CITS Master Students Held a Mock Conference

On October 31, as part of the educational process, second-year MA students of the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation together with first-year students held a mock conference led by Olga Egorova.

The mock conference was divided into two parts: the first one was devoted to climate change and took place “in London”. During the conference, the students considered positive and negative consequences of climate change and took a fresh look at the issue. The second part of the conference took place “in Moscow, at Moscow State University” and focused on e-sports.

During the mock conference, the speakers had to pay attention to many aspects that they had not thought about before, namely to keep interpreter friendly pace and not to use too many complex terms in their speeches. Even though the students did their best to plan the mock conference in advance, the practice showed that it is not always possible to take into account all aspects, and that more detailed planning is necessary.

During the mock conference, the speakers and the audience switched roles and the interpreters worked with three languages. Sara Nakolli, a second-year MA student, interpreted speeches from French into English and the rest of the second-year MA students interpreted from English into Russian. Thanks to well-equipped interpreter booths, the process of interpretation went smoothly.This event was particularly important for the first-year students, since many of them for the first time participated in such a conference, where their second-year colleagues performed as interpreters.

Listening to interpretation of the second-year MA students, the first-year students could better understand the work of conference interpreters, the importance of accurate interpretation, public speaking and active listening skills. The conference was vibrant, as it was devoted to topics interesting and close to many students, and left a lot of rewarding experience. The mock conference was as close as possible to a real one. At the end of each part, Olga Egorova gave feedbacks and noted strengths and weaknesses of each student.

In conclusion, the first and the second-year students gained valuable experience and plunged into the process of organizing such events. Moreover, the students received valuable advice on how to improve interpreting skills and to get one step closer to their dream.

This time, the first-year students were in the role of conference guests, organizers and speakers of the mock conference. However, soon enough their turn will come to sit in the booth and to start interpreting simultaneously.