Each course comprises both theoretical and practical aspects of the covered topics. Certain sessions include exercises, which can be done individually at home or by using the Lessius University College infrastructure.

Participants will receive printed and digital documentation by way of reference material and for preparing exercises and exams.

Introduction in Translation Technologies

Over the last two decades, translation memory tools and terminology databases have revolutionised the translation industry. Reuse of linguistic assets has streamlined the translation process, and as a result translation buyers expect more languages and more file formats to be processed in shorter cycles than ever before.

In this course, students become familiar with current trends in computer-assisted translation. We cover essential concepts such as data mining (text alignment and term extraction), file conversions, segmentation, pseudo-translations, and quality assurance. Through a series of exercises, students acquire hands-on experience in computer-assisted translation (CAT).

The course amounts to 40 hours, excluding the time needed for individual practical exercises.

Students will also be required to complete self-study readings and assignments using the official self-study materials of the SDL Trados Certification Programme.

Machine Translation and Post-Editing

Similar to the early days of Translation Memory technology back in the 1990s, Machine Translation (MT) needs to overcome prejudice and emotional barriers. However, powerful hardware and new technologies have increased the capacity and quality to a point where it can no longer be ignored by professional translators. Contrary to what laymen believe, MT faces numerous challenges due to the complexity of natural languages and limitations of Artificial Intelligence. However, MT has become a useful aid for professional translators and companies. In order to make optimal use of the possibilities and limitations of MT, both practical and theoretical training is needed.

Machine Translation can be very useful to obtain quick, general language conversions of large amounts of material. Although it does not provide a consistently grammatical conversion, it does allow people to understand the gist of a document. MT output can provide a useful base for translating manuals that have a great deal of repetitive text. To reach quality similar to human translation and revision (publishable quality), serious post-editing is required.

In order to get a polished and linguistically accurate language conversion, a human translator needs to post-edit the raw output from the MT. The post-editor needs to have thorough knowledge of specific algorithms and editing strategies.

These strategies will be the backbone of this course

Introduction to Terminology

This course explains the basic principles of terminology and the use of term databases. The course consists of two parts:

The course amounts to 14 hours, excluding the time needed for individual practical exercises.

Audiovisual Translation

This course covers the following topics:

Due to the practice-oriented nature of audiovisual translation, the course focuses less on theory than on case studies and practical exercises. The latter especially concern subtitling.

Note: subtitling exams only involve the following language pairs:

The course amounts to 28 hours, excluding the time needed for individual practical exercises.

Multilingual Workflow Management

The translation process is a link in a chain that is getting increasingly complex due to such factors as globalisation, technological issues, and time constraints. This course discusses a.o. the following topics:

The lecturers are localization experts working in the industry or academia (Nancy Matis in collaboration with Valérie Etienne; Angelika Zerfass; Louise Brunette). The course amounts to 32 hours.

Website Localization

The term website localization refers to the process of adapting a website to the language and culture of a particular region, in such a way that the site remains fully functional and easily accessible to the local audience. This involves a lot more than pure translation, and typically the combined efforts of multidisciplinary experts are required to turn a website localization project into a success.

This course focuses on the specific concepts, file formats and technologies involved in website localization. In a hands-on approach we explore internationalization issues, character sets and encodings, HTML and XML markup, scripts, usability, testing, and so on. Students apply this knowledge and use state-of-the-art software tools to localize static and dynamic website components.

The course amounts to 40 hours, excluding the time needed for individual practical exercises.

Software Localization

Market globalisation leads to an increasing demand for software localization. The rapid technological evolution makes this a very challenging field, both from a linguistic and an engineering point of view.

This module will treat the following topics:

• Market overview;
• Linguistic aspects;
• Engineering aspects;
• Cultural aspects;
• Documentation and help files;
• Globalisation marketing;
• Games localization.

The module amounts to 28 hours. The lecturers (Nancy Matis and Rolf Klischewski) are localization consultants.

Computerlinguïstiek (Dutch only)

Dit vak bestaat uit twee onderwijsactiviteiten:

Onderwijsactiviteit 1:
De studenten worden vertrouwd gemaakt met de mogelijkheden en de belangrijkste methoden van de automatische taalverwerking, zowel theoretisch als praktisch. De cursus bestaat uit een reeks van lessen en een practicum. De lessen behandelen de volgende onderwerpen:

In het practicum wordt ervaring opgedaan met het gebruiken en het schrijven van eenvoudige computerlinguïstische programma's in PERL. De docenten zijn prof. dr. Frank Van Eynde en dr. Vincent Vandeghinste. Voor meer informatie, zie http://www.ccl.kuleuven.be.

Deelnemers dienen enkele eenvoudige formaliteiten te voldoen aan de KU Leuven vooraleer ze dit vak kunnen volgen. Voor meer informatie, gelieve contact op te nemen met ken.dewachter@lessius.eu.

Onderwijsactiviteit 2:
Nader te bepalen opdracht.

Work placement

The work placement ("stage" in Dutch) helps the student apply the competences learnt through the postgraduate courses in a professional context. Work placements amount to about 500 hours and take place in a Belgian or foreign company or institution. They start in January at the earliest.

The student chooses a work placement which is relevant in the framework of the postgraduate courses (s)he followed and suits his/her personal interests. Work placements may for instance involve translation, revision, subtitling, terminology management or project management. In the course of the first semester, the student selects a work placement from a list provided by Lessius University College, or suggests a work placement and asks for approval by the coordinator of the postgraduate programme.

The student contacts the company or institution concerned, in order to discuss the contents of a possible work placement and any financial or other compensation. The student and the company or institution fulfil the necessary administrative requirements (e.g. the signing of a work placement contract), and receive a detailed guide from Lessius University College on the organisational and practical steps to be taken during the work placement as well as on the evaluation.

SDL Trados Certification

Thanks to Lessius' membership of the SDL Trados Certification University Program, participants can enrol for the SDL Trados Certification programme at no extra cost, and thus possibly obtain a premier and internationally renowned SDL Trados translation software certificate. This certificate is endorsed by large international corporations and institutions, including Siemens, Microsoft, Opentext, and the United Nations. Participating is optional.

There are no regular courses but participants receive self-study material (work book + sample files). They may take online exams and, provided they pass the exam, receive online certificates (click here for an example).

For participants choosing the module 'Introduction to Translation Technologies', this certification is obligatory.