International Translation Day

Listen up guys and gals, you’re about to get an education ;)

I bet none of you knew that the 30th of September was International Translation Day. The theme for this year was “Terminology: Words Matter”. After spending some time with postmodernist texts that whispered language fails to convey meaning in my ears it was quite refreshing to step back into a world where words mean. When it comes to the beauty and power of words I’m an inhabitant of Middle-Earth where speaking words can sometimes unleash great power. There is even a patron saint of translation! His name was Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus, but you can simply call him St. Jerome. He translated the Old Testament from Hebrew into Latin and the New Testament from Greek into Latin. I imagine he was a charming gentleman and legend has it that he removed a thorn from a lion’s paw. The Department of Linguistics and Literary Theory hosted a workshop presented by Wilna Liebeberg on the 29th of September to commemorate the day and all us 3rd year student got to attend. Even though the talk on how to start your own freelance translation or editing practice was irrelevant to us at this moment in time I enjoyed it. During the break I got to speak to a very friendly gentleman named Jerry Ngubane who runs his own translation freelance practice and makes a comfortable living from it :) It was a cool experience being a room full of professional language practitioners and laughing at how childish they are at times.

Check out the South African Translators’ Institute and the International Federation of Translators to see what the hype’s about :)