After School - Week 1

Hello everyone! I am back at uni, where everything feels extremely compact and fast-moving. So, I decided to crystallize some of the insight and fun facts from the courses combining them with my personal life a little bit to create this diary-like "after school" post series! I hope to be consistent to upload the posts weekly! If you have any comments after reading the post, please feel free to reach me on my Instagram.

Course Insights

• How did translation emerge as a field? What caused it to be regulated? With the emergence of humanism, notions like plagiarism and originality came to light shaping the field of translation.
• The Ottoman Empire’s 19th century, often considered its decline, was actually a period of technological boom—think telegraphs and military schools. In terms of technological advances and opportunities, it was stronger. Well, if it was stronger, why did it fall? His rivals were stronger!
• The Ottoman Empire ruled over three types of territories: Balkans, Anatolia, and Arabia. The relation with Balkans and Arabia were different. Ottoman Empire's focus was more on Balkans rather than Anatolia and Arabia. It formed deeper and more organic connections, traces of which can be still seen today. Ottomans had a Muslimizing and Turkifying policy towards the Balkans, while Arabia already shared their faith.

Etymological Fun Facts

• The word theory comes from the combination of Greek thea, meaning "a view," with horan "to see". Teori, kuram, nazariye are among the words used to mean theory in Ottoman Turkish. Surprisingly, nazariye (from Arabic) also means "to look."
• In Turkish, the word for translator, “çevirmen,” comes from “çevirmek,” meaning “to turn.” Another term, “tercüman,” was inspired by Ottoman Turkish and suggested during the language reform. Before these terms became common, translation was often referred to as “meal,” borrowed from Arabic ma’āl, meaning “turn” or “rephrasing.” Everything circles back to the idea of “turning.” Translation, at its core, is about turning words and ideas between languages!

WTR - What to Read

• Currently, I am reading Tatar Çölü (The Tartar Steppe) by Dino Buzzati translated by Hülya Tufan. The title attracted my attention as I am a Tatar myself. I'll see if it is about Tatars at all or not :)

WTW - What to Watch

Past Lives - A Story of What Could Have Been

Past Lives, directed by Celine Song, is a bilingual film that follows childhood friends Nayoung and Hae Sung, who are separated when Nayoung’s family moves from Seoul to the U.S. She becomes “Nora,” and this name change reflects how her life splits between her Korean roots and her new American life. The movie explores the idea of “what could have been” as we watch these two reconnect over the years, making us reflect on our own choices and the people who come into our lives.

One thing I really liked is how Song keeps the Korean word 인연 (inyeon) without translating it, letting its meaning speak for itself. The movie is beautifully shot, with quiet, thoughtful moments that make you think about fate and the small twists that connect us with others. If you enjoy films that linger in your mind long after the credits roll, this one’s worth watching. See the more detailed review here.

Anything New?

Yes! I participated in a photo contest arranged by Caja Rural to select the images of the upcoming year's calendar. You can vote for me from this link until 1st of October.

We presented our disaster relief termbase project (TermQuake) at IAPTI (International Association of Professional Translators and Interpreters) in Bursa with my team. It was such an honor to participate in an international event as a speaker! You can further read our experience from here.