The winners of the European Commission’s Juvenes Translatores were announced on 11 March. This annual competition, which was launched in 2007, asks 17-year-old secondary students to choose any two of the EU’s 24 official languages to translate from one to the other to promote the role of translators, and many past participants have gone on to explore careers as both translators and work within the Commission.
One winner is chosen from each EU country by staff translators at the Commission and this year there was stiff competition from the 2,800 entries. However, in a challenging climate, many students actively enjoyed taking part. “Thanks to projects such as Juvenes Translatores, students can find stimuli for learning linked to reality, and to their expectations of integration and belonging,” wrote one student from Italy, while another in Romania wrote, “Within this dreary landscape, Juvenes Translatores came as a ray of sunshine that sliced through the darkness.”
Winners are invited to an online award ceremony on 2 July, and they are their teachers will have the chance to meet a professional translator from the European Commission to learn more about the field.
Interestingly, out of the 27 winners, 20 choose English as one of their two languages.
