U12 Students Compete in 2018 Translation and Interpreting Contest at SCU

Hosted by Soochow’s Department of English Language and Literature, the annual “U12 Consortium Universities Translation and Interpreting Contest” attracted nearly 70 contestants from 10 universities this year to an exciting competition at Pu-Ren Hall on April 12^th, 2018.

In the morning was the translation contest, which was highlighted this year with an innovative format in which the 45 contestants typed their translations on stage with each round accommodating five students and their translating process broadcast live on a large projector screen. The translations were graded on the scene by three experienced judges and watched and enjoyed by other contestants and the audience. This attempt, which aimed to make the translation process more visible and interactive, was an unprecedented move in any translation contests ever held in Taiwan, if not in China, too.

Following the morning section was the consecutive interpreting contest in the afternoon, as 21 contestants drew their order on the spot and were not allowed to use any personal belongings and electronic devices before their turn to go on stage. One after another, they did two to three legs of consecutive interpreting with about 30 seconds of each source text video and another 30 to 40 seconds of interpreting time.

Both the translation and interpreting contests required the contestants to do two-conversions between English and Chinese, and their renderings were judged and graded with three categories of accuracy, completeness, and fluency.

The contestants described this new format of translation contest as creative and exciting for the live broadcast and the audience presence created a truly tense atmosphere to the competition. Despite the tremendous pressure, it was also a golden opportunity to challenge one’s limits in translation skills.

The top five best-performing contestants in the two groups: 

【Translation Group】

Winner: Yi-Ting Cai  (Soochow University)

Winner: Yi-Ting Jiang  (Chung Yuan Christian University)

Second Place: Shao-Ting Peng  (Soochow University)

Third Place: Kun-Yu Wang  (Ming Chuan University)

Fourth Place: Pei-Tsun Lai  (Shih Hsin University)

【Interpreting Group】

Winner: Pei-Tsun Lai  (Shih Hsin University)

Second Place: Yi-Ting Jiang  (Chung Yuan Christian University)

Third Place: Yi-Ting Lee  (Chung Yuan Christian University)

Fourth Place: Lu-Ning Chen  (Tamkang University)

Fifth Place: Yin-Chen Chen  (Soochow University)

The success of this year’s contest must be attributed to the guidance and assistance of English Department Chair An-Chi Wang, Assistant Professor Kuan-Yu Simon Ou, Professor Jian-Hui Kent Wang, and Assistant Yi-Ting Carina Chu and many other helpers, as well as the full efforts from all the contestants. Special thanks to the six professional judges: Hung-Shu Chen, Bo-Yun Dragon Chan, Li-Yen Hsu, Chia-Ming Damien Fan, Chih-Chieh Grace Huang, and Tien-Chun Gina Guo.