Douglas Hales: Finding a Niche in Multilingual Communications
Douglas Hales always has had a knack for languages. Last year, as he studied in Barcelona with the goal of becoming fluent in Spanish, Douglas came to two significant realizations – first, that multilingual communications is growing increasingly important in today’s global community and, second, that he could play a role in facilitating that communication.
With his desire to pursue a master's degree in translation, he elected to translate a novel as his senior capstone project. He and his faculty mentor, Dr. Montserrat Linares-Farras, selected "Amor, Curiosidad, Prozac y Dudas" by Lucia Etxebarria because of its contemporary themes and because it had never before been translated.
Douglas admits that the experience has shown him that translation is a lot more difficult than he originally thought. “I initially tried a more formulaic approach, but I quickly learned that the process would be quite a bit more complicated and that there are a lot more factors involved than simply matching a word from one language to another,” he says. “[This experience] has brought the larger-than-life process of translating a novel into perspective and has made me more confident in choosing a future career path.”
Project Title: "Translating ‘Amor, Curiosidad, Prozac y Dudas’ in the Name of Love, Curiosity, and Doubts"
Date: Scholarship and Creative Arts Day 2008 – Tuesday, April 22
Faculty Mentors: Dr. Montserrat Linares-Farras
Douglas is one of several student scholars from Elizabethtown’s Department of Modern Languages who will present during Scholarship and Creative Arts Day 2008. A full schedule of this and other events featuring the creativity and scholarship of Elizabethtown students is now available on the Scholarship and Creative Arts Day webpage.
