Best young translator in Austria comes from Tyrol

The European Commission selects the best young translators in Europe in the Europe-wide competition "Juvenes Translatores" - for the 16th time. In the current round, which was dedicated to the voice of youth in Europe, 17-year-old pupils from all EU countries were able to demonstrate their translation talent. In Austria, a student from the International School Kufstein Tirol showed the most linguistic flair: Theresa Drexler convinced the jury with her fluent and creative translation from Hungarian into German.

EU Ambassador Martin Selmayr said: "I warmly congratulate Theresa and her school. Language skills bring decisive advantages not only in the current European Year of Skills. Those who speak several languages can better understand other cultures and points of view, take advantage of opportunities abroad and thus also build bridges in Europe. The EU is a multilingual community, and it is language talents like Theresa who help us to always find a common denominator despite all the diversity."

Across Austria, 69 language enthusiasts from 19 schools took part in the competition; across the EU, almost 3000 young people competed - in a language combination of their choice. Of the 552 possible combinations from all EU languages, 141 were chosen in this round.

Theresa Drexler and the 26 best young talents from the other EU countries will be honoured at an award ceremony with EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn in Brussels at the end of March.

Four young talents in Austria only narrowly missed out on victory: Kathrin Schmid and Victoria Pöchacker from Stiftsgymnasium Melk, Dimitri Ribic from Gymnasium am Augarten and Paul Grudner from Europagymnasium Leoben. They receive an award for their very good performance.