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The United Nations launched UN Language Days on February 19, 2010. The initiative seeks to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity as well as to promote equal use of all six of its official working languages throughout the Organization.

UN duty stations around the world would be celebrating six new observances dedicated to a UN official language: French (March 20), English (April 23), Russian (June 6), Spanish (October 12), Chinese (November 13) and Arabic (December 18).

The new initiative – which seeks to increase awareness and respect for the history, culture and achievements of each of the six working languages among the UN community – is part of this year’s observance of International Mother Language Day, observed annually on February 21.

See:  SIS.gov

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On French language day, UN stresses value of linguistic diversity for peace

Celebrating the International Day of Francophonie, or French language, top United Nations officials  pointed to the power of that language to bring peoples together and stressed the importance of linguistic diversity for understanding and respect between cultures.

“French draws its strength from the diversity of the peoples and cultures that share it and contribute daily to its enrichment and vibrancy,” Irina Bokova, Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), said in Paris.

“Today, International Francophonie Day, UNESCO celebrates the power of the French language in bringing peoples and cultures together, as a tool for mutual understanding and peace,” she added.

She said that UNESCO underlined the importance of linguistic diversity as a condition for sincere and authentic international cooperation, whereby each person’s thoughts can be expressed directly and accurately, without borrowing others’ words.

“This is an issue of equality and respect; it is also a matter of efficiency and clarity,” she said.

This evening in New York, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will participate in a celebration during which he will receive the Leopold Sear Senghor Medal, “le Grand Prix de la Francophonie,” awarded to the UN for its contribution to the development of the French language.

Mr. Ban is expected to pay tribute to the place of French in international cooperation, including the need for more French-speaking staff in UN peacekeeping operations for crucial dialogue with local populations.

International language days were introduced in the UN system in 2010 to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity in the six official languages of the Organization. Chinese is celebrated on 20 April, English on 23 April, Russian on 6 June, Spanish on 12 October, and Arabic on 18 December.

See: UN News Center

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International Mother Language Day is an ideal opportunity to highlight the importance of languages to group and individual identity, as the foundation for all social, economic and cultural life.

Multilingualism is a source of strength and opportunity for humanity. It embodies our cultural diversity and encourages the exchange of views, the renewal of ideas and the broadening of our capacity to imagine. Genuine dialogue implies respect for languages, and this is why UNESCO works to harness their power to foster mutual understanding. We encourage teaching in the mother tongue, which facilitates the fight against illiteracy and contributes to the quality of education. The protection of languages ensures also that rare and indigenous knowledge is safeguarded and handed down. By giving each of us the means to make ourselves heard and be respected, this is also a force for social inclusion. More >>

LA TRADUCCIÓN Y SUS DESCONTENTOS

He elegido el título de «La traducción y sus descontentos» por razones que me gustaría explicar y que son menos banales de lo que a primera vista puede parecer. Tengo, efectivamente, una larga experiencia en el mundo de la traducción por activo y por pasivo, no solamente por las traducciones que he hecho y por mi actividad como traductor y como intérprete en las Naciones Unidas, sino porque toda mi vida he estado interesado en la traducción. Aunque es obvio que otras actividades profesionales que también he llevado a cabo han tenido más repercusión pública, nunca he considerado que fuera en primer lugar autor de novelas y traductor de una manera subsidiaria, o provisional,. Es verdad que durante un tiempo me he ganado la vida como traductor, pero eso no significa que haya considerado jamás la traducción como un ganapán mientras no alcanzaba un determinado nivel de éxito en otras actividades. Por el contrario, cuando estas otras actividades me han permitido una mayor independencia económica, he seguido ejerciendo la traducción porque me interesa y porque me gusta mucho.

Casualmente se presenta hoy en Barcelona la última novela del escritor Javier Marías, que es, probablemente, uno de los grandes traductores literarios que hay en España, y con el que algunas veces he tenido ocasión de hablar de estos temas. Tanto él como yo hemos coincidido en que lo que más nos gusta es traducir y, subsidiariamente, escribir, puesto que la traducción nos brinda unas satisfacciones muy especiales. Es más, esta última novela de Javier Marías está presidida por la obsesión de la traducción, no tanto por lo que se refiere al oficio de traductor -al que dedicó una de sus novelas más conocidas, Corazón tan blanco– sino por la necesidad cada vez mayor de vivir inmersos en un mundo donde la traducción es una presencia constante. No me refiero solamente al hecho de que en las grandes aglomeraciones urbanas existan de una manera oficial o, de hecho, dos, tres y hasta cuatro idiomas en la calle. No me refiero al monolingüismo, bilingüismo o trilingüismo, sino al hecho de que todos vivimos perpetuamente en un mundo donde estamos traduciendo la información y los contactos que recibimos.

Creo, pues, que la traducción es algo más que un simple trabajo, unas técnicas aplicadas a la búsqueda de unos resultados, creo que la traducción es algo que envuelve nuestra vida cotidiana. Sin embargo, también es -y a esto quiero referirme- un trabajo, un trabajo para el que la mayoría de los presentes se están preparando. Y a esto es a lo que me quiero referir: al trabajo del traductor.

Mi experiencia ha hecho que encontrara a lo largo de los años entre los traductores una característica común, que era el descontento. Entre todas las profesiones, la de traductor es la que ofrece el porcentaje más alto de personas malhumoradas. Al principio pensé que eran gajes del oficio o alguna cosa parecida; luego investigué un poco más la causa de esta perpetua queja en la que vive el traductor profesional y descubrí que no faltan razones prácticas.

See: A Word In Your Ear

	Org. Setting and Reporting The United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON) is the UN headquarters in Africa and the  representative office of  the Secretary-General. We support programme implementation of  the  United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the UN Human Settlements  Programme (UNHABITAT) globally, as well as other UN offices in Kenya, by Providing  administrative, conference and information services (www.unon.org). This post is located in  UNON, Division of Conference Services at the Nairobi duty station. Under the supervision of the Chief, Translation and Editorial Section, the incumbent will perform the following:
		Responsibilities
	1. Plan and oversee the management of activities undertaken by the Spanish Language Unit; Programme daily and long-term work of the Unit. 2. Supervise and monitor the performance of all staff under his/her supervision; Counsel and assist Revisers and Translators/Précis-writers, as required; Coordinate the work of external translators, including quality control and performance monitoring; Train junior language staff; Monitor the quality of in-house and contractual translations. 3. Organize all activities of the Unit to ensure maximum efficiency. 4.  Provide policy guidance to the Chief of Section on conceptual development strategy and management of the Unit with regard to both Operational and Human Resource matters; Support the Chief of Section in the preparation of terminology materials and instructions; Select text for United Nations competitive examinations, marking candidates’ scripts and evaluate results. 5. Revise translations and original summary records and translate texts dealing with subjects of an exceptionally sensitive, complex or technical nature. 6. Direct the conduct of terminological research within the Unit. 7.  Serve as officer-in-charge in the absence of the Chief of Section. 8. Perform other related duties as required.

See: United Nations Careers

Literacy programmes in Bhutan, Colombia, Indonesia and Rwanda won the 2012 International Literacy Prizes of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The awards, worth $20,000 each, will be distributed on 6 September in a ceremony at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France, as part of the celebrations for International Literacy Day, observed annually on 8 September, the agency announced in a news release on Tuesday.

Two programmes were awarded the UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize, which was created in 1989 by the Republic of Korea, and two received the UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy, created in 2005 by the Chinese Government. More.

See: UN.org

Marking World Book and Copyright Day, the head of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) highlighted the importance of translation to ensuring that everyone has access to the tremendous potential of books.UNESCO chose 23 April to celebrate World Book and Copyright Day as it also marks the day in 1616 that Britain’s William Shakespeare, Spain’s Miguel de Cervantes and the Peruvian writer “El Inca” Garcilaso de la Vega all died. The prominent writers Vladimir Nabokov, Halldór Laxness, Josep Pla, Maurice Druon and Manuel Mejía Vallejo were also either born or died on this day.

In her message to mark the Day, UNESCO’s Director-General, Irina Bokova, said books are “valuable tools” for knowledge-sharing, mutual understanding and openness to others and to the world.

“Without equitable access to the content and resources of physical or virtual libraries, the power of books wanes and their diversity diminishes,” she added. “The book chain is based on fragile balances and requires active vigilance and instruments to support it.” More.

See: UN News Center

Córdoba National University (UNC) is conducting negotiations with the United Nations to sign a cooperation agreement that would make the UNC the first university in Latin America to train translators and interpreters for the United Nations. Read more.

See: Entrelenguas

A new study, Ending Excess: Cutting the Costs of the European Parliament, by Geoffrey Van Orden and Derk Jan Eppink, MEPs from the European Conservatives and Reformists group, states that the Parliament’s budget could be cut by €400 million per year, around 24% of the total, without affecting the workings of the Parliament.

One difficulty the deputies found in preparing their report was extracting financial information from the authorities, saying that it was “extraordinarily difficult to glean even some of the most basic information” about expenditure.

Staffing levels could be reduced. The deputies say that since the 2004 enlargement the number of staff has increased from 3,946 to 6,245, even though the number of MEPs rose by 4 in the same period.

Translation costs could be cut by over €90m if only final documents were prepared in all languages. They compare the parliament with NATO, who has 28 member countries but two working languages and the UN, with 193 members, who have six working languages. Read more.

See: New Europe

In the Hollywood movie The Interpreter, Nicole Kidman works at the UN and overhears an assassination plot.

In real life, UN interpreters may not hear about international espionage, but they do get to hear political secrets and classified information.

Interpreter Ashraf Kamal, who consulted on the movie, was the interpreter used to negotiate with Muammar Qadhafi in Libya in 1992 following the Lockerbie bombing.

He says he’s tried other jobs at the UN, but loves interpreting because it’s challenging and not everyone can do it.

Julie Walker spoke with Mr. Kamal about his work on the movie and with the UN.

Duration: 4’16″

See: United Nations Radio

The UN is on the hunt for translators and interpreters as many of its current staff approach retirement age, Muhammad Shaaban, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for General Assembly and Conference Management told China.org.cn.

Mr. Shaaban is in Beijing to sign a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Beijing Foreign Studies University on training language professionals. He will also attend the International Conference on Translation and Interpretation Education Development.

“In the next twelve years, we’ll have 40 percent of translators and 33 to 34 percent of interpreters retiring,” he told China.org.cn.

To fill the expected shortfall, the UN has been signing MOUs with universities since 2007. The aim is to enhance the training of language professionals and to ensure that enough qualified candidates will be available to fill vacancies at the United Nations and other international organizations.

So far 18 universities around the world have signed MOUs, covering all six official languages used in the United Nations. The next one scheduled to sign up is Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, which will become the third Chinese university to sign, after Beijing Foreign Studies University and Shanghai International Studies University.

Under the agreements, the UN sends senior translators and interpreters to universities to give lectures, offers internships to the students, and helps adapt curricula to the requirements of the United Nations, the Under-Secretary-General said.

See: China.org.cn

Damascus University and the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management (DGACM) affiliated to the UN on Wednesday signed a memo of understanding in the domain of training the candidates for language competitive examinations.

The memo aims at shedding lights on the available job vacancies in the field of languages at the UN, in addition to helping students to get ready for language competitive examination and to work at the UN.

The memo also aims at studying other fields of cooperation between the UN and Damascus University such as providing training at the University for the linguists working at the UN.

In a statement to SANA, Rector of Damascus University Dr. Wael Mualla said that the memo will open new prospects before the graduates through benefiting from their experience in the curriculum and the available job vacancies at the UN.

He added that dealing with the UN which adopts high-quality standards in translation will be reflected positively on Damascus University and the Higher Institute of Translation and Interpretation in particular.

See: ISRIA

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Cuba’s Fidel Castro spoke for more than four hours. Indian politician VK Krishna Menon was on the podium for more than eight hours. When delegates at the United Nations are faced with a runaway speaker – going far beyond the usual 15 minutes or so – how do their live translators deal with the situation?

The man who was interpreting the General Assembly speech by Libya’s Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, this time last year, reportedly broke down towards the end of the 96-minute speech. “I just can’t take it any more,” said Fouad Zlitni, according to the New York Post.

Colonel Gaddafi had insisted on using his own translator rather than take advantage of an official simultaneous interpreter.

This week, leaders and representatives of the UN’s 192 member states are gathering in New York to discuss key global issues hoping that their messages – in all six official UN languages – will be faithfully delivered by a group of official interpreters.

The Gaddafi incident is just one example of how taxing the job of an interpreter can become during big and unfolding events. Read full story

See: BBC News

Efforts are underway to make Hindi an official language of the UN and assistance from NRIs has been sought for this, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Thursday. “Government has taken action to make Hindi one of the official languages of the UN… A high-level committee under the External Affairs Minister was also formed in 2003 for this. Another sub-committee was formed the same year headed by the MoS in the ministry to examine the matter and take necessary measures,” External Affairs Ministry S M Krishna said during Question Hour.

He said government’s sustained efforts have also ensured that the UN produces a weekly programme in Hindi and makes it available on the UN Radio Website. “The same programme in Hindi is sent to India for broadcast over AIR,” he said.

See: hindustantimes

The new umbrella organization for women, which was unanimously approved by the General Assembly on Friday after years of haggling, seemed off to a rocky start, given that its acronym would be Unegeew.

French is one of the two official languages of the United Nations, but very little work around headquarters unrolls en français. (To make the point, a few months ago the French ambassador to the United Nations, Gérard Araud, who speaks mellifluous English, refused to start speaking at a news conference until the often elusive interpreters were in place to translate from French to English.)

With the new women’s organization, the French managed to get the official translation included in a footnote: ONU Femmes. Now they are pushing for that name to be used over the English version.

See: The New York Times