Translating into German from the Falklands

The Falklands War was fought between Great Britain and Argentina between March and June 1982 and was triggered when Argentina occupied the Falkland Islands and South Georgia (and the South Sandwich Islands). This was land that Argentina very much considered to be its own. Great Britain claimed it as its own with an equal amount of vigour. As the two countries were, perhaps, too set in their ways to share the spoils of the land amongst themselves, both parties, instead, fought like cat and dog over it.

Lives were lost on both sides, but Britain eventually won – but at what cost? Was it worth the lives that were lost? Wasn’t one life lost one life too many?

To this day, Argentina still claims the Falklands and South Georgia is theirs – it says as much in its constitution – most recently in 2008. Who knows what the future holds and what Argentina plans to do to make those claims a reality.

History is important for everyone to learn. Some say you can’t possibly know where you are going if you don’t know where you have been. We can learn from our history and that of others as a way of picking up valuable lessons and avoiding costly mistakes in the future. Learning about past wars and conflict might be a way of avoiding it altogether. The whole story of the Falklands War could be translated into German as language certainly shouldn’t be a barrier to learning about history.

The German translation – once achieved – could be turned into a book and distributed amongst German schools or perhaps taught as workshops in schools. When children read the translated text, one might encourage them to write down what they feel they have learnt in the form of a creative expression: maybe a painting, a drawing or even poetry. Their work could then be displayed in a public place to not only show their talent but to show what they’ve learnt. Sometimes, the world might not listen to a man, but it may drop everything it’s doing to listen to a child.

Alternatively, there could be a website translation of the Falklands War into German. Children could still participate in workshops in schools but the workshops would have a heavy online element to it. So maybe once the children have designed or written a creative response to what they’ve learnt off the translated site, they could scan their work and upload it onto the site. Pictures of them at work could be photographed and also incorporated into the site. Perhaps their voices could be recorded on audio. A combination of these mediums and art forms could make for a wonderful collage of work online and could reach, move and influence a larger amount of people (including other schools).

The translation of the Falklands War into German can be beneficial and can be used as a blueprint for other history projects - adopting translation and creativity as tools for enhanced learning and change.