News

SCIT students meet Frank Peeters, CIUTI representative

8 June 2015|

On 1 July SCIT hosted Frank Peeters, CIUTI representative (Conférence Internationale Permanente d’Instituts Universitaires de Traducteurs et Interprètes). During an hour and a half the distinguished guest spoke about the audiovisual aspects of interpreting and the importance of language mediation for the blind people in understanding the world. Specifically, Mr Peeters dwelt upon the critical aspects of film-dubbing and audio guides. The students asked a lot of questions. The meeting allowed its participants to see the profession in a new light.

SCIT students meet Vladimir Chizhov

3 June 2015|

On 28 May 2015, Herzen University hosted Vladimir Chizhov, a veteran  diplomat and Permanent Representative of Russia at the European Union. The meeting with the SCIT students was preceded by a significant event: Vladimir Chizhov was awarded the Herzen University medal “In Recognition of the Services in Education and Science” for his substantial contribution in the development of international cooperation between Herzen University and the European Union and for the active participation in establishing Saint Petersburg School of Conference Interpreting and Translation.

Vladimir Chizhov told the students about the relations between Russia and the European Union, about economic partnerships, and the work of the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation at the European Union. Vladimir Chizhov also took questions from the students and wished them professional success. «I am happy to be SCIT’s envoy in the Russian MFA, and I am looking forward to welcoming you as colleagues», said Vladimir Chizhov.

Virtual Class with DG INTE, European Parliament

19 May 2015|

On 24 April another virtual class with the Directorate General for Interpretation and Conference Management, European Parliament, took place at SCIT. For SCIT students this class marked a new stage in interpreter training: for the first time they had to interpret in both directions: from the foreign language into Russian, and into the foreign language (retour). Experienced European colleagues with Katerina Dara-Lepoura as their head subjected the students’ presentations to thorough analysis gave valuable recommendations and a lot of useful advice. It was another proof of how useful VCs are as a teaching tool and promotion of best practices.

Master classes of Anne Lafeber, Reviser at English Translation Service, UNHQ

28 April 2015|

On April 22, SCIT hosted Anne Lafeber, Reviser in the English Translation Service, UNHQ, and the Outreach and Internships Program officer at the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management (DGACM), who gave a master class to SCIT students. The class was managed in a very warm and friendly way and SCIT students were eagerly interactive. Taking into account A. Lafeber’s direct involvement in improving the Language Competitive Examinations (LCE), it was only natural that her presentation was mainly dedicated to these exams. The LCE are designed to recruit new staff for the UN language services. In particular, A. Lafeber focused on the evaluation system in the framework of the LCE and tried to explain how it works. She also told students about the potential changes in the examination process. In addition, A. Lafeber spoke about her career and how she came to work in the UN, offering to the students some useful advice along the way. Overall, the master class of A. Lafaber was an extremely valuable experience for the SCIT students.

Marina Tkacheva
SCIT student

Master classes of Enrique Fernández-Vernet, Head of the Spanish translation section at UNOG

28 April 2015|

The week after the IV UN-MoU universities conference was rich in events: SCIT had the honor to welcome a lot of interesting people. Enrique Fernández-Vernet, Head of the Spanish translation section and coordinator of the UN Outreach program at UNOG, gave a series of master-classes to SCIT students. On his first visiting day, Mr. Fernández-Vernet spoke about the UN translation service, the competitive language examinations and preparation for them, about the work at the translation section in general and took time to answer all questions from the audience. The next day our guest gave a special master-class to the students with the Spanish language: the students’ translation of an abstract from the UN Convention was followed by a detailed analysis of typical mistakes when translating from Russian into Spanish and individual recommendations to the students.

Olga Silakova
SCIT student

IV MoU Conference opened at Herzen University

24 April 2015|

On 16 april 2015 IV UN- MoU  Universities conference Training Language Professionals for International Organizations opened at Herzen University. The opening ceremony was attended by Vice-Governor of St. Petersburg A. Govorunov, Under-Secretary General of the UN Tegegnework Gettu and the Rector of Herzen University V. Solomin.

Read more about the conference.

Aptitude Tests finished at SCIT

3 April 2015|

This year, aptitude tests for the next academic year at SCIT took place a month before the usual time. The number of applications was high, and the applicants admittedly were well prepared. As a result, 19 of them were selected for admission. All received individual recommendations from SCIT trainers.

The academic year starts on 1 September. Congratulations to the successful candidates !

 

Famous translator Aminadav Dickman visits SCIT

2 April 2015|

On 1 April Aminadav Dickman visited SCIT to give an open lecture on the traditon of translating poetry into the Hebrew language. The lecture was attended by SCIT trainers and students, as well as by the students from the Institute of Foreign Languages, Herzen university.

Professor Dickman specializes in medieval and contemporary literature in Hebrew and translates classical and modern poetry into Hebrew. Aminadav Dickman chairs the Hebrew Literature Department at Jewish university in Jerusalem and runs the translation program at the University of Jerusalem. He authored scores of translations from Russian, French and Latin. Professor Dickman contributed to building an anthology of English translations of Homer. In 2003, the publication of My century, my beast, a collection of poetry by eight XX century Russian authors translated by our guest, became an important event in Israel’s literary life.

For more about Aminadav Dickman see: http://booknik.ru/today/faces/Dikman/
http://www.lechaim.ru/ARHIV/199/int.htm

Jean Friedman-Stayer, Vice-Consul of the Consulate General of Israel in St. Petersburg, opened the meeting. A. Dickman took questions from the audience.

Brian Gentle, retired DG SCIT interpreter, on a mission at SCIT

30 March 2015|

From 11 to 20 March Brian Gentle, a retired DG SCIC interpreter, visited SCIT on a pedagogical assistance mission. His first working week was devoted to giving master-classes to the SCIT students. Throughout the week they practiced interpreting consecutive and simultaneous speeches into English on various topics they had prepared and delivered themselves. Doing it in front of a native English speaker and receiving his professional feedback, certainly helps the students to enhance their independent work in mastering English and improving the quality of interpreting.

Brian’s second week in St. Petersburg was taken up by work at the aptitude tests, which required a good deal of preparation on his part as well. Now it was his turn to deliver mini-speeches to the SCIT applicants whose job was to interpret them into Russian showing aptitude for work as interpreters. Brian’s artistic and elegant delivery coupled with his kindly attitude surely helped the applicants to cope with exam stress and perform at their best.

SCIT sincerely thanks Brian Gentle for his generous help and hope to welcome him back soon!

Soviet Translation Traditions Revisited

23 March 2015|

On 20-21 March the Philology Department of Moscow State University hosted an international conference on the legacy of the Soviet traditions of translation. Susanna Witt from Sweden, Maria Eliferova, Vera Milchina (Russian Humanities University), Elena Zemskova (Higher School of Economics), Ekaterina Kuznetsova (Moscow State University) were among the contributors whose presentations resulted in an enthusiastic response from the audience. The Conference focused on the topic of literalism in translation, and Alexandra Borisenko, one of the conference organizers, was the keynote speaker on that subject. There were two round tables on the margins of the event: one was devoted to the Soviet tradition of translation, the other – to the Soviet editing rules as compared to the present-day practices. SCIT was represented by Director Irina Alexeeva who read a report Fifty Shades of Correct Translation: Soviet Traditions of Translation.