The Translation and Interpreting Institute (TII) at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) is holding a Turkish-Arabic workshop from December 6th to 11th in collaboration with the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage of Qatar. This is the second of two organized workshops to promote translation between Turkish and Arabic. Five translators and two university professors are visiting Doha this week to translate a number of texts originally written in Turkish into Arabic.

The initiative supports Qatar Turkey 2015 Year of Culture, an initiative spearheaded by Qatar Museums to promote cultural dialogue and deepen understanding between nations and their people through mutual exchanges of arts, culture, heritage, and sport. Translators, proficient in both Arabic and Turkish, applied to the program from around the world, with ten translators selected to participate.

Of those selected, five translators attended the first workshop in Istanbul, hosted by the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and dedicated their time to a variety of Arabic texts across different genres into Turkish. As part of the arrangements, participants took a trip to the International Istanbul Book Fair. Participants in the second workshop, hosted at the Translation and Interpreting Institute, will also spend one day visiting the Doha International Book Fair.

Dr. Amal Al-Malki, Executive Director of TII, commented: “We’re very excited about this collaboration and the opportunity to work with two high profile ministries. I really want to thank the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage in Qatar, especially the Minister HE Dr. Hamad Bin Abdulaziz Al Kuwari, who informed us of this project and supports many translation movements, whether academic or professional.”

She continued: “This project introduces translators from around the world to TII, not only to the textual translation we cover, but also to interpretation, audiovisual work, audio description, subtitling, dubbing, and more. I think those involved will be pleasantly surprised at how advanced TII is academically and professionally and we hope it opens doors for more collaboration in the future.”

Individuals interested in learning more about the work of the Translation and Interpreting Institute, as well as its two postgraduate programs in Translation Studies and Audiovisual Translation, are encouraged to visit http://www.tii.qa/ for more information.