Videoconference with the Directorate-General for Interpretation of the European Commission

On February 28, 2020, the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation held the video conference jointly organized together with its foreign partner, the Directorate-General for Interpretation of the European Commission, and the Moscow State Linguistic University. The speeches at the video conference weregivenin three languages: English, Russian and Spanish.

Virtual classes are of great benefit for CITS MA students. The aim of such classes is a successful development of professional competencies and strengthening of cognitive motivation in the process of teaching consecutive and simultaneous interpretation. The students are giventhe topics of the speeches in advance andthoroughly prepare for their interpretationsat home so that they can demonstrate their skills and eloquenceat the appointed time. What topics did our MA students encounter this time?

The speaker Michael Somers gave a speech in English about the problem of population growth in Africa and how this fact affects the economies of African countries. Consecutive interpretation into Russian was carried out by Roman Krasnozhenov, a secondyearMAstudent, who did anexcellent job and managed to convey all the details of the speech.

The conference continued with a speech given by Joanna EwaStepiens in Spanish. She introduced students to the concept of “fast fashion”, and spoke about how it affects the environment and how the world’s leading clothing brands for young people adapt to the changing demand. The interpretation of the speech into Russian was performed by Maria Resnyanskaya, a secondyear MA student. Maria made confident and proper use ofher Russian vocabulary, whichwas noted by the colleagues from the DG SCIC.

The third speaker was Olga Egorova, the professor of the CITS and the MSLU. Her speech was devoted to the topic of generations X, Y, Z, what they are and how members of these generations can coexist with oneanother. ZairaGazgireeva, asecondyear MA student, successfully accomplishedher interpretation.Zaira said thatthe speechwas really pleasant and comfortable to interpret, and what is more importantthatit was an interesting experience.The conference concluded with a debriefing, valuable comments and wishes for further cooperation.

Obviously, such classes are a vitalpart of educational process, as practice of conference interpretation helps to hone both consecutive and simultaneous interpretation skills. Moreover, this servesas a great opportunity for students to cope with the stress that they are inevitably facing at the eventsof such scale.