SCIT – News

12-17 March 2018: Master-classes of Brian Gentle, European Commission interpreter

17 March 2018|

From 12 to 17 March SCIT hosted a series of master-classes of Brian Gentle, a European Commission interpreter. Intensive classes were focused on developing students’ retour skills. Students prepared speeches, interpreted consecutively and simultaneously and received feedback from the native speaker and professional interpreter. Brian Gentle also gave a master-class in note-taking for the students of the Institue of Foreign Language, Herzen University, and acted as a European Commission observer at the SCIT entrance exams.

12-16 March 2018: Entrance exams at SCIT

16 March 2018|

On 12-16 March SCIT held entrance exams for the next academic year. Traditionally the applicants were sifted through a series of rigorous tests, including language testing and translation and interpreting aptitude tests. The evaluation panel included both SCIT trainers and international observers. The final barrier – the interview – proved insurmountable for some aspirants. Congratulations to those admitted!

19 February 2018: Virtual Class with European Commission and UN

20 February 2018|

On 19 February a trilateral Virtual Conference involving SCIT students, European Commission interpreters and a UNOV interpreter Nikolay Telnov took place at SCIT. This time more emphasis was given to retour, and out of six performances four were done from Russian into English. The topics varied from fairy tale therapy to relations between Poland and the EU. European experts were satisfied with the level of performance shown by the SCIT students, however the UN colleague was more critical, though he agreed that the training process proceeded at a good pace. We express our gratitude to Michael Somers and Fernando Leitão of DG SCIC and Nikolay Telnov of UNIOV for their willingness to share professional expertise and valuable comments.

EMCI Training of Trainers Seminar

19 February 2018|

On 8-9 February EMCI organized a Training of Trainers seminar in Budapest. The seminar was devoted to the making of speeches for interpreter training. SCIT was represented by its younger generation of trainers – Anastasia Gavrilina and Sergey Leonov. The seminar participants discussed the rules of speech composition for trainers as well as the issues related to the speeches composed by students for their fellow-trainees. Special attention was paid to mock-conferences, and the participants discussed their place in the curriculum, frequency, topical focus, type of interpreting exercise (simultaneous or consecutive), and the kind of speakers involved (if they should be trainers, students, invited speakers, recorded speeches, native speakers or teachers from other departments). The SCIT trainers actively shared their experiences and learned from their colleagues.

15 February 2018: SCIT All Welcome Day

16 February 2018|

On 15 February SCIT held an All Welcome Day for potential applicants. This event has been especially topical now that the entrance exams scheduled 12-16 March are looming on the horizon. The participants jumped at this opportunity to ask questions to the School administration, trainers, graduates and current-year students. The conference hall was full, the guests were active in asking all sorts of questions about the entrance exams, SCIT workload, the amount of homework and what not. The meeting lasted about two hours.

SCIT’s 10th Anniversary

2 February 2018|

SCIT’s birthday this year is a special event: we celebrate our tenth anniversary! It is a unique occasion when everyone wishing happy birthday hears the same words in response! The celebration brought together in the Conference hall those who built the School from its inception: trainers and administration. The official part did not take long, but the party could last and last… Counselor Nikolay Lukichev brought congratulations from the MFA of Russia and personally from Vladimir Zapevalov, Russian MFA Representative in St. Petersburg. Andrey Maksimov, Chairman of St. Petersburg Committee for Science and Higher Education, Government of St. Petersburg, also sent his greetings in the letter which was read out to the audience. Yulia Komarova, Vice-Rector for International Cooperation came to congratulate SCIT on behalf of the Herzen University Rectorate.

Florika Fink-Hooijer, European Commission Director General sends her greetings to Rector Sergey Bogdanov on the 10th SCIT anniversary

2 February 2018|

Florika Fink-Hooijer, Director General of the Directorate General for Interpretation of the European Commission sends her greetings to Rector Sergey Bogdanov on the occasion of the 10^th SCIT anniversary.

Vladimir Zapevalov, Representative of Russian MFA in St. Petersburg, sends his greetings to Herzen University on the occasion of the 10th SCIT anniversary

1 February 2018|

Andrey Maksimov, Chairman of St. Petersburg Committee for Science and Higher Education, Government of St. Petersburg, sends his greetings to Herzen University on the occasion of the 10th SCIT anniversary

1 February 2018|

25 January 2018: SCIT hosts Yuri Lebedev, translator and member of St. Petersburg Branch of Union of Writers

29 January 2018|

On 25 January SCIT hosted Yuri Lebedev, translator and a member of the St. Petersburg Branch of Union of Writers. The meeting was dedicated to the 75^th anniversary of the Breach of the Leningrad Siege. At the meeting Yury Lebedev told the students about the German memoir literature and about the Leningrad Siege, dwelled on the Defense of Leningrad. The guest actively engaged the students in conversation and asked their opinion about many issues related to the war.

The participants discussed the tricks of the work of military interpreters and translators. Mr. Lebedev spoke about the difficulties of simultaneous interpreters’ work and recounted some events from his own experience. Talking about the subtleties of literary translation he said: “Nobody will ever become a good translator without the perfect knowledge of the mother tongue”.

Irina Alexeeva asked the guest to tell about his engagement in the work of the International Centre “Reconciliation” where he is a chair. The Centre established good connections between Russia and Germany which helped to open a military cemetery of German soldiers in Sologubovka, in the vicinity of St. Petersburg.

The writer also shared his impressions about working on the books Into Eternity and Jokes of Military Interpreter. An important milestone in his career became the translation of Arno Surminski’s novel Vaterland ohne Väter (Fatherland without Fathers).

After the talk the students asked many questions about the fates of military translators and discussed the dilemma of heroism and self-sacrifice of Leningrad citizens.

“There was heroism, but tragedy was also there”, – concluded Mr. Lebedev

http://mr7.ru/articles/175760/