News

10-14 марта: делегация Женевского университета помогает разрабатывать виртуальный портал Школы

17 March 2014|

From 10 to 14 March the School welcomed a delegation from the Faculty of Interpreting and Translation, GenevaUniversity. Our colleagues – Manuela Motta, FTI trainer, Magdalena Oliveira, FTI teaching assistant, Philipp Baudrillon, FTI technical engineer – arrived to help installing a School virtual portal and teach the trainers and students to make use of it. During five days our guests held several presentations and master-classes to demonstrate the portal and explain its potential in coordinating trainer-student interaction, organizing students’ self-study or facilitating communication between the School administration and staff. Many trainers have already tried their hand with the portal and appreciated a spectrum of uses it offers for organizing the School work, including a joint project with GenevaUniversity. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the Geneva colleagues for the invaluable support they have given to the School further development.

Зачем конгресс-менеджеру Web 2.0.?

3 March 2014|

On 26 February 2014 Igor Pavlovsky, Chief Editor of St Petersburg branch of REGNUM Information Agency, gave a seminar in the use of PR technologies for event organization with a special emphasis on the Internet as a tool for event promotion.

The talk was held in an informal atmosphere, brightened up by jokes and cases from daily practice. The speaker talked about the effective ways to present information about oneself or upcoming events, or how to cover an event in such a way as to attract potential target audience and get their feedback, or how to motivate them to take part or pass around the information about the event.

Mr Pavlovsky’s professional life is rich in examples, and he amply relied on them to explain the Internet format Web 2.0, the nature of  information repost and how to properly use the technology Push, Pull & Pass. He also elaborated on how fast information spreads or goes out of date, what advertising and promotion channels are most popular today, and how to use them to one’s advantage. 

28 февраля и 1 марта: мастер-классы Владимира Факова

3 March 2014|

On 28 February and 1 March 2014 the School welcomed Vladimir Faekov, a famous simultaneous interpreter and head of the Russian MFA interpreter’s course. At the master-classes Vladimir Faekov shared his interpreting experience at the highest level for the MFA of Russia and other international organizations, answered the questions about difficulties of translating poetry, humour, proverbs and sayings. He also addressed the issues of etiquette, dress-code and safety in interpreter’s work. Vladimir Faekov, a reputed lexicographer, gave the students his dictionaries, both electronic and paper versions, and recommended a set of dictionaries necessary to have at hand when working. The students have undoubtedly benefited from this opportunity to learn from the leading experts in the profession straight from the horse’s mouth.

ВОЗВРАЩЕНИЕ ИЗ СКАЗКИ: СОЧИ 2014

28 February 2014|

Sochi Olympics – the world’s largest sport festival – are over, and so are the days of hard work for the interpreters – the School’s trainers and students. From dawn till dark they worked intensively moving from one Olympic venue to another providing linguistic support at numerous press conferences, briefings, team captains’ meetings, IOC consultations. 18 School trainers and graduates (20.5 % of the total number of interpreters assigned to the Sochi Olympics), together with their colleagues from other regions of Russia interpreted simultaneously from English, French, German, Chinese. This is the roll call: trainers Sergei Yakovlev, Alexei Pago, Boris Pogodin, Ekaterina Shutova, Oxana Yakimenko, Ekaterina Trefiliova, Irina Alexeeva, Genady Skvortsov, and graduates Karina Laktionova, Olga Krylova, Elizaveta Myshenkova, Anna Balashova, Grigory Khaustov, Olga Titova, Olga Novikova, Elena Zheltova, Olga Fomicheva. 
Slalom, ski-cross, half pipe, ice hockey, ski race, biathlon, figure skating, bobsleigh, skeleton – all these sports have their specific terminology, and the interpreters had to master it all. Some of the interpreters came as real experts: Ekaterina Shutova, a long-time fan of figure skating. Privy to all technicalities of this sport she was able to crack most challenging technical statements of trainers and sportsmen.  The School students were assigned to specific sport events as volunteer interpreters. They were also up to the challenge as one of them, Vadim Ermolenko, was offered a contract by the Vice President of Curling Federation to interpret for the Paralympic Games. One trainer, Boris Pogodin, even managed to find time slots to give training sessions and warm-ups to the students 
in venue press centers. Overall, the Olympic organizing committee expressed satisfaction at the interpreters’ work.
Now that we have received valuable experience and an energy boost we can get back to routine studies!

15 февраля: учебное занятие слушателей на олимпийском объекте

17 February 2014|

On 15 February the SCIT students had a very busy day: apart from their volunteer activities they had a training session about skeleton with the SCIT trainers Irina Alexeeva and Boris Pogodin. The students practiced in the interpreting booths at the Olympic venue “Sanki”, where a bit later their trainers interpreted the press-conference with the skeleton Olympic champions.

Олимпийская вахта питерских переводчиков: 12 февраля

17 February 2014|

The interpreters’ team has been working at the Olympic games in Sochi for eight days on end. The statistics are eloquent: out of 102 Olympic interpreters 83 are the Russians, and 25% of the Russian interpreters come from St. Petersburg, while the majority of them (16 out of 20) are trainers and graduates of the St. Petersburg School of Conference Interpreting and Translation! It is a tough time for interpreters: every day the earliest Olympic events start at 7.30 a.m. and the latest at 1 a.m. They include team captains’ meetings, champions’ and prize-winners’ press-conferences, IOC briefings, national teams presentations and many others.  Interpreters provide more than 40 events every day at the Olympic sites. To give you some examples:  Ms. Ekaterina Shutova, SCIT trainer, and Ms. Karina Laktionova,  SCIT graduate, interpreted the Russian ice-hockey team’s press-conference yesterday, Ms. Irina Alexeeva, SCIT director, and Ms. Olga Fomicheva, SCIT graduate, interpreted cross-country skiing and biathlon team captains’ meetings. At the moment Boris Pogodin and Sergey Yakovlev, SCIT trainers, are interpreting the press-conference after Checz-Sweden ice-hockey match which started at 1 a.m. The interpreters are doing their best to promote mutual understanding and solidarity which, we are convinced, help the Russian team to win.

 

Две школы перевода: союз Герценовского и Женевского университетов

11 February 2014|

 

The SCIT delegation paid a return visit to the Faculty of Translation and Interpreting, Geneva University. In St. Petersburg we remember the spring landing of Geneva FTI specialists headed by the famous Barbara Moser-Mercer, and  fantastic master classes they gave to the SCIT students, and training for trainers seminars crowned with promises of eternal friendship which lasted so long the guests nearly missed their flight. This time SCIT trainers Maria Tolstaya, Angelique Antonova and Irina Alexeeva arrived in Geneva to observe the qualification exams at the Master of Interpreting Program. This cooperation is one of the prerequisites for opening a two-level Master’s program between the two schools. This year two students from each side with Russian and German languages will already be able to take part in it.

 

The Herzen delegation had also several meetings with the Geneva University officials, among them Gerd Rothenberg, Coordinator for Strategic Partnership and Bilateral programs. On 31 January the colleagues from both universities celebrated the SCIT sixth birthday in the warm and friendly atmosphere at FTI in Geneva.

 

Переводчики-герценовцы отправляются в Сочи. Успешной работы на играх!

5 February 2014|

On 5 February 20 interpreters from St. Petersburg set off for Sochi, 16 of them are SCIT trainers and graduates. Most of them will work in Sochi till the Olympics are over. All present-year trainees are working their as volunteer-interpreters. We thank the Sports and Fan Support Fund for the financial support in paying the volunteers’ flight tickets.

Let us wish them all good luck! Let Sochi sun smile on them, let the equipment in booths run smoothly, and let their work and communicative support help Russian sportsmen win more gold medals! Godspeed, interpreters!

Cамоучитель Андрея Фалалеева по синхронному переводу вышел из печати!

3 February 2014|

Sensational news: Andrei Falaleev’s self-study manual for simultaneous interpreters working with English and Russian is finally printed! The unique system for training skills and technique of simultaneous interpretation developed by Andrei Falaleev is presented by Alena Malafeeva and Andrei Falaleev in an easy-to-understand way. The manual was printed in St. Petersburg in the Perspectiva Unics Publishing House, with a foreword by Irina Alexeeva.

22-24 января 2014 г.: Школа принимает участие в III Евразийском Ивент-форуме

28 January 2014|

On 22-24 January, Ш Europe+Asia Event Forum took place in St Petersburg. The forum brought together event-industry specialists from Europe, Asia and America to hold discussions in round tables, and panels. One of the sessions addressed the challenge of bringing together the event industry labour market and educational practices. Deputy Director of the School Angelique Antonova gave a presentation “Adapting European Experience of Congress Management Training Programs to Russian Education Environment”.

The Forum organizers succeeded in bringing to St. Petersburg foreign and Russian experts in the global event market. Specifically, Elling Hamso, managing partner, Event ROI Institute (Norway), gave a presentation Means to ensure high level services for meetings and events (http://euras-forum.com/russian-industriya-vstrech-vyigodna-regionam). On 24 January, with Roid Translation Agency’s assistance, Elling Hamso was invited to talk to the students of Congress Management programme. Mr Hamso spoke about measuring the efficiency of business events and their non-economic consequences, and Jack Phillips’ method. In the follow-up, he took numerous questions from the students promised to have another meeting with them once he is back to St. Petersburg. In September 2014 Elling Hamso is planning to hold a two-week seminar in St. Petersburg on the efficiency of investment in events and meetings.