Students of VUAS visit the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Translation

November 4, 2021

Students of the Master’s study program “Translation of Language for Special Purposes Texts” at the Faculty of Translation Studies (FTS) of VUAS participated in a virtual visit to the Directorate-General for Translation (DGT) of the European Commission (EC) on October 29 of this year. This was possible because representatives of the DGT organized the visit in person for students and lecturers from the Baltic States, and in the form of a teleconference via the video conferencing tool Cisco Webex for universities in the Nordic countries and Hungary. 



The event was well attended – nearly 300 participants had the opportunity to learn about the structure, work, and daily life of a translator at the EC’s Directorate-General for Translation. Participants had the chance to explore presentations on the translation tools used by translators, the workflow of the translation process, the most frequently used working languages, and how translators carried out their work during the coronavirus pandemic. At the event, VUAS students also had the opportunity to ask questions about the work of a terminologist and how to apply for a job in the translation service. 


The teleconference participants met with staff from the Latvian Language Department of the DGT in breakout rooms. The meeting was led by the head of the department, Mareks Graudiņš. In response to questions from VUAS students about the amount of translation to be completed within a certain timeframe and their journey to the EC’s DGT, former VUAS FTS graduates Ivita Jakovļeva and Jānis Līmežs, who are currently employed at the DGT, also shared their insights.


The Master’s study programme “Translation of Language for Special Purposes Texts” of the FoTS of VUAS is included in a project implemented by the DGT–the cooperation network “European Master’s in Translation” (EMT). The network promotes the exchange of good practice between participating universities. Participation in this network is considered a mark of quality, as sharing experiences and using various study methods enhances the quality of education and fosters the professionalism and suitability of future translators for the European job market, where highly qualified translators are in demand. This virtual visit was one of the events for the EMT network partner universities, expanding the interests and knowledge of students and lecturers about the specifics of translation within European Commission institutions. 


On October 20th and 21st, the EMT partner universities held a conference and colloquium at Leipzig University titled “The Language of Europe”. Among other topics, there was a discussion on the well-being of translators in their work and service-based translator education. The keyword in this process is accessibility in various aspects: accessibility of online content, streaming opportunities, mobile devices as additional tools that ensure content accessibility, etc. Discussions during the EMT conference particularly highlighted so-called specialized translation in special media, where news is disseminated, and content is available to a wide audience. Necessary guidance on how linguistic research and information technology (IT) (e.g. live subtitling) can make World Wide Web content more accessible to different audiences. Translating news content is just one way to make content available on the web. Fake news and media literacy at its various levels were a hot topic of discussion among the conference participants. The range of student research topics was also examined, for example, the inclusion of media accessibility issues in bachelor's, master’s, and doctoral theses,” reports the director of the master’s study program, Silga Sviķe. 


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