The trilateral virtual class with the Directorate General for Interpretation of the European Commission and the Paris University School of Interpreters and Translators (ESIT)

On January, 20we held the first virtual class in 2014! This time it was a trilateral virtual class with the Directorate General for Interpretation of the European Commission and the Paris University School of Interpreters and Translators (Ecole Supérieure d’Interprètes et de Traducteurs, ESIT). 6 students (three from each university) participated in the virtual class. Our MA students – Olga Kulakova, Yuliya Mikhed and Sofiya Kulchikenova – performed consecutive interpretation from French into Russian, form Russian into English and from English into Russian respectively. The speakers (Michael Somers from DG SCIC, Irène Markowicz and Tatiana Bodrova from ESIT) had prepared interesting speeches on the reason of wolves coming back to France, euthanasia and the issue of wasting food. The ESIT students (Irina Chunikhina, Natalia Danovich and Irina Khomutova) also interpreted the speeches about euthanasia and wasting food and they also interpreted speech dedicated to the interests of China in Africa. The interpretation of the same speeches by our students and the students from ESIT made it possible for our and ESIT teachers to compare the training level in general, to identify mistakes made during the interpretation by both Astrakhan and Paris students, and to note those aspects that should be paid attention to and put an emphasis on during the further training.

Moreover, DG SCIC Director General Marco Benedetti also attended the virtual class. He listened to several performances and commented on them giving some tips about aspects which should be worked on by the students to improve their skills of interpretation.