Translation and Mediation
What the section tests
Translation and mediation tasks ask you to transfer meaning between French and Bulgarian, or to relay information from one text into another form, such as summarising a French notice for a Bulgarian reader. The focus is on faithful meaning, natural target-language phrasing, and appropriate register, not word-for-word correspondence.
Concepts to master
Understand that translation is meaning-based: identify the function of the source text before rendering it. Master common translation challenges: idiomatic expressions, false friends, passive versus active voice, and differences in tense usage between French and Bulgarian. Learn fixed equivalents for formal formulas, dates, and administrative phrases. For mediation, practise selecting key information and reformulating it concisely for a new audience.
Traps to watch
Literal translation produces unnatural text: Je suis d'accord is not word-for-word in Bulgarian, and idioms rarely transfer directly. Do not omit negations or modal nuances. Watch articles and prepositions, which differ between the languages. In mediation, do not add opinions or details absent from the source, and do not copy the source structure blindly.
Rule of thumb
Read the whole source text, note its purpose and register, draft the meaning in the target language, then compare your draft against the source to check that nothing was added or lost.
Worked example: French Il est interdit de fumer dans les locaux should become a natural Bulgarian prohibition notice, not a literal word-by-word rendering. The meaning (smoking is prohibited indoors) and the formal register must both survive.