News

20 February: Virtual Class with DG SCIC, European Commission

On 20 February SCIT held a virtual class with the DG SCIC, European Commission.  The working mode was consecutive interpreting with Russian and English in both directions. The speeches were of different topics: Birds in a big city, Agriculture in Ukraine, Protests in Romania. The retour was assessed by Kevin McCarthy, a SCIC interpreter. He spoke favourably about the performances of Fiodor Makhlayuk and Ekaterina Ageeva, and they certainly deserved the praise. SCIT Director Irina Alexeeva was equally satisfied with the English-to-Russian interpretation of other students and appreciated their Russian. The students themselves pointed to the problem areas: it is coping with fast-paced speeches or deciphering one’s own notes. The EC experts gave valuable advice concerning the language of note-taking when working into retour.  The virtual class proved to be a success and a very useful exercise. We thank our European partners and hope for the continuing practice of virtual classes with DG SCIC.

12-13 January: SCIT participation in the 2017 CIUTI Forum

Almost 250 participants attended the 2017 CIUTI Forum, devoted this year to the impact of artificial intelligence on language professions. During 7 sessions speakers from the language industry, academia and IT sector addressed the topic from different perspectives, highlighting the needs and priorities of all actors of the language world. Director General of the United Nations Geneva Michael Moller and Director, Conference Management, UN Geneva Corinne Momal-Vanian, CIUTI President Maurizio Viezzi set the tone for the discussions, inspiring and motivating participants to embrace technologies in order to thrive in the profession. Special attention was given to closer cooperation among employers, government and educational institutions, in the tradition of the CIUTI. SCIT was represented by its Deputy Director Angelique Antonova.

UN Information Center in Moscow: translation quality at the forefront

On 30 November the UN Information Center in Moscow hosted the annual seminar for the higher education institutions from Russia and Belarus – members of the MoU network. The seminar was focused on the issues arising in cooperation between the universities and international organizations in training T&I specialists with the Russian language.  The SCIT achievements in preparing its graduates for careers in international organizations were marked by many speakers. At the meeting Alexander Gorelik, ex-director of the UN Center, gave a presentation  Russia and the UN. Vladimir Parshikov, head of the RTS at UNOG, and Alexander Vorobiev, acting head of the Conference Management division at UNOV, spoke about the importance of delivering quality in translation and interpreting at international organizations. The universities shared their experiences of T&I training; the discussion was very interesting.  SCIT was represented by Director Irina Alexeeva and Deputy Director Angelique Antonova.

2 December 2016: virtual class with UN interpreters Anna Uspenskaya and Yuri Gariev

On 2 December SCIT held a tele-class with UN interpreters Anna Uspenskaya and Yuri Gariev. The students practiced sight reading as preparation for simultaneous interpreting. The organizers offered speeches from the UN Security Council on recent humanitarian situation in South Sudan. From the SCIT side the class was coordinated by Mr. Boris Pogodin, a UN interpreter with 30 years of experience. All participants were satisfied with the results of the class and expressed hope to continue the practice.

I Siberian Philological Forum in Krasnoyarsk: More Attention to Translation

Throughout the whole week – from 24 to 28 October – I International Siberian Philological Forum took place in Krasnoyarsk. Above 100 participants from Russia and seven other countries presented their papers. The presentations and talks focused on old manuscripts, Old Believers’ literature, present day tendencies in the literary process in Russia and abroad, world literature in translations. The participants were unanimous that the quality of translations deserves a lot more attention.

The plenary presentation of Irina Alexeeva, SCIT director, devoted to The Dynamics of Perception of the Russian Classical Literature in Translations in XX-XXI cent. drew much attention.