In this paper the author describes how translation courses in Finland evolved from being more practically oriented to more reflective. The approach offered in Finland in the past was mainly contrastive, whereas in the early nineties the approach can be described as “translation in context” (“traduction en situation”). This approach looks at translation as an activity requiring a wide gamut of competences, going from analysing the translation’s context to textual production. In the remainder of the paper the author contrasts this new approach to the more traditional approach. He explains how the translational context can be analysed and how the product can be defined in a translators’ course. He clarifies how equivalent texts should be sought. An overview of the advantages of this new approach rounds off the paper.