A multilingual magazine produced entirely by translation students at the University of Liège

By Patricia Janssens , Valérie Maris and Mathilde Mergeai, Translation and Interpreting program in the Department of Modern Languages at the University of Liège
Translated from French by Laura Gerday and the Master's students studying French-to-English Translation Practice

  ©️ Le p'TI Journal

The second issue of Le p’TI Journal came out last June. With a print run of 700 copies, it is the pride and joy of students and faculty of the Translation and Interpreting program in the Department of Modern Languages at the University of Liège (Belgium). The publication has received financial support from the university as well as from the Academy for Research and Higher Education of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation.

Le p’TI Journal is a collection of articles published in foreign languages – mainly English, German, Dutch, and Spanish, but also Greek, Romanian, Turkish, Arabic, and Italian – and subsequently translated into French. It also includes a small number of texts translated from French into English, German, Dutch, and Spanish.

The magazine’s debut issue was brought out in 2023 with the backing of Courrier international (a French weekly newspaper which translates international press articles into French) and was focused on sustainable development. This time, the common theme is 'Living and Learning Together' ('Vivre et apprendre ensemble'), with the Liège-based magazine Imagine Demain le monde acting as the project’s patron.

Illustrated by first-year Comic Art students from a nearby art school, ESA Saint-Luc Liège, this 64-page magazine is the result of a pedagogical project that brought together and motivated Translation and Interpreting students, not only because it consisted in selecting articles on the topic, translating them in a journalistic style, and revising these translations, but also because it entailed publishing them while meeting deadlines. 

This genuine collaborative work involves BA II, BA III, MA I, and MA II students. The project is carried out every two years so that students can participate once in the course of their bachelor’s degree and a second time during their master’s degree. Once again, this year’s project was met with general enthusiasm, with about 150 students and 20 teachers contributing.
 As with the first issue, an editorial committee was formed to ensure the overall coherence of the published texts. The second edition also provided an opportunity for students to engage more actively with the project through the creation of a team of student volunteers. The 'p’TIte Team', as they were known, carried out management and communication tasks alongside their in-class translation and revision activities.

As a true pedagogical laboratory, Le p’TI Journal is a multifaceted collaborative project. The diagram below depicts the collaborations between the various participants.

© Mathilde Mergeai, Valérie Maris & Lilou Marchal

The collaborative dynamics are multidirectional. For instance, from the students’ point of view, they played the role of professional translators or revisers, and some of them also volunteered to be part of the p’TIte Team. The student translators and revisers cooperated with their teachers, but also with alumni and with other students (from ULiège and, in some cases, from ESA Saint-Luc, as for the illustrations). The p’TIte Team members also worked with people such as the coordinators, the graphic designer, the printing company, and administrative assistants. However, this diagram remains schematic, in that each group involves internal collaborations as well.

Le p’TI Journal is now used at student fairs to showcase the expertise of these future language professionals and the dynamic nature of the University of Liège’s Translation and Interpreting program.

You can obtain a paper copy of the magazine by sending an email to pti.journal@uliege.be.

The full article, written in French by Patricia Janssens, is available here:
https://www.lqj.uliege.be/cms/c_20483739/fr/une-revue-polyglotte.

Details

Publication date: 9 January 2026
Languages: English, French
EMT Category: Translation competences