Translation

Translation is a discipline that sits at the heart of cultural exchange, requiring not just mastery of two or more languages but a deep understanding of the cultural, historical, and rhetorical contexts that give words their meaning and resonance. Good translation is not the replacement of words in one language with equivalent words in another: it is the recreation of meaning, tone, and effect across languages that often encode the world in quite different ways. Translation studies examines this process theoretically and practically, asking what fidelity to an original text means, how translators navigate untranslatability, and what the ethical dimensions of translating literature, legal documents, technical texts, and political speech are.

At Cardiff University, this three-year full-time programme is particularly well placed given Wales's status as a bilingual country, where Welsh and English coexist, and where translation between the two languages is a matter of daily public life as well as academic study. The programme develops your translation skills across a range of text types and registers, your understanding of translation theory, and your command of your working languages to a professional level. You will engage with literary translation, technical and specialist translation, and the tools and technologies that professional translators use in their work, including translation memory software and machine translation workflows.

Cardiff's research in translation studies has an international profile, and the bilingual environment of Wales gives the programme a richness and authenticity that is unusual in UK higher education.

Graduates of translation programmes work as professional translators and interpreters, in localisation and software translation, in publishing, journalism, and cultural organisations, and in a wide range of business and public sector roles where multilingual communication is required. The profession is growing as global communication increases, and specialist translators with expertise in legal, medical, scientific, or technical domains are particularly sought after. Postgraduate study in translation, interpreting, or language and culture is a natural further direction.