Ilga Berzina and Liam Long visiting Astrakhan

On 23rd September the EP and the EC interpreters- Ilga Berzina and Liam Long arrived in Astrakhan to give classes to the master students of the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation.
The professionals had 2 main tasks: firstly, to organize an admission test for the new master program students and secondly, to give classes of consecutive and simultaneous interpretation to the second- year master students.
Like all the previous times here, our colleagues from Brussels gave interesting master-classes and assessed the level of students’ interpreting skills.
For example, during the classes Ilga Berzina shared with students some practical aspects of the interpreter’s work , explaining what “traps” may be encountered during the interpreting and giving the master students an opportunity to deal with these “traps” themselves. Liam Long decided this time to stress upon the interpreting into English and gave some valuable feedback not only as an interpreter, but also as a native speaker.
As for the admission test, the first- year master students were to fulfill the task of no-note-taking consecutive interpretation, and of answering the questions concerning the current situation in the world and the most pressing events, thereby demonstrating the level of their general knowledge.
For the next 2 days they also had classes with Ilga Berzina and Liam Long on the consecutive interpretation, principles of the interpreter’s shorthand and getting some knowledge about the European Parliament, its structure and activities.
We hope that Liam Long and Ilga Berzina will soon come to Astrakhan again to work with the students, to give more lessons, which let us not only perfect our interpreting skills, but also learn more about the real work of interpreters in the European Parliament and the European Commission.