Fight against Terrorism, Nuclear Energy and Punctuation Difficulties: CITS Students Learn from the Experts of the Department of Linguistic Support of the Russian MFA

The end of the first spring week has granted CITS students 3 master classes on various topics. Interpreters of the Department of Linguistic Support of the MFA of Russia told about the work in negotiations on such knotty issues as fight against terrorism and control over the use of nuclear energy. English punctuation was another issue to be discussed.

Execution cannot be pardoned… On 4 March, students practiced to use commas, dashes, colons and how to mark direct speech in English sentences. The master class was conducted by Taisiya Lobanova and Maria Muratova, 3rd secretaries of the DLS MFA of Russia. Punctuation in English is a rather challenging issue, since it is not easy to find complete and correct information on this topic. It is even more difficult to find a practitioner who will correct mistakes and explain how to punctuate properly. And it is DLS where you can find such specialists. They are ready to share their translation experience and use examples from their own practice to demonstrate how the meaning of a sentence changes depending on where we put the comma.

The 1st year student Kristina Makovei shared her impressions of the master class: “Punctuation is a noteworthy topic, as the rules in English and Russian are considerably different. The master class has clarified many aspects. We constantly write something in English, so we started to apply the gained knowledge right off the top. What I remember most of all is the encouraging words of the experts that everyone has problems with punctuation”.

Then our students took part in a master class from Ainura Gadzhiyeva, attache of the DLS MFA of Russia, who had undertaken internship at the International Atomic Energy Agency, thus she could share with the students the subtleties of translating texts and speeches with tricky terminology on nuclear energy. During the master class, the 1st and the 2nd year students provided simultaneous interpretation from English to Russian of the 64th plenary meeting of the IAEA’s General Committee.

Countering terrorism is another difficult topic in the interpreter’s work. It is regularly discussed at the MFA briefings, in mass media, and, of course, at international negotiations, where interpreters are to participate. “The MFA called for collective resistance to terrorism” – what’s behind this phrase, what kind of vocabulary will interpreters need in their work and how to work glossaries through? That is what Lina Ivanova, 3rd secretary of the DLS MFA of Russia, told about.

Finance, religion, jurisprudence, nuclear and cyberterrorism – that’s what interpreters need to know to work successfully at the international level. The students clearly understood that after the practical part of the class, where they were suggested an exercise on sight interpretation of a speech by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. “Terms, appellations and names of the organizations is the vocabulary that we don’t often use in everyday life, but interpreters need it. I appreciate the advice that while preparing for these topics, it is very important to go beyond the central one and see what other issues can be raised, ” said the 1st year student Olga Odnobokova.