Just over one week into our Translation Challenge and we’re pleased to report that lots of progress has already been made. An impressive 76 students – all of whom are in their final year or completing an MA at the University of Essex – registered to take part in the competition. 56 students specialise in translating European languages and have been split into a total of 20 groups. 20 students are studying translation into Chinese and have been split into five groups.
What makes the Translation Challenge so exciting is that it has been developed to give students the chance to work on a real customer translation project. We have assigned them the task of working on translation material for our client, The English Cream Tea Company, who are also locally based.
Each of the student teams has been given the same five page document translation to complete. Target languages include Chinese, French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. The document our groups of students are working on outlines The English Cream Tea Company’s development plans, following two years of fantastic growth. Specialising in afternoon tea and the art of the perfect ‘cuppa’, founder Jane Malyon is now planning international expansion. While the afternoon teas themselves can’t be shipped internationally due to the cream component, some of the brand’s other products are suitable for overseas delivery. In addition, Jayne is looking for overseas franchising and licensing solutions. With interest from Europe, Russia and China, the students will have a range of actual business applications to consider in their translation of the material.
The competition will run until the middle of February with the winning group announced at the University on Wednesday 19th February. While there is still a while to go, both we, and the Director of the MA in Translation, Interpreting and Subtitling at the University have been really impressed with the level of enthusiasm the students have brought to this project. We’ll keep you posted on progress as the competition continues!
