Translation

In today's world, where distances between nations are gradually disappearing, the
need for translation as a means of interlingual communication is steadily
increasing. With the growing ease and speed of modern means of transportation
carrying people from one point of the globe to the other, the inhabitants of the
global village are constantly on the move, both in the real and virtual worlds:
delegates fly however long distances to attend international gatherings,
representatives to participate in meetings, specialists and experts of all fields to
share and update their knowledge, etc. Because they come from different countries
and speak different languages, they all need translators to facilitate, or rather
enable communication across the language barrier. To accomplish this task,
translators, in their turn, need to be well prepared for the mission; they need to
receive appropriate training.

Once a post-graduate area of studies, translation is now more and more taught at
the undergraduate level. Unlike in the sixties and seventies of the past century
where candidates could join translation schools or institutes after having earned a
university degree, most probably in foreign languages, students nowadays are
eligible for admission after they pass secondary school certificate exams.
Translation, as a profession, does not change; its objectives, requirements,
principles and techniques remain exactly the same regardless of the age of the
practitioner, his/her level of knowledge, or the degrees s/he has earned. What has
to change necessarily is the way of teaching it so that students, no matter what
level of knowledge they originally have, could be trained to become competent
translators.