Each year The Translation People presents two students from Aston University with special awards in recognition of their achievements in the field of translation studies: the Achievement in Translation award is given to a Bachelor of Arts student whilst the Excellence in Translation award is given to a Master of Arts student.

In July of this year BA student Brett Nealon was awarded the Achievement in Translation award after completing a BA translation degree in Spanish and English. Following Brett’s graduation ceremony, he was presented with the award by Jasmin Schneider, Operations Manager of The Translation People’s Birmingham office.

As part of the award, Brett was given the opportunity to carry out some translation work for The Translation People, to the value of £200. This part of the award provides graduates with the opportunity to gain valuable experience working as a translator in the professional world.

The Translation People has been presenting students from Aston University with these awards since 2005. The company also involves itself with the university by giving talks to translation studies students about working in the translation profession, covering issues such as how to go about starting a career as a translator. The Translation People sees its cooperation and links with Aston University as a way of promoting the translation profession and encouraging future translators as they embark on their careers.

Aston University offers several undergraduate and postgraduate translation programmes to students, and is one of only five universities in the UK to be part of the European Masters in Translation Network, a network set up by the European Commission which aims to “help raise the standard of translator training in the EU and foster cooperation and exchanges between higher-education institutions offering translation courses”. (http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/programmes/emt/index_en.htm).

The Institute of Translation and Interpreting recently announced the winners of their Best Translation Company Award for 2009 and The Translation People were extremely pleased to come in the top three companies. Members of the ITI were asked to vote via an online questionnaire for their favourite translation agency out of 58 corporate ITI members, working in the translation industry. Questions related to the companies’ ethics, the terminology and feedback supplied to translators and deadlines and payment reliability, with the ultimate aim of establishing how good the translator felt the company in question were to work with.

To rate so highly in a competition of this manner reflects on The Translation People’s commitment to building sustainable relationships with their translators.

Gail Owen, Account Manager, Birmingham, commented that: “We value and appreciate the work of all of our translators and are delighted to learn that our commitment to excellent service, both for our clients and our translators has been recognised in such a prestigious way”

The Translation People would like to take this opportunity to thank all the translators who voted for us.

Indian translator, Ira Pande, has won an award for her Hindi to English translation of T’TA Professor, a novel by Manohar Shyam Joshi which talks about a teacher working in a small town.

Despite this recognition, Pande believes that Indian readers do not regard translated literary works with enough respect, she blames the publishers for this: “It is because publishers do not take the trouble to source good translators or invest sufficiently in translated works.”

Pande says that she has a passion for translating good Hindi literary works into English and describes the significance of her task.

“To me, it is the regional languages that create India’s finest writing, as native speakers have a strong sense of location and experience of life outside the cities and away from English speakers.”

Pande believes there is a general feeling that Indian writing must always be in English, but says that there are texts in other languages which deserve a wider audience. She believes that these translated works warrant greater promotion and respect.

“It seems to me that each time we present a book as a translated work, we offer an apology for writing in a language that is not the globalised mainstream. This shows a terrible lack of faith in our literary worth and self-image.”

The Translation People are proud to sponsor the Achievement in Translation Award for graduates of Aston University, Birmingham. On Friday 17th July Steve Wilde, Managing Director, presented the 2009 award to Stacey Downton at a reception following the graduation ceremony at Birmingham Town Hall.

Stacey Downton pictured with Christina Schäffner and Steve Wilde

Aston University is amongst a relatively small number of universities who offer a specific translation studies course and The Translation People are continuing a long association with the University. Steve Wilde commented: “In a period when we are seeing languages declining as a subject choice it is up to us in the commercial environment to join with academic institutions in promoting languages as a vocation. We need to do all we can to encourage good graduates into our industry in order to safeguard its future.”

Stacey was pleasantly surprised to have won the award which Professor Christina Schäffner  said was very well deserved. Stacey has already gained some valuable experience working in France through the summer and is now looking to establish her career in languages back in the UK.

On the day the Aston graduates’ spirit was not damped by the weather; the hat throwing ceremony outside Birmingham Town Hall took place in spite of a heavy shower!

The Right Honourable Douglas Hurd, Lord Hurd of Westwell, CH, CBE, PC, former Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, and also Secretary of State for the Home Office also received an honorary degree from Aston University at the ceremony.

As part of its sponsorship of the Excellence in Translation prize, Liz Athey was invited to attend the Aston University  Degree Congregations at Birmingham Town Hall on 31 March where postgraduate degrees were awarded to over 300 students. Chancellor of the University, Sir Michael Bett , presented degrees to students from the Schools of Languages and Social Science, Engineering and Applied Science, Life and Health Sciences and Aston Business School. An Honorary Degree was awarded to Harriet Lamb, Executive Director of the Fairtrade Foundation since 2001 during which time turnover in the UK has increased from £30m to £750m.

Dorothy Appleyard. Photograph by John Hipkiss Photography Ltd

After the ceremony, a reception was held at the University where the annual Excellence in Translation prize was presented to Dorothy Appleyard, the most outstanding postgraduate student who achieved a merit on the Translation in a European Context programme. Dorothy hopes to become a full-time translator but having achieved her Masters, she plans firstly to broaden her horizons by spending three months teaching in Ghana.

The Translation People sponsor the award not only to recognise the achievements of the next generation of professional translators, but to raise the profile of translation as a specialist profession and hopefully encourage more young people to consider language careers. There is likely to be an acute shortage of native English speaking translators in the future if language learning trends are not reversed.

Alan White, Branch Manager at the Manchester office of The Translation People was delighted to present awards to two University of Salford students.

The Translation People sponsor two awards at Salford -”Achievement in Translation” to the best undergraduate student and “Excellence in Translation” to the best postgraduate student.

Winner of the Excellence in Translation award was Habib Bewley, who impressed his tutors on the MA in Translation course with his translations from Arabic to English.

Malcolm Morrison, a mature student and former music teacher, was awarded the Achievement in Translation prize for outstanding translation work from French and Spanish to English undertaken during his degree course. He commented,

“I was relieved to find out that there were several other mature students whose support and encouragement were crucial to my successfully completing the course. During the course I spent 6 months in Bourges, France working for a translation agency and 6 months in Castellon, Spain working as an English assistant at a research establishment.” 

Multilingual student scoops Achievement in Translation Prize.

The annual Achievement in Translation prize, awarded to the most outstanding student on the Translation Studies degree programme at Aston University, was awarded to Tanvir Allidina.

Tanvir, who studied English into French translation, was deemed by her tutors to be the most deserving recipient of the award. Her dissertation covered the integration issues faced by young people of North African origin in France.

Her family descends from India but three generations have lived in Kenya and subsequently Burundi, the former Belgian colony. Tanvir has an outstanding gift for language, having command of French, Gujarati, Hindi, Urdu, Spanish, Swahili and, although she has only lived in the UK since 2004, perfect English, totally without accent.

Liz Athey, Operations Manager for The Translation People, stated that “It is clear that Tanvir is a hugely talented linguist.”

Roevin’s Association with the University of Aston in Birmingham continued with the presentation of the “Achievement in Translation” award to Katie Wilson. Katie was the most outstanding student on the BSc Translation Studies course at Aston.

Katie Wilson with her award

As well as studying French, she also studied ab initio German and Spanish. Katie spent her compulsory year abroad in France, working as a teaching assistant in two primary schools. Katie is now going on to study as a teacher of modern languages.

Alan White pictured with Andrew Roads, winner of the “Excellence in Translation” Award, Salford University

Alan White, Manager of Roevin’s Manchester branch, attended Salford University’s graduation lunch on July 19th to present awards to two outstanding students. Andrew Roads, winner of Roevin’s “Excellence in Translation” award, has recently graduated with a Masters with Distinction in Interpreting and Translation and is now working as a freelance translator, specialising in French and Spanish to English translation. The “Achievement in Translation” award was presented to undergraduate Steven Banks, who graduated with a first class honours degree in Modern Language Studies. Steven will be putting his language skills to good use when he begins training in September to become a secondary school language teacher.

The second annual “Achievement in Translation” award was presented to Stacey Bennett in recognition of her outstanding performance during her Translation Studies degree course at Aston University. Stacey, 24, specialised in German to English translation and was nominated for the award by her tutors. As part of her degree she spent 12 months in Graz, Austria working as an English teaching assistant. Roevin sponsors two annual awards at Aston University – the Excellence in Translation award for the most outstanding Postgraduate and the Achievement in Translation award for the most outstanding Graduate.

Liz Athey, Translation Operations Manager, with Stacey Bennett, winner of the Roevin Achievement in Translation award

As the number of students taking foreign languages falls in schools, Roevin, a member of the advisory panel to the Translation programmes at Aston, is committed to raising awareness of the profession and to encouraging young people to continue with their language studies. Further information on translation courses is available at http://www1.aston.ac.uk/lss/school/