Query: Spetskurs

[Paul B. Gallagher]

Thanks to Svetlana Grenier, Edward Dumanis, Tatyana Buzina, Francoise 
Rosset, and Maryna Vinarska for their insights.

I went with "Topics Course."

Maryna Vinarska wrote:

> "Paul B. Gallagher" <paulbg at PBG-TRANSLATIONS.COM> wrote: And would
> "Spetskurs po chemu-to" («Спецкурс по такому-то направлению (такой-то
> теме)») be "Independent Study in Such-and-Such Area/Topic"?
> 
> I wouldn't translate it like this. It is not smth like an independent
> study in American universities. The best is to translate it literally
> unless you can invent smth in English stating that the focus of that
> course was on this and that. I don't remember where the English
> translations of my transcripts are, but in one German translation,
> made by a certified translator, I have the following: Sprachlicher
> Spezialkurs and  Spezialkurs: fremdsprachige Literatur. Why not
> translate it in a similar manner into English?

I always have to ask myself whether the target language realia match the 
proposed term -- if it looks the same as a foreign term but means 
something different, it doesn't work as a translation.

> That what Svetlana Grenier said about our "spezkursy" is true for
> Ukraine as well. At least up to 91. "Spez" meant that the focus was
> on smth particular.
> 
> However, I wouldn't translate it as "an elective" either. An elective
> course in American universities means that it is up to you what class
> you choose. There was nothing like this in our universities. The
> program was one and the same for everybody. You couldn't avoid those
> "spezkursy". They were as obligatoty as all the other courses you
> _had_ to take.

OK.

-- 
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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