The Department of French and Modern Languages at the University of Ghana have officially relaunched the Transbureau, an office which provides translation, interpretation and other services to the University community and the public at large.
The office which was first conceived in 2004 was relaunched on 20th July 2023, at the Maison Française Conference Hall as part of efforts to promote its visibility and expansion of its services.
In his address as the Chairperson of the ceremony, Provost of the College of Humanities, Prof. Frimpong Ofori highlighted some of the goals this new facelift of the office intends to achieve. To this he noted promotion of multilingualism and enhancement of intercultural understanding.
“Our world is a tapestry of diverse languages, and we firmly believe in celebrating this diversity. By encouraging the study of different languages and promoting translation services, we aim to foster a culture of multilingualism that enriches our academic community. Also, we also want to enhance intercultural understanding because language acts as a conduit for cultural exchange. By facilitating the translation of academic materials, research papers and other educational resources, we hope to use the Transbureau to bridge the gap between cultures fostering understanding and appreciation for diverse perspectives.”
In an Exclusive interview with UniversNews at the event, Manager of Transbureau, Mr. Luke Liebzie expressed his excitement for the relaunch of his outfit and encouraged students to learn other languages. This he believes will contribute to the development of the nation.
“What I think is that now we are energized to do more for the University, Ghana, Africa and for the world at large. I just encourage all those who are learning languages in various institutions to be encouraged to learn because languages are tools we can use to generate income and development. There are students who sometimes think they cannot do anything because they are learning languages but practically languages are good. So they should not drop their [language] courses”.
ABOUT THE TRANSBUREAU
Conceived in 2004 by Dr. V. A. O Lamptey, the Transbureau was adopted, promoted and sustained [quasi] individually mainly by: Prof. Robert Yennah, Mr. Bertin Bokomi, Dr. Emmanuel Kobena Kuto, Mr. Johnson Asunka and other faculty members.
The office provides services such as Translation of documents, interpreting services, Revision, Transcription, Subtitling and Voice over. The languages they deal with are: French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Chinese, Kiswahili, Portuguese, Italian, Ukrainian, German, Polish, Hungarian, Ghanaian languages and English.
The office aims to foster collaborations (GTEC, Embassies, Ministries, The Judiciary, Health Facilities, Schools, LSPs, Freelancers, etc.), offer more training opportunities(for “fresh graduates” and for GATI members) and become a key center for Translation Research in Ghana.
Its relevance in the University of Ghana Community are income generation, bridge between academia and
industry and translation of University’s programmes and sites. Also for the Public are community service, training of interns and certification for freelancers.
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Story by | John Collins Kaledzi | univers.ug.edu.gh
