Mr. Johnshon Asunka - Spanish Section

Johnson Asunka is a Lecturer of Spanish at the University of Ghana. He had his secondary education at Kanton Secondary School in the Upper East Region from 1972 to 1977 and his post-secondary education at Mount Mary College, Somanya, where he trained as a teacher of French between 1978 and 1981. Thereafter, he taught French and English in secondary schools in Ghana and Nigeria over a ten-year period before enrolling at the University of Ghana from where he graduated with a B.A. (First Class Honours) degree in French/Spanish in 1996. He took up a temporary teaching appointment with the Ghana Institute of Languages (GIL) and then proceeded to Kent State University, Ohio, for graduate studies in Spanish/French/English Translation and undergraduate studies in Italian and German. He returned to Ghana in 2001 and taught at the GIL for four years before joining the academic staff at the University of Ghana in 2006 where he has been teaching Spanish and Translation up to the present time.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Comparative grammar and stylistics of English and Romance Languages (Spanish, French, Italian)
• Gurune (Frafra) idioms/adages/proverbs and their equivalents in English, French, Spanish and Italian
• Error analysis, editing and proofreading in Translation
• Terminology Management

COURSES TAUGHT

• SPAN495: Theory of Translation & Translation Exercises
• TRAN473: Introduction to Medical & Technological Translation
• TRAN483: Introduction to Terminology Management
• TRAN470: Attachment & Project Work  
• TRAN621: Terminology Management & Computer Skills for Translators

PUBLICATIONS

1. Language Companion. A Language Guide for Learners of English/French/Spanish. 2005.  Nuhu Ahmed and Johnson Asunka.
2. Translation of Ghana, Tierra de Cultura y Tradición (Ghana, Land of Culture & Tradition). 2011. Authored by Spanish Embassy.
3. "A contrastive study of Gurune proverbs and their possible equivalents in English, French, Spanish and Italian"
4. "Exploring a Linguistic Paradigm for Nation Building. Cases from Ga and Gurune."
5. Alexina Arthur and Johnson Asunka.
6. "Translation into L2: Key to Mastering the Itsy-bitsy Ingredients of a Foreign Language”. Johnson Asunka and Setor Novieto.
7. "Way forward for Legon BA Translation Programme: Translation Pedagogy or Pedagogical Translation?”
8. "You grew your ears for decoration, not for hearing!’: “Todo se derrumba”– Spanish version of Things Fall Apart – as a pretext for carrying Ibo culture to Spain”. "
9. "A Translation is like a Woman. If it is beautiful, it is not faithful. If it is faithful, it is most certainly not beautiful.’ To what extent would this observation by Yevgeny Yevtushenko hold true for translations of Affidavits authored by Commissioners for Oaths of the Republic of Ghana? "
10. "Is God a Spaniard or a Frafra man? A critical look at the omnipresence of God in Spanish and Gurune greetings and wishes."