Translation is not only a way of communication but rather a creative cultural and artistic activity that is essential in the fields of science, literature, and speeches; do you think that rapprochement between peoples and relocation of their own outputs across continents would have been possible without translation?
Through translation, we are actually transcending borders and uniting all humanity. Here comes the idea of the International Day of Translation, which intends to celebrate language specialists, who play an important role in bringing countries closer together, contributing to their development, and promoting global peace and safety.
In recognition of the importance of translation, the International Federation of Translation (founded in 1953) launched the idea of celebrating “The International Day of Translation” in 1991, as an occasion for showing cooperation between translators all around the world and to promote the importance of translation and the work of translators. Then the United Nations General Assembly responded to this proposal and acknowledged and celebrated this day for the first time on the 30th of September, 2017. [2]
On the 30th of September, the feast of Saint Jerome, the translator of the Bible, who is considered the patron saint of translators, is celebrated.
He was a priest from northeastern Italy, he tried to translate most of the Bible into Latin from the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. He also translated parts of the Hebrew Bible into Greek. His mother tongue was Illyrian, he learned Latin at school in addition to being fluent in Greek and Hebrew. Jerome died near Bethlehem on the 30th of September, 420 AD.
Every year since 2005, The United Nations invites all its employees, accredited Permanent Missions staff, and students from selected partner universities to compete in the Saint Jerome Translation Competition at the UN, a competition that rewards the best translations in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish and German. It aims to celebrate Multilingualism and highlights the important role of translators and other linguistic specialists in multilateral diplomacy. [1]
Humans speak about 7 thousand languages. With their complex reflection on identity, communication, social integration, education and development. It is of strategic importance for people and the entire world. It plays a vital role in development, in ensuring cultural diversity and intercultural conversations, as well as in building inclusive knowledge societies, preserving the cultural legacy and achieving the political desire to apply the benefits of science and technology for Sustainable Development.
Multilingualism is considered an essential factor in harmonious communication between nations, and the United Nations General Assembly considers it a fundamental value of the Organization. By promoting tolerance, multilingualism ensures effective and increased participation of all in the work of the Organization, as well as increased effectiveness, better performance, and improved transparency. [3]
The United Nations is one of the world’s largest employers of language professionals. Several hundreds of language employees work in the United Nations offices in New York, Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi, or in the UN regional commissions in Addis Ababa, Bangkok, Beirut, Geneva, and Santiago. Translators are a type of language professional working for the United Nations.
UN language specialists include Editorial and desktop publishing assistants, Editors, Interpreters, Précis-writers, Production editors and desktop publishers, Translators, and Verbatim reporters. [1]
In the age of communication technology, the profession of translators is currently in fierce competition with machines and artificial intelligence. Several years ago, Google announced the launch of the Neural Machine Translation System (GNMT), stressing that through this technology machine translations would be indistinguishable from human translations, growing the belief that this ancient profession is on the way to extinction at the hands of machines, however, the promises of programmers to remove language barriers and cancel the need for translators does not seem to be have been fulfilled.
Decades ago – when the first computer-based machine translation process was invented- translators, who work in various fields including politics, commerce, media, tourism, and even government departments, were still indispensable. It is increasingly believed that machine translation will serve as an auxiliary tool for human translators, and not as a pure substitute for them. [3]
Multilingualism – as we mentioned earlier – is one of the basics of our time and the world in which we live. In the era of globalization, information moves from one place to another and from one country to another at the speed of lightning, and so one of the pivotal departments at our initiative, Uplifting Syrian Women, is the translation team, which translates every article and post on our platforms.
We want to thank our translation team for their great efforts and wish all its members continued brilliance and success on their special day. It is worth noting that among the most important educational courses we provide are the conversation and English language courses. To find out more, check out our social media platforms or visit our website.
Also read: International Equal Pay Day.
♀️ Uplifting Syrian Women Initiative aims at sustainable peace building in Syria through targeting women and providing them with free online courses, workshops, discussion sessions and trainings, with a view to achieving the goals of Gender Equality, Quality Education and Decent Work and Economic Growth, which all fall into the interest of society as a whole and serve the purpose of rebuilding it.
References:
[1] UN
[2] Alesco
[3] Aljazeera