Juvenes Translatores (Young Translators) 2018
On 22nd November 2018, students from Gimnazija Vič were part of the bigger Slovenian delegation which took part in this year’s “Juvenes Translatores” contest organised by the European Commission.
Every nation in the European Union gets to put forward groups of young translators to be part of this project that has the purpose of promoting language skills. The number of schools selected to take part in the competition is equal to the number of seats that country has in the European parliament. Therefore, our school was one of eight selected to represent Slovenia. In addition, the rules of this year’s contest declared that everyone who took part as a young translator had to be born during the year 2001.
With our group chosen in accordance with the rules and in consultation with teachers and mentors within the different language departments at Gimnazija Vič, preparation took place during the weeks ahead of the competition which allowed the students an opportunity to practise the necessary skills to provide a translated piece of a very high quality.
The skills that the pieces of work are judged on include the accuracy of translation, the ability to write with appropriate grammar and vocabulary, the fluency of expressions used, and the creativity on display for any problems encountered within the translation. As the pieces of texts involved could include translation issues such as idiomatic expressions, proper nouns, instances of dialogue, and much more besides, there were a lot of things to cover for the young translators.
Students involved in the project had to choose the type of translation that would give them the best chance to display their language skills. With that in mind, there were a number of different language pairs (the language from and into they choose to translate) being tested on the day.
The students involved in the competition and their language pairs were:
- Maj Dimitrijevič (Slovene to English)
- Eva Jelovčan (Slovene to English)
- Zala Kožman (German to Slovene)
- Svit Strehovec (French to Slovene)
- Zala Trček (Spanish to Slovene)
Well done to the young translators and the mentors involved in this competition for all their hard work so far. In addition, we wish them the best of luck when it comes to the judging. Winners will be announced in 2019 with the best young translator from each country being invited to a special award ceremony in Brussels.