Professionalise Translation
The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Translation held a conference in Brussels (Belgium) yesterday, Towards a European Master’s In Translation.
This EMT Conference 2008 was the second of its kind. Its stated goals were to:
- bring together translator training specialists from the EU and prospective member countries, as well as employers and international organisations
- discuss issues related to translator training in the EU and implementing an EMT
- seek consensus on a common EMT curriculum and implementation criteria
- build a network of universities in the EU to implement the EMT
- establish cooperation between universities in different countries
- professionalise translation as an occupation within the EU.
The next EMT Conference will be in 2009.
With 27 member states and 23 official languages, the European Union is now actively pushing for an official status for translators. The Translation DG has also published a model curriculum for the proposed European Master in Translation, an 8-page document, the detail of which you can read here. I noted with interest and satisfaction that most of the prerequisites and contents of the proposed EMT are identical to what my translator’s school, E.S.I.T. (Paris), has been advocating and teaching for years. This is most encouraging.
“The main objective of a European Master’s in Translation programme should be to produce highly qualified translators who possess all the basic skills required of a professional translator and who are capable of carrying out demanding translation and translation-related tasks and of acting responsibly as members of their profession.”
I do hope that the entire effort and the ensuing recognition will make our profession more visible. This can only be in the interest of businesses and individuals who need to have access to properly trained and responsible translation professionals delivering high-quality services.
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March 17th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
Thanks for the article. I thought in Europe translator as a professional job had been well recognized by the society. But obviously there are more work to do.
In China the situation is only worse. The problem is we even don’t have a functional organization to promote this idea and provide help to translators.
We do have a Translators Association of China, but to be a member you have to be introduced - no matter what experience you have, how many papers you published or how many years you have been working as a translator… It is more like a privileged close-circuit group, isn’t it?
Jianjun’s last blog post..Chinese Language Course
March 20th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
Jianjun
The profession is recognized, but not protected. Hence our problems. You don’t have to have a degree in translation to become a translator. What the EU is trying to achieve, is a common standard throughout the Union.