Training of translators of Spanish in Poland

Abstract

The aim of the article is to present the state of teaching Spanish in Poland, including translator training. The author analyzes the position of Spanish lessons in Polish school curricula and suggests an overview of all the teaching levels. This analysis shows that although the knowledge of Spanish is still rather limited in Poland, the language has been systematically becoming more and more popular, especially among secondary school students in big cities. This fact is confirmed by the increasing number of students who choose Spanish as their second foreign language (the number has grown from 8,650 in 2002/2003 to 15,640 in 2006/2007) as well as by the increasing number of schools in which a bilingual class with Spanish may be found (currently 5 grammar schools and 14 secondary schools).

At the same time, Spanish language studies still enjoy unchanging popularity among university applicants, as a result of which the number of Spanish language departments is consistently growing – not only in state higher education institutions, but also in private ones. According to the data provided by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, in 2007 there were 1,783 students of the Spanish language and Iberian studies. Whilst discussing training of translators of Spanish it must be emphasized that although some higher education institutions include ‘knowledge of translation’ in their graduate profiles, the first and so far the only state higher education institution offering graduate and post-graduate studies in translation is the University of Silesia. Post-graduate studies for translators of Spanish are also provided by the Jagiellonian University and the University of Warsaw.