News

Yulia Kantor’s Lecture on World War II inspired SCIT students

16 June 2016|

On 10 June Yulia Kantor gave two lectures at SCIT on Difficult Questions of World War II: What Historians  Argue About. The event attracted SCIT students as well as other guests. The lectures backed up the students’ translation project on the battle of Stalingrad, a project designed by the lecturer. Yulia Kantor is a professor at the Department of World History at the Herzen University and a well-known researcher with international credentials. Her lectures contributed to the content scope of the SCIT training program which traditionally benefits from cooperation with specialists from various professional fields.

1-3 June 2016: Master-classes of Dimitri Agratchev, Chief of the English Booth, Interpretation Section, UNOV

7 June 2016|

On 1 – 3 June SCIT hosted Dimitri Agratchev, Chief of the English Booth at UNOV. His master-classes were devoted to perfecting the simultaneous retour skills.  It is of paramount importance for the students to maximize the productive output in the booth before the final assessment, and they are grateful to our guest for the intensive drilling. Dimitri found time for the booth practice in small groups as well as for the individual consultations. He showed keen interest in the history of the school and  the SCIT methodology; he also appreciated the students’ motivation and diligence and praised the achieved level of progress.

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Russian in a Global Context and International Organizations

27 April 2016|

28 September – 3 October 2016, Rome, Italy

Organizers:

  • Graduate School of Interpreting and Translation, Lomonosov State University of Moscow, Russia
  • Graduate School of Interpreters and Translators ESIT28 September – 3 October 2016 New Sorbonne University Paris 3, France
  • Università degli Studi Internazionali di Roma UNINT
  • Russian Studies Center, Italy

 

The forum is held with the support of:

  • Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the Rome-based UN Agencies
  • Department of Linguistic Support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Pushkin State Russian Language Institute
  • St Petersburg School of Conference Interpreting and Translation, Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia, Russia
  • International Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC), Switzerland
  • European Institute of Political, Economic and Social Studies EURISPES, Italy

 

And hosted by:

  • Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations FAO
  • International University of Rome UNINT

Dear colleagues,
You are invited to take part in the 1st International Forum, Russian in a Global Context and International Organizations. The forum will include presentations and discussions on the following topics:

1. Russian as a vehicle for international communication
  • • International status of Russian
  • • Russian as a language of international organizations
  • • Multilingualism and information exchange in international communication
  • • Russian as a lingua franca of the Eurasian cultural area
  • • Russian as the language of diplomacy and “soft power” in a global context
  • • Culture of Russia’s peoples in the global humanist community and the polylogue of cultures

 

2. Translation in professional communications
  • • Role of translation in the multilingual and multicultural context of international organizations
  • • Problems of translation in a multilingual environment and the principle of equality among languages
  • • Translation and the polylogue of cultures
  • • Translation in professional communication
  • • Interpretation and translation
  • • Creation and functioning of multilingual terminology portals (glossaries and databases)
  • • Traditional and electronic dictionaries and search engines
  • • Translation of specialist publications
  • • Russian-language versions of portals and websites in international organizations
  • • Russian information products in an international context
3. Profile of the language professional
  • • Interpreter and translator professional competency model
  • • Professional profile of the interpreter and translator
  • • Developing competency in language professionals
  • • Translation subjects: characteristics of specialist text translation
  • • Written translation, consecutive and simultaneous interpretation
  • • Information technology tools for language professionals
  • • Modern approaches, principles and methods for teaching professional interpretation and translation
  • • Methodology in training interpretation and translation teachers
  • • Continuing education seminars for interpretation and translation teachers

 

4. Russian language teaching in global professional communication
  • • New approaches to teaching Russian as a foreign language: methods and technologies, textbooks and teaching aids, programmes and planning, monitoring and testing
  • • Enhancing motivation for Russian acquisition in international communication
  • • Developing professional communicative competence in a multilingual and multicultural context
  • • Experiences of creating specialist textbooks and teaching aids
  • • Continuing education for teachers of Russian as a foreign language in international organizations
  • • Interaction between languages and cultures in cross-language communication
  • • Cross-language communication issues in international professional communication

 

Participants will be issued with a certificate of attendance at the conclusion of the forum.

The working languages of the forum are Russian and English (simultaneous interpretation will be provided for the plenary session).

 

Information on the forum can be found on the official website of the Graduate School of Interpreting and Translation, Lomonosov State University of Moscow at the following link http://esti.msu.ru/pages/science/conf/.

Contact in Moscow: Maria Esakova PhD rimforum2016@mail.ru tel. + 7 916 605 97 65 or (495) 939 44 82

Contact in Rome: Natalia Fefelova PhD rimforum2016@mail.ru tel. +39 349 668 6803

 

Letter of information

Master classes with the author of Die Scanner

22 April 2016|

On April 15, the SCIT Conference Room was the venue for a creative workshop on literary translation. It was attended by SCIT students and participants of the Goethe Institute translation seminar led by Marina Koreneva. The event was a great success. It was moderated jointly by Martin Schaeuble, author of the sensational novel Die Scanner, his translator Tatiana Zborovskaya (Moscow), and SCIT Director Irina Alexeeva. The participants discussed issues related to translating newly coined words, youth slang, and the reasons for public liking for dystopia in literature and on stage. The event was planned jointly by SCIT and Goethe Institute for the Week of Germany in St. Petersburg.

Applied research workshop Teaching I&T Effectively

14 April 2016|

On 4 – 8 April 2016, SCIT held a Teaching I&T Effectively workshop for the university teachers of translation and interpretation from different regions of Russia, from Belgorod to Vladivostok. Over the five days of the seminar the participants learned about the SCIT approach to teaching translation and interpreting, attended interpreting classes with SCIT students, took part in the Q&A round table where Director Irina Alexeeva and other SCIT trainers took questions. According to the feedback from the workshop participants, what they appreciated most was a direct engagement with the SCIT trainers, who are also practicing interpreters, and a focus on practical issues of I&T training. The participants also valued highly the trainers’ professionalism and commitment to sharing experience and good practices. They expressed their desire to come again for more specialized events in a I&T trainings for trainers format.

Videoconference with DG INTE, European Parliament

5 April 2016|

On 1 April 2016 SCIT held a videoconference with DG INTE, European Parliament. The objective of the conference was to practice students’ retour. SCIT trainers acted as speakers and European experts assessed the accuracy and delivery of students’ performances. The range of topics varied from the role of flowers in human life to doping in sport. All students coped with the challenge and received useful feedback from the European colleagues.

Lecture by Natalya Sokolovskaya

30 March 2016|

On 30 March, Herzen University hosted Natalya Sokolovskaya, writer, translator, and literary editor. She authored several volumes of prose: Slave of Belles Lettres: Days of Work and Leisure,  The Standard of Love, View from Mont Blanc, Portraying God; books of poetry: Nature of Light, Unsealed Letters, Angels Forever, and translated poetry from the Georgian language. Natalya Sokolovskaya initiated a series of important literary projects in Russia: she designed and led a joint Russian-Georgian project “Shota Rustaveli’s poem The Knight in the Panther’s Skin” (published by Bilingva, 2007, 2015); authored the project “Olga: Forbidden Diary” dedicated to Olga Berggolts (St. Petersburg, 2010) and the project “I will live till old age, till the day of glory… Boris Kornilov” (St. Petersburg, 2012); she edited the complete war-time diaries of Olga Berggolts (St. Petersburg, 2015).

The Conference Hall of Herzen University was full; the lecture was attended by the students and lecturers from the Institute of Foreign Languages, SCIT students and trainers. For students, such meetings are more than a cultural event, they give a glimpse of what professional life has in store for future linguists and translators. SCIT and Herzen’s IFL are planning similar joint events aimed at educating the youth in the spirit of respect for the native language, profound understanding of our history and culture.

SCIT Aptitude Tests

28 March 2016|

On 21-25 March SCIT held a series of aptitude tests.  The examination board consisted of the SCIT trainers, including Boris Pogodin, UN interpreter with 25 years of experience, and Brian Gentle, European Commission representative and experienced EC SCIC interpreter. Only six candidates succeeded in a series of rigorous tests. Regrettably, due to the terrorist attack on Brussels airport Noel Muylle, Honorary Director General of the European Commission and SCIT Honorary president, could not participate in the work of the examination board.

Master class by Birgit Menzel

25 March 2016|

On 22 March SCIT hosted a very successful master class by Birgit Menzel, Professor of Johannes-Gutenberg University, Mainz / Germersheim. A mock conference was organized where Prof. Mezel gave a comprehesive analysis of the re-immigration of Russian Germans (Russlanddeutsche) in Germany. This was a opportunity for the students to practise consecutive and simultaneous interpreting including retour into German and English. In the ensuing conversation Prof. Menzel and the SCIT students discussed the issues related to Germany’s migration policy and the details of teaching interpeting at the Johannes-Gutenberg university.

The SCIT administration and Prof. Menzel discussed the possibility of building up cooperation between the Johannes-Gutenberg university and SCIT and started to prepare the necessary documents.

The day before the SCIT students with German attended a seminar in the Pushkin House, the Institute of Russian Literature, where Prof. Menzel  presented her paper, „The War of Translations: reading Dostoyevsky in German and English“.

SCIT Deputy Director Angelique Antonova participated in EC SCIC – universities conference New Times, New Needs, New Learning

20 March 2016|

On 14 and 15 March, the 20th EC SCIC-universities conference New Times, New Needs, New Learning was held in Brussels. The conference was opened by Kristalina Georgieva, EC Vice-President. In her opening remarks she addressed the challenges the EC faces today – the continuing economic crisis, migration, terrorism. She was certain that a committed European Union will cope with these challenges better than countries would do so individually. Carlos Alegria, Acting Director General of DG SCIC, in his speech at the plenary focused on the cooperation between DG SCIC and partner-universities and assured that the partnership will remain a priority despite budgetary constraints. The participants discussed the current situation and trends in the translation industry, the prospects of blended education and DG SCIC initiatives to support the university programmes.

Herzen University and SCIT were represented by Angelique Antonova, SCIT Deputy Director. On the margins of the conference she held a series of meetings with the heads of linguistic services in the European Union, coordinators and leaders of the university programs. European colleagues confirmed their readiness to maintain cooperation between the European linguistic services and Herzen university at a high level. Arrangements were made to develop cooperation in interpreter training with the universities of La Laguna (Spain), ELTE (Budapest), Charles University (Prague).

Slide show available at:

 

Conference materials available at:

http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/scic/cooperation-with-universities/universities-conferences/20-conference-dg-interpretation-universities/index_en.htm