On the occasion of Saint Jerome feast, the patron saint of translators, the Faculty of Letters at USEK, in cooperation with the Arab Translators Union, celebrated on Thursday, September 29, 2011 the International Translation Day under the theme of “Translation: a bridge among cultures”.

Following the opening speech by Dr. Rania Salameh, in which she highlighted the importance of translation as a tool linking different civilizations, Rev. Fr. Karam Rizk, Dean of the Faculty of Letters, underlined in his speech that translation represents a privileged means of communication and mutual understanding among human beings and peoples, highlighting that USEK is proud of the achievements of its professors and students, particularly in the field of translation. “The Faculty is constantly seeking to provide the best training to students likely to meet the needs and aspirations of our society”, Fr. Karam concluded.

The first session included 3 speakers: Dr. Tanios Njeim compared in his speech the two concepts of translation and globalization; Dr. Bassam Baraké tackled the current situation of translation in the Arab world; and finally Dr. Talal Wehbé underlined the various translations of the Bible according to the cultural background of translators.

Following a musical interlude, the second session began with a speech by Dr. Georges Kattoura who dealt with the translation of Max Weber’s books into Arabic, while Dr. Rosie Ghannage addressed the issue of translation from a teaching/learning perspective, focusing on the threats that electronic translation imposes. Last but not least, Dr. Joseph Chraim approached translation as a successful communication between the source language and the target language, the source culture and the target culture.