Young translators to test their skills in the yearly European Commission contest
‘EU 60’ – the 60th anniversary of the signature of the Treaty establishing the European Community’ will be the topic of the texts which young translators from across Europe will have to translate in this year’s edition of Juvenes Translatores.
Registration for the 11th edition of the competition for young translators, organised by the European Commission’s translation department, starts on 1 September 2017 at noon.
European Commissioner Günther H. Oettinger in charge of budget, human resources and translation said: “This is a great initiative combining two of Europe’s greatest values – language diversity and youth talent. I invite schools from across Europe to take part in this competition.”
The registration is first open for schools via the website http://ec.europa.eu/translatores. The registration period runs until 20 October at noon, and the application form is available online in all official languages of the EU.
At a second phase, a total of 751 schools are invited to provide the names of the students who will take part in the competition. The young translators – two to five per school – can be of any nationality and should be born in 2000.
They will have the chance to test their skills on 23 November 2017, the date of the competition. The contest will take place at the same time in all schools selected to participate.
During the competition, students will translate a one-page text from one official EU language into another. This makes a total of 552 language combinations of the EU’s 24 official languages. Last year, students used 152 language combinations, including translating from Greek into Latvian, and from Bulgarian into Portuguese.
European Commission translators receive all translations, mark them and select one winner per country. This year’s winners will be invited to Brussels in April 2018, to receive their prizes.
Background
The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Translation has been organising the Juvenes Translatores (Latin for ‘young translators‘) contest every year since 2007. Its aim is to promote language learning in schools and give young people a taste of what it is like to be a translator. It is open to 17-year-old secondary school pupils and takes place at the same time in all selected schools across the EU. The contest has inspired and encouraged some of the participants to continue with language learning at university level and to become professional translators. The competition also emphasises Europe’s rich linguistic diversity.
For More Information
Pictures from the 2017 Award Ceremony
Follow the European Commission’s translation department on Twitter: @translatores