Illinois High School Translation Competition 2021

EU Center Director Emanuel Rota at the award ceremony

by Sydney Lazarus

This year, the European Union Center organized a high school translation competition featuring five languages that are considered less commonly taught in the United States: Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Polish, and Swedish. 

The center sought the help of faculty and graduate students who are native speakers of these languages in choosing a text that is between 450 and 700 words, moderately challenging, and — perhaps most importantly — not yet translated. The texts represented a range of genres, from a Swedish-language newspaper article on ski resorts during Covid-19 to an excerpt from a short story by the Polish writer Marek Nowakowski. 

The EU Center has organized high school translation competitions in the past, though with a different format. Previously the competition was organized in collaboration with high school language teachers, who solicited translations from their students and selected the winners. This year, due to the fact that the five languages featured in the competition are taught in very few schools in Illinois, student participants were asked to send their translations directly to the EU Center. The translations were judged by faculty, graduate students, and civil society leaders with native or near-native knowledge of the languages. 

Consul General of Italy Thomas Botzios giving opening remarks

This is not to say that the EU Center did not receive substantial help from teachers this year. It was mainly thanks to the help of teachers and administrators, community-based language schools, public libraries, civil society organizations, and the Italian and Swedish consulates in Chicago that the center was able to get the word out about the competition to high school students throughout the state. Ultimately, 35 students from 23 high schools in Illinois submitted a translation by the deadline of September 30, which — though this was not planned — turned out to be International Translation Day.

Ten judges — two per language — scored the translations based on accuracy of vocabulary, grammar, syntax, and punctuation; appropriateness of style and tone to the topic and the target readership; and naturalness and flow. The judges settled on five first-place winners and seven honorable mentions. 

At the reception

The EU Center invited the awardees, their parents, and the judges to an award ceremony hosted by the Consulate General of Italy and Italian Cultural Center in Chicago on November 4, 2021. Italian Consul General Thomas Botzios, Italian Cultural Institute Director Luca Di Vito, and European Union Center Director Emanuel Rota presided over the ceremony, giving welcoming remarks, congratulating the students on their achievements, and handing out prizes. Most of the students and parents were able to attend the ceremony in person, along with several of the judges. A few awardees and judges joined via Zoom. The students took turns sharing how they came to study the language they translated from and which other languages they know. Many of the students were heritage speakers of one of the five competition languages, and many of them were also studying additional languages at school. 

Please see below for the list of the first-place winners and honorable mentions. The European Union Center congratulates the students on their achievement and commends all of the participants in this year's translation competition for their interest in language study!

2021 Illinois High School Translation Competition Results

Greek-English Division

Winner: Michaela Tamamidis, Glenbrook North High School

Honorable mention: Angeliki Stratakos, Glenbrook South High School

Honorable mention: Vasiliki Karalis, Geneva Community High School

Hebrew-English Division

Winner: Shiri Epstein, Glenbrook North High School

Honorable mention: Dina Shukhman, Niles North High School

Italian-English Division

Winner: Vittoria Gallina, Naperville Central High School

Honorable mention: Marco Atallah, Glenbrook North High School

Honorable mention: Noah La Nave, University Laboratory High School

Polish-English Division

Winner: Natalie Juszczyk, East Leyden High School

Honorable mention: Gabriela Carpenter, Addison Trail High School

Honorable mention: Adrian Sojka, Argo Community High School

Swedish-English Division

Winner: Daniel Odicho, Glenbrook South High School