Young translators contest 2020

The European Commission is organising a school contest to give young people a first-hand experience of what it is like to be a translator. Students, aged 17 are challenged to translate a short text.

The aim is that young people experience what it is like to be a professional translator. They should translate as if writing for young people of their own age, to help them understand a message written in another language.
The participants will be judged for their efforts and ability to use terms correctly and write fluently in the chosen language, the general readability of the translation and the creativity of the solutions found.

Languages:
The students themselves can decide the language of the starting text and into what language they want to translate it, chosen from among the EU official languages: Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish.
Each participant’s choice of language pair must be stated on registration. The choice cannot be changed after the 16 November 2021 deadline.

The contest

The translation test will be carried out simultaneously in all participating schools between 10.00 and 12.00 PM (Central European Time), on 25 November 2021.
The test will take place in the schools’ premises and the original handwritten translations must be sent on these days by mail or courier service.

Participating schools must

be located in an EU Member State,
be recognised by the educational authorities of one or more EU country/countries
have the necessary IT in order to receive the source text for the test properly and a computer that can open and print PDF files (the tests and the translation sheets will be sent in this format) select between 2 and 5 students born in 2004, who are permanently enrolled in the school, and enter their names and language pairs in the contest platform by 16 November 2021, 12.00 midday CET at the latest.

Selection of schools
Among the schools that have submitted their registration form in due order, a certain number will be selected through a random draw.
The number of schools selected from each Member State will be equal to the number of seats the Member State has in the European Parliament. The list of selected schools will be published on the Juvenes Translatores website by the end of October 2021.
In the schools, which have been selected at random from among those registering, the nominated students will sit down on that day under the supervision of their teacher and translate the chosen text.

Prize
The best translators, one from each Member State, will be invited to Brussels in spring 2022 for an awards ceremony.
The European Commission will arrange and pay for travel and accommodation for one winner, one teacher and one accompanying adult per country.

How
Entrants can register on the Contest Platform until 20 October 2021 at 12.00 midday CET.

Queries can be sent to the Juvenes Translatores Team.
For further support please ask for the contact person for the contest in the DG Translation local office in your home country.