Lexicom Translation Services Ltd held a reception recently at Caraffa Stores in Vittoriosa, amidst the spectacular exhibition Caravaggio, La Mostra Impossibile.

The reception was held to celebrate the company's successful bid to be an official supplier of translations from and to Maltese to the European Commission. Certificates of merit were also presented to the translators who successfully completed six months of training with Lexicom.

Lexicom, a joint venture between Fenlex Corporate Services Ltd of Valletta and Inter-Com Translations Ltd of London, is a translations' company with an international client base and many years' experience as a supplier of translations to EU Institutions.

Managing director Patrick Beacom, said this was the culmination of one and a half years of hard work for all those involved. Since training started last November, 150 people have attended the six-month Lexicom course in EU-specific translations, meeting twice a week in five classes.

"I believe that the main difference between Lexicom and its local competitors is the extent and quality of the training we organised," Mr Beacom said. "An important element in the success of our course has been our excellent Maltese language trainers, Joe Felice Pace, Anthony Cardona, Immanuel Mifsud and Frans Sammut. A big thank you goes to all of them," he added.

Mr Beacom appealed to the government to ensure the authority which is meant to oversee the development of the Maltese language, is set up without delay. The translations industry in Malta is in its infancy and needs urgent guidance on many open orthography and terminology questions if it is to develop properly and the present state of affairs leaves a lot to be desired, he said.

"It is a fact that mistakes were made with certain translations over the past year, as I am sure we all heard! I can assure you there will be further teething problems over the next few years while the translations industry develops," he said. However, he added, it is important to remember there were no trained translators for Maltese before and there was never a demand for them.

An appeal was made for the press to bear in mind the country's new translators will be doing their best, despite all sorts of obstacles such as lack of dictionaries and terminology databases, or confusing linguistic guidance which is often contradictory. "There will surely be bumps along the road, but may your criticism be constructive and never personal!" he insisted.

Mr Beacon said that contrary to the many reports stating that there are no translators in Malta, Lexicom have a great team of translators ready to take on EU work. "They have had intensive training and we are very proud of the amazing progress they have made over the past six months," he said.

He appealed to the European Commission to start sending the backlog of EU documents for translation since the only way to ensure a translator improves his work is to keep him practising.

Lexicom has prepared a petition supported by letters from over 60 translators, to be presented to the head of the European Commission Translations Field Office in Malta, Joris Goetschalckx.

Currently most of the translators on the island are being forced to translate on a part-time basis. Apart from EU work, there is little demand for Maltese translations. Mr Beacon explained that although many of Lexicom's translators have indicated they would seriously consider giving up their present jobs to become full-time translators, no sensible person is going to give up his or her job without clear information from the EU about the volume of work they plan to give to freelance translators in Malta.

On behalf of all Maltese translators he asked the European Commission, to help in the development of the Maltese translations industry. "If the EU could show some flexibility with Malta's special case, more translators could be persuaded to take up the profession full time," he said.

He explained that there are various advantages to encouraging full-time Maltese translators. The translations industry in Malta would benefit, as the translators would be able to practice and develop their skills full-time. As part-timers, their development would take much longer. It would also be beneficial to the Maltese economy; by giving up their previous jobs, translators would be vacating jobs for other people to fill. If Malta relies solely on part-time translators, the country will have to train four times as many part-timers as they would full-timers which is a big waste of resources.

Mr Beacom thanked Professor Joe Eynaud, course director of the Translation and Interpretation at the University of Malta. "Professor Eynaud has been a source or support and encouragement to us over the past year. The Lexicom course was in no way meant to compete with the university - if anything, to complement it," he said.

"It was an honour for us to have made a small contribution by giving supplementary translation practice to a number of university students, who also attended the Lexicom course. We look forward to further fruitful co-operation with the university in the future," he added.

By mid-July, Lexicom will have 105 certified translators ready to take on EU work, while the others will continue training after the summer break, with another 150 new people starting the course in the autumn.

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