This year’s International Translation Day, the worldwide event marking the essential work that translators and interpreters carry out in an increasingly multilingual world, took place on Friday, September 28, 2018. To commemorate the event, Notre Dame University-Louaize (NDU) students majoring in Translation attended a one-day conference at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).
The conference focused on the need of educators and early-career translators to address the challenges of technology to the traditional work of translation professionals. Addressing students, educators, and professionals from across Lebanon, the conference highlighted the need to develop digital literacy in order to cope with the changing nature of the profession, most importantly the uses of “intelligent” software in the workplace. Prof. Maya el-Hajj, Assistant Professor of Translation at the Department of English and Translation at NDU, who accompanied students to the ESCWA, affirmed “the need to revamp traditional curricula and to think strategically about the role of technology as we prepare Lebanon’s best translators for the future.”
While at ESCWA, students had the opportunity to meet translators and interpreters and gain first-hand experience of their work at the United Nations.