WIPO Fellowship in Geneva
Perhaps the most important aspect of any educational programme is employment, personal fulfillment and career opportunities with which the programme can provide the graduates. This very criterion speaks for its efficiency, applicability and demand on the educational services market. A top target of the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation is not only training experts that are able to work at international level and to demonstrate outstanding interpreting and translation skills, but also assistance in implementing students’ skills within internships in the largest international and Russian organizations. Diana Kadyrmatova, a graduate of the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation, is now undertaking a fellowship in the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva. That’s what Diana tells about her experience of working in the organization:
“In May, 2015 we as MA students of the Caspian Higher School of Interpreting and Translation, undertook an internship in the UN office at Geneva. During the internship, we also visited different UN institutions, including the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) that is a global forum addressing political, cooperation and information issues in the sphere of intellectual property. That is how I learnt that they proposed a 3-month fellowship on terminology. Moreover I found out they needed trainees with the Russian language. So, I decided to apply: I sent them my CV and a motivation letter and passed an on-line test. A month later, they responded and proposed a phone interview. A week later, they announced their decision.
So, in the middle of September I arrived in Geneva. It turned out there were no other trainees with the Russian language. Here I met trainees from other countries who had been selected just like me. In the very beginning of my fellowship, I felt a bit stressed because I had never dealt with terminology. The first week was dedicated to different seminars and trainings: we learnt some general information about the organization and details about the patent department where I am undertaking a fellowship. We also had terminology training.
In 2014, the WIPO launched a multilingual terminology base called WIPO Pearl, focusing on science and technical terminology generally used in patent applications within the Patent Cooperation Treaty that allows to file just one international patent application to be protected in all 148 PCT member states. Ideally, all terms should be in 10 languages: English, French, German, Arab, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Portugal and Korean. However, few terms have Russian equivalents now. That is why they made for me a list of terms without Russian equivalents in the terminology base.
First, I study a term and its context in a foreign language and then I select a Russian equivalent. For each term, I must provide some context, containing its description or definition. Besides, we can use only patents or scientific publications as resources. Then experts check our work and send us a feedback. The terminology base is regularly updated and all terms are published on the official site (http://www.wipo.int/reference/en/wipopearl ) The base is free and publicly available.
The terms we work with always refer to different spheres – from biology and chemistry to electrical industry and artificial intelligence. I think it is a great advantage for an interpreter or translator as you never know what sphere you will have to work in.
The fellowship lasts 3 months but the organization proposed me to prolong my contract for 3 months more. To my mind, it is a unique opportunity to work in such a great organization, to watch how it functions from the inside, to meet people who work in the organization. Despite the fellowship is not connected with interpretation, it gives a very useful experience for further interpreting work. Moreover, you get an experience of working in an international organization!
There are headquarters of many international organizations in Geneva, different conferences and other events are held here. I had a chance to attend the CIUTI international forum for interpreters, in which Olga Egorova, the Head of our School, also took part. I even attended events dedicated to the UN 70th anniversary that took place in the Palace of Nations, such as the unveiling of a new monument, which was built with the help of all member states, a lecture about the UN work, expositions, concerts, movies.
The WIPO proposes this fellowship every year, so my advice to those who are willing – take the chance!”