MA Students’ Traineeship at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia

From March 12 to March 23, 2018 Altyn Arupova, Sergey Doronin, Alina Kireeva and Ilya Shuminov, the 2nd-year MA students of the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation, undertook a traineeship at the Linguistic Support Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The traineeship gave our students an opportunity to make a closer acquaintance with different types of translation and interpreting, to receive valuable advice that covers translation and interpreting skills and methods and also to take part in various workshops given by interpreting and translation top experts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. At the first stage of the traineeship the MA students mastered their translation skills from Russian into English and vice versa. Some of them have also worked with French. At this stage the students’ work was supervised by the Translation Division experts who carried out a detailed review of every task. In particular, remarks and recommendations given by Yuri I. Kozlovsky, the Senior Advisor of the Linguistic Support Department, were of crucial importance and value.
The MA students had a chance to meet Andrei Yu. Gavrilov, a renowned conference interpreter, who is also famous for his voice-over translation. Being a master of author’s translation, Mr. Gavrilov shared ins and outs of audiovisual translation. It was a Q&A session, so the MA students got to know many interesting things about this specific type of translation and interpreting. Then the students were invited to visit the MFA Museum, where Petr G. Barulin, a staff member of the Department of Diplomatic Courier Service and the Museum, told the students about the incredible history of the Russian diplomacy from ancient times to the present day, buttressing his narration by illustrative examples (museum showpieces) and stories from his work experience.
The second stage was dedicated to interpreting and let the MA students take one more step towards professionalism. The MFA top interpreters Oleg A. Krokhalev, Aleksey S. Sadykov, Daria B. Mandrova and others helped our students foster their interpreting skills. They performed consecutive interpretation of various texts and completed different exercises on improving memory and reaction.
Moreover, the students approved themselves in simultaneous interpreting, for example during the briefing of A.A. Kozhin, the Vice-Director of the Information and Press Department, where our students interpreted in a “dummy” booth.
So, the traineeship gave our students an incentive to personal and professional growth, it helped them understand what it means to be a staff member at the MFA Linguistic Support Department, determine the level of their skills and also immerse themselves into the work environment of interpreters and translators of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia.