Essentially a personal account of how translation is taught and assessed in the English department at the University of Banja Luka, this paper has been written in a very down-to-earth tone aiming to explain a broader social and educational context which determines the way translation is perceived in and outside the classroom. Going beyond a critical overview of how the department‘s translation class is managed, the paper ends with practical suggestions as to how translation teaching and assessment could be improved despite a number of institutional limitations surrounding it.