News

SCIT opens doors to potential applicants

18 February 2022|

On 16 February 2022 SCIT opened its doors to potential applicants. We chose to use the hybrid format to enable everyone willing to take part: some people came to the School to see it with  their own eyes, others joined virtually via the YouTube stream  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qKvyGijpT0) and chat. The participants asked about admission procedures, the status of the diploma awarded to the graduates, possible language combinations, job prospects after garduation. No question was left unanswered, the trainers, administartion and current year students gave full responses. Noteworthy that Kirill Kasyanov, head of the Russian booth in Nairobi and SCIT’s curator from UNON, also joined the Open Doors Day, albeit virtually, and helped to answer the questions and gave useful tips about succeeding in the aptitude tests.

SCIT takes part in the meeting of the Moscow Translation Club

15 December 2021|

On 10 December Angelique Antonova, SCIT Deputy Director, took part in the meeting of the Moscow Translation Club. The festive mood of the meeting did not distract the participants from discussing serious issues of the T&I industry. The discussions touched upon the ineraction between T&I schools and T&I providers and clients. The stakeholders discussed, among other issues, internships for T&I school graduates in translation agencies, clients’ and providers’ expectations and the conditions for fruitful cooperation with regard to respect for mutual interests.  The universities were represented by participants from T&I departments of MGLU (The Maurice Thorez Institute of Foreign Languages)  and the Higher School of Economics.

Master-class from SCIT to MGIMO students

15 December 2021|

On 9 December SCIT trainers gave a master-class on the introduction to simultaneous interpreting at MGIMO. Angelique Antonova, SCIT DEputy Director, and Liang Zuizhen, trainer of Chinese interpreting, told and showed the participants from different universities in Russia how simultaneous interpreting is introduced at SCIT.  The presenters offered practical exercises in interpreting from Chinese into Russian, commented on delivery, took the questions from the audience. The participants showed great interest in simultaneous interpreting and enthusiastically took part in the discussion. We hope the master-class  will attract applicants for the new academic year at SCIT, and SCIT’s innovative training methods will be disseminated throughout other universities of Russia.

The master-class was attended by Kirill Barskiy, ambassador at large of the Russian MFA.

9 December: Seminar ‘Terra Translatologica’ on interpreting from Oriental languages

13 December 2021|

On 9 December SCIT held another seminar within the frame of the Terra Translatologica project. This time the seminar was devoted to translation and interpreting from Oriental languages.  SCIT director Irina Alexeeva opened the meeting and introduced the speakers. She said, “It is a forum for discussions. The seminar started as a quarterly  meeting, and there were a lot of people coming, because we invite people to discuss broad topics, not something specialized or theoretical. We invite the people who take translation and interpreting out of the box, who have their own  view on translation. This forum is called to outline the existing problems and offer solutions.” She pointed that the speakers  chose topics for their presentations themselves, and invited all participants to join in the discussion. The topics of the four key speakers varied from the ethnocultural training of interpreters to the special difficulties of the Filipino language. Answewring the question about the place taken by translation in the speakers’ lives they said, “Part of my profession”, “part of my self-identification”, “career launch”, “my life balance”. Despite the distant mode of the seminar the discussions proved to be warm, stimulating and productive. The two key takeaways from the meeting are the following:

  1. It is time to provide a more intensive trainig to translators and interpreters from Oriental languages.
  2. It is time to develop the theory of translation taking into account the expreience of translation and interpreting from /to Oriental languages

3-4 December: DG SCIC – Universitites Conference

6 December 2021|

On 3-4 December DG SCIC held the conference for the partner-universities. The conference was dedicated to interpreting in the new digital age. The participants addressed a lot of important issues: the use of digital tools in interpreter training,  the new set of skills for interpreter in the digital age, the clients’ perspectives on remote interpreting, new projects on hybrid learning modes and new delivery models.  The DG SCIC officials attended the conference: Genoveva Ruiz Calavera, Director-General DG SCIC, Javier Hernández Saseta, Head of Multilingualism and Interpreter Training, Paolo Torrigiani, Senior Expert Multilingualism and Knowledge Development Unit DG Interpretation European Commission. The hybrid format of the conference allowed for the university representatives from all over Europe and other SCIC partners to take part int he discussions. Herzen’s SCIT was represented by deputy director Angelique Antonova.

Introduction into Simultaneous

11 November 2021|

On 10 November SCIT held the traditional student conference on introduction into simultaneous interpreting. This is always a special occasion at the School: trainers put much effort in the preparation, carefully choose and discuss the teaching materials. The conference takes the whole day, as to ensure the success of the first simultaneous experience one needs a lot of preparation: discuss expectations and neutralize fears, activate the background knowledge and the necessary vocabulary. An additional challenge is that the  introduction into sim is held for both working languages of the students.

We are happy that this year all worked well for our students! Braving the November fatigue they pulled the five hour simultaneous marathon, did their best in the booths and are now looking forward to conquering new heights, even if only in the training environment!

Master-class on stress management from Elena Van Povedskaya

8 November 2021|

On 3 November SCIT students took part in the master-class on stress management conducted by psychologist Elena Van Povedskaya. Having worked as an interpreter before Elena has a perfect understanding of how important it is for the interpreter to manage stress in the working environment. The lecturer spoke about the different kinds of stress and its physiological and psychological long-term effects. The students also had a chance to express test their level of stress and received recommendations on stress management on the day-to-day basis. The master-class was open for the students from the Institute of Foreign Languages, Herzen university.

(Русский) Виртуальная конференция с Европейской комиссией

7 October 2021|

On 6 October SCIT students had their first virtual conference with the European Commision. Predictably, the first virtual class was devoted to the issues of autonomous learning and preparation for interpretation. The class was conducted by Paolo Torrigiani, Senior Expert Multilingualism and Knowledge Development Unit DG Interpretation European Commission, developed a very intensive program for the conference, covering such aspects as basic principles of self-training and learning management, key factors of a successful training session, as well as practice in organizing a self-training session.  Each group of students presented their version of the self-training session, followed by the feedback session.  The conference gave the students a useful insight into the effectiveness of their autonomous learning techniques and showed the ways to improve it. We thank Paolo Torrigiani and Fernando Leitao, Head of the E-learning Unit, for organizing this useful activity!

International Translation Day at SCIT

1 October 2021|

On the last days of September SCIT celebrated the International Translation Day. On 29 September we held the long-awaited diploma awarding ceremony for the 2021 graduates. Even though only 5 people were able to attend in person, the warm greetings and wishes of a successful professional life were addressed to all graduates. The new students were not guests, but full-fledged participants of the festivities. They prepared an “home-concert”, amusing everyone present with the fun-facts about themselves and a curious “who said it” quiz.

On 30 September the festivities continued in Herzen University’s  Discussion Club. There a Translator Recital was organized, where the participants recited the poetry of the aspiring young poets of Europe, and presented their work done as a part of Sergey Stepanov’s seminar at Herzen University, or Anna Savitskaya’s seminar at the Swedish House in St. Petersburg. The concert participants were greeted by Andrey Maksimov, Head of the Committee for Science and Higher Education in the Government of Saint-Petersburg, and Sergey Tarasov, Acting Rector of Herzen University, Andrey Achkasov, Dirctor of the Institute of Foreign Languages, Herzen University, and Irina Alexeeva, SCIT Director.  A lot of participants were able to join virtually. Everyone present enjoyed the recital.

SCIT team at EEF in Vladivostok

21 September 2021|

On 2-4 September Vladivostok hosted the Eastern Economic Forum, a major international event, that would not have taken place without interpreters. Among those who facilitated the communication among the participants was a big team of SCIT trainers and graduates – Zhanna Shuklina, Alexey Pago, Oxana Yakimenko, Anastasia Gavrilina, Elena Zheltova, Sofia Chantseva, Anna Sazonova.  Taking into account the topicality of the Far East and the Arctic for Russia’s foregin and home policy one can’t overestimate the importance of the plenaries and  discussions on the margins. Our interpreteers worked at the plenaries as well as at the international APEC conference on higher education and Sber’s interactive session on the ESG investment opportunities in Russia. We are sure that the SCIT team showed the highest professional standards and were among the best.