On 16 april 2015 IV UN- MoU Universities conference Training Language Professionals for International Organizations opened at Herzen University. The opening ceremony was attended by Vice-Governor of St. Petersburg A. Govorunov, Under-Secretary General of the UN Tegegnework Gettu and the Rector of Herzen University V. Solomin.
This year, aptitude tests for the next academic year at SCIT took place a month before the usual time. The number of applications was high, and the applicants admittedly were well prepared. As a result, 19 of them were selected for admission. All received individual recommendations from SCIT trainers.
The academic year starts on 1 September. Congratulations to the successful candidates !
On 1 April Aminadav Dickman visited SCIT to give an open lecture on the traditon of translating poetry into the Hebrew language. The lecture was attended by SCIT trainers and students, as well as by the students from the Institute of Foreign Languages, Herzen university.
Professor Dickman specializes in medieval and contemporary literature in Hebrew and translates classical and modern poetry into Hebrew. Aminadav Dickman chairs the Hebrew Literature Department at Jewish university in Jerusalem and runs the translation program at the University of Jerusalem. He authored scores of translations from Russian, French and Latin. Professor Dickman contributed to building an anthology of English translations of Homer. In 2003, the publication of My century, my beast, a collection of poetry by eight XX century Russian authors translated by our guest, became an important event in Israel’s literary life.
For more about Aminadav Dickman see: http://booknik.ru/today/faces/Dikman/
http://www.lechaim.ru/ARHIV/199/int.htm
Jean Friedman-Stayer, Vice-Consul of the Consulate General of Israel in St. Petersburg, opened the meeting. A. Dickman took questions from the audience.
From 11 to 20 March Brian Gentle, a retired DG SCIC interpreter, visited SCIT on a pedagogical assistance mission. His first working week was devoted to giving master-classes to the SCIT students. Throughout the week they practiced interpreting consecutive and simultaneous speeches into English on various topics they had prepared and delivered themselves. Doing it in front of a native English speaker and receiving his professional feedback, certainly helps the students to enhance their independent work in mastering English and improving the quality of interpreting.
Brian’s second week in St. Petersburg was taken up by work at the aptitude tests, which required a good deal of preparation on his part as well. Now it was his turn to deliver mini-speeches to the SCIT applicants whose job was to interpret them into Russian showing aptitude for work as interpreters. Brian’s artistic and elegant delivery coupled with his kindly attitude surely helped the applicants to cope with exam stress and perform at their best.
SCIT sincerely thanks Brian Gentle for his generous help and hope to welcome him back soon!
On 20-21 March the Philology Department of Moscow State University hosted an international conference on the legacy of the Soviet traditions of translation. Susanna Witt from Sweden, Maria Eliferova, Vera Milchina (Russian Humanities University), Elena Zemskova (Higher School of Economics), Ekaterina Kuznetsova (Moscow State University) were among the contributors whose presentations resulted in an enthusiastic response from the audience. The Conference focused on the topic of literalism in translation, and Alexandra Borisenko, one of the conference organizers, was the keynote speaker on that subject. There were two round tables on the margins of the event: one was devoted to the Soviet tradition of translation, the other – to the Soviet editing rules as compared to the present-day practices. SCIT was represented by Director Irina Alexeeva who read a report Fifty Shades of Correct Translation: Soviet Traditions of Translation.
On 21-22 March, Angelique Antonova, SCIT Deputy Director, took part in the conference Re-Making Connections held by the Directorate General for Interpretation of the European Commission for partner-universities. The presentations focused on training young interpreters for language proficiency examinations at the European linguistic services and the need to align training programs with potential employers’ requirements. All presentations were followed by lively discussions. Special attention was given to the latest trends in interpreting.
On 18 March Tatiana Boborykina, a famous literary critic and translator, gave a lecture on literary translation at SCIT. As literary translation is not on the SCIT curriculum, the students found the presentation particularly enlightening. Taking Pushkin’s “The Queen of Spades” as an example Tatiana Boborykina explained how important accuracy of detail is, even in creative work such as the translation of literature: if details are missed a translator distorts the underlying meaning of the literary work. A translator of literature should be a writer and a critic him/herself, and have a feeling for words: not an easy task.
The students not only appreciated the lecture content but equally the artistic manner of presentation for whic h Tatiana Boborykina is so famous.
On 12 March SCIT hosted Boris Naimushin, a simultaneous interpreter and Head of the English Chair at New Bulgarian University, Sofia. He spoke about the subtleties of the interpreting profession. Meetings with the legends of the profession have become a tradition at SCIT. They are also attended by the students of the Institute of Foreign Languages, Herzen university.
In February 2015 the St. Petersburg School of Conference Interpreting and Translation hosted Jonathan Clements, FAO interpreter, whose training visit took place within the framework of the Herzen-FAO Agreement of Cooperation signed in 2014. Over three weeks, from 2 to 20 February, SCIT students benefited from the opportunity to attend the master classes of the experienced interpreter. At the classes they did various tasks: prepared speeches in Russian, interpreted consecutively and simultaneously into English, did sight translation of the actual speeches delivered at FAO meetings and interpreted simultaneously with the text. Jonathan was an active participant of the SCIT events concurrent with his visit. He took part in an Open Day, attended lectures given by SCIT professors and actively practiced his Russian with the SCIT students. We sincerely hope that Jonathan’s traditional winter visits pave the way for long and fruitful cooperation with FAO.
Herzen University delegation headed by Rector Valery Solomin took part in the ceremony dedicated to Russian Diplomacy Day held in the MarblePalace on 10 February. The ceremony was hosted by Vladimir Zapevalov, Head of the MFA Office in St. Petersburg, who praised the work of the consular offices in St. Petersburg at a difficult time in international relations. A telegram of congratulations from Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, was read out. Participants were welcomed by Georgiy Poltavchenko, Governor of St. Petersburg, Alexander Drozdenko, Governor of Leningrad region, Lubov Sovershaeva, Deputy Presidential Plenipotentiary for Northwest Russia.
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