Away from the spotlight, professional translators work to bring incredible value to societies, businesses, and industries. For that reason, one more year, at YOKO we pay tribute to the amazing job translators, interpreters and language professionals do everyday for society in this globalized demanding world we live in.
Today, 30 September, it’s International Translation Day!
The UN recognizes the work of professional translation as an art and a trade: translators uphold the charter of the United Nations and deserve global appreciation. This day also celebrates the feast of St. Jerome, the patron saint of translators. He was the first person to translate the Bible into Latin from the original Hebrew, making it accessible for the first time to a far wider audience.
The International Federation of Translators (FIT) promotes the celebration of International Translation Day with a unique theme every year. On the decided theme, a poster designing competition is held and all FIT members are encouraged to participate. The theme for International Translation Day 2022 was ‘A World Without Barriers’, and this year 2023 we celebrate this day with the theme ‘Translation unveils the many faces of humanity’.
As FIT stated, translation unveils a world of human experience, allowing us a window into cultures other than those we know. Language professionals connect nations and can foster peace. By making literature, art, music, and other cultural works accessible to people who speak different languages, translation helps to preserve cultural diversity and promote cross-cultural understanding
Translators are also at the junction point that impacts the development of almost every area of our life and with thousands of languages spoken on the planet, failure to communicate effectively can be a major barrier to cooperation and mutual understanding. Everyone has the right to use their language of proficiency, and for that, language rights are also human rights.
One more year, we take the opportunity to remind that translators deserve recognition, appreciation and representation, especially because translation is still overlooked despite the crucial role translators play in society.
Despite the fact that most of the time we are not even aware that the things we’re watching or reading were originally produced in a different language, translators are not invisible!
From YOKO, a big THANK YOU to all those language professionals that work everyday to shape the world and make international cooperation possible.
Happy International Translation Day!