Ciklopea Summer School 2015 – The Story of Milica Dragićević

Being a soon-to-be graduate, the very thought that I would soon leave the academic circle and set out in the restless waters of the business world in Serbia can seem a bit scary. Although my peers don‘t have the opportunity to get to know the real business world before they graduate from the universities, I was lucky enough to be admitted to the Ciklopea Summer School for translators and experience the reality first hand.

Jitters, anxiety, would I manage, would I meet the expectations – all of that subsided as soon as I met the Ciklopea team. Relaxed (but working) atmosphere of a day in a translation agency and a warm welcome made me feel impatient for the next morning to begin and new assignments to receive.

Jitters, anxiety, would I manage, would I meet the expectations – all of that subsided as soon as I met the Ciklopea team.

The concept of the Summer School consisted of two parts, where we used the first half of a day for lectures, and the second half for translation practice. We started with general lectures on translation and got to know very important terms in a translation agency, such as localization, computer assisted translation, proofreading, the importance of client‘s instructions… During the translation practice, we translated all those types of text we can receive as an agency translator: marketing and tourism texts, instructions for use, medical text…

I wish to underline that although I familiarized myself at the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad with the majority of texts we may work with, Ciklopea provided me with the opportunity to find out about the terms and types of texts I almost knew nothing about. This led to reducing the large gap between the theory lessons in the University and concrete demands of the market.

Mentors and lecturers were full of understanding and patience for the newbies who used the translation tools for the first time. We learned a lot from them as we were talking about translation and some translation tricks, but also about the work in the translation industry.

We also had time to do some sightseeing in Zagreb. The Ciklopea team prepared many surprises for us, such as a visit to the Zagreb Exe viewpoint in the centre of Zagreb, which I will always remember. Just like I won‘t forget the days spent at the Agency, I also won‘t forget the time spent with the rest of the participants and our linguistic discussions.

All in all, the Ciklopea Summer School is a wonderful experience. You don‘t have to think twice about applying if it is organized again.