For NIU graduate student Martina Arambul, translating a published piece is a different experience to what she is used to for class.
"It's one that probably most people don't get a chance to have in their graduate school career," she said. "A lot of times, when we do translations, we're thinking about literary, medical or legal translations."
She is one of nine students in the class who will apply their skills beyond the classroom.
They are being guided by Dr. Laura Vilardell, an associate professor of translation and Spanish studies at Northern Illinois University.
"It is a very good opportunity for them," she said, "to show to a possible real employer what they've been doing in class. I think that they're taking it a little bit more serious than only, if it was only a project."
The class in question is FLST 684, Research Seminar in Translation focused on the Spanish language, a graduate level class in NIU's World Languages Department.
The students will be translating "Camp Kids in Motion." It's a comic book written by their fellow Huskie, Dr. Lynn Katherine Herrmann, a professor of public health and health education, and illustrated by JA Allen. It teaches kids how the body reacts and adapts to movement through a series of exercise games.
Herrmann says the opportunity came about in an impromptu fashion.
"Laura is a friend of mine and we were talking about my new book," she said, "and because she's teaching this translation grad class, it just kind of led to us saying, 'Well, why not translate my book that just came out?' It's a very exciting opportunity, so I couldn't say no."
The graduate students matched her excitement as they began to scope out the project. Anna Birsa is a non-native Spanish speaker taking the class. She's looking forward to interacting with her fellow students on the project.
"I didn't grow up with a lot of the culture," she said, "so it's a great opportunity for me to learn from my classmates and collaborate with them and say, 'oh, you know, what word do you use for this' and problem solving, and being able to, to feel like my voice is heard, even though I'm like a little 'gringita' in the class."
Back to Arambul, this is her first translation class that she has taken. Through her gained experience, she has learned that translation is not just being able to fluently speak English and Spanish and hopes to apply her skills here.
"Translation is so much more than just knowing the different languages that you're working with," she said, "It's being able to understand how different words work together, understand how different connotations can change an entire project."
And although the class size may be small, graduate student Milandy Horan says they are a talented group with different backgrounds which will be a benefit to the project.
"There are students from different countries," she explained, "one classmate is from Peru, another one is from Honduras, then we have some of Mexican heritage, and I'm from the Dominican Republic. So, it is going to be interesting to put all of these Spanish dialects together and come up with, with the best version of it."
For everyone involved, the end product is what is most on their minds and the impact that it will have on the audience.
For Herrmann, she emphasizes how the project aligns with the universal message of the story.
"This is very exciting that the book is going to be able to go out to more people," she said, "because it's everybody, the story belongs to everybody. In every human being, the same thing is happening in their body when they exercise, when they're physically active. Everybody's heart beats. Everybody sweats."
Professor Vilardell says, besides gaining an asset for their future careers, it will be a memorable project for the students.
"This will be a project," she said, "that they will remember forever."
As the students work towards the translated version, the English book will have an official launch in early November at NIU's Founders Memorial Library.
