Lexicom is a joint venture between Fenlex Corporate Services Ltd of Valletta and Inter-Com Translations Ltd of London, a translation company with an international client base and many years’ experience as a supplier of translations to European Union institutions.
In his presentation speech, managing director Patrick Beacom said this was the culmination of one and a half years of hard work for all 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.”
During his speech, 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. The present state of affairs leaves a lot to be desired.
A second appeal was aimed at the Maltese media. “It is a fact that mistakes have been 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 translation industry develops. However, it is important to remember there were no trained translators for Maltese before – there was never a demand for them. I therefore ask our colleagues from the press: please bear in mind when you discover mistakes that this country’s new translators will be doing their best, despite all sorts of obstacles, like a 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.”
Mr Beacom also made an appeal to the European Commission itself. “Contrary to the many reports of no translators in Malta, Lexicom has 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.
“My appeal to the European Commission is to start sending the backlog of EU documents for translation. The only way to ensure a translator gets better and better is to keep him practising.”
Lexicom has prepared a petition to be presented to the head of the European Commission Translations Field Office in Malta, Joris Goetschalckx, supported by letters from over 60 translators.
At present most translators on the island are forced to translate part-time. Apart from EU work, there is little demand for Maltese translations. Many of our translators have indicated they would seriously consider giving up their present jobs to become full-time translators.
However, 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.
“We are asking the European Commission, on behalf of all Maltese translators, for help with 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.”
There are various advantages to encouraging full-time Maltese translators:
Firstly, the translations industry in Malta would benefit, as the translators would be able to practise and develop their skills full-time. As part-timers, their development would take much longer.
Secondly, it would be beneficial to the Maltese economy: by giving up their previous jobs, translators would be vacating jobs for other people to fill.
Thirdly, 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 – a waste of resources.
Before presenting Certificates of Merit to translators who successfully completed the Lexicom training course, Mr Beacom expressed special thanks to Professor Joe Eynaud, course director of the Translation and Interpretation course at the University of Malta.
By mid-July, Lexicom will have 105 certified translators ready and able to take on EU work.
The rest will continue training after the summer break, with another 150 new people starting the course in the autumn.