Measuring attitudes in translation: a study of Nokia business reports

Background Contemporary Finnish, spoken and written, reveals loanwords or foreignisms in the form of hybrids: a mixture of Finnish and foreign syllables (alumiinivalua). Sometimes loanwords are inserted into the Finnish sentence in their raw form just as they are found in the source language (pulp, after sales palvelu). Again, sometimes loanwords are calques, which appear Finnish but are spelled and pronounced in an altogether foreign manner (Protomanageri, Promenadi kampuksella). Research Questions What role does Finnish business translation play in the migration of foreignisms into Finnish if we consider translation "as a construct of solutions determined by the ideological constraints and conflicts characterizing the target culture" (Robyns 1992: 212)? What attitudes do the Finns display toward the presence of foreignisms in their language? What socio-economic or ideological conditions (Bassnett 1994: 321) are responsible for these attitudes? Are these conditions dynamic? What tools can be used to measure such attitudes? This dissertation set out to answer these and similar questions. Attitudes are imperialist (where otherness is both denied and transformed), defensive (where otherness is acknowledged, transformed, and vilified), transdiscursive (a neutral attitude to both otherness and transformation), or finally defective (where alien migration is acknowledged and "stimulated") (Robyns 1994: 60). Methodology The research method follows Rose's schema (1984: 8): (a) take an existing theory, (b) develop from it a proposition specific enough to be tested, (c) devise a scheme that tests this proposition, (d) carry through the scheme in practice, (e) draw up results and discuss conclusions in relation to the original theory. In other words, the method attempts an explanation of a Finnish social phenomenon based on systematic analyses of translated evidence (Lewins 1992: 4) whereby what really matters is the logical sequence that connects the empirical data to the initial research questions raised above and, ultimately to its conclusion (Yin 1984: 29). Results This research found that Finnish translators of the Nokia annual reports used a foreignism whenever possible such as komponentin instead of rakenneosa, or investoida instead of sijoittaa, and often without any apparent justification (Pryce 2003: 203-12) more than the translator's personal preference. In the old documents (minutes of meetings of the Board of Directors of Osakeyhtio H. Saastamoinen, Ltd. dated 5 July 1912-1917, a NOPSA booklet (1932), Enzo-Gutzeit-Tornator Oy document (1938), Imatra Steel Oy Annual Report 1964, and Nokia Oy Annual Report 1946), foreignisms under Haugen's (1950: 210-31) Classification #1 occurred an average of 0.6 times, while in the new documents (Nokia 1998 translated Annual Reports) they occurred an average of 6.5 times. That big difference, suggests transdiscursive and defective attitudes in Finnish society toward the other. In the 1850s, Finnish attitudes toward alien persons and cultures were hardened, intolerant and prohibitive because language politics were both nascent and emerging, and Finns adopted a defensive stance (Paloposki 2002: 102 ff) to protect their cultural and national treasures such as language and folklore. Innovation The innovation here is that no prior doctoral level research measured Finnish attitudes toward foreignisms using a business translation approach. This is the first time that Haugen's classification has been modified and applied in target language analysis. It is hoped that this method would be replicated in similar research in the future. Applications For practical applications, researchers with interest in languages, language development, language influences, language ideologies, and power structures that affect national language policies will find this thesis useful, especially the model for collecting, grouping, and analyzing foreignisms that has been demonstrated here. It is intended to document for posterity current attitudes of Finns toward the other as revealed in business translations from 1912-1964, and in 1998. This way, future language researchers would be able to explore a time-line of Finnish language development and attitudes toward the other. Communication firms may also find this research interesting. In future, could the model we adopted be used to analyze literary texts or religious texts for example? Future Trends Though business documents show transdiscursive attitudes, other segments of Finnish society may show defensive or imperialist attitudes. When the ideology of industrialization changes in the future, will Finnish attitudes toward the other change as well? Will it then be possible to use the same kind of analytical tools to measure Finnish attitudes? More broadly, will linguistic change continue in the same direction of transdiscursive attitudes, or will the change slow down or even reverse into xenophobic attitudes? Is this our model culture-specific or can it be used in the context of other cultures? Conclusion There is anger against foreignisms in Finland as newspaper publications and television broadcasts show, but research shows that a majority of Finns consider foreignisms and the languages from which they come as sources of enrichment for Finnish culture (Laitinen 2000, Eurobarometer series 41 of July 1994, 44 of Spring 1996, 50 of Autumn 1998). Ideologies of industrialization and globalization in Finland have facilitated transdiscursive tendencies. When Finland's political ideology was intolerant toward foreign influences in the 1850s because Finland was in the process of consolidating her nascent country and language, attitudes toward the importation of loanwords also became intolerant. Presently, when industrialization and globalization became the dominant ideologies, we see a shift in attitudes toward transdiscursive tendencies. Ideology is usually unseen and too often ignored by translation researchers. However, ideology reveals itself as the most powerful factor affecting language attitudes in a target culture. Key words Finnish, Business Translation, Ideology, Foreignisms, Imperialist Attitudes, Defensive Attitudes, Transdiscursive Attitudes, Defective Attitudes, the Other, Old Documents, New Documents.

Virtual versus classroom language teaching : A comparative study of the learning outcomes and student responses between two English reading comprehension groups

A 26-hour English reading comprehension course was taught to two groups of second year Finnish Pharmacy students: a virtual group (33 students) and a teacher-taught group (25 students). The aims of the teaching experiment were to find out: 1.What has to be taken into account when teaching English reading comprehension to students of pharmacy via the Internet and using TopClass? 2. How will the learning outcomes of the virtual group and the control group differ? 3. How will the students and the Department of Pharmacy respond to the different and new method, i.e. the virtual teaching method? 4. Will it be possible to test English reading comprehension learning material using the groupware tool TopClass? The virtual exercises were written within the Internet authoring environment, TopClass. The virtual group was given the reading material and grammar booklet on paper, but they did the reading comprehension tasks (written by the teacher), autonomously via the Internet. The control group was taught by the same teacher in 12 2-hour sessions, while the virtual group could work independently within the given six weeks. Both groups studied the same material: ten pharmaceutical articles with reading comprehension tasks as well as grammar and vocabulary exercises. Both groups took the same final test. Students in both groups were asked to evaluate the course using a 1 to 5 rating scale and they were also asked to assess their respective courses verbally. A detailed analysis of the different aspects of the student evaluation is given. Conclusions: 1.The virtual students learned pharmaceutical English relatively well but not significantly better than the classroom students 2. The overall student satisfaction in the virtual pharmacy English reading comprehension group was found to be higher than that in the teacher-taught control group. 3. Virtual learning is easier for linguistically more able students; less able students need more time with the teacher. 4. The sample in this study is rather small, but it is a pioneering study. 5. The Department of Pharmacy in the University of Helsinki wishes to incorporate virtual English reading comprehension teaching in its curriculum. 6. The sophisticated and versatile TopClass system is relatively easy for a traditional teacher and quite easy for the students to learn. It can be used e.g. for automatic checking of routine answers and document transfer, which both lighten the workloads of both parties. It is especially convenient for teaching reading comprehension. Key words: English reading comprehension, teacher-taught class, virtual class, attitudes of students, learning outcomes

Depression, Anxiety, Psychiatric Comorbidity and Dimensions of Temperament and Personality

This study is part of the Mood Disorders Project conducted by the Department of Mental Health and Alcohol Research, National Public Health Institute, and consists of a general population survey sample and a major depressive disorder (MDD) patient cohort from Vantaa Depression Study (VDS). The general population survey study was conducted in 2003 in the cities of Espoo and Vantaa. The VDS is a collaborative depression research project between the Department of Mental Health and Alcohol Research of the National Public Health Institute and the Department of Psychiatry of the Peijas Medical Care District (PMCD) beginning in 1997. It is a prospective, naturalistic cohort study of 269 secondary-level care psychiatric out- and inpatients with a new episode of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV) MDD. In the general population survey study, a total of 900 participants (300 from Espoo, 600 from Vantaa) aged 20 70 years were randomly drawn from the Population Register Centre in Finland. A self-report booklet, including the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI), the Temperament and Character Inventory Revised (TCI-R), the Beck Depression Inventory and the Beck Anxiety Inventory was mailed to all subjects. Altogether 441 participants responded (94 returned only the shortened version without TCI-R) and gave their informed consent. VDS involved screening all patients aged 20-60 years (n=806) in the PMCD for a possible new episode of DSM-IV MDD. 542 consenting patients were interviewed with a semi-structured interview (the WHO Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry, version 2.0). 269 patients with a current DSM-IV MDD were included in the study and further interviewed with semi-structured interviews to assess all other axis I and II psychiatric diagnoses. Exclusion criteria were DSM-IV bipolar I and II, schizoaffective disorder, schizophrenia or another psychosis, organic and substance-induced mood disorders. In the present study are included those 193 (139 females, 54 males) individuals who could be followed up at both 6 and 18 months, and their depression had remained unipolar. Personality was investigated with the EPI. Personality dimensions associated not only to the symptoms of depression, but also to the symptoms of anxiety among general population and in depressive patients, as well as to comorbid disorders in MDD patients, supporting the dimensional view of depression and anxiety. Among the general population High Harm Avoidance and low Self-Directedness associated moderately, whereas low extraversion and high neuroticism strongly with the depressive and anxiety symptoms. The personality dimensions, especially high Harm Avoidance, low Self-Directedness and high neuroticism were also somewhat predictive of self-reported use of health care services for psychiatric reasons, and lifetime mental disorder. Moreover, high Harm Avoidance associated with a family history of mental disorder. In depressive patients, neuroticism scores were found to decline markedly and extraversion scores to increase somewhat with recovery. The predictive value of the changes in symptoms of depression and anxiety in explaining follow-up neuroticism was about 1/3 of that of baseline neuroticism. In contrast to neuroticism, the scores of extraversion showed no dependence on the symptoms of anxiety, and the change in the symptoms of depression explained only 1/20 of the follow-up extraversion compared with baseline extraversion. No evidence was found of the scar effect during a one-year follow-up period. Finally, even after controlling for symptoms of both depression and anxiety, depressive patients had a somewhat higher level of neuroticism (odds ratio 1.11, p=0.001) and a slightly lower level of extraversion (odds ratio 0.92, p=0.003) than subjects in the general population. Among MDD patients, a positive dose-exposure relationship appeared to exist between neuroticism and prevalence and number of comorbid axis I and II disorders. A negative relationship existed between level of extraversion and prevalence of comorbid social phobia and cluster C personality disorders. Personality dimensions are associated with the symptoms of depression and anxiety. Futhermore these findings support the hypothesis that high neuroticism and somewhat low extraversion might be vulnerability factors for MDD, and that high neuroticism and low extraversion predispose to comorbid axis I and II disorders among patients with MDD.

Sångöversättning – någonstans mellan respekt och slagkraft

Abstract (Song translation. Balancing between respect and hit capacity): The article discusses song translation by posing questions relevant to the study, practice, and assessment of translating/translated song: Is song translation really translation? Do non-singable translations count? Can we distinguish between free and faithful song translation? Are there untranslatable (aspects of) songs? etc. Three song translations between Finnish and Swedish are analyzed in the discussion: one made for a booklet to a recording, which in spite of the evident documentary purpose is fairly singable, one that is a national transplantation, which moves the sung story to the target country but even so is fairly faithful, and one that is considered respectful to its source, became a target culture hit, but perhaps because of the subtle changes in content. Changes can be seen as caused by a particular translation brief, as manipulations negotiating a cultural difference, or as examples of how (liberally) the craft of song translation is exercised. An amateur translation of the same song, made by the article’s author, is deemed dysfunctional for having put emphasis merely on semantic accuracy and rhymes, neglecting other aspects of the craft. The article suggests that singability is a relative concept, that stylistic/intertextual values matter a great deal in song and exert significant influence on song translation, and that source and target attentions in this area can be discussed as a much variable vacillation between a stance of respect and an aim for hit capacity.

Miten esiopetusmateriaaleissa esitetään sukupuolta

Earlier school text book studies (eg Tainio and Teräs 2010, Blumberg 2007; Ohlander 2010) have shown that women are underrepresented in school books, both in illustrations and texts, and the genders are represented stereotyped. The study will examine how gender in seen on pre-school education materials. The aim of this study is to determine what kind of representations, discourses and the subject positions of the gender are presented in pre-school materials. This study utilizes a feminist research method. The theoretical starting points are the social constructivist, poststructuralist theory and gender studies. The concept of gender as a social construct. The research used content analysis as well as discource analysis and deconstructive reading. The material was used four different publishers, WSOY, Tammi, Otava and Lasten Keskus preschool integrated material packages, which contain the child's exercise book or booklet, and teacher's guide. The analysis examined the quantity of gender-specific images and gendered words and phrases, and representations of gender, subject position, and discourses, and what linguistic means had been used for representation of masculinity and femininity. Based on the results there were on average more masculine characters and words as feminine in the illustrations and stories of pre-school materials. Feminine and masculine characters representations emphasized traditional gender stereotypes, especially in external characteristics and clothing. Genders had the highest available, with the subject position of stereotypes with reduced mobility, but also other kinds of subject position was observed. The data found in the following gender discources: difference discource, diversity discource and similarity discource. The highest number occurred in the difference and diversity discources. However, there were differences between the different materials. In some materials there were more diverse gender representations and other materials highlighted the differences between genders. Overall, the genders were represented stereotypically in the pre-school materials.

Periodontal and dental health and oral self-care among adults with diabetes mellitus.

ABSTRACT Bakhshandeh, Soheila. Periodontal and dental health and oral self-care among adults with diabetes mellitus. Department of Oral Public Health, Institute of Dentistry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland. 2011. 49 pp. ISBN 978-952-10-7193-5(paperback). The aim of the present study was to assess oral health and treatment needs among Iranian adults with diabetes according to socio-demographic status, oral hygiene, diabetes related factors, and to investigate the relation between these determinants and oral health. Moreover, the effect of an educational oral health promotion intervention on their oral health and periodontal treatment needs was studied. The target population comprised adults with diabetes in Tehran, Iran. 299 dentate patients with diabetes, who were regular attendants to a diabetic clinic, were selected as the study subjects. Data collection was performed through a clinical dental examination and self-administered structured questionnaire. The questionnaire covered information of the subject s social background, medical history, oral health behaviour and smoking. The clinical dental examinations covered the registration of caries experience (DMFT), community periodontal index (CPI) and plaque index (PI). The intervention provided the adults with diabetes dental health education through a booklet. Reduction in periodontal treatment needs one year after the baseline examination was used as the main outcome. A high prevalence of periodontal pockets among the study population was found; 52% of the participants had periodontal pockets with a pocket depth of 4 to 5 mm and 35% had periodontal pockets with pocket depth of 6 mm or more. The mean of the DMFT index was 12.9 (SD=6.1), being dominated by filled teeth (mean 6.5) and missing teeth (mean 5.0). Oral self-care among adults with diabetes was inadequate and poor oral hygiene was observed in more than 80% of the subjects. The educational oral health promotion decreased periodontal treatment needs more in the study groups than in the control group. The poor periodontal health, poor oral hygiene and insufficient oral self-care observed in this study call for oral health promotion among adult with diabetes. An educational intervention showed that it is possible to promote oral health behaviour and to reduce periodontal treatment needs among adults with diabetes. The simplicity of the model used in this study allows it to be integrated to diabetes programmes in particular in countries with a developing health care system.