EACH YEAR the European Commission organises a Europe-wide competition called Young Translators (Juvenes Translatores). A student from the Piarist Secondary School of František Hanák in Prievidza, Alžbeta Kiššová, recently won this year’s round in Slovakia and travelled to Brussels at the end of March to receive her award.
In all, 48 students from 14 schools in Slovakia participated in the contest, the TASR newswire wrote.
The contestants were allowed to translate using only dictionaries in book form and were supervised by their teachers.
The texts, translated from English into Slovak, were then sent to Brussels for evaluation.
“Its subject contents included information on the operation of European institutions. There were several expert terms and also some ticklers,” Alžbeta said.
Students from all EU countries who were 17 years old could compete and the Brussels jury chose the best one from every state, evaluating Kiššová as the best young Slovak translator.
Marta Orlíková, the winning student’s English teacher, who is also her class tutor and has taught Kiššová since she joined the school, considers her to be very talented and studious.
In addition to English, Kiššová is studying German and Latin and she said she planned to continue studying foreign languages with the intention of becoming a professional interpreter or translator.
