personally.

My college experience has been a complex one, filled with many twists, turns, and

serendipities to land me where I am today: an Anthropology and French language double major

at UNC Charlotte, nearing completion of a translation certificate with a specialty in French to

English. At first glance, my choices of study might seem random or unrelated, but I don’t see

them that way. In fact, I see them all working together to reach a goal that most people strive

toward: understanding the world around me.

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Translation was not something that I expected to fall in love with, but after my very first

French-English translation course in my third year, I was hooked. Translation is not quite as

simple as I had thought. I cannot simply translate an entire text by plugging each word into a

translation generator and mashing everything together. Instead, there is an entire process for

translating a text from one language to another. A translator must have a full and proper

understanding of grammar, syntax, and idioms in each language, along with an understanding

of the culture and history of both the source and target languages. They must not only possess

a set of tools, but also a set of skills that must be learned and honed over time. The goal of the

translator, above all, is creating understanding.

Upon reflection, I’ve realized that the knowledge that I have gained about the process of

translation, along with the skills I have acquired on how to properly translate, are not only

applicable when translating texts from one language to another, but also when “translating”

unfamiliar worlds. Many of my college experiences have placed me in a position where I was

unfamiliar with the culture and language of the world around me. For example, when I took a

job working on a production set for a television show called Banshee, I needed to translate this

new production world into an understandable form. First, I needed to learn the language, which

in the case of my experience on Banshee, involved learning the jargon used on set. Next, I

needed to learn the culture. On Banshee, some of this involved understanding that the way I

was often spoken to was not meant for personal insult, but rather the way in which my

superiors believed was the most effective means of motivating me and my coworkers to

properly and effectively perform our jobs. Finally, I needed to go through the process of

translating the world into a means that I could understand. It took time, patience, and

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persistence to be able to process and compile the information and observations that I was

taking in on the Banshee set, and to finally be able to fully understand, appreciate, and

translate that world. Eventually, with all of my formerly incomprehensible college experiences, I

was able to understand each individual world, something I could not do in the beginning.

My Anthropology major has also helped me in these situations, where I was thrust into

other worlds and cultures. Within the general subject of Anthropology, my time in college has

been primarily focused on Cultural Anthropology, which, in its simplest form, can be defined as

the study of human cultures. While my major in French has helped me with the language part

of translation, my major in Anthropology has helped me with the cultural part of translations. It

has helped me to recognize my biases and the ethnocentrism toward my culture that has been

ingrained in my nature. Consequentially, it has helped me move past these biases and be able

to recognize that other cultures, whether they are across the globe or across the street, are not

any better or worse than my own, they are simply different. They have their own sets of history,

language, customs, and social norms that I need to learn if I want to fully understand and

appreciate them. Working in harmony, my two majors and my participation in the translation

certificate program have all come together to help me translate the world around me.

“Artifacts” are physical items that are related to various experiences. In this written

portfolio of my time at UNC Charlotte, I use artifacts as a tool of reflection upon the many

journeys and experiences that I have gone through over these last four years. Each artifact

brings me back to a certain place and time, encouraging better and deeper reflection. From

packets of paper, to old jewelry, to photos, each of my artifacts represents a part of me, along

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with a facet of the intricate puzzle that is translation. The eight artifacts I chose made me

particularly reflect on the past four years and the events and experiences that have shaped who

I am today.

Banshee Sides

My first artifact is a small but thick booklet of paper from my time on the production set

of the first season of a show called Banshee, which was filmed between June and September of

2012. “Sides,” as they were referred to, were created each day to help the crew keep up with

the scenes we were working on that day. This artifact represents my entire experience on the

Banshee production set. I chose this artifact in particular because it also is an example of some

of the language that I needed to learn in that new world. The “sides” that each person on set

received at the beginning of each day contained only the pages of the complete script that we

would be filming that particular day, printed on half-sheets of paper and stapled into a packet.

They were important because they helped us keep up with what we were doing that day, what

each set member needed to prepare for based on the requirements of each scene, and how

much time we could allot to each scene in order to get through everything that day. In the

beginning, even the term “sides” required translation into a language I could understand. I had

no idea what I was doing and it was terrifying. On my first day, all I knew was that I had

received a text message the day before, from a friend I hadn’t seen in at least a year, asking if I

wanted a job. I had responded yes, expecting her to elaborate. The only “elaboration” I got,

however, was that I’d be working in “camera” on the “set” where she worked and it would be

for probably three days, with very good pay. For a planner like me, this was nowhere near

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enough information. I didn’t know anything about this show she was working on or anything

about what I was expected to be doing there. But after allowing myself only a moment of

hesitation, I concluded that I really needed the extra money since I had yet to find a summer

job back in my hometown. So I took a risk and said I’d be there, saying a quick prayer in my

head that I wasn’t going to be walking onto a porn set. When I drove up to our filming location

on my first day, I honestly thought I’d be working with people who took pictures. I was

overwhelmed and panicked the entire first day. I had no idea what I needed to do or where I

needed to be at any moment. When someone handed me this packet of paper they called

“sides,” I just stared at it, wide-eyed, thinking, “What on earth am I supposed to do with this?” I

was terrified and completely out of my comfort zone. The whole world around me was fast-

paced, highly stressful, crude, and dysfunctional; but it was completely addictive. Despite all of

the mixed emotions of my first day, I couldn’t wait to do it all again the next day, and I didn’t

even really know why. In the end, my experience on Banshee was a time of immense growth

which helped me expand my horizons and adjust my expectations of the future.

This artifact is particularly significant to me because it was one of the most exciting and

incredible experiences of my college career; one that refueled my confidence in my future.

When I got the job on Banshee, I had just come back from France and was no longer sure of the

person that I was or who I had become. I had gone through so many changes while I was gone,

yet I had to come back and refill the shoes that the old me had left behind. I couldn’t even

explain how I had changed or why I felt so different; I just knew that I wasn’t the same

anymore. I wasn’t as naïve as I used to be, but part of overcoming my naivety involved

abandoning some of my innocence. I had done more, tried more, seen more, and experienced

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more when I was gone, and it changed me. I guess everyone goes through lots of changes over

the course of half a year. It just seemed more prominent because no one at home had seen me

change. Now that I was back home, it was like suddenly I was seeing all of my changes because I

felt like I had to be the person I was before, and I could never be that person again. It was like

two versions of me had collided, and I had never been less sure of myself. I was questioning

everything: who I was, the path I had chosen, and the prospects of my future.

I had become very lost and was losing hope in a prosperous future. I didn’t know what

job I was going to have or if there was any particular thing or skill in which I was truly

EXCELLENT. I had always been “good” at a lot of different things, making choosing one path for

myself very difficult. I was afraid that I had spent too much time trying to dabble in a little bit of

everything, and that it would hurt me in the long run. But when I was working on Banshee, I

wasn’t just “alright;” I was great. All of my co-workers were incredibly impressed with how well

and how quickly I picked up on the whole world. It was a new experience, a new world, and a

new language; but after some practice, I learned the language, I learned the culture, and before

I knew it, the world was translated and I understood it.

When I look back at it now, I see a period of transition in my life. I was still confused

about who I was and what I wanted to do with my life when the season ended; taking the best

job I’d ever had with it. But I had still come a long way from the person I was before Banshee.

The experience helped me figure out who I did and did not want to be. I realized that I couldn’t

be the old me anymore, but I also realized that I didn’t have to be the person I became in

France or the person I was before France. I could take everything I’d learned and experienced,

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all my successes and failures, and work toward a new, better me. I could never change back to

who I once was, but I could always move forward to a new and different me. It was an

important stepping stone on my path to self-acceptance. I was never going to be the same

innocent girl that I used to be, and that was okay.

I chose this artifact because I knew I wanted to have something that represented this

important aspect of my college career. But more specifically, I liked this artifact in particular

because of its link to my overall theme of translation. The sides were different every day, but

the first day I worked on set and someone handed me the sides, they might as well have been

in Chinese. I didn’t understand how to use them, what they meant, why everything on them

seemed to be out of order, why some days they were half-an-inch thick and some days they

were 3 pages long; it was all so confusing! But by the end of my time there, I understood

everything about the sides and I understood how important they were in keeping the day’s

operations running smoothly. Before I learned French, looking at a book in French meant

nothing to me; it was useless. But now, I have learned everything I need to be able to

understand a book in French and translate it into English. The sides mirror that same language-

learning relationship.

Essay from an Anthropology Course

My next artifact, an essay from one of my Anthropology classes, represents my

Anthropology major. It was a paper I wrote during my third year of college, during the spring

semester of 2013, in my “Women through Cross-Cultural Perspectives” class. In the paper, I

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evaluate two different cultural groups, the Andalusians of Spain and the Sambia of Papua New

Guinea. I also describe the similarities that the different cultures have in some of their

manhood initiation rituals. As I discussed in my paper:

Among the Sambia, rituals of manhood are open and distinct. There are specific

ceremonies that take place that initiate boys through every stage of the prolonged

process of becoming a man, the first of which being removing the boy from the mother

when he is seven to ten years old. This is only the first of three bachelorhood rites that

all take place collectively in the men’s clubhouse before the age of 16. From there, the

final three individual initiation rites take place, including being assigned a wife and

getting married, being “introduced to additional purification and sexual techniques,”

and finally, bearing a child. (Winter, 1)

In contrast, the Andalusian initiation rites are much more subliminal. The boys do not

realize that they are performing “rituals” that are helping them become recognized as men in

their culture; they just “know and understand certain activities that are expected of them in

order to be considered manly, even though these rituals are not explicitly identified in the

society” (Winter, 1). For example, there is one particular ritual that young teenage boys take

part in which involves a group of young post-pubescent boys gathering together in the street

and waiting for a young girl to walk by. When she does, they “rush after her, hollering

obscenities, jeering and grasping at her clothing, driving her crying to her home” (Gilmore,

166).1 Older men of the community are not only aware that this takes place; they also did it

1 Gilmore, David. “My Encounter with Machismo in Spain.” Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective. Ed. Caroline Brettell and Carolyn Fishel Sargent. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1993. 163-174. Print.

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themselves when they were that age. In that community, it’s simply a part of becoming

“macho.”

In my paper, I had to look at the different worlds of the Andalucians and the Sambians

and translate the deeper meanings behind some of their actions. I determined that the

seemingly very different rituals actually served the same purpose in their different worlds. They

were essentially different translations of the same experience: becoming a man in their culture.

Although I don’t plan on pursuing a career that is exclusively specific to my Anthropology

degree, the observational skills that I learned through classes like this one will help me in any

career or future path I take, even in my everyday life. It shows that everyone must go through

processes of translation in many areas of life, even translating the process of becoming a man

in different cultures, as was the topic of that essay.

One of the reasons that this essay is significant to me is because how well I was able to

grasp and analyze the material. I realized that I had really understood the different cultural

manifestations of a universal occurrence, young boys becoming men. I had been questioning

my decision to pursue a major in Anthropology, but I was doing really well in this class, a course

that was cross-listed as both an Anthropology class and a Women and Gender Studies class. I

felt very confident about the paper when I turned it in, and I’d actually thought the assignment

was pretty straight forward. The next week, however, I found out that most of the students in

the class did not do well on the assignment. Because so many students had done so poorly on

the assignment, the professor went over it in class and talked about many of the problems

students had when writing the essay. Then she started talking about the best paper that she

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had received, without revealing the name of the student who submitted it. She used it as an

example of a good way to tackle the assignment; of thinking critically and analyzing without just

summarizing the assigned reading. I realized after a few minutes that she was talking about my

paper. I was surprised, a little embarrassed at first, and then completely touched. I couldn’t

believe she liked it that much, and it was actually a bit emotional for me realizing that I had

done so well. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve always struggled with feeling like I was “good” at a

lot of things and not “great” at anything. But a professor was standing in front of the class

raving about my paper, the best paper in the class. That class and that paper helped restore my

confidence in the major I had chosen, and woke me up from the feeling that I was just drifting

through school, waiting to get that expensive slip of paper. It reminded me that I was not in

school just to get a degree, but to advance my critical thinking skills and change the way I

viewed the world around me. My Anthropology major most likely won’t lead me to a very well-

paying job. Honestly, I have no idea what job I will even manage to get with this degree. But

going through the Anthropology program has permanently changed the way I view the world.

Now I can understand and interpret cultures and I can appreciate that different rituals

are just expressions of something deeper, which are often repeated throughout many different

cultures. In the case of this particular paper, the very different rituals from the very different

Andalusian and Sambian cultures both expressed the theme of boys becoming men; it was all

about the nature of the rituals, not the exact activities that took place. As I discussed in the

paper, I concluded that one particular similarity between the two rituals was that both aimed to

create a separation between men and women. In order for these boys to become “men,” they

needed to make women into the “other” and associate them only with sexual activities and

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reproduction. For example, the Sambian boys are ripped from their mothers at a young age and

then live and interact only with men until they are married. One initiation ritual even includes

learning sexual techniques with the older men from the community, including performing

fellatio and ingesting the semen (seen as ingesting the “manhood” of the older community

member). The Andalusians have a highly sexualized culture that openly encourages “making

use” of every opportunity for sex as a part of being macho, which starts with activities that put

women on a lower level and turn them into tools for adolescent games.

The Anthropology program has given me a leg up from my colleagues because of my

improved critical thinking and analysis skills, which I used when preparing for and writing this

paper. Most of the other students in the class were not Anthropology majors, but I was, which

greatly improved my ability to succeed on that paper, and will only help me to succeed in life.

So much of translation is about understanding cultures and the differences we have

between cultures. Idiomatic expressions are one of the greatest revealers of cultural

differences. For example, there are two similar idiomatic expressions in both French and English

that talk about a child who is quiet. In English, the idiomatic expression is “still waters run

deep.” This means that the quiet child often doesn’t say very much because he or she is

constantly thinking about very deep and complex subjects. It is meant as a compliment to the

quiet child. In French, they also have an expression, “il n'est pire eau que celle qui dort,” which

literally translated means, “there is no worse water than the water which sleeps.” Often, this

idiom is translated as “still waters run deep.” However, the connotation is completely different

because of the culture. In English, it’s a good thing if the child is quiet, but in French, they warn

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of quiet children, implying that if they are quiet, then they are up to no good. The person who

translates this phrase as “still waters run deep” has completely ignored the cultural variations,

which will make the surrounding text seem out of place with the idiom. In the same sense, the

paper I wrote required stepping back from both cultures and taking the time to evaluate them

separately. The two different rituals could be considered two different idioms of the same

topic, but they are reflected differently within each culture. Both rituals involved becoming a

man, but the way that this topic is reflected in each culture is drastically different, just like

idioms. Understanding cultural differences, something my Anthropological studies have focused

on, is an important tool for translating the various cultures that I will be exposed to throughout

life, and has already proven to be an incredible tool of translation.

Ice Skating Photo

Transitioning from the academic to the personal, my third artifact is a picture of my

boyfriend, Drew, and me while we were ice skating in Uptown Charlotte in December, 2012.

The Nascar Hall of Fame had set up an outdoor ice-skating rink, complete with a photographer

who was set up there to capture the enjoyment that everyone was experiencing at the ice rink.

This night this night in particular was a “Couple’s Night” that featured lots of special giveaways

and activities like gift bags, roses, chocolate, and carriage rides. Drew had gotten the tickets for

us so that we could have a special date night. It was an incredibly fun night; we just laughed and

were carefree, no matter how many times we almost fell down (and when we did actually fall

down). We were just enjoying our time together and taking a break from all the stress of life

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that had been going on at the time. We hadn’t been dating very long, but it was a great date

that really stuck out in my memory as one of the nights that we spent falling for each other

(both literally and figuratively).

This picture dives into my personal life, an important part of my college experience. This

picture represents both my relationship with Drew and the problems that I was going through

at the time that he helped me deal with. During a time when I had begun to lose myself and

forget the things that were important to me, he helped me rediscover myself and remember

what I wanted out of life and the person that I wanted to be. He came into my life at a very

difficult time, and his presence helped me get through that experience. He helped me translate

the unknown and confusing text that was my life at the time, and with his support, I learned

how to deal with difficult situations. In the end, he also helped me realize that, should anything

similar happen in the future, I should never shut myself away from others, but instead pursue

others to help me through hard times, which was an important life lesson.

Drew and I met in October of 2012, not long after I had finished working on Banshee,

and not long into my first semester back at UNC Charlotte. Although my experience on Banshee

had restored my hope in becoming a better me, I was still far from the person I wanted to be. I

was still feeling the collision of my two worlds, and no longer having Banshee in my life was

kind of hard. On top of that, I had really realized that semester how much my life in Charlotte

had changed in the eight months since I was last at UNCC before I left for France. I had changed

a lot, yes, but so had my friends and the people around me. And because I had changed and my

friends had changed separately, it was hard to adjust my relationships with them now that we

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were all different people. In particular, I had noticed changes in my relationships with two of

my closest friends, one of whom, Michelle, I was living with at the time. I had noticed that one

of my friends, Corinne, was acting very differently around me. I had considered her one of my

closest friends up until that point, but for whatever reason it seemed like she suddenly had a

problem with me and I didn’t know why. When she was around, she would make snide

comments to the side about what I was talking about or doing and roll her eyes or give me

funny looks when I was talking. I also found out that she had been saying mean things about me

around some of my other friends. It was all very “high school” and for a long time I just ignored

her and the things she was saying and doing. I had really been bottling up a lot of my feelings at

the time, as a defense mechanism against getting hurt. I had fallen into depression the

semester before going abroad to France, and I was afraid that it would happen again with an

unfortunate mix of experiences and emotions. So instead I developed a new, unhealthy way of

dealing with my emotions: to ignore them altogether.

When I met Drew, I realized very quickly that I really liked him and wanted to pursue a

relationship with him. However, pursuing a relationship meant becoming vulnerable and

breaking down the emotional walls I had put up. I had to let myself feel the emotions that I had

been so desperately trying to avoid. He slowly pulled away those carefully laid emotional bricks,

and it was a good thing. I was allowing myself to feel emotions again, to let go of the hardness I

had allowed to form in my heart. But it also meant that all the feelings I had been bottling up

for months released like a floodgate, including the feelings of hurt and betrayal I had not been

allowing myself to feel toward Corinne. I couldn’t understand what I had done so wrong to

cause her to be acting the way she had been acting toward me. To complicate matters, I

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discovered that my closest friend since childhood, Michelle, had decided to live with Corinne

the following year. Since I was still adjusting to dealing with my feelings head-on instead of

bottling them up, I was having trouble dealing with my feelings toward Michelle for “dumping”

me for someone who had already been so hurtful toward me over the last several months. I

tried to talk to her about it, but that turned into a huge argument that only created more hurt

and confusion. Michelle’s inability to hear the truth despite Corinne’s lies and manipulation left

a rift in our relationship that was never able to heal.

All of this was an emotional roller coaster for me. And Drew was right there in the

middle of it. At one point Michelle and I got into such a huge fight that we were literally

screaming at each other, and Drew saw the whole thing. I thought for sure that he would think I

was crazy or overly emotional or anything, but instead he saw right through me and realized

how badly I was hurting. Instead of running for the hills, he comforted me. He truly wanted to

be there for me. And among all that, he wanted to make me happy. He wanted to take me out

to have fun and forget about any problems in our lives. He took me ice skating so I could forget

about the problems in my old relationships, and instead focus on the happiness that this new

relationship was bringing. I was terrified of succumbing to the same depression that had

ravaged me the year before, and a situation like the one I was experiencing would have been

more than enough to pull me under again. But even among all of the emotional and hurtful

things going on in my life, he kept me happy. He refused to let me get depressed and he helped

me get through it all. He was a person that I could open up to honestly and without fear. And

even when the situation got worse instead of better, he became the new rock that I could rely

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on to keep me sane and remind me of the important things in my life, the things that I couldn’t

let this experience take away.

I didn’t understand what was going on in my life, or why everything seemed to be falling

apart. But through talking with him, he helped me translate the situation, little by little. He

offered a different perspective, something that is often needed when translating between

languages. Sometimes when translating text, you spend too much time involved in the text and

trying to work it out that you aren’t able to notice mistakes or see that certain parts of your

translation are choppy or don’t make sense. That’s when it’s important to have another person

read your translation. They may not have read the original text or even understand French at

all, but they can give a perspective and criticism on your completed translation, one that is not

biased from knowing what you’re “trying to say” based on what was in the original foreign text.

Drew, in a sense, was my critical reader, offering a new perspective that is separate from the

original “text,” which in this case was the situation surrounding these former friends.

In addition, when translating, it is important to take breaks and step away from the text.

That way you can come back to it later with renewed eyes and you are rested and rejuvenated

to keep going with the translation. Drew offered these breaks for me. I was able to step away

from the situation and take breaks to rest, relax, and be happy, so that I could go back to the

situation with renewed eyes and understanding.

Program Completion Certificate from Lyon

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My next artifact dives into my inner world traveler; it’s my program completion

certificate from my Study Abroad experience in Lyon, France during the spring semester of

2012. It was made, signed, and mailed to me after my completion of the international student

program at l’Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3. It represents everything that went into my time

there, the good and the bad. It was amazing, but it took some adjusting to be able to

understand and become comfortable in that new world. It represents following my dreams and

overcoming struggle. It required the translation of that world to be able to understand it in my

own way. It also represents my love for French which I have been continuing to pursue and

never want to give up on.

It is significant because it shows that I got through the program and overcame all of the

struggles I faced there, culturally, academically, and personally. It was a whole new world, one

that I was excited to enter into, but it didn’t turn out to be what I expected. I thought I would

immediately improve my French skills, make French friends that would help me speak French

even better, and come back fluent. But that didn’t happen. Instead, when I got there, I

experienced culture shock. Everything was frustrating, and I felt like I could barely speak

French, reducing my confidence level to the point that I didn’t practice it nearly as much as I

should have. I thought that I would understand the culture there, after all, I had grown up in a

very multi-cultural family and I had been to Paris multiple times throughout my life to visit my

aunt, uncle, and cousins who had lived in Paris since before I was born. But once I was living

there alone, there was so much that I didn’t understand. I didn’t understand the University’s

administrative system, or how to make sense of the bus routes, or why all the loose-leaf paper

and notebooks looked like graph paper, or how to set up my electricity, or what the

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representative from the local internet company was saying, or where on earth to find certain

groceries that I had thought were international staples. I recall many frustrated moments

wandering through the aisles of Carrefour, essentially the French equivalent of Wal-Mart, with

my pocket French-English dictionary shouting in my head things like, “WHY IS THERE NO ALL-

PURPOSE FLOUR?!” All of the frustration I experienced at my lack of cultural or linguistic

understanding echoes a feeling that I sometimes get when I receive a new text to translate.

Sometimes I look at that new text, skim it, and immediately feel less confident in my French

skills because there is so much that I don’t understand. There are, of course, basic things that I

don’t understand, but there is so much more that takes time and effort to deduce from a text.

At first, it’s incredibly frustrating.

But things start making sense and falling into place as I read and reread the French text,

sometimes consulting the aid of a dictionary or looking up unfamiliar idioms. And just like with

translation, my culture shock didn’t last. Eventually I got used to the culture and even felt that I

was a part of it, I could get by in my day-to-day tasks and learned all the vocabulary I needed to

get through my regular day in Lyon. I learned what an alarm clock was called and even where to

buy one, I learned the little polite phrases to say to a cashier or waiter, I learned the bus route

and figured out how to take the bus to the park on sunny days, I eventually set up electricity

and internet, I got a cell phone, and I dealt with all my notes being on weird paper. I even was

able to get by without ever finding Mexican-style shredded cheese; somehow I managed with

the Mecca of intoxicating French cheeses constantly at my disposal. After all, why eat tacos

when I can live day-in and day-out on white-bread baguettes smothered in camembert? In the

same way, through time and effort, I can work to understand a French text that I didn’t

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understand at first. Does it mean that my French is automatically drastically improved? No. But

it does mean that I learned what was necessary to be able to properly translate that particular

text, just as I learned what I needed to get through my daily routine in Lyon.

In addition to expanding my knowledge of the French language and culture, I also was

able to broaden my horizons of other cultures. Because my program was intended for

international students, I was able to get to know other students from all over the world. I had

friends from Finland, Holland, Germany, Mexico, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, China, the

Philippines, and both English-speaking and French-speaking Canada. It’s funny how it took me

going to France to learn things about cultures so close to home like Mexico and Canada. Who

knew Canadians say “wash room” instead of “bath room”? I recall one particular evening when

a group of us went out to celebrate a friend’s birthday, and we decided to all sing happy

birthday to her in our own language. The streets of Lyon were lit up with the sounds of French,

English, Spanish, Finnish, Filipino, and German music filling the air. I never expected to learn so

much about all those different cultures, but the friendships I made there gave me a multi-

cultural learning experience that I would have never otherwise expected. It was as if I was

translating a new text. I start a translation knowing little more than the title and the fact that it

is in French. But the subject of a translation can be about anything. When I’m translating, I’m

also reading something new, and gaining the same types of new knowledge and discoveries

that I learn any time I read in English. I recall one time learning about Iranian culture when

translating an excerpt from a memoir of a girl who emigrated from Iran to France. I never know

what I’m going to learn, but I never fail to walk away from a translation with some sort of new

knowledge. In the same way, my stay in Lyon ended up being a clear translation, though

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manifested differently than I expected, of the cultural and linguistic experience that I had

vaguely aspired to receive in going to France.

Thinking French Translation Textbook

Although it may seem like a strange choice, I decided to include my textbook, Thinking

French Translation, as my fifth valuable artifact of my college journey. This book was used in

two of my translation classes during the spring and fall semesters of 2013. It represents some of

the skills of translation that I learned over my college experience. It also represents the process

I went through in order to understand translation, along with my current love of translation. I

have come to enjoy translation so much that I would like to continue doing translation after

graduating with my certificate in translation. Although I usually hate theory, the theory in this

book really helped me understand my discipline and inspired me to choose the theme of this

portfolio. Many of the principles of translation that I discuss in this paper were originally

learned from this book.

As an artifact, this book is significant to me because it was a vital tool in learning how to

translate. Learning the language is, obviously, a very important part of translating, but it isn’t

everything. You also need tools to be able to translate, which can include a French-English

dictionary and a book of common idiomatic expressions. On top of these tools, you also need

skills. These skills can include a high vocabulary in both French and English, proper grammar in

both French and English, an understanding of cultural differences, and an understanding of

translation theory. Normally, I really hate theory. And I have to admit that learning translation

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theory was not exactly fun; however, it was incredibly helpful. Anyone can put a bunch of

words into Google Translate and see what comes out, but getting a good translation is hard.

This translation theory book helped me to understand the goal of translation, which is to create

a text that balances what is added and what is lost. In the end, you want to create the highest

level of understanding, but you also want to properly honor the original text. It is an incredibly

difficult balance to find, but this book offers tips on some of the ways that you can try to create

this balance.

This book is from my very first translation class, which was the class that made me

realize how much I love translation. I had only taken the class because I needed two 4000-level

French classes in order to complete the French major, and one of those classes could be

replaced by a 4000-level French Translation class. For the sake of time as I approached

graduation, I decided to go ahead and take advantage of that option despite my lack of interest

in the full translation program. I never thought I would end up loving it so much. Early on I

realized that I was pretty good at translation, and combined with the theory and skills I was

learning every day in class, I was quickly getting better and better. Even my professor admitted

that I was very good at translation and she could tell that I really enjoyed it. She said that in

addition to all the tools needed to be a good translator, you also need to have a talent, almost

like an artistic gift. She admitted that not everyone had it, even students who tried desperately

to grasp the art of translation. But in many of our discussions since that first class, she always

made sure I knew that this natural talent was something I possessed. She encouraged me to

pursue the full Translation Certification program and gave me extra advising on how to do this

and the things that I could continue to do with translation after graduation. It was yet another

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uplifting moment where I was told that I was not just good at something, I was great. Now I am

nearing the end of the Translation Certification program and have found a true passion and

hobby of mine in life, even though it will never be a job that can pay the rent, something my

professor warned me about early on. Even if I can’t live off of translation as a career, I’ve found

something that I am really good at which has helped shape who I am and made me realize

some of the things I want to do with my life.

Designs for Handmade Jewelry

As my translation professor has told me before, translation is an art form that requires a

natural talent and passion, but it is not the only art that I have pursued in my college career. My

next artifact dives into another artistic side of me. To represent it, I chose a simple but creative

sheet of paper with a few designs for necklaces and bracelets that I wanted to make. I created

these various designs throughout 2013, after deciding I wanted to continue pursuing jewelry-

making and advancing my skill. I started making jewelry in elementary school at a local bead

shop, and I continued to make jewelry there as gifts throughout middle and high school. By the

time I got to college, it was placed on the back burner and I only really pulled out my set of

jewelry pliers when I needed to fix broken jewelry. After I had decided that I no longer wanted

to continue with my biology major, I was struggling with deciding what I really wanted to do.

My family members reminded me of how much I used to love making jewelry and tried to

encourage me to pursue my artistic talents. I took their advice and applied into the art program

at UNCC, which I failed to get into. Looking back on that failure now, I’m actually really thankful

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that I didn’t get in. I love art, but I honestly think that studying art as my major would have

tainted my love for it. So even though I didn’t get into the art program, I had still been

reminded of how much I used to love making jewelry and I wanted to keep this passion alive. I

mostly made jewelry for myself, since often times I would see jewelry in stores and scoff at the

price tag knowing how easy it would be to make something similar. But before I knew it I

became a sort of walking billboard for myself, and friends and family members would come to

me and “contract” me to make gifts that they could to give to others.

In April 2013, my first niece was born to my sister, who lives with her husband in

Austria. I was so ecstatic about the new addition to the family, and particularly excited about

her being a girl, that I immediately wanted to make her gifts. I started sketching her name and

realized that it would be great if I could make a necklace in the shape of her name out of wire. I

had never tried wire-bending before, but I decided that it couldn’t be that hard and bought

some solid sterling silver wire at Hobby Lobby, along with a hypoallergenic sterling silver

necklace chain online. Only the best for my perfect little niece! The results were perfection; it

honestly looked better than my original designs! And from that moment on, I was hooked on

wire-bending. With beading, you are constantly restricted by the beads you have access to. But

with wire-bending, you can make almost anything you want. Think of any shape, symbol, or

figure, and there is some way that you can make it out of wire. It was the perfect way to

express my artistic ability and has continued to be an outlet and stress reliever for me.

This artifact helps display one of the first steps of translating, having an idea. I can draw

the idea, but I need to keep sketching and reworking before even starting to try and create a

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product from the idea. There may be several designs, sketches, and trial products before

creating the final product. The same thing occurs when I’m doing a translation. I start out with

the original text, which gives me a certain image in my head of the text subject. Then, I have to

try and write that idea in English. A word-for-word translation of a line from French to English

usually doesn’t work, but sometimes that’s a starting place. The syntax is oftentimes very

different. Sometimes, at first, I may write or just read in my head a sentence that sounds like

this: “I have played football yesterday night at the home of Robert.” But little by little I work

that into something that would realistically be said in English, which may look something like

this: “I played soccer last night at Robert’s house.” This can happen for every sentence, before

you even get to the proofreading and revision stage of editing the text in English before it’s

complete. In the end, with both jewelry and translation, the final product may be very different

from the original.

I’m so glad that I rediscovered this little joy in my life. I’m excited to continue to pursue

jewelry design and jewelry making so that I can discover even more ways to be able to bring an

idea to life. Hopefully, I will soon even be able to share my talents with the world by opening up

an online shop on Etsy, as I am currently trying to do. Jewelry making has challenged me to

never stop learning, and that no skill is unworthy of trying and learning.

Completed Handmade Bracelet

Since my pervious artifact brought me so much insight, I decided to pair that

representation of the first step in the jewelry-making process with the final step: admiring the

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completed creation. This particular artifact is a bracelet that I made in September, 2013 for my

sister’s wedding. I made one for each of my sister’s bridesmaids, the flower girl, and our aunt

who stood in our late mother’s place for the wedding. My sister has always been a huge

supporter of my jewelry-making hobby, encouraging me to continue with it and even try and

make money off of it. It didn’t take much consideration before deciding that she wanted me to

make her bridal party gifts. So she looked on Etsy for ideas that she liked, and then gave me

creative license to design something that she would like. And sure enough, she loved my

creations! Everyone else that I made bracelets for felt the same way. The gifts even created

more sales later on after people saw the bracelets and wanted similar items. These bracelets

restored my faith that I did indeed have a talent instead of just being able to work with pliers.

Making them reminded me of how much I love making jewelry, even though I often don’t have

enough time to devote to it. As I already mentioned when discussing my previous artifact, I plan

to continue making jewelry for sale on Etsy and have a vision that it can always be something I

can do for enjoyment and extra money, even if full-time employment is scarce.

Going along with my previous artifact, this bracelet represents the final step in

translating an idea: the completed product. Ideas will often go through multiple stages before

they can be brought to life, and the final product is never “perfect.” But that very imperfection

is part of the beauty of both translations and handmade jewelry. The final products of each will

always have a little piece of a human touch that is left behind, like the signature of an artist. In a

way, both jewelry making and translation are different forms of art, requiring a balance of

learned skill and natural artistic ability.

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Essay from an Honors Course

Near the end of this reflective journey, I decided to choose an essay that I wrote a long

time ago as my final artifact, because it helps me reflect on the understanding I now have of my

own world. The artifact is a paper I wrote during my freshman year of college (Spring 2011) in

one of my first honors classes, Arts and Society: Visual Arts. The assignment was to write a

review and reflection on a few pieces of artwork that spoke to us during one of our art gallery

visits. I chose two photos from a recent trip to The Light Factory that really stood out to me,

one by Jerry Uelsmann and one by Tome Chambers. I then went on to describe what I thought

the photos were about along with how they related to my life.

I chose this artifact because rereading it made me realize how different the person I am

today is from the person who wrote that paper. I was going through different experiences, had

different struggles, and placed importance on different things. For example, in one of the

required “personal connections” to the piece of art, I discussed the theme of loss of innocence.

Because of my own subjectivity and my experiences at the time, that was the theme that I

interpreted from the Uelsmann photograph. Looking back at what I wrote, I think I saw myself

in the blurred face of the subject: “The fact that the young girl’s face is blurred signifies that the

actual face doesn’t matter. She represents every girl, for we all will come to a point where we

lose our innocence.” At the time, I think I felt my innocence being stripped away by my new

surroundings. My main concerns at the time were about the newness of college and recovering

from a negative relationship that ended just before I went off to school. The experience I went

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through when that relationship ended really made me connect to the Chambers photograph,

titled Winged Migration. She was running away from an old, run-down house, and my

subjective interpretation was that she was running from a relationship. When connecting the

photograph to my own life, I discussed how, just as the woman in the photograph fled, there

was also a point in my former relationship when I realized that “I had to gather the strength to

fly from the relationship.” I also talked about how “I had to leave a lot behind, just as the girl

had to leave behind her suitcase and shoes.” My world at the time was made up of my

experiences up until then, which completely influenced the way I interpreted everything

around me. But I got through those experiences, translated the worlds in which I was navigating

at that time, and now find myself in different experiences and worlds today.

College is no longer an exciting and terrifying new world, now it is my world. The

relationship that I discuss when relating the photo back to my life has long since been left

behind. I have come to understand that experience in a way that I didn’t before; in a way, I

have learned the language of that experience and translated it over time, so that now I

understand both what happened and why my feelings at the time were so complicated and

conflicted. In a similar way, I can now look back at French stories from my first few French

classes and understand them with ease, even though at the time they were complicated,

confusing and only partially understandable. This essay represents the fact that I am constantly

changing and maturing, and struggles that seem to my rule over life at any given time will

always pass and be replaced; struggles don’t last forever. In time, I will come to understand my

struggles and even learn from them, preparing me for when the next struggle inevitably comes

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along. In the same way, each translation I do gives me a new set of knowledge and vocabulary

that I can use in future translations.

The process of writing that paper also helped me train my skills in evaluation and helped

me relate art to myself. It helped me realize that observations are subjective; what any one

person sees when they look at art or anything else is determined by who they are, their history,

and their life stage. The same idea can also be applied to translations, since the source text is a

piece of written art, or literature, just in a different language. Reading the source text before a

translation will affect every person differently, giving the various readers different perceptions

or visual images that will be used in translating. For example, a text written about the Holocaust

will be perceived differently by a Nazi versus a Jew. A text about Islamic culture will be

perceived differently by a Muslim versus an Atheist, and even differently from either of those

by a follower of a different religion. Everyone has biases that affect their perceptions, making it

impossible to create a truly “objective” translation, in the same way that you can’t “objectively”

interpret a piece of art. As I’ve already discussed, the translator is like an artist who leaves

behind his or her signature in the completed text. And who you are, the person whose

signature you leave behind, is simply a culmination of all of your experiences up until that point.

Perceptions are ever changing. My perception of those photos would likely be different now

than they were at the time I wrote my initial review and reflection. In the same way, my

perceptions of various source texts will also be different over time as I constantly grow and

change as a person and as a translator.

Winter 29

Going through the process of compiling this portfolio has forced me to look back at my

college experience with new eyes. I knew that I’d learned a lot in college, but I didn’t fully

appreciate just how much I’ve learned about myself. I realized that my fear of always being

“good” but not “excellent” had been a common theme in my college experience, and it had

both directed and encouraged the many individual paths I’ve taken along my journey to where I

am today. I’ve also learned that it takes time for me to process things that happen in my life, for

me to work towards a completed translation of events and experiences that take place. I won’t

always understand right away. I used to not be able to understand French at all, and I still don’t

understand many French words when I receive a new text to translate. In the same way, I often

don’t understand new worlds or experiences, like my time in the Banshee production world. I

won’t always have an immediate answer when life brings me new questions and challenges;

but that’s okay. With a healthy mix of time and the translation skills I have learned through my

studies, I can slowly work toward understanding, no matter what new world or event I am

exposed to. In a way, this reflection has given me hope for the future. I may not know what is

coming after graduation or what new world I will be thrust into once I am forced to leave the

comfort of my university bubble. But I do know this: no matter what or where it is, I can handle

it. I can learn the language of my new world, I can translate the different parts of it, and I can

master it. Both on and off paper, I can’t wait for the many future translations I have waiting for

me.