Classes expand Winter Term offerings

Author: Michelle Constant

The College will utilize its affiliation with the Monterey Institue of International Studies (MIIS) to offer new Winter Term courses consistent with the international aspirations of the Middlebury Initiative. Many students have decided to take advantage of the new courses, which include Chinese, French and Spanish interpretation classes taught at the College by MIIS professors and classes at Monterey, while other students are preparing for class-scheduled trips to Ethiopia, Ukraine and Lithuania.

According to Vice President for Language Schools and Schools Abroad Michael Geisler, these interpretation classes will teach students not only to translate existing texts with maximum accuracy, but also to interpret on the spot in order to facilitate conversations.

"This is a unique opportunity because we don't usually offer translation courses during the academic year," said Geisler. "In interpretation, students will learn to be both accurate and fast on their feet."

Bao Chuanyun, the dean of Translation and Interpretation at MIIS, will oversee the new program at the College this January. Geisler is excited to welcome faculty from one of the top interpretation schools in the world. He said that the College's advanced language program allows for this intensity of training.

"I hope to get students interested in a career as an interpreter or translator, both of which are much sought after," said Geisler. "Monterey is a graduate institute. For many of our students, this program offers a graduate-level opportunity that connects to their majors while they are still undergraduates."

According to Geisler, the interpretation classes will be offered in the Chinese, French and Spanish departments because those are the departments in which the most student interest simmered up. There will be approximately 15 students per class.

Students will also look forward to Winter Term trips abroad. Fifteen students are accompanying Associate Chaplain Ira Schiffer and C.V. Starr Professor of Russian and East European Studies Michael Katz to Lithuania and Odessa to study Jewish communities. The class will spend the first week of Winter Term reading short stories from Jewish studies and preparing for the trip. The trip will last for two weeks, and the final week will be spent discussing the experience.

"We will use a literary perspective to see these communities as places of growth," said Elianna Kan '10.5. "We will compare the historical representations from our reading with our personal experiences of how these communities function today."

According to Kan, some of the students in the class are International Studies majors, and others are focusing on Jewish studies. This has resulted in a very diverse group of students with both personal and academic interest in studying historical Jewish communities.

Emily Goldsmith '08 is a French major who has also taken classes in Spanish and Italian at the College. She signed up for the French "Translation and Interpretation" class in hopes that it will assist her in working on her senior project - translating a French Canadian novel.

"I didn't take a translation class while I studied in Paris," said Goldsmith. "I think it will help me to learn about the communication of ideas across cultures and remaining loyal to the text."

According to Goldsmith, students of all three languages will spend the first week together learning about translation and interpretation in English. The remainder of Winter Term will be split between a stronger focus on each skill.

"I am considering applying to Monterey to study interpretation and translation in the future," said Goldsmith. "The fact that they have come here is really exciting."

Goldsmith is interested in pursuing either interpretation or translation as a future career, but has no past experience with interpretation.

"Interpretation will be more of a first try for me," said Goldsmith. "The translation module will be directly helpful for my senior project."

According to Geisler, it has been difficult to implement these types of classes at the College in the past. Most major language classes are taught only in the specific languages, not in English. These classes can also not be taught during the Summer Language Program, because the College is committed to the "No English Spoken Here" policy.

Kan's family is largely from the Ukraine and the Soviet Union, so she feels a strong personal connection to the communities she will visit on her J-term trip. Kan wants to learn more about the distinct experience of being a Jew and how this religious group is still negotiating to find an identity.

"For me, this is more of a personal endeavor," said Kan, "even though it applies to my academic interests as well."

Aaron Krivitzky '09 is accompanying Kan on this trip. Krivitzky wrote in an e-mail that , because of the class requirements for his major, going abroad is not a likely opportunity.

"Taking a J-term abroad satisfies a desire to travel somewhere I might never see, but without the same type of time commitment," wrote Krivitzky.

Krivitzky fears that the experience will be a bit rushed, though still worthwhile. Like Kan, Krivitzky looks forward to tracing his family roots back to the Ukraine. He said he is excited to see a place that he never visited but that has affected his life so greatly. Krivitzky sees this trip not as a tourist-type experience, but a historical, reflective journey to observe the Jewish cultures.

"I've found that spiritually active trips are necessary and enlightening for me, so I try to take them whenever I get the opportunity, wrote Krivitzky.