News

9 November: Introduction into Simultaneous Class

13 November 2017|

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On 9 November a much looked forward to event took place at SCIT: the students did their first simultaneous interpretation. This is always a special event at SCIT: students and trainers get together, more experienced colleagues help the young ones to come through this important moment of professional  development, and the SCIT  teaching methods are developed to minimize  the students’ possible fears and apprehensions about their performance in sim. They did it!  Congratulations!

DGT Translating Europe Forum

13 November 2017|

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The 4th edition of the Translating Europe Forum attracted to Brussels 500 professionals to discuss new skills, new markets and new profiles in the translation sector.

What skills are needed to thrive on today’s translation market? What does this mean for translator training and continuous professional development? How can public services and the private sector learn from each other? How can cooperation between academia and industry boost employability?

Commissioner Gunther Oettinger and DGT Director-General Rytis Martikonis opened the event with inspiring addresses on the importance of languages and translation as expression of diversity in Europe. SCIT Deputy Director Angelique Antonova attended the Forum and actively participated in the lively discussions.

UN Day at SCIT

24 October 2017|

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The UN was officially founded on October 24, 1945, when the majority of signatories ratified the UN Charter. For SCIT the UN Day is not just a date in the calendar. SCIT and the UN have been long-time partners and the support of the Russian linguistic services played a key role in establishing a translation and interpreting school in St. Petersburg. Back in 2008 SCIT signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the UN on cooperation in training language specialists. Since early days institutional translation and interpreting with focus on the UN documentation have become a permanent part of the SCIT training program. At present 20 SCIT graduates are employed as regular staff in the Russian linguistic units of the UN, and an even bigger number are listed in the roster and have worked on temporary contracts. In 2015 Herzen University was honoured to host the IV MoU Universities-UN Conference, and we are proud to have organized this event to the highest standards.

This year the UN Day at SCIT coincided with the visit of Dmitri Bloshenko, Senior Reviser in the RTS, UNHQ in New York. A series of intensive master-classes was conducted for three weeks of studies, and as early as in October the new intake of students had an opportunity to acquire a feel for the UN specifics. Supervised by Dmitri Bloshenko the students thoroughly ploughed through the texts on a wide range of topics. Besides, on UN Day Dmitri Bloshenko and Angelique Antonova, SCIT Deputy Director, were invited to give a lecture on Multiligualism and Linguistic Mediation at the UN at the Department of International Relations in North-West Institute of Management – a branch of Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.

11-14 October: Master-classes of Liam Long, Senior Interpreter DG SCIC

17 October 2017|

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On 11-14 October SCIT hosted Liam Long, Senior Interpreter from the DG SCIC, European Commission. The series of master-classes he gave were designed to introduce and practice note-taking. The program was very intensive: every day, Saturday included, the students prepared speeches, made presentations, received feedback from this experienced interpreter. There was also a separate series of master-classes for the students with French.

A Word Born: ZIL Cultural Center

13 October 2017|

On 10 October ZIL Cultural Center hosted another meeting of the series HowWords Are Born: Meetings with Translators. In a cosy atmosphere Irina Alexeeva, SCIT Director, shared with guests her ideas about translation, authors and their translators; read from some of her new translations. The audience included SCIT graduates presently employed at the Russian MFA. The hostess for the evening was Elena Kalashnikova, a journalist.

Successful conference: cases and reports

2 October 2017|

On 28 and 29 September the Department of Translation, Institute of Foreign Languages, Herzen University held a two-day conference, organized jointly with T-Systems Company. The event was timed with the World Translator’s Day. The first day saw the battles between the teams from different universities of St. Petersburg, where the participants discussed various translation situations from the viewpoint of professional ethics and competence.  Each pair of teams analyzed and presented arguments for its case. The team of the Ustinov Baltic State Technical University  “Voenmech” came as a winner. The SCIT team headed by Timofey Mineev was the first runner-up.

29 September was the day of most interesting reports. The one by Professor Achkasov from St. Petersburg State University, devoted to the future of translation, attracted general attention. SCIT was represented by Director Irina Alexeeva who made a presentation on Two-lateral translation workshops as an element of new educational design.

SCIT graduate Ekaterina Ageeva comes first in International Simultaneous Interpreters Competition!

2 October 2017|

Ekaterina Ageeva, SCIT alumna 2017, won the International Simultaneous Interpreters Competition Cosinus Pi 2017, held by Moscow State University, by a significant margin.  Our congratulations to Katya on this remarkable achievement!

Translator’s Day with UN Flavour

2 October 2017|

The Translator’s Day was celebrated at SCIT with a lot of joy and drive, as usual. On 28 September SCIT graduates, trainers and this year students came together in the conference room. The new intake of students aimed high and interpreted the 72th UN General Assembly Session, where SCIT graduates and trainers had a chance to interpret…

Happy Translator’s Day, dear colleagues and friends!

SCIT hosts Ildikó Horváth

2 October 2017|

On 19-21 September 2017 г. SCIT hosted Mrs. Ildikó Horváth, President of the EMCI Governing Board. Mrs Horvath gave a number of Training for Trainers seminars and master-classes for students in autonomous learning, sport psychology and interpreting and professional bilingualism / multilingualism.

SCIT joins EMCI

15 September 2017|

Good news arrived at SCIT at the start of the new academic year: the EMCI Governing Board voted in favour of the admission of SCIT to its ranks. EMCI membership opens up new prospects for professional cooperation and growth to both SCIT trainers and students, such as participation in ToT seminars, access to EMCI resources, grants to carry out research projects, etc. The forthcoming visit of Horváth Ildikó, President of the EMCI Governing Board, planned for 19-22 September, is just the first step in building cooperation on a new level.