CITS MA Students Learned at First-hand about the Work of Interpreters in the European Parliament

Every year, our MA students undergo a two week training at institutions of the European Union. This is a unique opportunity to get acquainted with the actual principles of work of EU language experts and to gain practical interpreting skills.

Unfortunately, this year our students cannot visit the institutions, but our colleagues from the European Commission and the European Parliament have provided an opportunity to arrange online visits. This Tuesday, first-year MA students visited the Directorate-General for Logistics and Interpretation for Conferences (DG LINC) of the European Parliament.

Several presentations were held for our students, during which experts spoke about the principles of the European Parliament’s work, the format of meetings and the types of interpreting that are carried out at them, gave an overview of what has to be interpreted and for whom.

Of course, the experts have shared some of the secrets of interpretation and their own experience in this field with the students and answered all their questions. An important part of the online meeting was the presentation on how to become part of the European Parliament’s interpreting team on a permanent basis or as a freelancer. The experts outlined the criteria that an interpreter must meet and identified the skills required for the job; they explained in detail the testing format and time frames for each of the languages.

Since this test is very difficult and most candidates cannot pass it at the first attempt, our students were given advice on what to do in case of failure, how to identify and work through their mistakes and why it is worth applying again and again.