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Russia’s Biggest Translation Forum in Ekaterinburg

30 September 2014|

On 28 September Russia’s biggest translation forum (TFR) completed its work in colorful autumn Ekaterinburg. The participants discussed the topical issues of the translation industry: new technologies, alternative methods of training language specialists, freelance ethics, marketing and cooperation issues. Round table discussions on professional ethics drew a lot of attention where the participants developed recommendations for interpreters and discussed professional lessons learned from big international events, such as Sochi-2014 Olympics (18 SCIT envoys worked at the Sochi Olympics). SCIT was represented by several participants: Ekaterina Shutova gave a master class in consecutive interpretation with notes and took part in round tables; Irina Alexeeva served as a member of the TFR organization committee, gave a plenary talk “Language Mediator and Time”, and moderated round table on the alternative models of interpreter training: SCIT graduate Alexandra Savelieva provided simultaneous interpretation.

The Forum demonstrated a new level of consolidation within the translation industry and its readiness to face new challenges of today.

Centenary of Givi Gachechiladze, famous translation theoretician

30 September 2014|

On 18 and 19 September 2014 SCIT Director Irina Alexeeva took part in the international conference “Translation of Literature as a Meeting Point of Peoples and Literatures” marking the 100th  anniversary of Givi Gachechiladze, a renowned 20th century translation theoretician. Tbilisi State University hosted the event. The participants focused on the contemporary trends in literary translation, their connection with the tradition, and looked retrospectively at the literary translation in the 20th century. Irina Alexeeva made a plenary report “Flight of the Butterfly: Givi Gachechiladze’s Ideas and Development of philological translation”. In her report Irina Alexeeva analyzed the connections between Georgian and Leningrad schools of literary translation, and in particular a close creative interaction with the concepts of Andrey Fedorov, founding father of translation theory in Russia.

Happy New School Year!

8 September 2014|

On 1 September the St Petersburg School of Conference Interpreting and Translation opened its door to the new students for the seventh time. First Vice-Rector of Herzen University Sergey Goncharov and Vice-Rector for International Relations Dmitry Boikov welcomed the trainees, among whom were graduates from different Russian universities and graduates from Kazakhstan universities who have a special programme. Also the Ceremony was attended by Nikolay Lukichev, Counselor of the Office of the Russian MFA in St Petersburg, Ainur Nazarymbetova, Consul of the Consulate General of the Republic of Kazakhstan in St. Petersburg, School administration, faculty and graduates. Happy School Year, dear Students!

UTR master classes

22 July 2014|

On Saturday 19 July, St. Petersburg School of Conference Interpreting and Translation hosted the multilingual master classes in simultaneous interpreting organized under the aegis of VII UTR International School. Above 50 participants from  Moscow, Nizhni Novgorod, Samara, Vladivostok, Ekaterinburg and other cities attended the master classes.  The UTR delegation was headed by President Leonid Gurevich.

The master classes were given by Boris Pogodin, SCIT trainer and an experienced UN interpreter, and Professor Irina Zubanova, MSLU.

Russian Government appreciates SCIT contribution to Olympic linguistic support

22 July 2014|

Dmitri Kozak, Vice Chairman of the Government, and Dmitri Chernyshenko, President of Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee, awarded SCIT trainers certificates of appreciation. Among the  honorees were Irina Alexeeva,   Ekaterina Shutova, Oxana Yakimenko, Ekaterina Trefilova, Sergey Yakovlev. Konstantin Ioseliani, head of Janus Translation Company in charge the linguistic support during the Olympics,  gave the certificates during his visit to the School. The awards mark the interpreters’ professionalism and devotion. The SCIT trainers and students also received the certificates of appreciation from Janus Translation Company.

SCIT Diploma Awarding Ceremony

7 July 2014|

On 2 July the Diploma Awarding Ceremony to the SCIT graduates took place at the Heraldic Hall, HerzenUniversity. The University congratulated the graduates of three training programs on their successful completion of the courses: SCIT interpreting and translation program (with English, French, Spanish, German, and Chinese languages), the interpreting and translation program for perspective language specialists from the MFA of Kazakhstan, and Conference Management training program. In the morning there took place a meeting dedicated to the results of the SCIT sixth year of work, and the School’s achievements were appreciated by Marco Benedetti, Director General of the DG SCIC, European Commission, Yuri Shishaev, Deputy Director of the UN Information Center in Moscow, Claude Durand, Head of Interinstitutional Relations and International Cooperation Unit, DG SCIC, European Commission, Josep Bonet Heras, Head of Professional and Organisational Development Unit, DG Translation, European Commission, and others. In her speech Irina Alexeeva, SCIT Director, outlined the challenges for the coming academic year. Alongside the traditional task of keeping up the standards of training, Director Alexeeva mentioned organizing the UN-MoU Universities Conference to be held in April 2015 as a priority for SCIT and HerzenUniversity. The ceremony itself took place in the Heraldic Hall, and was attended by numerous guests. In his word of welcome Rector Valery Solomin underlined the importance of language specialists with the Russian language in the modern world. The audience will surely remember the speech of Teimuraz Ramishvili, Head of the Linguistic Support Department at the Russian MFA, who spoke figuratively of interpreter training as of gem cutting. Vice Rector Sergei Goncharov and SCIT Director Irina Alexeeva greeted the graduates with warm welcoming words. The festivities ended with a traditional boat trip on the Neva river for the graduates, trainers and guests of the ceremony.

Training Interpreters for MFA of Kazakhstan

27 June 2014|

On 24 June several events marking the cooperation between Herzen University and the Republic of Kazakhstan took place at the university. A meeting dedicated to the results of a two year cooperation between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan and the St. Petersburg School of Conference Interpreting and Translation, Herzen university, was held, where the MFA of Kazakhstan was represented by A. Musinov, MFA Executive Secretary, S. Kulzhanov, MFA staff advisor, A. Nazarymbetova, Consul at the Consulate General of the Republic of Kazakhstan in St. Petersburg. The delegation was informed about the results of a one-year training program for six young interpreters from Kazakhstan with English, French and German languages, which was supported by the grant from the Intergovernmental Foundation for Educational, Scientific and Cultural Cooperation (IFESCCO). The multilingual conference on the energy potential of Kazakhstan served as an opportunity for the Kazakh delegation to appreciate the considerable progress made by the trainees and the input of the School faculty and staff. The day ended with a meeting between Vice Rector S. Goncharov and A. Musinov, MFA Executive Secretary. During the talks both parties expressed mutual satisfaction with the cooperation program and their intention to continue it. Vice-rector S. Goncharov spoke about the priority of the Herzen tradition of quality education in its connection with working practice, and noted that two of the Kazakh students have been recommended to follow the internship program at the UN Office in Geneva.

Diploma Awarding Ceremony for the graduates of the Congress Management program

10 June 2014|

On July 6 the Diploma Awarding ceremony for the graduates of the Congress Management program took place in the Mariinski Hall, Herzen University. The ceremony was attended by First Vice-Rector Sergei Goncharov, the SCIT leaders and the program trainers.

The special guests of the ceremony were the members of the SCIT Board of Guardians – Mr. Vladimir Khodyrev, Advisor to Governor of St. Petersburg and President of the North-West Transport Union, and Mr. Alexander Prikhorenko, Deputy Chair of LLC “Interpredservice”. Mr. Kirill Kasyanov, the UN-Herzen coordinator also attended the ceremony. All the guests underlined the importance of the new program as a logical step in the School’s development, and expressed assurance that the Congress Management program graduates will put to good use the knowledge and skills got during the training program. Mr. Kasyanov informed the graduates that the UN Secretariat looks into the possibility to provide internships for them in the UN Secretariat. Mr. Vyachelav Zarenkov, the member of the SCIT Board of Guardians and Chair of “Etalon Group”, presented the graduates with his book Project Management which brought him the British  Queen Victoria Award.

A Series of Virtual Conferences in May

6 June 2014|

On 12 May a trilateral virtual conference among DG SCIC, ESIT and SCIT was held. The VC lasted two hours and involved three speeches each of which was interpreted by a SCIT student and a ESIT student in turns. The topics varied from oil industry to the North Sea Route. The working languages were English, French and Russian. The students not engaged in the conference interpreting were practicing in “dumb booths”. The students’ performance was evaluated by the SCIT and ESIT trainers and DG SCIC interpreters. All participants were satisfied with the results of their work.

On 15 May another virtual class involving SCIT and DG INTE, European parliament took place. For two hours the SCIT students interpreted four speeches consecutively, received feedback from their trainers and the Brussels experts. The working languages were English, Spanish, German and Russian. The topics embraced various issues from choosing the clothes colour to using rats for demining. Such conferences enable students to better understand the professional requirements on the European market and receive valuable feedback from more experienced colleagues.

On 22 May another virtual conference between SCIT and DG INTE crowned the 2013/2014 SCIT virtual learning program. The working languages were Russian, English, German, Spanish. The range of the topics included the attitudes to Holy cows in India, fair trade electronic devices, antiviral vaccination, the results of the elections to the European parliament.  At the end of the conference the SCIT trainers and students expressed their sincere gratitude to the DG INTE interpreters for the time and effort they invested in the virtual conferences of 2013-2014.

UN Language Competitive Examination for Russian Language Translators/Editors

6 June 2014|

The final part of the UN Language Competitive Examination for Russian Language Translators/Editors was held in May 2014. This challenging test comprised two stages where the candidates’ performance was evaluated by a demanding board of examiners.

The written part of the examination took place in New York, Geneva and Vienna in August 2013. The two-day test was given to prospective translators and editors. The tasks included translation of a general text from English into Russian, translation of an optional economic, technical, legal or humanitarian text from English into Russian, and translation of a Spanish or French text into Russian. The tasks for editors included stylistic and grammatical editing of a Russian text and editing of a Russian translation of an English text against the original version.

The second stageinvolved a competency-based interview that took place in May 2014 in New York and Geneva. it was conducted by the heads of Russian translation services and representatives of HR departments. The interview was based on the UN system of the office of Human Resources Management. The competency-based interview was designed to evaluate candidates’ knowledge and experience against the competencies required for the vacancies. In addition, the candidates had to do sight translation.

We are happy to announce that nine SCIT graduates have passed this challenging test. They are Natalia Akulenko, Karina Laktionova, Maria Lyakhovskaya, Olga Novikova, Dmitri Osadchuk, Svetlana Sidorova, Inga Khramkova, Igor Shapovalov, Evgenia Shvedchikova.

Our heartiest congratulations!