Mission

“Communication is Translation. Translation is Communication.” By embracing and inheriting our founder’s spirit, the Babel University Professional School of Translation (BUPST) fulfils our mission to develop a high-quality, practical translation education program for English-to-Japanese and Japanese-to-English translation and provide our students with the knowledge and skills necessary for translation professionals.

We strive to empower our students to realize their full potential and enable them to contribute to individuals, societies, education, industries, nations, and the world as “bridges of communication” for sharing and exchanging information, knowledge, wisdom, and insight which surpasses culture and language barriers around the world.

Goals

In order to achieve the mission stated above, BUPST educates its students to have the following competencies with key abilities, achieved through distance learning:

Language Competence
• Read and understand the source language accurately and deeply.
• Write and express the target language in a stylish manner as well as in a way that is easily understood and is suited for each genre.
• Read source materials and write, review, edit, proofread translated materials critically as a professional translator. Thinking critically does not mean grasping original or translated materials negatively, but rather, checking and considering the logical composition and content of the original and translated text to identify issues in translation, analyze them properly, and translate them appropriately.

Expert Competence
• Develop and possess expertise in at least one area of specialization.
• Develop specialized skill knowledge essential for each genre.
• Acquire the techniques to research and obtain necessary information.

Cultural Competence
• Understand the cultural background of the writer and the source materials.
• Understand the cultural background of the target audience.
• Integrate the understandings of both of these backgrounds to produce translation that will satisfy both the source and target cultures.

IT Competence
• Use hardware and software applications required for translation.
• Understand computer-aided translation (CAT) technology.
• Acquire research skills using information technology (IT) tools.

Managerial Competence
• Have fundamental knowledge of the basic legal rights of a professional translator.
• Be professional regarding time management, problem solving, work efficiency, and work effectiveness.
• Demonstrate sufficient ability in leadership, coordination, and collaboration to execute team-based translation projects.

Program Outcomes (Corresponding to Five Competencies)

Upon successful completion, students will be able to do the following:

• Translate skillfully while considering the client’s needs, audience perception, and cultural differences of multiple countries from a professional translator’s view point. (Language, Expert, and Cultural Competencies)
• Translate using specialized terminology and expressions in one’s field of expertise. (Expert Competence )
• Demonstrate a high level of writing, summarizing, drafting, proofreading skills. (Language and Expert Competencies)
• Analyze, assess, and judge what key points would need to be discussed and explained to the client during a translation project and propose solutions proactively in a translation project to ensure smooth execution. (Language, Expert, Cultural, and Managerial Competencies)
• Correctly estimate one’s work speed in advance to manage work schedules efficiently during translation projects. (Managerial Competence)
• Demonstrate a high level of research skills necessary for any translation project. (Expert and IT Competencies)
• Demonstrate basic IT skills to perform translation work in a professional manner. (IT Competence)