Master Class from Rita Nikolajeva: how to Avoid being Confused by your Notes and Deliver a Good Interpretation

October at Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation began with truly intensive interpreting related activities: the traditional autumn visit of interpreters from the European Commission took place in a not quite traditional, but no less effective online format.

Last Monday, our first-year MA students had their first meeting with Rita Nikolajeva, an interpreter from the Latvian booth of the Directorate-General for Interpretation of the European Commission.

Over the course of two days, the students passed the aptitude test, for which they were preparing throughout September. After successfully passing the test, the MA students received feedback and determined an approximate scope of work for the near future. The students had a unique chance to ask their questions to the expert and receive valuable practical advice.

On Wednesday, the first-year MA students took part in the master class, where they got acquainted with a new format of work – consecutive interpreting with note-taking. Rita Nikolajeva told how to take notes, what tools to use, which notebook is better for note-taking, why it is useless to memorize endless lists of symbols developed by other interpreters, and what is the beauty of the SVO-structure.

The first-year students also had some practice of taking notes and interpreting speeches using their notes. “The most difficult thing was to simultaneously concentrate on listening to the speech, single out the structure of sentences and take notes by using the SVO-structure, i.e. transforming each sentence into a simple construction (subject, verb, and object). But taking notes is only half the problem, because then you need to deliver a complete interpretation, and from the first time it is not always possible to decipher the notes you took in a hurry,”– comment the first-year students on their first experience of note-taking.

On Thursday, the master class was held for the second-year MA students. During the class, Rita Nikolajeva touched upon an interesting topic of unforeseen situations, for instance when the speeches performed by speakers may seem illogical or unrelated. She also told about her experience and gave advice on how to work in such conditions.

The rest of the time, the interpreter of the European Commission was engaged in consecutive interpretation with the MA students, made a detailed analysis of their performances and advised in which direction to work next. The first-year MA students were also invited to the event as listeners. They did not miss the chance to look at the work of their colleagues and to have more practice in note-taking.