Normally I don’t go to targeted centers that help with writing. I usually just get my writing done the way I feel is best and just submit. I am always open to feedback, so I went to the translanguaging workshop at the Writing Center. Translanguaging is the use of other language resources in order to enhance writing. The first thing they did was discuss write ins. This is like the task to get us to brainstorm and think of ideas to start the workshop. Thinking of languages and how we would change the concepts we brought in was the task here. Since we were discussing translanguaging, we had to shift our ideas into different languages. I took Italian in high school so that helped me. I took 4 years of it but I never had to convey ideas between languages. Saying one thing like in Italian and relaying it to the other in English was difficult. For example talking about certain slang words have no direct translation in Italian. The paper I brought in to work on was filled with this. The challenging part was translating these ideas between the languages. I brought in a piece of classwork writing from my English class and that is what I used for the workshop. In the middle they discussed certain strategies like using people as resources to help translate languages. Not all words and ideas would have direct translations so you need to figure out close relations. Translanguaging really helped show how converting ideas between the languages can expand the writing to give it a bigger feeling.
