When translation meets a TV series in Higher Education: The case of Friends

Translation into the foreign language has been used as a pedagogic tool for language learning in Higher Education for many years. This gives students the opportunity to work with different texts enabling them to put into practice the grammatical, syntactical and lexical knowledge acquired throughout their language learning process. However, there are other elements that are equally important and should be taken into consideration when translating a text. An example of this is the cross-cultural skills that students need to develop in order to produce culturally acceptable translations. In a globalised world, students are not only expected to show language proficiency but to act as cultural mediators, communicating effectively in cross-cultural situations. Therefore, how can we help our students’ develop their translation-intercultural skills while making it an interesting and attractive task for them in the 21st century? The use of audio-visual resources can greatly enrich the everyday classroom contributing to create a more dynamic and engaging teaching environment. The use of TV series in the translation task in particular offers a unique opportunity to explore not only the linguistic side of the translation process but the important role played by the communicative situation. By making use of TV series resources that reflect real life we ensure the use of real language and grammar receiving a better response from students as TV series consumers. This presentation aims to provide an analysis of an extract of the TV series Friends and the translation into Spanish of its transcript in order to serve a dual purpose: To make students aware of the different elements and skills involved when translating in context in the digital era, while dealing with linguistic and intercultural challenges between the English and the Spanish language