Professor Laurent Seychell, Head of the Department of French at the University of Malta recently went to Luxembourg at the invitation of the EU Commission to deliver a series of lectures on language problems with regard to translations from French into Maltese.

The lectures were mainly based on his book published in 2008 entitled: La traduction professionnelle aux multiples visages: français-maltais. Participants were Maltese translators, who work at the European Parliament and other EU entities in Luxembourg as well as in Brussels.

Professor Seychell’s research sheds light not only on language structure but also on its utterance and discourse, making translators more aware of a number of important implications when carrying out translations. This leads them to a deeper understanding of the languages with which they work.

Officials within the Commission expressed their wish for future collaboration between the Department of French at the University of Malta and the DG Translation Unit. During his visit to Luxembourg, Professor Seychell was also invited by the Maltese Director of the Court of Justice to collaborate closely with Maltese lawyers whose working language is exclusively French.