10 May 2018 – 9:05
The Peninsula
KUWAIT: The Language Center of the Faculty of Arts at Kuwait University yesterday hosted a seminar on translation and its role in communication taking as a model the “Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation”.
The sponsor of the event, Dr Abdulhadi Al Ajmi, Chairman of the Language Center and Assistant Dean of the Faculty of Arts, said in his opening speech that the event is part of the Qatari-Kuwaiti cooperation in academic and scientific fields.
Kuwait University celebrates the Award of Sheikh Hamad for Translation as one of the important cultural initiatives which the State of Qatar has presented for Arab culture in the recent years.
The seminar was attended by Dr Hanan Al Fayyad and Dr Emtinan Al Samadi who talked about the award and its intellectual and scientific dimensions of spreading the culture of translation from and to the Arabic.
Dr Hanan Al Fayyad and Dr. Emtinan Al Samadi from Qatar University reviewed the Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and Understanding and its role in enhancing cultural dialogue between people worldwide and encourage cooperation between academic translators.
In their presentations, the two academic addressed the vision, mission, philosophy and objectives of the Award in its fourth season and talked about the languages of the new countries that will be included in the award for coming season.
For her part, Dr. Noura Al Mullaifi, Professor at Kuwait University, started her speech greeting Qatar and its people.
It is worth mentioning that the media tour which is being organized by the author and media personal Saadia Mufrih will include holding press conferences and meetings in cultural institutions and libraries such as the Museum of Music Lounge, TV and radio talks about cultural awards and their impact on the public culture and the efforts of Qatar in this context.
The symposium, which was attended by a large number of academics and interested in translation and intellectuals from Kuwait and Arab nationals and students, concluded with open dialogue in which Dr. Fayadh and Al-Smadi answered questions raised by participants.
Dr. Al-Ajmi honored Dr. Hanan Al Fayyad and Dr. Emtinan Al-Samadi as representatives of the Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and called for further cultural and scientific cooperation between Kuwait University and the Award.
The tour is part of a series of activities aiming to introduce the Award and expand the circle of participation. The three categories of the Awards worth two million US dollars emphasizing the importance of translation as the language of human awareness and bridge of minds.
The Sheikh Hamad Awards for International Translation and Understanding focuses on understanding human thought through knowledge of what civilizations have produced in order to advance humanity and promote peace and stability.
It has undertaken to encourage translation from and to Arabic in many languages; International in addition to English, Turkish was chosen in the first year, followed by Spanish in the second year, and French in the third year.
In year 2017, the Award was expanded to include new category in which five Eastern languages: Chinese, Japanese, Persian, Urdu and Malay were added. In order to enhance communication between the Arab culture and the world’s cultures, the award was awarded in 2018 to five new languages: Italian, Russian, Japanese, Bosnian and Swahili, with a total value of $2,000,000.
