Perspectives on world events: a virtual class of the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation with the University of Geneva

On May 4th, the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation had a virtual class with the University of Geneva, the class was also virtually attended by Kazan Federal University and L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University (Astana, Kazakhstan). Professor Vojko Gorjanč from the Department of Interpretation of the University of Ljubljana who was visiting our university that week was also present at the class. Moreover, Prof. Gorjanč is a representative of a member university of the EU Parliament “Dissemination of Best Practices in Conference Interpreter Training between EU and non-EU Languages” project, which provided framework for this virtual class. The class was highly innovative and very interactive, as it was based on the idea that interlingual communication is impossible without an interpreter. For instance, Olga Egorova, the Head of the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation, was speaking Russian, while Manuela Motta, the University of Geneva professor, was speaking French. MA student of the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation Ilya Shuminov as well as the students from the University of Geneva were helping Olga and Manuela understand each other. MA students Ekaterina Natkhina, Alina Budaeva and Alina Van-Guy were interpreting the Italian students’ speeches. In their discussion Olga and Manuela touched upon latest news arising interest all over the world, including French presidential elections and the struggle between Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron, first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency and his wife’s and daughter’s dynamic online activity, political influence on the professional sport and advanced medical technologies. In conclusion, Olga Egorova spoke on nationalism and internationalism in the modern world, globalization and nationalistic tendencies, as well as a nationalistic regime’s aftermath. Carlotta Urbini from the University of Geneva made a speech on totalitarian North Korean regime and the closed nature of its society. Instead of interpreting prepared speeches, during this innovative class the students were interpreting a real dialogue of people who were speaking different languages and thus could not understand each other, which put MA students into next to real working conditions, because the class progress and interlingual communication success depended on them. Moreover, while preparing for the class they had to study current affairs in details, which is an inherent part of any interpreter’s work.