Lingua Franca

Fellowship to Teach in Poland

by Kristine Doll

In spring 2017, I received an Erasmus Plus Fellowship to teach at the John Paul II University (KUL) in Lublin, Poland. I taught several workshops in translation studies to graduate students. In addition to examining current translation practice and theory, we translated several contemporary documents ranging from expressive to informative and operative texts. I found the students’ level of enthusiasm and preparedness to be superb, as was their competency in written and spoken English. I very much enjoyed working with them!

During the week both before and after classes, I strolled through new and old town Lublin, sampled the food, listened to music and visited the city and the region’s museums. I also had the opportunity to spend a weekend in Kazimierz Dolny (a beautiful riverside town just west of Lublin), as well as time in Warsaw, Zamosc (Poland’s nod to the Italian Renaissance), Radom, and Skarzysko.

Funded by the European Union, this program is part of larger EU program designed to encourage development and networking activities in education. Established in 1987, it was originally designed to provide Europe with “bridges of trust” to study abroad. It now allows Europeans to cross borders to learn new perspectives, to collaborate on joint ventures and to benefit from the transfer of ideas and expertise. In January 2015, the Erasmus Plus Program was expanded to include US institutions as partners to EU universities. Salem State was invited to participate in the academic year 2016-2017. SSU has been invited to participate again in 2017-2018.