Best in translation: David Nicolae Şolga, the Romanian winner of EU’s young translator contest

David Nicolae Șolga, a student at "George Moroianu" Theoretical High School in Săcele, Brașov county, is the Romanian winner of the EU's 16th Juvenes Translatores translation contest for secondary schools.

The European Commission's translators selected 27 winners, one for each EU country, as well as 287 students who received special mentions for their outstanding translations.

David Nicolae Șolga is the winner from Romania. He translated a text from English to Romanian and found the task quite challenging. "I had to give my best," he said, according to the European Commission's Representation in Romania.

A total of 2,883 participants put their language skills to the test during this year's Juvenes Translatores contest, choosing to translate a text between any two of the EU's 24 official languages. Of the 552 language combinations available, the students from 681 schools used 141 combinations, including Spanish into Slovenian and Polish into Danish, according to the EC.

The award ceremony for the 27 winners will take place in Brussels on March 31. The complete list of winners is available here.

The European Commission's Directorate-General for Translation has organised the Juvenes Translatores contest every year since 2007. "Over the years, the contest has been a life-changing experience for many of its entrants and winners. Some have decided to study translation at university, and some have joined the European Commission's translation department as a trainee or a full-time translator," the EC said.

The competition is open to 17-year-old secondary school students and takes place at the same time in all selected schools across the EU.

(Photo source: Romania.representation.ec.europa.eu)