Yearly, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Translation (DG Translation) organises "Juvenes Translatores’, a translation contest for schools in the European Union. The main stages of the contest are the preparation; the translation test; and an award ceremony.
Each selected school can enter between two and five students, who must have been born in 1999. The purpose of the yearof-birth rule is to create equal conditions for education systems in all EU countries.
The panel will apply similar criteria to those used in DG Translation to evaluate translations;
- accuracy;
- ability to write correctly (choice of expressions and grammar);
- ability to write fluently; and
- creativity of translation solutions.
This year’s Maltese winner, Abigail Callus explained to us that it all started in October, when Dr. Claudine Borg, who coordinates this competition at the G.F Abela Junior College explained the contest for them. Callus continued by telling us that “I was immediately interested since I have always been keen on languages, and hence I decided to sign up.” Callus chose to do the translation from English to Maltese and made it through the shortlisting process together with another 4 students from G.F Abela Junior College.
The selected Maltese schools to contest for the Juvenes Translatores 2016 were De La Salle College Sixth Form, G.F. Abela Junior College, Giovanni Curmi Higher Secondary School, St. Aloysius College, St. Martin’s College and Sir M.A. Refalo The competitors were armed to the teeth with dictionaries that helped them in the translations. However, Callus told us that it was a though challenge to finish the translation on time; with the least possible mistakes, whilst being as loyal to the original text as possible.
Humbly, Abigail Callus wished to thank Dr. Claudine Borg for the training she provided and the European Commission for giving her and other students the opportunity to take part in prestigious competitions of this sort. “Last but not least I wish to thank my family for their constant support; without which I definitely couldn’t have made it this far!” Abigail Callus will now have the opportunity to represent Malta and the Junior College in the award ceremony in Brussels.
