PUBlic Professor Series | Dr. Alain Takam

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Join modern languages and linguistics professor, Dr. Alain Takam, as he explores Translating in a context of official bilingualism: What happens to the minority language?

Thursday, November 25, 2021 - 7:00pm - 9:00pm (MST)

Event Location: Live online broadcast

Optimize your viewing experience: We have prepared a short video to help you optimize your online viewing experience in Zoom. Please take the opportunity to review prior to the talk.

COVID-19 has impacted the way we do everything, including the delivery of our events. The safety of our speakers and guests in attendance is of the utmost importance to us, and for that reason, this talk will be delivered ONLINE via a LIVE BROADCAST. Please register for this event at pps-takam.eventbrite.ca.Registration is required as we need to provide you with secure access information to the live broadcast prior to the start of the event. Please watch your email. **All who register and attend this event will be entered to win a $100 gift card to the Italian Table.**

Most teachers and educators, translators and interpreters look at interference as a serious language mistake. Interferences are traces of one language in another language. For example, it is observed that Canadian French is heavily influenced by the majority language, English. On the other hand, Cameroon English is heavily influenced, in much the same way, by French, which is the majority language in that country. In both contexts, is this influence avoidable? Is it always a problem?

Whatever the case, translators and educators are normally enjoined to guard against such misuses that threaten the integrity of a specific language and its culture. This prescriptive point of view, which stems from de Saussure’s structural approach to language, does not seem to be tenable in a situation of social and official bilingualism. The objective of this presentation is thus to show that interference, as criticized as it might be from language purists and educators, can still be a good solution to translation and communication in a situation of official or State bilingualism. Canada and Cameroon, the two countries that apply the official policy of English and French bilingualism, will provide ample illustrations during this presentation.

Alain Flaubert Takam, a former Killam Scholar from Dalhousie University, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics, University of Lethbridge where he teaches French and Linguistics. His current research focuses on language in education planning (acquisition planning), that is, language planning as it relates to the teaching and learning of minority languages in a bilingual or multilingual context. He also carries out research in the fields of endangered language revitalization, contact linguistics, language variation, the sociolinguistics of translation and socio-pragmatics.In the spirit of the PUBlic Professor Series, we encourage you to prepare appetizers and pour yourself a beverage of choice. Better yet, if you are missing the catering as much as we are, you can order online with the Italian Table and pick up some of your favourite dishes! Prime Catering, the Italian Table and the Sandman Signature Lethbridge Lodge have supported our Series for many years, and as such, we are committed to supporting them during the difficult times brought on by COVID-19. As such, we have purchased several gift cards from the Italian Table. These will be randomly awarded at the end of each talk. You can even use the gift cards to buy appetizers for our next talk in October!! You must be in attendance to win. So register today and mark this date in your calendar!

Room or Area: 
Sandman Signature

Ticket information pending


Contact:

Catharine Reader | catharine.reader@uleth.ca | (403) 382-7154