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28 октября: Видеоконференция с Европейским парламентом

on 28 October 2013 the School opened the videoconferencing season with the  European Parliament. Following the School trainers’ request the European interpreters prepared speeches of intermediate level so they could get used to the videoconferencing mode. The topics varied from food banks to the Antarctica, the working languages – English, French and Russian. All participants did well at the conference, showed that they were flexible and adapted well to a changing agenda situation, had good command of the basic interpreting skills. Traditionally Katerina Dara-Leopura from the European Parliament coordinated the conference, and Natalia Malychina and Zivile Stasiunene acted as assessors. 

8-11октября: старший переводчик ЕК Лиам Лонг дал серию мастер-классов по переводческой скорописи

On 8-11 October Liam Long, an interpreter of the Directorate General for Interpretation, European Commission, gave the first series of master classes in note-taking for the School trainees in the academic year. Appreciating the students’ good command of English and their robust skill in consecutive interpreting without notes Liam Long organized an intensive practice and engaged everybody in the complex interaction.The experienced interpreter gave valuable advice on developing a concise and efficient system of notes and shared some of his professional findings.

Обучение сотрудников МИД Казахстана в рамках гранта МФГС

In September 2013, Herzen University signed a Grant Agreement with the Intergovernmental Foundation for Educational, Scientific and Cultural Cooperation to undertake a training program for interpreters-to-be from the Kazakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the St Petersburg School of Conference Interpreting and Translation. This program follows on from the pilot project successfully carried out in 2012. The cooperation between the MFA of Kazakhstan and Herzen University is in accordance with the IFESCCO mission, which is is to contribute to the further development of humanitarian cooperation and intercultural communication within the Commonwealth of Independent States. Russian is the principal language of intergovernmental and international communication in the CIS, as well as being the language of instruction and communication at the School, making this grant possible. Mastering the ins and outs of interpreting from English, German, French and Chinese into Russian will help our Kazakh colleagues to provide professional interpretation in dealing with their country’s international partners, and will equip them with the methodology and techniques to interpret from and into their national language – Kazakh.

This is a project of important international standing: for the first time CIS students can receive a one year-long comprehensive professional training in interpreting with Russian. It is of paramount importance that foreign interpreters with Russian should improve their skills in-country, becoming experts and disseminators of the Russian language and culture worldwide. We sincerely hope that other CIS countries will also be interested in this project, as highly qualified interpreting staff will undoubtedly contribute to strengthening their positions in the international arena

Открытие нового учебного года

On 2 September an opening ceremony of a new academic year took place at the St. Petersburg School of Conference Interpreting and Translation. As is the tradition, freshmen were welcomed by the University and School officials: Vice-Rector Sergey Goncharov, Vice-Rector for International Affairs Sergey Shilov, School Director Irina Alexeeva, as well as by the School’s trainers and graduates. In fact the students have had a taste of School training even before the ceremony: the school day started early, and they have already had a class in translation before hearing the words of welcome. The new academic year is special in the way that six Kazakh students selected by the MFA of Kazakhstan for intensive interpreter training joined the crew. We hope that this record number of students (25) will ensure a year of fruitful and hard work.

3 июля 2013 г: Церемония вручения дипломов выпускникам Санкт-Петербургской высшей школы перевода

On 3 July 2013 a Jubilee Diploma Awarding Ceremony took place at St. Petersburg School of Conference Interpreting and Translation. As the tradition goes, the graduates were congratulated by Rector Valery Solomin and honorary guests from Russian MFA, European Commission, the UN and the City Government.

Several members of the Government and international organizations were awarded HerzenUniversity signs of honors. Thus, Alexander Prokhorenko, St. Petersburg Government Member and Chair of the Committee for External Relations, Marco Benedetti, Director General of the DG Interpretation of the European Commission, and Noël Muylle, Honorary Director General of the European Commission received HerzenUniversity medals “In recognition of the services in education and science”. Alexander Gorelik, Director of the UN Information Center in Moscow, Wolter Witteveen, Head of the Interinstitutional Relations and International Cooperation Unit, DG Interpretation, the European Commission, and Kirill Kasyanov, UN Coordinator on MoU were presented with Honorary Certificates of Appreciation from the Herzen Academic Board. The rewardees warmly thanked the Rector’s office for the honor. Marco Benedetti appreciated the University’s decision to apply for membership in international educational institutions – EMCI (European Master in Conference Interpreting) and CIUTI (Conférence Internationale Permanente d’Instituts Universiteres de Traducteurs et Interprétes). Noël Muylle stressed the importance of introducing a programme of Conference Management, a unique educational module meant to meet the growing demand for specialists in event management in the Russian language industry.

11 School’s graduates received Herzen diplomas and St. Petersburg School of Conference Interpreting and Translation certificates and were greeted with a round of applause. The graduates of earlier years also gave a welcome speech. Grigory Khaustov read a letter from Egor Ovcharenko, a School Alumni Associaiton Captain and a 2010 graduate now working at the Russian Translation Service in the UN Headquarters in New York.

A boat trip over the Neva river crowned the festive events of the day. The newly-minted interpreters and translators thanked their trainers in a mock Award Ceremony «Gold Diaphragm».