CITS-2020: Freshmen First Impressions

Studying at CITS is in full swing: second year MA students are rushing to the interpreter booths after quarantine and holidays, while the first year MA students are just getting used to the way the things are in our school. Two groups – the one that studies interpretation, the other one that studies translation – attended the first classes, learned what group sessions are and even had time to volunteer a little! Kristina Makovei, the first year MA student of the interpreting programme, shares her impressions:

It was interesting to see the classroom in real life and not through a webcam. It is a cool, stylish place that looks more like a photo studio. It seemed that for the first meeting with us, the trainers had prepared a welcoming speech in the format “good cop, bad cop”. It was convincing, I do not know if it was on purpose or by accident. It is not that I was going to skip classes, but I no longer want to do that or be unprepared. The first week was quite intense, that is the first such experience in my life. Usually, the first two weeks are necessary to ramp up. Although there are not that many tasks as I have expected after the organizational meeting. The biggest difficulties so far are related to the microphones in the classroom. All the time I wanted to lean closer to them, what if people cannot hear me? Interpreting in a group in the classroom, rather than one-on-one with a trainer, was an exciting process. Now it is interesting to see if this will happen every time there are strangers in the room or if it will pass with experience. Little by little my peers and me get to know each other, it happens a lot faster when we are preparing for an assignment together.