DG SCIC Training for Trainers 2018: Experts of the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation at the Seminar for Conference Interpreting Trainers

On September 10-14, the Directorate‑General for Interpretation of the European Commission held another seminar for conference interpreting teachers that was attended, among others, by Elena Ilova, the Head of the ASU English Philology Department and one of the trainers of the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation. Elena is pleased to share her impressions with us:
“The seminar gave us a great opportunity both to learn professional secrets of interpretation and to get valuable recommendations on teaching consecutive and simultaneous interpretation. Our international group consisted of interpreters and teachers from Belgium, Spain, Italy, Turkey, Senegal, Poland, Congo, Mozambique, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and the UK; they discussed the secrets of their mastery, and DG SCIC trainers – Andrew Upton and Katarzyna Janicka – shared unique knowledge and best practices on teaching interpretation. The classes were very interactive: everyone was involved in discussions, exchanging ideas and experience. Every day we acted out different teaching situations – a lesson or an exam – and then we got feedback from the DG SCIC trainers; they explained to us what had been done perfectly well and what should be improved. Discussing certain tasks in a group helped understand and memorize information more efficiently.
In general, the seminar was quite useful for me as a teacher of the MA interpreting programme. I’m sure that the ideas and recommendations on teaching interpretation which I got at the seminar will allow me to organize an efficient training process.”