Swati Pandit is pursuing her BA in NMKRV College For Women. She loves learning languages and is fluent in 16 of them! She is passionate about music and is learning the violin and flute and can also play the keyboard, guitar, ukulele. She also sings, writes and composes poetry!  Recently her book of poetry Trilingual Poetry got released by professor Dr.S.Ranganath.
 

Q: What type of person do you think makes the best translator for children’s stories?

According to me a person who can think from the perspective of a child....A person who is open to various changes.... And a person who can imagine widely and wildly is the best translator for children's stories.

Q: Do you have any advice for anyone interested in becoming a translator?

My advice is that, please come and discover this amazing world of translating. This work requires a lot of patience and passion. So, people interested out there set your brains on fire and you'll fall in love with translating.

Q:  What is your personal relationship to language and/or translation?

Each language has its own beauty. And I see each language as a beautiful living entity. This is a musical instrument which brings people from various places together.

Q:  When you’ve been given a story to translate, what’s your process, and how long does it generally take?

I have a habit of reading the given story twice... First I give a general reading then I thoroughly read it again...I understand the gist and go on with the translation... It takes 4 to 5 days for the final version.

Q:  What do stories in translation bring to young readers?

If a story is translated in their very own or their dear language they will feel delighted to read it. They will read the story with ease and will get some interest towards reading more.

Q: You’ve translated stories for us. Which has been your favorite to work on?

My most favorite stories are Chutti and Cyborg Taata.
 

Q: What is the hardest thing about translating from English into Kannada? How do you navigate words or phrases that are tricky to translate??

Sometimes finding appropriate words at the right places becomes tricky and then choosing the nearer word becomes the solution. Sometimes this paves the way for inserting a new and interesting phrase. Sometimes change in the voice is needed. It's challenging but it's fun at the same time.

Q: How do you feel when your story reaches the child?

I feel satisfied and really happy that a child can understand and interpret things!

Q:  Translating stories must have required research when it came to STEM related terms and concepts.. How did you explore new objects and concepts?

When it comes to STEM stories I have referred to some books and understood what it is and then I proceeded. While translating Cyborg Dadu to Kannada I got to know various things about how cyborg can change mankind etc. It has really expanded my knowledge.

Q:  As a Multilingual Translator, Young Poet how do you connect yourself with Children's Literature, what do you feel is the challenge in this regard?

Children's literature is known for its widespread imagination and energising themes and being a poet requires childlike heart. More than challenge I feel that it is a trigger to the monotonous mind of mine.
 

Q:  As a student and voracious reader, Stories in which form are best received by kids? Poetry, Picture books, Read aloud etc?

According to me, poetry and picture books are the best ones to give into a child's hand because the rhythm of the  poetry tends to get registered in their minds. And picture books makes their thinking more colorful and picture is grasped by them very quickly. I personally am a great fan of picture and poetry books.

 

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September 30th is celebrated around the world as International Translation Day. We're very fortunate that some of our wonderful translators and language reviewers shared their thoughts on translation with us on this occasion.

Madhu B. Joshi prefers to be known as a communication practitioner. She sees a great need for demystification in daily life and has been trying to work towards it. She has taught translation and a short, self-designed course of Indian Culture; mentored content teams of major education NGOs and designed educational audio-video programmes for CIET, NCERT. Joshi is a translator of Hindi poetry and short fiction in English and has presented major black feminist writers in Hindi. She is also a prolific and visionary collaborator of StoryWeaver. All of this, and we also know and love the other मधु बी. जोशी (in her own words)... जो खाना पकाना, इलाज करना, पौधे और कुत्ते पालना, राय देना.. जैसे बहुत से मुफ़्त काम करती हैं। उन्हें सब से ज़्यादा मज़ा बच्चों के लिए काम करने में आता है और वह इसका कोई मौका नहीं चूकतीं।

My interest in translation is the result of two socio-political accidents. A very courageous father and a supportive family allowed me to turn crisis into opportunities; I shudder at the thought of my contemporaries who suffered what I did.

I was in school in Delhi. Teaching science in Hindi in Government run schools was high on the agenda of the government at that time. In 1969, when I needed to choose the medium of instruction as a science student, coming from the hardcore Hindi-Hindustani following family, I chose Hindi over English. I had been educated in Hindi Medium government schools, most of my English came from my father, an ex-Royal Navy man in rough circumstances he had never expected to be in.

In earnest I (and hundreds of thousands other Delhi students) began to study science subjects in Hindi. The catch was, except for about three volumes of Biology books published by the NCERT, there were few CBSE syllabus compatible science textbooks available in Hindi. I remember our maths, chemistry and physics teachers who had studied in UP and Madhya Pradesh recommending some books that were compatible with the Intermediate/Secondary Board syllabi of those states; we supplemented that list with available books in English. As a result, we ended up reading in English and writing our answers in Hindi.

I had a good command of written and spoken English and Hindi, still my grades fell. I passed my Higher Secondary exam with not exactly flying colours. But I had unwittingly acquired translation skills and a deep respect for, and interest in facilitating communication.

Years earlier, seeing my interest in singing, my closet music-lover father sent me to the neighbourhood aunties who taught music and dance to about a dozen Bengali girls. The aunties were shocked to see a Garhwali girl wishing to be their student. In that gormint clony of Dilli, whoever had heard of a Garhwali girl wishing to sing? They refused point blank, “we only teach Bengali girls.” That was the end of my music dream. In school, the dumbest of children chose music and art as subjects. There was no other music education available in the vicinity. I followed the only course available to me - AIR was giving so much music for free, I learnt my music from Manna Dey, Mohammad Rafi, Malika Pukhraj, Begum Akhtar, Asa Singh Mastana, Salil Chowdhury, Madanmohan......

Much later I guessed the good aunties had not been able to communicate that they only taught Raubeendro Shaungeet which no one else in our colony showed the least interest in. I am sure they would have taught me just as well as they taught the rest of their students had they only known I wished to learn music irrespective of the brand.

These two incidents made sure I did a certain amount of translation besides other things.

 

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How do Aeroplanes Fly? by Aditi Sarawagi and Lavanya Karthik is a book that will give a child's imagination wings! 

Sarla wished she could fly high like an eagle or like an aeroplane. Of course you can fly, said her new teacher. Sarla shares all that she has learnt about flight and aeroplanes in this delightful book. 

ACTIVITIES

Cargo Planes

(Source: http://kidsactivitiesblog.com/77853/stem-paper-airplane-challenge)

Resources

• Construction Paper

• Cellotape

• A handful of coins of different sizes and weight

• A doorway

• Whistle

What to do

• Ask each child to create a paper aeroplane using the YouTube tutorial shared here:

https://youtu.be/qhuRw88A-8c

• Once their plane is ready ask them to stick coins of different size and weigh to it using tape (this is why you need to use construction paper and not regular A4 paper)

• Decide upon a start line and mark it with masking tape or even a long rope. Make sure it’s opposite a doorway!

• Ask the children to line up together at the ‘starting line’.

• When you blow the whistle they all launch their planes.

• The plane that glides the farthest wins!

Straw Rockets

(Source: http://lifeasmama.com/10-rainy-day-activities-your-kids-will-love/6/)

Resources

• Drinking straws

• Paper

• Glue or cellotape

• Scissors

• Crayons or markers.

 

What to do

• Cut down pieces of paper and decorate to your desire.

• Then lightly fold around the end of a straw and tape the paper together (not to the straw) like a cap

• Then just blow! Kids can see how far each can blow their rockets or come up with their own games.

Target Practice

(Source: http://lifeasmama.com/10-rainy-day-activities-your-kids-will-love/7/)

This is a variation of activity 1, but a little more tricky!

Resources

• Paper

• Large sheet of thick board paper.

• A doorway

• Whistle

• Scissors

• Masking tape.

What to do

• Ask each child to create a paper aeroplane using the YouTube tutorial shared here: https://youtu.be/qhuRw88A-8c

• Cut out different sized holes on the board paper and hang it over an open door using masking tape

• Ask children to line up at a pre-determined ‘starting point’ with their paper aeroplanes.

• Blow the whistle. Kids must try and get their planes through the holes on the board sheet!

If you have some fun activities based on 'How Do Aeroplanes Fly' share them with us in the comments section below or on Twitter or Facebook.

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