Kudos to Rector of Sebelas Maret Univ.

Kudos to Rector of Sebelas Maret Univ.

As a participant of the conference, allow me to thank the
Rector of Sebelas Maret university and the Conference Organizing
Committee for organizing the first International Conference On
Translation, Discourse and Culture at Novotel Hotel in Surakarta,
Central Java, on Sept. 14 and Sept. 15.

The evening program organized for Conference Participants
reflected the spirit of appreciating arts and artistic
expression. I was most impressed by the students' sincere and
heartfelt English poetry reading performance. I wish that, like
them, more students could appreciate true art, which is not
necessarily "noisy" or "fancy" -- it simply conveys human
emotions using the artistic means available.

At the end of a long day of Conference presentations, all
participants of the program appreciated the performance of one of
the paper presenters, who entertained them with a traditional
keroncong style song translated into English! -- Another great
example of how a good translation can open up so many windows for
speakers of different languages, coming from different cultural
backgrounds, allowing them a glimpse into other cultures.

It is really sad to think how so many such windows would
remain closed forever if there were no dedicated translators to
help open them up to the world.

Hopefully, it can help translators from Indonesia, and from
other countries as well, to appreciate their profession more, and
for other people to recognize it as a truly challenging and
important calling in life.

MARIANA M.G. WAROKKA, Jakarta