EU's young translator contest unveils this year's 27 winners

This year, 2,883 participants put their language skills to the test, choosing to translate a text between any two of the EU's 24 official languages. Of the 552 language combinations available, the students from 681 schools used 141 combinations, including Spanish into Slovenian and Polish into Danish. The results are in today!

The students participating in the contest enjoyed the opportunity to discover translation. As students from a school in Spain school put it: ‘Our English teacher is a former translator and we've all enjoyed every bit of the preparation process, practising with texts from past years and learning about the challenges of translation in the EU institutions. We've even planned a visit to a university that runs a degree in translation to learn more about this world.'

The European Commission's translators selected 27 winners, one for each EU country, as well as 287 students who received special mentions for their outstanding translations. The winner in Cyprus was Dimitra Eleni Nakou from “Lykeio Agias Fylaxeos” in Limassol. Dimitra Eleni chose to translate from German into Greek and the selection board noted that her translation showed that she has a thorough knowledge of both the Greek language and the language of the original text. Dimitra Eleni believes that multilingualism is wealth and it can open doors, regardless of what people choose to do in their lives. As regards her success, she said that it was unexpected, but she is very happy to have the opportunity to visit Brussels for the award ceremony.

A special mention in Cyprus for their outstanding translations was granted to Christos Kofteros from “Lykeio Agiou Neofytou” in Paphos and Nestoras Alexopoulos from the French-Cypriot school in Nicosia.

The award ceremony for the 27 winners will take place in Brussels, on 31 March 2023.

The European Commission's Directorate-General for Translation has organised the Juvenes Translatores (Latin for ‘young translators') contest every year since 2007. Over the years, the contest has been a life-changing experience for many of its entrants and winners. Some have decided to study translation at university, and some have joined the European Commission's translation department as a trainee or a full-time translator.

Background

The goal of the Juvenes Translatores contest is to promote language learning in schools and give young people a taste of what it is like to be a translator. The competition is open to 17-year-old secondary school students and takes place at the same time in all selected schools across the EU.

Multilingualism, and therefore translation, have been an integral feature of the EU since the European Communities were first created. It was enshrined in the very first Regulation adopted in 1958 (EEC Council: Regulation No 1). Since then, the number of official EU languages has grown from 4 to 24, as more countries joined the EU.

2022-2023 Juvenes Translatores winners:

* The number of participating schools from each EU country is equal to the number of seats it has in the European Parliament, with the schools selected randomly by computer.

For more information:

• Announcement of the contest
• Juvenes Translatores website
• Juvenes Translatores Instagram
• @translatores