The autumn school in Kääriku gave new perspectives on translation and politeness in Estonian

Students in Master’s programmes in linguistics and translation studies participated in the traditional autumn school, which took place on the 2nd and 3rd of November in Kääriku. Both Estonian and international students took part in the lectures and were actively engaged, adding their comments and insights to the discussion. Dorota Baluchová, a first-year Master’s student of Estonian and Finno-Ugric Languages, shares her experience about participating in the autumn school.

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The lecture part began on Saturday with a presentation by Arvi Tavast, Director of the Institute of the Estonian Language, on the topic “What will be left for the person when the machine translates quickly, for free and more and more tolerably?” (Mis jääb inimesele, kui masin tõlgib kiiresti, tasuta ja üha talutavamalt?). The lecture was in Estonian, but the slides were in English, which helped international students understand and follow, so they could actively participate in the discussion. The lecture was followed by a short coffee break, and the study part of the day ended with a workshop on politeness and impoliteness in Estonian. The participants had many interesting insights, such as why Estonians remain silent when someone thanks them or whether a conversation in English is less polite from a language point of view. The day ended with sauna where the participants could once again discuss the topics from the lectures with the presenters or simply make new friends and connections and have exciting conversations.

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The second day of the autumn school started with a lecture by Tiia Tulviste on the topic of “Language development in a digital childhood”. Many participants joined the discussion and debated how much time young children should spend in front of the screen and how this can affect their speech development. The lecture was followed by a workshop about language policy and the reputation of the Estonian language, where the students were asked to translate several statements about the Estonian language and its position in society into English. The autumn school was finished with lunch, and then it was time to take the bus back to Tartu. 

The weekend in Kääriku left me with many pleasant feelings. In addition to the exciting discussions I participated in, I made many new friends. It was a great opportunity for students from different programmes and nationalities to meet and learn something new from our fields but also talk to each other and spend some time with our lecturers outside of the classroom.

Dorota Baluchová is studying in the Master’s programme Estonian and Finno-Ugric Languages.