Cultural Events Are Organized in Kazakhstan by Sheikh Hamad Award

When choosing Kazakh as one of the languages for this year's achievement category, the Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding (SHATIU) organized a wide range of cultural events in Kazakhstan as part of the media team's visit. These events gave the media team a glimpse into the reality of translation from Kazakh to Arabic and from Arabic to Kazakh.

Two scientific lectures and field trips to several universities, libraries, and language and translation centers were part of the four-day excursion. The most significant of these were visits to Al Farabi Kazakh National University and its library.

The delegation also visited the National Library to learn about its heritage, which is rich in Arabic books and manuscripts, the Eurasian Institute, the library of the poet Jambul Gabayev, and a number of publishing houses to observe the real situation of translation between Arabic and Kazakh, the most significant translated works, and the institutions' attempts in translating between the two languages.

A scientific seminar titled "The Reality and Prospects of Translation between Arabic and Kazakh" was held at Al Farabi University as part of the trip for the winning teams. Ambassadors from Kazakhstan and Qatar attended the seminar.

H E Arman Issagaliyev, as well as a group of professors and translators from regional and international universities.

During the seminar, H E Abdulaziz bin Sultan Al Rumaihi expressed his delight at the delegation from Qatar presence to present the Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding. He emphasized the depth of their relationship and the variety of ways their collaboration benefits their respective intellectual, cultural, and scientific endeavors.

The ambassador of Kazakhstan to Qatar welcomed the award delegation on behalf of his country, mentioning his interest in Arabic and his study of it at the Faculty of Oriental Studies at Al Farabi University. He also emphasized the significance of the Arabic language globally and called for more fruitful collaboration between the two nations in the area of translation.

Dr. Hanan Al Fayyad, media adviser for the Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding, provided a thorough introduction of the prize and the languages it is now accepting applications for in its eighth season.

The first category recognizes achievement in translation in a single book and is divided into four branches: translation from Arabic into English, translation from Arabic into Turkish, and translation from Turkish into Arabic. The second category recognizes achievement in a chosen sublanguage, and this year it is translation from and into Arabic from languages: Bahasa Indonesia, Kazakh, Romanian, Swahili, and Vietnamese.

Gulnar Nadyarovna, a translator, discussed the value of literature as the best method of cross-cultural communication while pointing out how translation supports features of civilized conversation.

One of the most significant translation challenges, she noted, is the high cost, which necessitates the support of institutions in order to improve outcomes in a variety of translation fields. She also noted that some works were translated into Chinese and Spanish and that an anthology of contemporary Kazakh literature into Arabic would be published in 2020.

The dean of Al Farabi Kazakh National University's Faculty of Oriental Studies, Professor Ikhtiar Baltouri, emphasized the significance of training translators to meet a variety of issues.