SCIT – News

16-20 April 2018: visit of Cécile Frogneux, lecturer at the Louvain School of Translation and Interpreting, UCL

26 April 2018|

From 16 to 20 April SCIT hosted Cécile Frogneux, lecturer at the Louvain School of Translation and Interpreting, UCL. The visit was part of the Erasmus + Mobility Programme, initiated by our schools in 2017. Cécile was actively engaged in the teaching process: she gave classes to SCIT students, presented a speech at a mock-conference and acted as an expert in French-into-Russian interpretation classes. Her exchanges with the SCIT colleagues was also valuable. We sincerely hope that this coopertion between our schools will continue.

19 and 20 April 2018: EC SCIC and Partner-Universities Conference

26 April 2018|

On 19 and 20 April 2018 EC SCIC hosted the annual conference which brought together around 180 participants from partner universities collaborating with EC SCIC on a regular basis. Since its inception in 1996 the conference has served as a forum to discuss the latest tendencies in interpreting and teaching interpretation. This year the conference was devoted to Interpretation: Sharing Knowledge and Fostering Communities. A. Antonova, SCIC Deputy Director, had several meetings on the margins of the forum: she participated in the work of EMCI General Assembly and had a meeting with Florika Fink-Hoojer, General Director of EC SCIC.

«Global Dialogue » in Moscow

17 April 2018|

Moscow has opened a new venue to discuss T&I issues: Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration hosted the forum Global Dialogue on 13-14 April. Ekaterina Pokholkova, Dean of the Translation and Interpreting Faculty of the Moscow State Linguistic University (MSLU), and other MSLU trainers contributed immensely to organizing the event and forming its agenda. There were heated discussions, the groundwork was laid for new interpretation research projects. The highlight for the event was set by Pavel Palazhchenko, an experienced interpreter with vast international experience, who stressed the necessity of impeccable interpretation at any level. Young interpreters actively took part: there were many participants from different cities of Russia, and the final plenary was marked by presentations of young talented professionals. The participants took notice of the excellent presentations of Anna Mikhailuk (Balashova) and Grigory Khaustov – both SCIT graduates. The School itself was fondly remembered on several occasions by veterans of the diplomatic service as well as by outstanding professionals and colleagues from Russian universities. SCIT was represented by director Irina Alexeeva.

19 March 2018: meeting with Boris Naimushin

20 March 2018|

On 19 March SCIT hosted Boris Naimushin, interpreter and trainer at New Bulgarian University. Our guest shared his experiences as an interpreter, including his work with President of Bulgaria, spoke about the specifics of learning Bulgarian as compared with Russian and drew some interesting examples from the interpreter’s practice. He also gave useful advice about collaborating with clients and colleagues. Boris Naimushin came across as an open, friendly and highly professional specialist whose opinion is worth listening to. Bulgarian students attending the meeting confirmed this, too.

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.