From fidelity to absurdity. Some remarks on translation of the names of Polish higher schools into English, especially those that contain the phrase “Wyższa Szkoła” (Higher School) in their name.

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyze how the names of Polish higher education institutions have been translated into English. The author has used the website of Ministry of National Education and Sports on which all names of all Polish higher schools can be found and checked their websites for English translations. The first part is a short introduction. In the second one the author discussed some suggestions about how to translate the names of institutions according to the Code of the Court Translator (Kodeks Tłumacza Sądowego). The third part, presenting the results of the research, consists of four subparts. The author indicates that there is a great number of equivalents used to translate the phrase Wyższa Szkoła such as school, higher school, (the) college, the university, Institute, Academy. This may, on the one hand, mislead foreigners searching for information about a school and, on the other, make the Polish higher educational system unclear. The author expresses in the conclusion that the nomenclature must be unified as soon as possible.