News

Master class with Daria Mandrova, MFA interpreter

19 December 2024|

On December 13, the SCIT students had a remote master-class with Daria Mandrova, a SCIT graduate and a staff interpreter at the Linguistic Support Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Daria is a very experienced interpreter, she has repeatedly been involved in working with top state officials at important international meetings and negotiations. We are very grateful to Dasha that she found time in her work schedule to meet with the students, hold a training session, and share her best practices, techniques and professional know-how. It is very important for today’s students to receive support from a senior colleague who went from being a SCIT graduate to a top interpreter from the President’s pool. We hope that such master classes will continue!

SCIT graduate publishes a book

3 December 2024|

Recently the Publishing House “Mezhdunarodnye Otnoshenia” brought out a book written by a SCIT graduate Timofey Mineev. It is entitled “Sinkhron” /Simultaneous Interpreting/.

The author has worked as a translator at the Ural Optical and Mechanical Plant named after E.S. Yalamov, worked free lance, and currently serves in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Without doubt, Timofey has something to tell you about sim. Hasten to read it!

https://imobook.ru/book/seriya-vysshaya-shkola-perevoda/sinkhron

SCIT takes part in St. Petersburg Science and Education Salon

26 November 2024|

On 26-28 November St. Petersburg holds the International Science and Education Salon. SCIT has become a part of the Herzen University exposition showcasing its innovative educational programme of training high caliber interpreters and traslators for the needs of international organizations, government bodies and business circles. The salon visitors could learn about the School via the SCIT video profile, the updated SCIT booklet and the slideshow about the graduates’ employment possibilities. Among the guests of the Herzen exposition were Vice Governor of St. Petersburg Vladimir  Knyaguinin, Head of the Committee for Science and Higher Education of the Government of St. Peterburg Andrey Maksimov and other guests. SCIT Director Angelique Antonova had a very productive talk with the University and City leadership about SCIT prospects.

SCIT starts a new academic year

3 September 2024|

The first Monday in September SCIT opens a new academic year. The ceremony was attended by Rector of Herzen Univesity Sergey Tarasov, Vice -Rector for International Affairs Dmitry Mereshkin, honorary guests, SCIT trainers and graduates.  Rector Tarasov addressed the new students with a word of welcome. He said, “The school forms a brotherhood of profesionals, which grows from year to year. It is wonderful, as the primary task of an interpreter is to build communication, help people to understand other people, cultures and world views. The school builds up this kind of communication very successfully, and this is the secret of its success”.  Rector Tarasov congratulated Irina Alexeeva on awarding her  the honorary title of the President of SCIT.

Director Angelique Antonova warmly welcomed the newcomers and stressed the importance of making a closely-knit community withing the group and necessity to support each other on the way. Irina Alexeeva picked up the cue saying that the School’s collective consists of unique people who can work closely with each other and thanks to this achieve remarkable results.  She hopes the new students will adopt this mode and will benefit from it.

Igor Demyanenko, Deputy Reprresentative of Russian MFA in St. Petersburg and SCIT lecturer on International Law,  spoke about his course: “I will try to persuade you that the notions and categories we use in international law are applicable in everyday life, too. We will touch upon it in our classes, and I always welcome thought-provoking questions from students”.

Kirill Kasyanov, Head of the Russian Interpretation section at UNON, joined the ceremony via Zoom.  He  congratulated the new students and described the internship opportunities at UN offices for SCIT leavers. This coming autumn, for example, UNON expects four SCIT graduates for a week-long internship. He assured everybody that Russian linguistic services are always share their professional expertise with young SCIT interpreters.

Anastasia Gavrilina, 2015 SCIT alumna and presently Reviser in the Russian Translation section at UNOG spoke about her experience of studying at SCIT and wished the new students to absorb everything that SCIt has to offer.

The meeting continued with a traditional tea-party. The new students got to know their teachers and SCIT graduates, asked questions about the treaching process and School’s traditions.

Internship module with Russian section of VRS, UNHQ in New York

4 July 2024|

Strarting July, SCIT graduates embarked on their internship program. The first module was held in colloboration with the Russian section of the Verbatim Reports Service, UN Secretariat. From 1 to 3 of July the graduates had intensive distant classes with Alexander Pankov, VRS reviser . The graduates sincerely regretted the short term assigned for these classes as they proved very useful. According to the graduates’ feedback,  the classes were all practically oriented, together with Alexander they analyzed possible mistakes and discussed better options for the texts under study.  We are very grateful to Alexander Pankov for sharing his expertise and hope that one day SCIT graduates of 2024 will join the ranks of UN staff language specialists.

Final accords of 2023/24 academic year

28 June 2024|

On 27 and 28 June SCIT celebrated the finale of the 2023/24 academic year. On 27 July the students took part in the traditional end-of the-year conference for MFA officials. We attach much importance to this conference as this is the chance for the graduates to show themsleves at their best and possibly favourably impress the potential employer. This year  the students’ competence was evaluated by Sergey Gritsay, Director of the Linguistic Support Department, MFA of Russia. The students interpreted in the consecutive and smultaneous modes form English, German and French. The speeches dealt with the topic of AgI.

The conference was followed by the traditional boat trip along the Neva river and the canals. At the end of the day all participants of the festivitis gathered in the SCIT conference hall for the students’ amateur performance. The party was jolly, with songs and quizzes, and we all had a lot of fun!

28 July followed with the official diploma-awarding ceremony. The grand Mariinski Hall of Herzen Univrsity was full of guests. Rector Sergey Tarasov, LSD director Sergey Gritsay, SCIT director Irina Alexeeva gave welcoming speeches to the graduates. The Head of the Board of Guardians Vladimir Chizhov awarded the diploma to each graduate and presented them with a book.  The guests of the ceremony and SCIT trainers wished the new crop of graduates every success in life.

Final exams are over!

27 June 2024|

From 17 to 21 June SCIT students had to take final examinations. The examination board traditionally included observes from international organizations: this year Mikhail Kuzmenko, Senior Reviser from the RTS at UNOG, assisted the SCIT trainers in passing the final verict. Over 5 days strict but fair examiners evaluated the performance of the graduates in translation and interpreting. This year’s topic for simultaneous interpretation was Water Resources.

Now the exams are over, the academic year is drawing to a close. Heartiest congratulations to the new crop!

Round Table on the Russian Language at UNESCO

10 June 2024|

The round table on the Russian Language as a Basis for Integrational Dialogue was organized by the Russian Representation to UNESCO in Paris  as part of the celebrations devoted to the Russian Language Day. Angelique Antonova, SCIT Deputy Director, was invited to make a presentation at this event.  In her speech she addressed the role of the Russian language as a cultural mediator not only in international communication, but also within the multinational Russian environment. According to Ms Antonova, foregrounding the cultural component of international coomunication can serve as a locomotive for studying the Russian language abroad. She spoke about the national school of interlinguoculturology and the practice of organizing a competition Young Aitmatovs for young authors in Russia’s ethnic languages who use Russian for promoting their literary works in other languages of Russia.  All the participants of the round table agreed that such good practices will increase the role of Russian on the international arena and strengthen cultural ties among peoples within the country.

More about the event:

https://t.me/s/RFDEL_UNESCO/4363

https://russianunesco.mid.ru/ru/press_service/news/o_prazdnovanii_dnya_russkogo_yazyka_v_shtab_kvartire_yunesko/

https://tass.ru/obschestvo/21025973/amp

SCIT holds seminar for UN interpreters with Russian at UNESCO Headquarters

6 June 2024|

The first week of June ushers in a series of events organized by the Permanent Delegation of Russian Federation at UNESCO to celebrate the Russian Language Day. SCIT was an active participant in the events. On 6 June we organized a seminar for interpreters of international organizations working with Russian to discuss the specific features of the contemporary Russian political discourse. The seminar continues the well-established SCIT tradition  according to which “professionals teach profefssionals”. The seminar proved to be all the more useful that interpreters from international organizations working with Russian today have to deal with a huge number of unfamiliar thematic areas reflecting the changing life in Russia. Interpreters just do not have time to follow the up-to-date stylistic, idiomatic, lexical and other changes taking place in the Russian language, nor can they boast enough opportunities for professional exchange with their colleagues – native speakers of Russian who could explain certain sociopolitical, economic or cultural trends within Russia. IO interpreters feel the gaps in their abilities to cope with interpeting Russian texts and speakers. The seminar afforded them just this opportunity – to update their knowledge and understanding of certain areas, make necessary adjustments in their work tactics and map out the way for professional growth.  The training was conducted by SCIT deputy director A. Antonova and SCIT trainer Zh. Shuklina.

https://russianunesco.mid.ru/ru/press_service/news/den_russkogo_yazyka_2024/

Master-class with Anastasia Gavrilina, UN translator

3 June 2024|

On 3 June SCIT students had a master-class with Anastasia Gavrilina, staff translator at UNOG and SCIT graduate. At the master-class Anastasia spoke about her work as a translator in Geneva, dwelt on the specific features of institutional texts and shared some translator’s techniques. Special attention was given to discussing the texts from the 2023 Language competitive examinations (LCE) for the UN translation services. The detailed analysis of the mistakes and developing strategies for the successful exam outcome will ensure that SCIT would-be graduates  will actively take part in the next session of LCE when it is announced and will be equipped with necesssary knowledge and skills to pass these exams successfully. We thank you Anastasia Gavrilina for the master-class and wish her every success!