Sumários

Practical 12

22 Maio 2026, 14:00 Rui Vitorino Azevedo

For this assignment, students will localize a source text into Portuguese for a Human Resources Hiring Manager in Portugal. This goes beyond translation to include cultural and contextual adaptation that aligns with Portuguese professional standards.

Students must use a formal register appropriate for Portuguese business correspondence and localize all specific details, including converting US addresses, phone numbers, and dates to European formats. Academic and professional references should be adapted to reflect the Portuguese education system, with US institutions replaced by Portuguese equivalents where appropriate. Additionally, financial terminology such as IPO, securities, and derivatives must be translated using precise Portuguese terms.

The goal is to produce a polished, culturally appropriate document that reads as if originally written by a Portuguese professional, demonstrating the ability to adapt content for a specific cultural and professional context rather than simply translating word-for-word.

Students did this in pairs and then we reviewed the translation together.


Test #2

19 Maio 2026, 15:30 Rui Vitorino Azevedo

Students took the second test for continuous assessment, focusing on translating an excerpt and then doing an analytical commentary where they defined, applied and justified the usage of Chesterman’s translation strategies.


Test #2

19 Maio 2026, 14:00 Rui Vitorino Azevedo

Students took the second test for continuous assessment, focusing on translating an excerpt and then doing an analytical commentary where they defined, applied and justified the usage of Chesterman’s translation strategies.


Practical 11 – Until Dawn

15 Maio 2026, 15:30 Rui Vitorino Azevedo

This practical involved translating dialogue from the video game Until Dawn into European Portuguese in subtitle format. Students worked from a provided script excerpt and produced a two-column table with the original English on the left and their Portuguese translation on the right, respecting a 42-character line limit and marking internal line breaks with a forward slash at natural syntactic boundaries. Beyond the linguistic challenge of producing idiomatic, natural-sounding Portuguese, students had to constantly negotiate between faithfulness to the source and the spatial constraints of subtitling (compressing or restructuring sentences without losing meaning, tone, or character voice). In the analysis section, students reflected on how they handled American teen slang, idiomatic expressions, and cultural references, explaining the choices they made to make these resonate with a Portuguese-speaking audience while preserving the horror-genre register and the distinct personalities of different characters. Finally, in the commentary, students identified and named the translation strategies they had applied using Chesterman’s framework. For instance, syntactic restructuring to fit the character limit, semantic modulation to capture emotional nuance, or pragmatic cultural filtering when a direct equivalent was unavailable. They also discussed any specific challenges they encountered and how they resolved them.


Practical 11 – Until Dawn

15 Maio 2026, 14:00 Rui Vitorino Azevedo

This practical involved translating dialogue from the video game Until Dawn into European Portuguese in subtitle format. Students worked from a provided script excerpt and produced a two-column table with the original English on the left and their Portuguese translation on the right, respecting a 42-character line limit and marking internal line breaks with a forward slash at natural syntactic boundaries. Beyond the linguistic challenge of producing idiomatic, natural-sounding Portuguese, students had to constantly negotiate between faithfulness to the source and the spatial constraints of subtitling (compressing or restructuring sentences without losing meaning, tone, or character voice). In the analysis section, students reflected on how they handled American teen slang, idiomatic expressions, and cultural references, explaining the choices they made to make these resonate with a Portuguese-speaking audience while preserving the horror-genre register and the distinct personalities of different characters. Finally, in the commentary, students identified and named the translation strategies they had applied using Chesterman’s framework. For instance, syntactic restructuring to fit the character limit, semantic modulation to capture emotional nuance, or pragmatic cultural filtering when a direct equivalent was unavailable. They also discussed any specific challenges they encountered and how they resolved them.