IP/09/191 Brussels, January 30 2009Second EU translation contest winners announcedA new vintage of ‘young translators’ will be invited to Brussels in April to receive a prize for the best translation from the European Commissioner for Multilingualism, Mr Leonard Orban. The names of the 27 winners of the ‘Juvenes Translatores’ contest held by the European Commission are published today on the website http://ec.europa.eu/translation/contest/index_en.htm together with the winning translations. "I’m pleased to see that schools across Europe have embraced the contest so enthusiastically", commented Mr Orban. "The contest provides a true challenge in testing the language skills learned at school. At the same time, students get a foretaste of what it is like to work as a translator". Mr Orban’s impressions are confirmed by the increased participation and the results of an online survey sent to teachers in the schools picked to take part. Practically all of the teachers surveyed (99%) would enter their school again, while 86% found the length and level of the texts to be appropriate, a view that is borne out by the high quality of the translations. The entries to the ‘Juvenes Translatores’ contest (‘young translators’ in Latin) were marked by a panel of professional translators and revisers from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Translation (DGT). They were impressed by the high standard — 10% of the pupils obtained a mark in the top range of the scale. Each anonymous translation was marked by a native speaker of the language into which the text was translated. A board chaired by the Director-General of DGT then picked out the best translation from each Member State. The 27 winners from European upper secondary schools will win a three-day trip to Brussels for themselves and for one accompanying adult to receive a prize and a certificate at a special award ceremony on 3 April. They were among 2247 pupils from 593 schools in the EU taking part in the second edition of the translation contest which was held on 27 November 2008 at the same time in all Member States and supervised by the schools. Entrants were given two hours to translate a text on the topic of multilingualism from one of the 23 official languages of the EU into another official language of their choice. The Commission received translations covering all official languages and 147 language combinations. The names of the winning students (plus their chosen language combination) and their schools are:COUNTRYSTUDENTSCHOOLAustriaMona Schönauer (FR-DE)[1]Akademisches Gymnasium, GrazBelgiumLaetitia Lévêque (EN-FR)Institut Saint-Ferdinand, JemappesBulgariaСтефани Ханджийска (EN-BG)164 гимназия с преподаване на испански език ‘Мигел де Сервантес’, СофияCyprusAndreas Andreou (EN-EL)High school of Solea, NicosiaCzech RepublicLudvík Pouzar (EN-CS)Gymnázium, České BudějoviceDenmarkJulie Carina Trasbo Jelgren (EN-DA)Roskilde Katedralskole, RoskildeEstoniaKairi Kangro (EN-ET)Hugo Treffneri Gümnaasium, TartuFinlandTytti Rinkari (EN-FI)Tammerkosken lukio, TampereFranceFabian Schmidt (FR-DE)Lycée Bartholdi, ColmarGermanyAnika Richter (EN-DE)Salzmannschule Schnepfenthal Staatliches Spezialgymnasium für Sprachen, Waltershausen- SchnepfenthalGreeceΜΑΡΙΑ ΑΡΝΑΟΥΤΑΚ (EN-EL)5th High School of Iraklion, IraklionHungaryAnna Matei (EN-HU)Madách Imre Gimnázium, BudapestIrelandMarian Madden (FR-EN)Coláiste Chiaráin, LimerickItalyRiccardo Gasparetto Stori (EN-IT)Liceo ‘Leopardi-Majorana’, PordenoneLatviaAgnija Lāce (EN-LV)Rīgas 85. vidusskola, RīgaLithuaniaJulius Juodakis (DE-LT)Vilniaus Mykolo Biržiškos gimnazija, VilniusLuxembourgNina Hentzen (FR-DE)Lycée Aline Mayrisch, LuxembourgMaltaPaula Schembri (MT-EN)Junior College, L-ImsidaNetherlandsFrancien Homan (EN-NL)Maartenscollege Haren, GroningenPolandWeronika Danecka (EN-PL)VIII Liceum Ogólnoształcące im. A. Asnyka w Łodzi, Łódź / łódzkiePortugalLuis Filipe Machado Costa (EN-PT)Colégio Nossa Senhora da Assunção, AnadiaRomaniaRaluca Maria Ionescu (EN-RO)Grup Scolar ‘Ferdinand I’, Curtea de ArgesSlovakiaKassova Frederika (FR-SK)Gymnazium Ivana Bellu, HandlovaSloveniaMaša Klemenčič (EN-SL)Gimnazija Poljane, LjubljanaSpainSamuel Darriba Real (EN-ES)IES Nosa Señora dos Ollos Grandes, LugoSwedenOskar Lindbom (FR-SV)Rosendalsgymnasiet, Uppsala HusagartanUnited KingdomSabrina Vashisht (FR-EN)North London Collegiate School, EdgwareFor more information: Translation contest: website http://ec.europa.eu/translation/contest/index_en.htmMap showing the winners’ home cities: http://ec.europa.eu/translation/contest/press_en.htm DG Translation: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/index_en.htm Languages in the EU: http://europa.eu/languages/en/home [1] EN: English; FR: French; DE: German; ES: Spanish; IT: Italian; NL: Dutch; PT: Portuguese; EL: Greek; PL: Polish; RO: Romanian; SV: Swedish; FI: Finnish; DA: Danish; BG: Bulgarian; CS: Czech; HU: Hungarian; SL: Slovenian; SK: Slovakian; LT: Lithuanian; ET: Estonian; LV: Latvian; MT: Maltese.