Young Translator 2019
The Department of Translation Studies introduced the profession of translator and interpreter to high school students
On Friday, November 8, 2019, the ceremony of announcing the results of the Young Translator 2019 competition took place at the Akropolis of the University of Bratislava in Nitra. The competition is intended for high school and grammar school students who want to try their hand at translation and at the same time compare their language skills and translation skills with students from other schools. This year, students from the Nitra, Trnava and Trenčín regions participated again.
The seventh year offered a translation competition in seven categories: translation of subtitles from English to Slovak, translation of text from Russian, French, Spanish, German, English. A novelty was the category of machine translation. It is gratifying that 11 more schools registered for the competition compared to the previous year; The jury received a total of 400 translations from 44 secondary schools and grammar schools. For comparison – the 1st year had 24 students from 8 schools, the 2nd year had 76 students from 12 schools, the 3rd year had 100 students from 13 schools, the 4th year had 172 from 14 schools, the 5th year had 305 translations from 20 schools, the 6th year had 406 translations from 32 schools.
The ceremonial event was opened by the Dean of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Bratislava in Nitra, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jarmila Maximová, PhD. and the Head of the Department of Translation Studies of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Bratislava in Nitra, Mgr. Emília Perez, PhD.
The ceremonial nature of the event was enhanced by the visit of a special guest – H.E. Hilda Ó Rian, Ambassador of Ireland to Slovakia. Her visit was a continuation of our mutual cooperation; students of the Department of Translation Studies have recently participated in some projects of the Embassy – they experienced the celebrations of St. Patrick’s Day in Nitra, translated texts for an exhibition on the history of Ireland and subtitles for an Irish film. The organizers of the competition decided to introduce Irish culture to the Young Translators. In the category of translation of text from English into Slovak, students translated an Irish short story, and in the category of machine translation, they translated online information from the Embassy about the realities and history of Ireland.
In her ceremonial speech, which was consecutively interpreted into Slovak by KTR student Bc. Marek Gernát, E. Hilda Ó Rianová emphasized the importance of languages. As a diplomat, she speaks four languages – she uses English in communication at the embassy, she speaks Irish (the official language of Ireland) with her compatriots, German with her children, and Slovak in everyday life. She has respect for the profession of translator, as she herself studied translation. She expressed her admiration and recognition to all the best Young Translators in the auditorium and personally presented the prizes and diplomas to the winners in the category of translation of text from English into Slovak. The short story for the competition was chosen by the Ambassador – it is one of her favorites and vividly describes rural life in Ireland.
The translations in the competition were evaluated by members of the Department of Translation Studies, the individual committees were represented by: Dr. Emília Perez (translation of subtitles), Dr. Andrej Zahorák (RJ), Dr. Peter Žiak (FJ), doc. Edita Horňáčková – Klapicová (ŠJ), Dr. Oľga Wrede (KGer, NJ), doc. Daša Munková (machine translation) and Dr. Beáta Ďuračková (translation of text from English). The judges agreed that many students took on the role of translator responsibly and coped brilliantly with the translation.
Thanks to the event sponsors, KTR was able to award the best students and the first-place teacher in each category in the Young Translator 2019 competition. It also paid tribute to the schools that participated in the competition with the largest number of translations. The awards were received by the Business Academy in Zlaté Moravce (with 43 translations), the Andrej Vrábl Gymnasium in Levice (31 translations) and the Ľ. Štúr Gymnasium in Trenčín (28 translations).
The organizers of the Young Translator 2019 competition would like to thank the event partners: the Irish Embassy in Slovakia, ATC SK – Association of Translation Companies and the Faculty of Arts of the University of Bratislava in Nitra.
Many thanks go to the participating students and teachers for their interest in the competition, enthusiasm and abundant personal participation in the ceremony announcing the results.
The ceremonial announcement of the results was honored by H. E. Hilda Ó Rian with a letter of thanks, in which she expressed gratitude to the organizers of the event – Assoc. RNDr. Daša Munková, PhD. and Mgr. Katarína Welnitzová, PhD. – for the organization. In addition, she expressed her pleasure that many young people sacrificed their free time to translate foreign language texts and thereby showed interest in Irish culture and literature.
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