The performance of public duties based on trustworthy and ethical knowledge sharing continues to be one of the priority strategic aims of the Hungarian Office for Translation and Attestation. The efficient performance of those duties is enhanced not only by our internal trainings and workshops, but also by the professional conferences organised together with some universities. This year, the 23rd Translation Studies Conference will be held, as usual, together with OFFI’s long-time partner, the Institute of Language Mediation (earlier: Department of Translation Studies) of Eötvös Loránd University, Faculty of Humanities.
Just like last year, the professional event will take place in virtual space. In 2020, distinguished specialists of the field discussed the role of new technologies in translation and interpreting. This year’s conference will focus on challenges in terminology and methodology brought by the pandemic. Participants include prominent contributors from abroad, as well as Hungarian terminologists; OFFI’s revisers will talk about professional practices in making certified translations.
The central theme of the upcoming event is closely connected to those of previous years. In the jubilee year of 2019 – at the conference commemorating the establishment of the first state translation service, the Central Translation Department in 1869 – we heard the following, still relevant statement: “the traditions of the one-time Central Translation Department both in the fields of translation and public service are now combined with electronic solutions based on the principles of project management and complying with the internationally recognised ISO 17100 standard. In the renewed OFFI, e-certified translations can also be sent to customers via the company gate.” In the programmes of OFFI Academy held in the Parliament and the building of the Ministry of Justice, presentations for the anniversary event were provided by experts of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Translation, the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), the Faculty of Law of Eötvös Loránd University and the Ministry of Justice.
The idea that high quality translations of legal texts are indispensable, confirmed by the justice minister at the University of Szeged in 2018, is also still relevant. At that conference, the minister said that the discipline of law was basically conservative; its fundamental concepts originated from Roman law and they formed an integral part of our thinking. However, the development of information technology and digitisation creates new challenges. Transelte2018, the translation studies conference organised together with the Faculty of Humanities of Eötvös Loránd University, focussed on the challenges of legal interpreting in the 21st century. These challenges have specific significance in the present health situation.
At OFFI, we translate more than 300 million characters each year of mostly legal and economic texts or documents. OFFI ensures the training of the next generation of its translators through its own traineeship and mentoring programmes and is also involved in higher education courses, introducing its activities to students. Through language mediation activities in more than 250 language combinations, 70 languages and 27 fields, a great deal of experience is gained and several good practices are generated as a result of the work of OFFI’s community of hundreds of translators, revisers and terminologists. Sharing these is a primary goal of our conferences.
Several books related to the events of OFFI Academy have been published in recent years: Crossroads of Disciplines – Language Mediation in the 21st Century (edited by Szilvia Szoták, 2019), Latest Trends in Hungarian Translation Studies, and Courtroom Interpreting (both edited by Ildikó Horváth, 2018), which, as independent volumes of high academic standards, collect lectures in translation studies held in the spring of the year of their publication, as well as essays related to the themes of those events. The publications are available at OFFI’s website without registration. The events of OFFI Academy are also available at OFFI’s website to those interested in translation studies and technical issues concerning the translation industry. The programme and registration link of each event will be provided by the organisers in due time.
The programme of the upcoming ELTE–OFFI 23rd Translation Studies Conference can be found HERE. We are looking forward to meeting you at the events of OFFI Academy.
