A busy week for PEEMPIP :-)
It has been a busy week for PEEMPIP. On 18-19/9 we attended the Translating Europe Forum in Brussels. You might have caught up with some of our live tweets. Two full days for a glimpse into a future being planned for us. If you missed the live feed, you can still watch the videos:
The intervenant next to me, a representative of a Belgian University, made the interesting point that current curriculums (and I will also add state regulations for Greece) fail to provide for the increasing number of second generation immigrant students wanting to take advantage of their bilingualism. Since 2000, there has been an increasing number of students with two mother tongues graduating from the Department of Foreign Languages, Translation and Interpreting of the Ionian University (Hebrew, Dutch, Arabic, Albanian, Polish, Ukrainian, Russian…). Having gained the required theoretical and cognitive background, there should be provisions to strengthen their alternative mother tongue and the regulatory framework (i.e. regulations on professional recognition) should be updated to consider plurilingualism.
And of course we run into some of our members and friends.
But we had to leave lovely and strangely warm Brussels…
…because we were heading next to the IAPTI Conference that was held in Athens on 20 and 21/9, after accepting an invitation graciously extended by the Greek Chapter. There were many interesting presentations and we got some new perspectives from professionals coming from around the world.
But even we need to pat our shoulder from time to time, so we should mention some references to our work.
Rose Newell talked about “Writers worth paying for” and made reference to a quote by Chris Durban for PEEMPIP’s blog. You may read Chris Durban and the Chambers of Secrets here.
Dr Vilelmini Sosoni, Lecturer at the Department of Modern Languages, Translation and Interpreting at the Ionian University, talked about “The changing landscape of the translation profession: for better or for worse?” and did not fail to remind the importance of associations since we are about to be hit by a tsunami of changes attempting the demonetization and deprofessionalization of translation.
PEEMPIP members had the opportunity to meet up, exchange their impressions of the event and pose for a group photo. 
What is next? We are looking forward to PEEMPIP’s first large scale event. SHAPING OUR COMMON FUTURE is expecting you on 31/10 at Technopolis, City of Athens. Check the programme at the event site.
Dimitra Stafilia is the President of PEEMPIP. She is a graduate of the Department of Foreign Languages, Translation and Interpreting of the Ionian University. She holds an MA in European Business and Languages and a European Masterʼs in Human Rights and Democratisation. She is a full time freelance translator.