The Eighth Annual Seminar “Multilingualism in the UN and Providing High Quality of Russian Interpretation in this Context”

A truly important event for interpreting training world was held on December 18, at the UN Information Center in Moscow. The representatives from the Department of Linguistic Support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, the UN interpreting and translation services and leading schools of interpreting and translation took part in the eighth annual seminar “Multilingualism in the UN and Providing High Quality of Russian Interpretation in this Context”, where they summed up the educational outcomes of the expiring year and discussed the most topical issues of interpreters` training as well as the ways of dealing with these issues.
Vladimir Valeryevich Kuznetsov, the Director of the UN Information Center and Andrei Georgievich Lopukhov, the Director of the Department of Linguistic Support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation opened the event, the latter delivering a speech titled “What are the results of 2017? Tendencies and prospects from the point of view of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs”.
An emphasis was made on interpreters` training in the context of cooperation with the UN departments. “How to increase Benefits from the Memorandum of Understanding: a view from the UN European department and UN headquarters in New York” was the topic of the speech given by Vladimir Parshikov, Chief of the Russian Translation Service of the UN Office in Geneva, Alexander Vorobyov, Deputy Head of the Department for Conference Management of the UN Office in Vienna, and Natalia Kobleva, the editor of the Russian Translation Service of the UN Secretariat in New York.
The representatives of Russian schools of interpreting and translation had a chance to talk about their educational and training achievements as well. The floor was given to Olga Egorova, the head of the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation (Astrakhan State University), who made a detailed presentation on the results our School had achieved over the past year, our plans for future and results to be gained. Many colleagues and official representatives of the UN and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation were unmistakably impressed by the presentation. And some of them are already planning to hold master classes at our School next year. Of course, now we are looking forward to it!