Olga Egorova, the Director of the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation, Participates in the UNIC Annual Seminar

December is traditionally a month of writing reports, stocktaking and discussing kick-off plans for the coming year. Leading schools of translation and interpreting also report on their progress and do it not just at another ordinary meeting, but at the annual seminar, organized by the UN Information Centre in Moscow (UNIC Moscow) together with the Linguistic Support Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. Promoting and popularizing multilingualism, which is a UN basic principle, is one of the most important programme elements for the UNIC Moscow. That is why the UNIC and the Linguistic Support Department have been bringing together representatives of partner universities, specializing in training highly-skilled interpreters and translators for international organizations, for 8 years.  This year, the agenda includes such topical issues as staffing and work specificity of the Russian translation and interpretation services of the UN Headquarters in New York and the UN European Offices at Geneva and Vienna (staff members of the services participated in the seminar as well); quality of training translators and interpreters for international organizations in Russian partner universities; exchange of academic experience; comparison of working plans and syllabi; methodology and practical aspects of training. The seminar was attended by representatives of six Russian universities that cooperate with the UN translation and interpretation services and the Russian Foreign Ministry: Moscow State Institute of International Relations, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow State Linguistic University, Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia, Astrakhan State University and Linguistics University of Nizhny Novgorod.                           The seminar was opened by Vladimir Kuznetsov, the Director of the UNIC Moscow, followed by the statements of Aleksey Fedorov, the Deputy Director of the Linguistic Support Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Parshikov, the Head of the Russian Translation Service of the UN Office at Geneva, Aleksandr Vorobyev, the Head of the Conference Management Service of the UN Office at Vienna, Natalia Kobleva, an editor of the Russian Translation Service of the UN Secretariat in New York, and Kirill Barsky, a Russian diplomat and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary. Representatives of the largest Russian T & I organizations, such as “Russian Translation Company” and “Translink”, also participated in the seminar.  Olga Egorova, the CaspSIT Director, made a detailed presentation on achievements of our School over the past year. Indeed, the Caspian School has much to be proud of: master classes by top-class translators and interpreters of the EU, UN, WIPO and Russian Foreign Ministry, traineeships for students and advance training programmes for teachers, joint academic projects with our partners, several Erasmus+ grants, successful employment of our graduates and a lot more. The seminar participants commended the results of the School work in 2018, and we hope that the cooperation with our foreign and federal partners will keep developing and extending.                            Moreover, during the seminar Olga Egorova got a chance to talk to Natalia Kobleva, an editor of the Russian Translation Service of the UN (New York, the USA), who gave master classes in translation for our MA students in June. They outlined some steps for further cooperation, e.g. in the very beginning of 2019 the School teachers are expected to take part in a virtual traineeship in translation, and that is going to be a great contribution to professional development of the School academic staff. Students are also looking forward to Natalia’s visit and hope that next year she will give another efficient and interesting master class in translation by the UN standards.