Education/News/April 2021/Collaboration with Brusov State University

Author: Violla (WMAM), Anna Watson Holmes, Angela ovhannisyan, Crystal99tina, Irina Chukhajyan

Summary: The students with Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Brusov State University did their internship at Wikimedia Armenia. The students' internship was quite successful. They have created a variety of articles available on the Armenian Wikipedia, and now they are also a small part of the Wiki community.

Since 8th February 2021, 60 students with Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the faculty of Translation and Intercultural Communication, the Department of Asian languages of the same faculty, and from the Department of Linguistics of the Faculty of Russian and foreign languages of the Brusov State University have spent a one-month internship in “Wikimedia Armenia”.

I am Anna Sargsyan (MA Student) and I did my internship at "Wikimedia Armenia" Scientific-Educational Non-Governmental Organization. There are numerous articles on Wikipedia that have not yet been translated into Armenian. We, being future translators, were given a list of such-like articles. Each of us had the opportunity to choose a topic he/she was interested in and thus translate an article referring to that very topic.

Aiming at managing to translate my own articles and edit those given to me during the 6 weeks of my internship, I divided my work into several parts. The most difficult weeks from the point of view of translation were the first two. The hardest days of editing were the last few, as translators of the articles that I was supposed to edit needed some time to translate them before publishing. It would be better if those students started their internship a week earlier, with a view to giving us more time editing.

Those 6 weeks were very interesting and productive. My internship gave me an opportunity to have a better understanding of my future job, as well as get acquainted with the specific style of the online encyclopedia. I went deeper into the topics I was interested in, and not only did I acquire new knowledge in my professional sphere, but I also learned how to use Wikipedia tools for translating, editing, and publishing articles. This will help me continue enriching Armenian Wikipedia.

I have translated the following articles: “Susan Bassnett”, “Peter Pevensie”, “Lucie Pevensie”, (the last two being characters of “The Chronicles of Narnia”), “Eteri Tutberidze” and “Soviet Space Program”. I have also edited articles about Robert Chambers, Michael Wolff, and Mohamed Choukri.

I am thankful for the opportunity to contribute to the Armenian Wikipedia.

I am Anjela Hovhannisyan. I did an internship in Wikimedia Armenia. During my internship, I got acquainted with the activities of Wikimedia more closely. I learned how to work there, how to create articles, and publish them on Wikipedia. I gained a huge amount of knowledge because I had never worked on this platform before, and I was not familiar with it. I have learned various tools with the help of which I prepare my articles. During the internship, I translated 6 articles. I chose the ones that were interesting not only for me but also for the readers, I think. The topics were different from outstanding interior designers to farming. Frankly speaking during translation I did not have any serious difficulties, I can only mention the positive and effective sides of the internship.

It was interesting and useful to work there because I gained not only essential skills for translators but also the ability to work in an unfamiliar environment. The internship helped me to feel free in my profession and become more confident. It helped me to understand all the pros and cons of translation and also the ways to overcome the difficulties because at the university we just learn the theory of translation. During the internship, I used all the skills in practice.

These kinds of activities are very important, especially for students. I am glad to have such an opportunity to work there. The staff was amazing; they helped me to solve all the problems. Our meetings were interactive due to which I participated in training with great pleasure.

I am Kristina Manukyan. As a student from the department of Korean-Armenian languages of the Faculty of Translation and Intercultural Communication of Brusov State University, I did my internship at "Wikimedia Armenia" NGO. The internship was interesting from the very first day. I became more familiar with the structure of the Wikipedia online encyclopedia, learned how the articles are edited and created. The unknown materials were taught and explained in an accessible and comprehensible way. I was excited to study a new, unfamiliar field in spite of translations. Editing Wikipedia seems at first difficult, but I gradually realized that it is not so. I had only some technical difficulties, but the material was explained one more time, and the questions that arose during the process were answered nicely.

I translated 3 articles from Korean to Armenian and used all the knowledge and skills acquired during the 4 years of studying. The first two articles are related to Korean culture. One is about the Korean solo opera Pansori, which is a rather extensive topic. The text contained various archeological terms, old Chinese words. It took quite a long time to find their meanings and equivalents. But it was interesting to step back into ancient times, to study the stories of the origin of words and the roots.

My second article is dedicated to the famous Korean painter Dong-shin Ba‘s life and career. I chose this article because I am really fond of painting art. Before my internship, I studied the life, works, and styles of Korean artists. I tried to compare it with Armenian painting, and to find similarities and differences. There was no material about Dong-shin Ba in Armenian, so I decided to translate and present the works of this prominent artist to my compatriots. While choosing the third article, I decided to create an article on a different topic and translated an article on computer design research. Our articles were checked by our lecturers.

I am glad that with my knowledge, I was able to make a small contribution to this work. Every time I open Wikipedia proudly and say that I have also made my contributions here. I am also glad that my articles will help future generations, and will give them new knowledge. Thank you for the opportunity, I would also like to thank the Wikimedia Armenia staff.

Wikipedia is famous for its free content. It is a multilingual encyclopedia being created by Wikipedia users, who are always free to edit. Nowadays people mostly tend to use the internet for getting information. In this regard Wikipedia has many advantages: there are almost no environmental issues in case of adding or expanding articles on Wikipedia, besides printed encyclopedia remains unchanged until the next edition while editings on Wikipedia can continuously be changed, edited, translated, and updated making the articles up to date.

Having my internship in Wikimedia Armenia NGO from 8 February 2021 to March 19 I have learned the Wikipedia tools, the features of creating and editing articles, got acquainted with their criteria and functions of Armenian Wikipedia.

During the internship I have created and improved three different articles on the topic of linguistics - Մաթեմատիկական լեզվաբանություն (Computational linguistics), Տրամասություն (Discourse), and Գործաբանություն (Metapragmatics). The topics of the articles I chose are of great interest to the public, especially to linguists. So I considered the creation and improvement of articles on such topics important. During the last 60 days, these articles have been approximately read 398, 187, and 152 times.

I also participated in an Edit-a-thon on energy efficiency and renewable energy organized by Wikimedia Armenia NGO and Public Awareness and Monitoring Center held from 10 March 2021 to 25 March 2021. As an already experienced editor, I created and improved articles on effective use of energy and energy-saving - Արևային էներգիան Հայաստանում (Solar energy in Armenia), Հողմաէներգետիկա (Wind Power) and Երկրաջերմային էներգիա (Geothermal energy)․

It is always interesting to gain new knowledge, be informed, to do thematic translations as a translator. All these help to improve translation and editing skills.

I am thankful to Wikimedia Armenia NGO for introducing the general idea of Wikipedia as well as for giving me the opportunity to do this interesting and productive task of creating and developing articles on various topics and promoting public information.