The United Nations have their own communicative culture in six languages ensuring effective communications in such a complex environment requires translators with a high level of translation competence. In addition, there is a growing demand for qualified translators with a strong command in communicative efficiency in the Arabic, Chinese and Russian languages.
Whereas the languages services of the United Nations are highly centralized, the educational systems of the universities are extremely diverse and decentralized. Effective and efficient multilateral collaboration with the United Nations has therefore become a priority for CIUTI institutes. How can universities collaborate more efficiently with the United Nations in order to train translators for specific needs especially in the present years in which many vacancies come up?
The CIUTI Forum took place in January 2007 at the United Nations in Geneva and was centered around the New Needs of the United Nations in language matters. Solutions to existing problems such as scarceness in certain language combinations as well as specific training needs pour UN-purposes were the main issues of this event. Within the framework of this Forum contributors emphasize the different approaches of how to integrate the new needs of the languages services of the United Nations into the training institutions, such as the importance of the necessary different forms of cultural communication in six languages in any kind of discipline. Special stress is put on the two main axes of communication: internal communication between experts and external communication with the broad public.