This module seeks to familiarise students with business and financial environments as a basis to carry out translation work and any further translation-related research in the field. It also offers students the opportunity to study key issues and challenges posed by specialised economic terminology and the divergent economic and legal frameworks within which economic texts are produced and used. This module also aims at developing students’ translation skills in a variety of registers and genres. In addition, an introduction to the translation of marketing texts and transcreation is included. Emphasis is placed on the types of companies, the financial statements, the incorporation of companies, as well as mergers and acquisitions. Finally, it teaches students how to carry out terminological research and how to make appropriate use of research tools in solving translation problems. 

Upon completion of the course, students will be able to:

• gain a basic understanding of key economic concepts
• gain an extensive understanding of economic terminology
• comprehend written material of specialised economic content
• recognise and deal with nuances in style and register that are characteristic of the economic discourse
• have a sufficient grounding and command of economic principles to be able to perform as professional translators in this field
• identify, reflect on and describe the various strategies and problems raised in the translation of economic texts
• gain an exhaustive knowledge on how to carry out appropriate documentation when translating specialised texts
• translate advertising texts and localise marketing texts
• be familiar with the professional practice and with the resources and links for specialised translators available on Internet.

Week 1: Introduction to the translation of economic texts. Particularities, difficulties, problems arising from the lack of equivalence at the level of concepts. What is the economy? Macroeconomics / Microeconomics.

Week 2: Marketing as a prerequisite for the growth of companies in the globalized digital world. Principles of digital and multilingual marketing (Localization, SEO, Web analytics, eye-tracking, etc.). The importance of Transcreation.

Week 3: Hands-on session: Transcreation of two commercials (English-Greek and Greek-English).

Week 4: Introduction to business law. Types of companies in Greece (SA, Ltd, etc.).

Week 5: Types of companies in the UK. Types of companies in the US. Differences and similarities with the Greek system.

Week 6: Hands-on session: Translation of an economic text about the different types of companies.

Week 7: Financial Statements (Balance Sheet, Statement of Income, Statement of Changes in Equity, Notes, etc.). Hands-on session: translation of a management report and a balance sheet.

Week 8: Hands-on session: Translation of different types of balance sheets.

Week 9: Chartered Accountant Report. Hands-on session: Translation of a chartered accountant’s report.

Week 10: Securities and Bonds. Types of shares, dividend. Hands-on session: Translating a text about the types of shares.

Week 11: Bonds. Types of bonds. Hands-on session: Translating a text about the types of bonds.

Week 12: Derivative financial products (Futures, Repos, etc.). Hands-on session: Translating a text about the types of derivatives.

Week 13: Translating a text about the types of derivatives. Recap session, Q & A.

Main textbook:

Suggested Reading:

Alcaraz, E. & Hughes, B. (2002) Legal Translation Explained. Manchester: St Jerome.

Bassnett, S. & Bielsa, E. (2008) Translation in Global News. London: Routledge.

Bhatia, Vijay K. (1993) Analysing Genre, Language Use in Professional Settings. London: Longman.

Beaugrande, R. de & W. Dressler (1998) Introduction to Text Linguistics. London: Longman.

Biel, Ł. and Sosoni, V. (eds) (2017) The Translation of Economics and the Economics of Translation. Special Issue of Perspectives: Studies in Translatology.

Borja Albi, A. & Prieto Ramos, F. (2013) (eds) Legal Translation in Context: Professional Issues and Prospects. New Trends in Translation Studies Series.

Desblache, L. (ed) (2001) Aspects of Specialised Translation. Paris: La Maison du Dictionnaire.

Fabre, C. (1991) A Companion to Economic Translation. Paris: Masson.

Gallego Hernández, Daniel (ed.) (2016)
Current Approaches to Business and Institutional Translation
Proceedings of the international conference on economic, business, financial and institutional translation. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.

Κελάνδριας, Π. (2007) Η Μετάφραση των Οικονομικών Κειμένων. Αθήνα: Δίαυλος.

Mankiw, N. G. (2007) Principles of Economics – 5^th edition. London: Thomson.

Mc Closkey, D. (1998) The Rhetoric of Economics. 2^nd edition. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

Mayoral Asensio, R. (2003) Translating Official Documents. Manchester: St Jerome.

Prieto, Ramos, F. (2018) (ed.) Institutional Translation for International Governance: Enhancing Quality in Multilingual Legal Communication. Bloomsbury Advances in Translation. London: Bloomsbury.

Svoboda, T., Biel, Ł. & Łoboda, K. (2017) (eds) Quality aspects in institutional translation.Berlin: Language Science Press.

The lesson has a hybrid lecture-workshop format. It is largely based on the interaction with students and classroom discussion. Hands-on-sessions focus on practical aspects of the issues covered and described during the lectures. Students have hands-on sessions translating various descriptive economic texts with reference to the TS theory they learn. 

Several ICT tools are used, mainly ppt presentations, online videos, Internet ressources and the free version of RealEye. The class material is made available on the Open e-class platform.

A final written exam is used to assess the students. Students are asked to translate from Greek into English a 300-word economic text and provide annotations on specific translation problems. The use of monolingual, bilingual and multilingual dictionaries, specialised and general, is allowed. Notes are not allowed during the exam.