Brussels, 10/03/2008 (Agence Europe) - 27 young translators, one from each EU member state, went to Brussels on Monday 10 March to receive the prizes of the first ever European translation contest for schools from EU Multilingualism Commissioner Leonard Orban. In addition to the award ceremony at the Commission headquarters, the young translators visited the Directorate-General for Translation of the European Commission. There the winners meet professional translators who translate European legislative and policy documents and see the tools and working methods used by translators in their work.
The Juvenes Translatores contest was organised by the Translation DG ('Directorate General' or department) of the European Commission and took place simultaneously in all member states on 14 November 2007 under the supervision of the schools involved. Participants were given two hours to translate one of the 23 different original texts on the subject of responsible and alternative tourism into any other official language of the EU. Over 1,300 texts were sent in, representing 134 different combinations between source and target languages. Translators of the Translation DG marked the texts and were therefore instrumental in determining the best translation from each EU member state. This first-ever translation contest was organised by the European Commission as a pilot project to raise awareness of the central role of translation in the Commission's multilingual policy and give students an opportunity to see what it is like to be a translator.
The video link for viewing the event can be found at:
http: //ec.europa.eu/translation/contest/index.htm (I.L.)