Conference interpretation at the UN: master class by Nikolay Telnov

This is the second time this academic year that the MA students of the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation benefited from a master class by Nikolay Telnov, an interpreter of the Russian booth of the UN Office in Vienna. On April 22-28, the students had an intensive training on peculiarities of conference interpretation at the largest international organization.

This time, interpreters-to-be worked with a new topic every day: the UN Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons, Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People and statements by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who is famous for emotional and interesting speeches. Nikolay used the speeches, recorded at the UN meetings, as a training material for interpretation, so the students could feel in real-life conditions and test their stress resistance, endurance and skills.

Apart from Russian, French was also heard in the booths of the Center of Conference Interpreting of the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation: INALCO students who are studying this semester at ASU under the exchange programme, attended the training as well. Nikolay has French (one of the UN official languages) in his language combination, so the INALCO students also got feedback about their interpreting skills.

The expert paid special attention to work with texts and sight translation: in view of the short time and large volumes of information, an interpreter is to work correctly with written sources. We hope that the obtained skills will be useful to our MA students in their future work and upcoming traineeships at the United Nations!

Photo: TV Media Center of ASU, photo content of CHSIT