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 and children's books with us on this occasion.

 

 With 19 years of experience in journalism Shashi Sampalli is indeed our star translator. This father of an 8 year old girl includes literature, the environment and agriculture are his interests. In this piece of writing he speaks on how to balance “maturity and innocence” while writing for children.  

ಅನುವಾದ ಎಂಬುದು ಕೂಡ ಒಂದು ಸೃಜನಶೀಲ ಕ್ರಿಯೆ. ಅದರಲ್ಲೂ ಮಕ್ಕಳ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯವನ್ನು ಅನುವಾದಿಸುವಾಗ ನಾವು ಸ್ವತಃ ನಮ್ಮೊಳಗಿನ ಮಗುವನ್ನು ಮುನ್ನೆಲೆಗೆ ತಂದುಕೊಂಡೆ ಅನುವಾದವನ್ನು ಆ ಮಗುವಿನ ಮೂಲಕವೇ ಆಗಿಸಬೇಕಾಗುತ್ತದೆ. ಎಲ್ಲ ಸೃಜನಶೀಲ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಕಕ್ಕೂ ಒಂದು ಹಂತದ ಮುಗ್ಧತೆ ಅಗತ್ಯ. ಮಕ್ಕಳ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯದ ವಿಷಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಮುಗ್ಧತೆ ಮತ್ತು ಕಡಿಮೆ ಪ್ರಬುದ್ಧತೆ ಉತ್ತಮ.

ಸ್ವತಃ ಮಕ್ಕಳ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯ ರಚಿಸುವಾಗ ಪ್ರಬುದ್ಧತೆಯ ಪ್ರಮಾಣ ಕಡಿಮೆ ಇದ್ದರೂ ನಡೆಯುತ್ತದೆ ಅಥವಾ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಅನುಕೂಲವಾಗಬಹುದು. ಆದರೆ, ಮಕ್ಕಳ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯದ ಅನುವಾದ ಅಷ್ಟು ಸರಳವಲ್ಲ. ಅದಕ್ಕೆ ಪ್ರಬುದ್ಧತೆಯೂ ಬೇಕು. ಮುಗ್ಧತೆಯೂ ಬೇಕು. ಆ ಅರ್ಥದಲ್ಲಿ ಇದೊಂದು ತಂತಿ ಮೇಲಿನ ನಡಿಗೆ. ಎರಡೂ ಕಡೆಯ ಸಮತೋಲನ ಇಲ್ಲದೆ ಇದ್ದರೆ ಜಾರುವುದು ಖಂಡಿತ.

ಭಾಷೆ, ಅರಿವಿನ ವಿಷಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಅನ್ಯ ಭಾಷೆ ಮತ್ತು ಹೊಸ ವಿಷಯವನ್ನು ಅರ್ಥಮಾಡಿಕೊಂಡು ಅನುವಾದಿಸುವ ಪ್ರಬುದ್ಧತೆಯೂ ಬೇಕು. ಆ ಅನುವಾದ ಉದ್ದೇಶಿತ ವಯೋಮಾನದ ಮಕ್ಕಳಿಗೆ ಎಟುಕುವಂತೆ ಭಾಷೆ ಬಳಸುವ, ಮಕ್ಕಳ ಮನೋಸ್ಥಿತಿಗೆ ಅನುಗುಣವಾಗಿ ಸುಲಲಿತ ಮಾತುಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ತಲುಪಿಸುವ ಮುಗ್ಧತೆಯೂ ಬೇಕು.

ಈ ಸಮನ್ವಯತೆ ಸಾಧಿಸುವುದು ಸರಳವಲ್ಲ. ಅದಕ್ಕೆ ನಮ್ಮೊಳಗೆ ಒಬ್ಬ ತಿಳಿವು, ಅರಿವಿನ ವಯಸ್ಕನೂ ಇರಬೇಕು, ಜೊತೆಗೆ ಮುಗ್ಧತೆಯ ಮಗುವೂ ಇರಬೇಕು.

ಅನುವಾದಿಸುವ ಮುನ್ನ ನಮ್ಮ ಎದುರಿನ ಕಥೆ ಅಥವಾ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯ ನಮ್ಮೊಳಗೆ ಇಳಿಯಬೇಕು. ಅನ್ಯ ಭಾಷೆಯ ಅದನ್ನು ಓದಿ, ಒಂದಿಷ್ಟು ಕಾಲ ಒಳಗಿಟ್ಟುಕೊಂಡು ನನ್ನ ಭಾಷೆಯ ಮಾತುಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಮರು ಕಟ್ಟಬೇಕು. ಅದಕ್ಕಾಗಿ ಮಕ್ಕಳ ಮಾತುಗಳಿಗೆ ಕಿವಿಯಾಗಬೇಕು. ನಂತರ ಅನುವಾದಿಸುವಾಗ ಕೂಡ ಬಳಸುವ ಪ್ರತಿ ಪದವನ್ನೂ ಜೋರಾಗಿ ಉಚ್ಛರಿಸಿ, ಅದು ಮಗುವಿನ ಮಾತಿನಂತೆ ಕೇಳುತ್ತದೆಯೇ? ಪದ ಬಳಕೆ ಮಗುವಿನದ್ದೇ ಆಗಿದೆಯೇ ಎಂಬುದನ್ನು ನಿಖರಗೊಳಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತಲೇ ಮುಂದುವರಿಯಬೇಕು.

ನನಗಂತೂ ಒಬ್ಬ ಕವಿಯಾಗಿ ನನ್ನೊಳಗಿನ ಮಗುವಿನೊಂದಿಗೆ ಮಾತಾಡುವುದು  ಈ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ಕೆ ಒದಗಿಬರುತ್ತದೆ. ಜೊತೆಗೆ ಎಂಟು ವರ್ಷದ ಮಗಳಿಗೂ ಕಥೆ ಓದಿ ಹೇಳಿ ಅವಳ ಪ್ರತಿಕ್ರಿಯೆ ಮೇಲೆ ತಿದ್ದುಪಡಿ ಮಾಡುವ ಅವಕಾಶ ಕೂಡ ಇದೆ.

ಹಾಗಾಗಿ, ಬಿಯಾಂಡ್ ಸೈಟಿಂಗ್ಸ್, ಬೆಸ್ಟ್ ಫೂಟ್ ಫಾರ್ವರ್ಡ್, .. ಚೀನಾಟೌನ್ ಮುಂತಾದ ಕಥೆಗಳು ನನ್ನ ನಿರೀಕ್ಷೆಗೂ ಮೀರಿ ಉತ್ತಮವಾಗಿ ಮೂಡಿಬಂದವು ಮತ್ತು ನನಗೇ ಅಚ್ಚರಿ ಹುಟ್ಟಿಸಿದವು.

ಮುಖ್ಯವಾಗಿ ಅನುವಾದ ಕ್ರಿಯೆಯನ್ನು ಆವು ಮೋಜಿನ ಆಟದಂತೆ ಆನಂದಿಸಬೇಕು.

ಇವು ನನ್ನದೇ ಅನುಭವದ ಮಾತುಗಳು.

- ಶಶಿ ಸಂಪಳ್ಳಿ

 

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Khyati Datt writes about the recent StoryWeaver workshop  with teachers, librarians, social workers and storytellers in Chennai.

Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, is known as the gateway to South India and is home to many organisations doing exemplar work in the education space. StoryWeaver has a number of partners in the city and we  were motivated to connect with more such organisations. This brought us to Chennai to conduct a StoryWeaver workshop, our very first in the city.  We invited various organisations and individuals that worked with children with an idea to discuss how learning and reading can go hand-in-hand.

40 participants, from 15 different organisations joined us for a day of discussions, storytelling and creating stories of their own. Some of the organisations that we got to interact with were Vidyarambam Trust, India Literacy Project, Isha Vidhya, Katha on Ratha, Communities Rising and Pratham Education Foundation .  It was wonderful  to see that they were as excited about the workshop as we were.

The workshop began with a quick round of introductions and a question- What would you have been doing, if you had not been working with children?  The answers we got were interesting and really creative!  We then spoke about Pratham Books and started the demo of the StoryWeaver platform. We had a storyteller in the audience who volunteered to do a spontaneous story reading session and made all of us think of creative answers to her questions and ensured that there were lots of giggles.

Storytelling in action

The participants then tried their hand at using StoryWeaver  by curating a reading list for a specific theme. Some of the themes they worked with were life skills and nature. Throughout the course of the session, the participants shared with us anecdotes from the field and why they think stories are important. Their takeaway from this task were the different ways in which stories can be used to teach themes and engage with children.

The participants then moved on to the most creative part of the session, the part where they create stories. One of the stories explored a child’s imagination of his dream school, with lollypops growing on trees. Everyone was excited about letting their imagination run wild and presented their thoughts and process behind their stories.

Nelson from Communities Rising shares the story he created at the workshop.

We  introduced the audience to the kind of stories that are hosted on StoryWeaver, the different ways in which these stories can be used with children and how other organisations are using the platform. Along with the participants, we mapped the different kinds of books on the StoryWeaver platform to the Listening-Speaking-Reading-Writing(LSRW) framework of Language Development and a discussion ensued with the participants about it. The participants shared their ideas on how they think stories can be used in a classroom and the ways in which children can be introduced to difficult concepts using stories.

The session ended with inspiring videos about individuals using stories to get children excited and  pushing them to think out of the box.

A big thank you to all our participants for being patient and interacting with us and each other throughout!

To see more pictures from the workshop, click here. 

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Our Outreach Executive Khyati Datt writes about how v-shesh is using books to help develop language skills amongst children with hearing impairments. 

At a workshop conducted for parents of children with hearing impairments, Kanchan and Tabassum, trained sign language interpreters,  posed the gathering question: 

“What do you see as the biggest obstacle in ensuring that  your child’s learning is not restricted to the classroom only?” 

Most parents spoke about the communication gap that existed between them and their child which often resulted in the child becoming withdrawn from the family. Kanchan and Tabassum gave them a simple solution for this:

“Read to your children.”

Kanchan and Tabassum have always enjoyed interacting with children. They work with v-shesh Learning Services, an award winning impact enterprise that assists persons with disabilities (PwD), with socio-economic inclusion. v-shesh works in the training and education space to assist PwD in accessing formal sector jobs.

The duo are closely involved in the implementation of a project which aims to assist children with hearing impairment develop English language competency. When they joined v-shesh in 2016,  the project had just started, but overtime, being in the field made them realize the needs of the children. 

“Most of our students were either pre-teens or teenagers. We found a lot of interest and enthusiasm amongst the students to learn the English language, but most teaching learning material and methodologies available were not age appropriate to teach basic concepts. This led to the need for continuous innovation and to build upon existing material to make it relevant for students and simultaneously address the core challenge of assisting them with the basics”, Kanchan shares.

Books and beyond

Kanchan and Tabassum have always believed that stories are an important tool in igniting interest in learning a language. They started looking for books that were simple, colorful and had captivating illustrations. While Kanchan decided to divide the children in groups and asked them to read to each other, Tabassum started giving out books as rewards to the children.

v-shesh is a big believer of the PVR (Preview, View, and Review) method of teaching. In this method, a book is introduced to children by giving them a general description of the topic. As a next step, they read the book with the students using some visual effects and end the discussion by asking the children to review the book and share their learnings with each other. Simple videos were also made to explain the concept to the teachers and parents as well.

 

Children reading in pairs in a v-shesh centre in Delhi

Tabassum shares how the books from StoryWeaver were, especially, loved by children with hearing disability; “The children would often read the books on their own and volunteer to talk about the story in the class. ”

Kanchan and Tabassum’s advice to the parents at the workshop ensured that learning did not stop once the children exited the classroom. The parents of  Khushi, one of the students at the center, were the first to read a book to their child. Kanchan and Tabassum noticed a remarkable change in Khushi’s confidence and were happy to see that despite not knowing sign language, Khushi’s parents were able to connect with their child through books. 

Kanchan feels that, “Books are the most effective and the most important means of igniting interest in language among the students . A beautifully illustrated book helps motivate children to read and learn a language like no other”.

 

Source:  v- shesh centre in Delhi

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