WIPO Project on Terminology with MA Students of the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation

Within the framework of the visit of Mr. Geoffrey Westgate, the Head of the Support Section of PCT Translation Service of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), to Astrakhan State University, the guest met with the MA students of the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation, who will be pioneers of a ASU-WIPO project launched this year. The project aims at active development of WIPO Pearl database (http://www.wipo.int/reference/en/wipopearl) by inviting MA students from partner universities to enrich the database with new terms and their equivalents in different languages. A serious and thorough work is to be done: the students have already chosen a highly specialized scientific field, and now they are to make a list of the terms which they will focus on, select the documents for the work (basically it will be authentic patent documentation) and, by analyzing these documents, compile bilingual records on the selected terms and add them to the database, including the context of their use and reliable sources.
Mr. Westgate explained in detail the difference between the term and the concept to the MA students, talked about the specificity of the technical language of patents, the principles of proper selection of terms for the project and sources for working with the selected terms.
Participation in this project will allow the students not only to contribute to the development of WIPO Pearl database, but also to improve some practical skills useful for them as for interpreters and translators:
– selecting proper terms and having general expertise in terminology is an essential component of the successful work of both interpreters and translators;
– working with terms allows to improve the skills of information retrieval and studies of a particular issue, as well as to cope better with texts on a new subject matter;
– participation in such projects allows to improve the skills of following certain instructions and rules of selecting and formatting information, which is a relevant skill for translators. Moreover, the records, compiled by the MA students, may appear in WIPO Pearl system, which is a recognition of high quality of work and professionalism.