Контакти

Compulsory Choice Courses

Notes:

  • Where no language pair is specified, the respective compulsory choice (elective) course is offered separately for students with English or French as their B language.
  • In the 1st and 2nd semester, students must acquire at least 16 credits each semester from compulsory choice (elective) courses. They are not restricted in the number of elective courses they may choose.
TRANSLATION OF SOCIO-POLITICAL TEXTS
(Part I – 1st semester; Part II – 2nd semester)
30 hours, 4 credits (for each part)
Course content:
  • aspects of genre, discourse and macrostructure of texts connected with the public domain in a historical perspective
  • issues in the translation of texts from the international public and political sphere, esp. from EU and UN institutions, the media and Internet (Part I); political speeches, government documents, journalism (Part II)
  • register and terminology used in texts from the socio-political sphere
  • political speeches, government documents, journalism.

Expected learning outcomes:
  • understanding the macrostructure and discursive features of texts in the whole range of the socio-political sphere
  • developing strategies of solving translation problems arising from the specific register of such texts
  • developing awareness of intercultural differences and audience expectations, recognising allusions, presuppositions and implicit meanings
  • developing and putting to practice advanced translation skills in socio-political fields
  • editing and post-editing skills
  • skills in information mining and terminology use.
Assessment:
  • English-Bulgarian: class participation 10%, independent work 40%, term project 50%
  • French-Bulgarian: class participation and independent work 70%, exam 30%
TRANSLATION OF LITERARY TEXTS
(Part I – 1st semester; Part II – 2nd semester)
30 hours, 4 credits (for each part)
Course content:
  • analyzing literary texts (mostly contemporary fiction) in their cultural contexts
  • identifying linguistic and stylistic peculiarities and translation challenges, both created by language asymmetries and the individual style of the author
  • making informed decisions about appropriate translation strategies
  • approaches to the translation of narration, description and dialogue in literary fiction; rendering point of view
  • recognizing and rendering shifts in explicitness, strategies of preserving the coherence and cohesion of the literary text
  • translating realia, dialects and sociolects
  • translatability of culture-specific humour, intertextual references, wordplay and punning
  • translation of specific genres, esp. children’s literature
  • self-editing and peer-editing
  • case studies of topical cases in the publishing industry.

Expected learning outcomes:
  • knowledge about the common stylistic and discursive features of contemporary literary prose in English/French and skills in choosing from a range of strategies in order to render them adequately into Bulgarian
  • critical reading of published translated texts, appropriate use of metalanguage in discussing their merits and demerits; ability to carry out small-scale research for the purposes of term papers and Master’s thesis writing
  • advanced translation skills with regard to intercultural contexts
  • skills in the efficient use of dictionaries and reference materials
  • editing and self-editing skills
  • awareness of the professional standards expected by publishers, and of basic practical aspects of interacting with employers in the field (contacting publishers, making a proposal, negotiating terms working with editors and proofreaders).
Assessment:
  • English-Bulgarian: class participation 25%, portfolio 25%, term project 50%
  • French-Bulgarian: class participation 20%, portfolio 20%, exam 60%
TRANSLATION OF LEGAL TEXTS
30 hours, 4 credits
Course content:
  • comparative overview on fundamental concepts and commonly used terms and phraseology across the Bulgarian and Anglophone/Francophone Company, Contract, and Property Law
  • the language of EU law and its typical documents
  • practical work in the translation of typical real-life texts, such as court (incl. European Court) decisions, constitutional documents, commercial contracts, international agreements, notary deeds, leases and others; texts and documents related to legal aspects of the EU institutions.

Expected learning outcomes:
  • ability to understand specialised texts in the field of national and EU law in its specific contexts
  • competence in the handling of legal terminology in English and Bulgarian / French and Bulgarian
  • strategies of information mining and the use of appropriate reference materials
  • confidence in the translation of legal texts from English/French into Bulgarian, producing skopos-appropriate texts
  • awareness of cultural differences between different legal systems and their discourse; mastering appropriate strategies to deal with them.
Assessment:
  • English-Bulgarian: class participation 20%, tests 40%, exam 40%
  • French-Bulgarian: tests 20%, presentation 20%, independent translation 20%, exam 40%
TRANSLATION-BASED RECEPTION OF ANGLOPHONE LITERATURE IN BULGARIA
30 hours, 4 credits
Course content:
  • principles and methodology of reception studies
  • history of the reception of British and American prose and poetry in Bulgaria
  • analysis of the reception of specific authors and works: their ways of entering and impact on the Bulgarian cultural context; the influence of the contact on the formation and evolution of the Bulgarian reader as intercultural mediator
  • linguistic and aesthetic problems of the translation of such authors and their significance for their reception and impact

Expected learning outcomes:
  • knowledge about the history and typology of literary translation from English into Bulgarian
  • ability to contextualise literary translation from a historical and cultural perspective
  • awareness of tradition and innovation in solving problems in literary translation
  • mastering the critical metalanguage appropriate to diachronic translatological studies
  • critical awareness of the status and quality of contemporary literary translation and publishing practices
  • developing advanced skills in analyzing literary texts in comparison with the source texts, applicable in other courses, as well as in preparing the Master’s thesis.
Assessment:

  • workshops 10%, independent work 20%, term project 70%

SIMULTANEOUS INTERPRETING
(Part I – 1st semester; Part II – 2nd semester)
30 hours, 4 credits (for each part)
Course content:
  • specifics of oral and especially simultaneous interpreting
  • microphone speech technique and other technology used in simultaneous interpreting
  • techniques of simultaneous interpreting, chuchotage
  • practical work in simultaneous interpreting using real texts.

Expected learning outcomes:
  • skills in using the technology
  • advanced skills in summarising spoken and written text
  • ability to render the meaning of the original correctly and fluently
  • improved proficiency in language A in its spoken variety
  • skills in preparing relevant term banks
  • team working skills.
Assessment:
  • English-Bulgarian: test 25%, independent work 50%, exam 25%
  • French-Bulgarian: class participation 20%, tests 80%
CONSECUTIVE INTERPRETING
(Part I – 1st semester; Part II – 2nd semester)
30 hours, 4 credits (for each part)
Course content:
  • introduces the students in a step-by-step manner through graded exercises (e.g. reading comprehension of a text, summarizing a text, taking notes, format of notes, etc.) to the analytical skills required by a consecutive interpreter
  • familiarises students with the specifics of consecutive interpreting in the various formats of bilateral and multilateral interaction, speeches, report etc. across a whole range of subjects
  • offers teaching and practice in note taking, behavior in public, speech technique and pronunciation
  • includes analysis of skills and individual progress.

Expected learning outcomes:
  • mastering note-taking and summarising skills
  • improves mastery of terminology and phraseology
  • skills in compiling mini-glossaries in various thematic fields
  • developing the psychological aptitude needed in consecutive interpreting, incl. non-verbal behaviour
  • improved spoken performance in languages A and B
Assessment:
  • English-Bulgarian: class participation 25%, independent work 25%, tests 50%
  • French-Bulgarian: workshops 10%, class participation 20%, tests 70%
TRANSLATION OF TECHNICAL TEXTS
FRENCH-BULGARIAN (Part I – 1st semester; Part II – 2nd semester); 30 hours, 4 credits for each part
ENGLISH-BULGARIAN (1st semester), 30 hours, 4 credits
Course content:
  • familiarises students with the specific generic macrostructural linguistic and stylistic features of technical writing
  • focuses attention on the cohesive means used in technical writing in the cultures of language A and B
  • introduces the students to the methods and procedures of term-extraction in specialised technical fields
  • offers students knowledge and practice in the compilation of terminological glossaries

Expected learning outcomes:
  • terminological and terminographic skills
  • knowledge and skills of identifying and documenting information in the technical sciences
  • technological competence in using CAT tools and online databases
  • ability to document data and organise and archive one’s own database
  • competence in translating, esp. by using a register specific to the technical field
  • awareness of intercultural differences in the technical sphere.
Assessment:
  • English-Bulgarian: translation of a technical text: 50 %, glossary of 50 terms from a technical field chosen by the student: 50 %
  • French-Bulgarian: workshops and portfolio 25%, class participation 25%, tests 50%
TRANSLATION OF MEDICAL TEXTS
(1st semester)
30 hours, 4 credits
Course content:
  • introduces students to the specifics of medical and pharmaceutical texts (print, electronic and screen): aims, macrostructure, style and terminology
  • familiarises students with the Latin and Greek terminology most commonly used in medicine and pharmacology, its meaning and principles of word formation
  • offers students practice in the translation of original English/French -language texts across the various fields of medicine and pharmacy and illustrating the most commonly used formats and text types (discharge summaries, test results, product information, etc.)
  • offers students practice in the translation of films on medical topics

Expected learning outcomes:
  • ability to understand texts in a specialised field
  • competence in the handling of medical and pharmacological terminology
  • strategies of information mining, term extraction and the use of appropriate reference materials;
  • ability for critical evaluation of online sources
  • skills of archiving terminological data and building corpora and databases for translation purposes
  • developing translation skills in the medical field
  • professional skills, esp. in the provision of a socially important translation service
  • knowledge of intercultural differences in medical discourse and skills of tackling them.
Assessment:

  • class participation and independent work 50%, exam 50%

TRANSLATION OF TEXTS IN ECONOMICS AND FINANCE
(French-Bulgarian – 1st semester; English-Bulgarian – 2nd semester)
30 hours, 4 credits
Course content:
  • introduces students to the basics of economic theory and finance texts 
  • basic concepts and terminology in the fields of macroeconomics, microeconomics and finance
  • extensive practice in the translation of authentic texts in the fields of macroeconomics, microeconomics and finance, as well as business correspondence

Expected learning outcomes:
  • ability to understand and to translate professionally specialised texts in the field of economics and finance
  • competence in the handling of economic and financial terminology
  • strategies of information mining and the use of appropriate reference materials
  • skills in compiling and archiving one’s own database,
  • skills in handling business correspondence and complying with conventions
  • intercultural awareness.
Assessment:

  • workshops and portfolio 50%, exam 50%

TRANSLATION OF STANDARDISED DOCUMENTS (FRENCH-BULGARIAN)
(1st semester)
30 hours, 4 credits
Course content:
  • techniques of translating documents with a view to their sources and purposes (skopos)
  • standard document layouts and description of graphic images
  • specifics of document translation from language A into language B (Bulgarian into French)
  • the regulatory framework related to the translator’s responsibilities, current practice, authorisation and legalisation
  • transliteration of common personal and geographic names
  • glossary compilation

Expected learning outcomes:
  • familiarisation with the documents issued by the Bulgarian authorities and most commonly subject to translation; complying with norms, regulations and conventions of the genre
  • developing and enhancing translation skills in the relevant specific field
  • editing and proofreading skills, monitoring quality standards
  • data-mining skills, assessing and working with relevant IT applications
  • skills in preparing term banks and glossaries; terminological competence
  • ability to work in conditions of confidentiality and legal responsibility
  • team-working skills
  • intercultural awareness.
Assessment:

  • workshops 20%, portfolio 30%, tests and final exam 50%

TRANSLATION OF TEXTS IN THE HUMANITIES (ENGLISH-BULGARIAN)
(1st semester)
30 hours, 4 credits
Course content:
  • conceptual fields and macrostructure of texts from diverse areas in the humanities (e.g. philosophy, psychoanalysis, cultural studies etc)
  • problem zones in the translation of texts in the humanities: gender and queer studies, multicultural studies and postcolonial theory
  • terminological research and term coining.

Expected learning outcomes:
  • ability to understand specialised texts in the fields of the humanities
  • strategies in handling textual and discursive problems caused by differences in cultural traditions
  • competence in the handling of existing terminology and initial skills in term coining
  • strategies of information mining and the use of appropriate reference materials
  • developing advanced translation skills in different fields of the humanities
Assessment:

  • class participation 20%, tests 30%, term project 50%

ENGLISH AS A SECOND FOREIGN LANGUAGE / FRENCH AS A SECOND FOREIGN LANGUAGE
(1st semester)
30 hours, 2 credits (for each part)
Course content:
  • offered primarily to students with English/French as their C language
  • may be taken by students with English/French as their B language, whose Bachelor’s degree is in fields other than English or French Studies
  • enhancement of reading, writing, listening and reading skills, as well as analytical and academic skills, within the framework of an integrated approach
  • helping students reach proficiency in English as a B or C language / French as a B or C language, through practical tasks and activities designed specifically in consideration of their work as translators.

Expected learning outcomes:
  • Increased proficiency in English as a B or C language / French as a B or C language
  • Increased awareness of interlingual and intercultural differences.
Assessment:

  • class participation 25%, homework 25%, tests 50%

TRANSLATION FOR THE EUROPEAN INSTITUTIONS (ENGLISH–BULGARIAN AND FRENCH–BULGARIAN)
(2nd semester)
30 hours, 4 credits
Course content:
  • European institutions and their documents
  • Language departments and translation services for the EU institutions; translation workflow
  • specifics of Eurospeak, and of its translation with a view to the different language levels
  • translating constraints relevant to the language of European institutions
  • lexical, syntactic, stylistic issues of translating European texts into Bulgarian (comparative and critical approach)
  • translation and editing of EU texts.

Expected learning outcomes:
  • knowledge of European institutions and their documents
  • good understanding of EU texts
  • ability to use the relevant terminology
  • skill in using EU on-line databases
  • advanced skills in translation of EU texts
  • ability to comply with specific requirements of the client
  • attention to and monitoring quality in the translation of EU texts from French and English.
Assessment:

  • class participation 20%, portfolio 30%, take-home exam 50%

LEXICOLOGY (FRENCH-BULGARIAN)
(2nd semester)
30 hours, 4 credits
Course content:
  • introduces students to the basic concepts of lexicology
  • taxonomy of dictionaries and their purposes
  • introduction to dictionary macro- and micro-structure
  • specificity of electronic and online dictionaries; collaborative lexicography sites
  • techniques of assessing the reliability and appropriateness of specific lexicographic resources to specific translation tasks
  • efficient use of lexicographic resources to facilitate the translator’s work and assure its quality.

Expected learning outcomes:
  • mastery of the basic concepts and terms of lexicology
  • awareness of the types of dictionaries available to the translator
  • skills of analysing a dictionary’s usefulness, matching lexicographic resources to particular translation tasks, making informed choices of types of dictionaries
  • efficient use of dictionary resources
  • developing basic skills in lexicography for the purposes of specialized translation and writing a Master’s thesis in translatology.
Assessment:

  • workshops 25%, class participation 25%, exam 50%

FILM TRANSLATION AND SUBTITLING (FRENCH-BULGARIAN AND ENGLISH-BULGARIAN)
(2nd semester)
30 hours, 4 credits
Course content:
  • introduces students to the specific semiotic structure of audio-visual texts
  • current state and modern perspectives of the different types of film translation.
  • hands-on practice in film translation and editing from French/English across a wide range of genres
  • hands-on practice in subtitling, incl. using up-to-date subtitling software
  • translation for dubbing

Expected learning outcomes:
  • knowledge about strategies suitable for rendering different types of AV texts
  • ability to select strategies according to social, cultural, linguistic and physical norms and restrictions, to recognise and render registers
  • skills in using the appropriate professional software
  • ability to summarise and condense information
  • skills in translating dialogue
  • skills in subtitling
Assessment:

  • class participation 25%, presentation 25%, term project 50%

CREATIVE WRITING
(2nd semester)
30 hours, 4 credits
Course content:
  • introduces students to the expressive potential of different stylistic modalities in English and Bulgarian written literary and non-literary texts 
  • strategies of creating expressive, esp. rhetorical effects and rendering them in translating
  • criteria and forms of (peer) evaluating and reviewing textual production in a variety of genres
  • extensive practice in creative writing across commonly translated forms and genres.

Expected learning outcomes:
  • heightened awareness of language variation, genre and register, alertness to overall coherence and means and strategies of achieving it
  • extended repertoire of stylistic and discursive means in one’s own text production and awareness of their effects 
  • hands-on experience in developing strategies of summarising, rephrasing and restructuring texts in one language and in translation
  • ability for and metalanguage of critical analysis and evaluation of existing texts.
Assessment:

  • class participation 40%, portfolio 60%

VERSE TRANSLATION
(2nd semester)
15 hours, 3 credits
Course content:
  • introduces students to the basic principles of translating verse and rendering the impact of the original
  • overview of the Anglo-American/French poetic traditions and the Bulgarian poetic tradition
  • formal and stylistic levels of the poetic text; prosodic and versification systems and their traditional use in the Anglophone/French and Bulgarian tradition
  • comparative analysis of existing verse translations from English/French
  • practice in verse translation.

Expected learning outcomes:
  • awareness of the specificity of verse and the role of the linguistic and cultural medium of the translation
  • awareness of the similarities and differences between the English/French and Bulgarian poetic traditions and prosodic systems
  • knowledge about strategies suitable for rendering different types of prosodic systems
  • ability to select and apply strategies of verse translation and preserve the meaning and impact of the original
  • ability for independent critical analysis and evaluation of existing verse translations. 
Assessment:
  • English-Bulgarian: class participation 25%, independent work 25%, term project 50%
  • French-Bulgarian: workshops 20%, portfolio 30%, tests 50%
SPOKEN FRENCH IN WRITTEN TEXTS
(2nd semester)
30 hours, 4 credits
Course content:
  • introduces students to the widespread presence of forms of spoken French and Bulgarian in written texts in all spheres of communication in both languages
  • strategies of identifying and understanding forms of spoken French on various stylistic levels and in different registers
  • existing dictionaries and reference materials on spoken and colloquial French assisting translation
  • extensive practice in translation of spoken French in samples from various genres and periods.

Expected learning outcomes:
  • awareness of language variation in L1 and L2
  • sensitivity to the presence of forms of spoken French across the whole range of written and media texts
  • awareness of the presence, forms and use of spoken Bulgarian in written texts
  • developing strategies suitable for rendering different types, stylistic forms and registers of spoken French into Bulgarian
  • ability to select suitable reference materials
  • ability for critical analysis and evaluation of existing translations containing spoken French.
Assessment:

  • independent work 50%, tests and final exam 50%

POST-EDITING OF MACHINE TRANSLATION ((ENGLISH–BULGARIAN AND FRENCH–BULGARIAN)
(2nd semester)
30 hours, 4 credits
Course content:
  • in-depth introduction to the specifics, characteristics, and error types of modern types of machine translation (pure neural, neural combined with statistical, adaptive) as a foundation for further learning the standard, principles, and techniques of post-editing
  • the course combines theoretical presentations according to the current state of machine translation and editing practices with practical work using the main machine translation systems such as DeepL, eTranslation, ModernMT, etc.
  • particular attention is paid to translation ethics when working with machine translation.

Expected learning outcomes:
  • a good knowledge of the features, advantages and limitations of the main types of machine translation today
  • ability to analyse machine translation, to detect and systematise its characteristic errors and to produce a basic assessment of its quality
  • a good understanding of the specificities of post-editing machine translation, and of the requirements for such editing under the international standard
  • confident mastering of the specific techniques and stages of post-editing and adequate application of these techniques and stages in practice
  • knowledge, understanding and acceptance of the basic ethical principles and their corollary requirements for working with machine translation, and the application of these principles in all translation work, which goes beyond the specific course.
Assessment:

  • class participation 20%, case studies 20%, independent work/review 60%.

European Masters in Translation Certified 2019-2024.