A talented Perthshire girl has seen off competition from around 3000 other pupils to be named the UK winner of the European Commission’s annual translation contest.
Morrison’s Academy pupil Emma Robertson took part in the Juvenes Translatores Latin for young translators competition in November last year.
Joining fellow 17-year-olds from across Europe, she had to translate a one-page text from a language of her choice into any of the European Union’s (EU) 22 other official languages.
The completed translations were marked by staff translators from the European Commission’s (EC) Directorate-General for Translation. Each was assessed by a native speaker of the language into which the text had been translated and a selection board then picked the best translation from each EU country.
Emma’s prize will be a three-day trip to Brussels and she will be accompanied by Edward Coffey, head of modern languages at the Crieff school.
“This is a tremendous achievement by Emma, who is a talented languages student,” Mr Coffey said. “This prize recognises not only her understanding of French but also her ability to translate this into natural English.
“She is an excellent role model and example to other language students. Emma exemplifies the skills and qualities that more and more businesses are looking for in our future workforce by offering excellent communication skills, both in her own and other languages.”
Head girl at Morrison’s, Emma will receive her prize and certificate with the other winners from Rytis Martikonis, the new head of the EC’s Translation Directorate-General, at the awards ceremony in April.
She will also have a chance to meet and see EU translators at work.
Juvenes Translatores is the only contest in which 17-year-olds can test their translation skills in any of the official languages of the EU. It was run for the first time in 2007 as a pilot project to give young people a taste of what it is like to be a translator and to raise the profile of the translation profession and of language learning in schools.
The feedback from teachers and pupils alike shows that it is also a lot of fun. In addition the contest has helped young people to decide on their future careers, with some previous winners having gone on to take up language studies at university.
Photo used under a Creative Commons licence courtesy of Flickr user hctor*