On 23rd November 2017 the international competition in translation Juvenes Translatores took place in all EU member states. The event promotes language learning and translation. The Diocesan Classical Gymnasium participated for the fourth time, this year as the only high school from the central Slovene region. Five contestants were translating from French, Spanish, German and naturally English. Nika, translating from French enjoyed utterly the text itself, which was “not too difficult” as she put it. “The biggest challenge was the title, which I translated as Leaving a foreign country or going back to roots. I hope the official translators will approve of it”. Ana, who translated from German, liked the fact that “one has to be resourceful and creative while translating. The feelings need to be the same in the translated text, not the words – this has proven to be a tough nut to crack.”

 The Contest in Numbers

For the 11th time since 2007, over 3000 students from across the European Union translated texts, this time on the subjects of languages and translation. They could choose from any of the 552 possible combinations between any two of the EU’s 24 official languages. Students used 152 language combinations. All winners chose to translate into their strongest language or mother tongue, as the official translators in EU Institutions do.

The Slovene Context of Juvenes Translatores

On the national level, there were 35 students competing from eight Slovene high schools. Our school has already had two national winners in 2014 and 2016 and are looking forward to this year results.  The obligatory languages taught at the DCG are Latin and English, some students take also classical Greek, but all have to choose a third foreign language from German, French, Spanish or Russian. /Lily Schweiger Kotar/