{"id":657,"date":"2015-07-29T02:26:47","date_gmt":"2015-07-29T02:26:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/?p=657"},"modified":"2017-09-22T02:28:15","modified_gmt":"2017-09-22T02:28:15","slug":"life-changing-moments-my-visit-to-the-european-commission-and-parliament-as-part-of-my-interpreter-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/2015\/07\/29\/life-changing-moments-my-visit-to-the-european-commission-and-parliament-as-part-of-my-interpreter-training\/","title":{"rendered":"Life-Changing Moments: My Visit to the European Commission and Parliament as Part of my Interpreter Training"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"LifeChanging\"<\/p>\n

<\/b>\u00c9rika Lessa<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I can\u2019t think of a better way to bring my two years at the Master of Conference Interpreting (MCI) program at Glendon College, in Canada, to a more perfect end than with a trip to Europe. More precisely, to Brussels. Yes, it\u2019s a nice city to visit as a tourist \u2014it\u2019s famous for its beer, chocolate, waffles, fries\u2026 But I really want to talk business here.<\/p>\n

The visit was planned to introduce students to the European Commission (SCIC) and the European Parliament (DG INTE), two major institutions known for their enormous interpreting services. And they are h-u-g-e.<\/p>\n

Our visit was made possible thanks to the generosity of both SCIC and DG INTE. Accompanied by our beloved instructor and former SCIC interpreter Helen Campbell, two other colleagues and I had the chance to attend to some meetings, listen to interpreters doing their beautiful work, understand a bit more of how such big machinery works. Here\u2019s my list of the highlights of our time in Brussels.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Mock Entrance Test<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    As SCIC is going to have a competition soon (in August, according to their\u00a0site<\/a>), they had the (brilliant!) idea of showing us how they test candidates. Two students from the University of Leeds, who were also visiting, were chosen to do one consecutive and one simultaneous test.<\/p>\n

    The consecutive speech (in Spanish) was made live, while the simultaneous interpretation (in French) was made from a recording. I can\u2019t say much about the latter as French is not part of my language combination, but the Spanish one wasn\u2019t super difficult: a couple of technical words, a few proper names, some important contrasts to be made.<\/p>\n

    That\u2019s the trick: as the speeches are feasible (speech difficulty level is taken into account and they made it very clear), they expect candidates to shine. The jury deliberated in front of us all, so that we could follow their train of thought. That was amazing. It helped us have a much clearer idea of what they are looking for in terms of accuracy, technique etc. Also, I found the Leeds students were really brave to try it in front of their classmates, instructors, jurors\u2026 They coped really well with the stress. Good job!<\/p>\n

    \"Part<\/p>\n

    Part of the appeal of the trip was sharing the experience with classmates.
    \nPhoto Credit: Author\u2019s Personal Archive<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

      \n
    1. Having a Staff Interpreter With Us<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      SCIC is a \u201cstudent friendly\u201d environment. The amount of information you\u2019re exposed to when you get there is a bit overwhelming. But our hosts at SCIC helped us navigate it all. No one can deny that they care (a lot!) about the new generations of interpreters. They designated a staff interpreter to be with us all the time. We could benefit from their knowledge and experience the whole day. As we actually interpreted (in dummy booth, of course!), my colleagues and I received feedback. It was a challenge due to the variety of meetings and topics they managed to squeeze us in, plus all the nuances and new context we were surrounded by. But it was such an honor to be there, sitting among them and learning. I got a lot out of their feedback and out of listening to their work. It\u2019s amazing how much you can absorb just by observing and listening carefully.<\/p>\n

      \"This<\/p>\n

      This piece of the Berlin Wall stands outside the European Parliament as a symbol of Europe\u2019s commitment to peace, freedom, and democracy.
      \nPhoto Credit: Author\u2019s personal archives<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

        \n
      1. Meeting Portuguese-Booth interpreters<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Listening to experienced interpreters work is always a thrill. If you share the same mother tongue, believe me, it\u2019s even more exciting. First, we had the chance to get to meet Mariangela Barros in person. (I recognized her from the\u00a0SCIC Speech Repository<\/a>\u00a0videos!) She talked about her experience and how she became an interpreter. Then, I enjoyed Euclides Lazzarotto\u2019s interpreting elegance before we had a chance to chat briefly. He couldn\u2019t stay away from the booth for more than a couple of minutes as he was pivoting from Polish that day (wow!).<\/p>\n

        It meant so much to me to talk to Mariangela and Euclides. Both motivated my classmates and I to add more C languages to our combination so that we can work there. They also gave us tips, do\u2019s and don\u2019ts, and how to cope with some of the challenges they face everyday. It was fascinating! I\u2019ll never be able to thank them enough.<\/p>\n

        In a nutshell, study visits aren\u2019t easy. There\u2019s a lot of information coming at you, all at once. You want to learn it all, because the last thing you aim is to make a fool of yourself in front of interpreters and trainers. Plus controlling all that fangirling invading you and behaving like a moderate adult you are (*cough, cough*). And traveling expenses. So no, it\u2019s not easy.<\/p>\n

        However, when I am asked if it was worth it, it took me a split second to say \u201cOh, yeah\u201d. If there\u2019s one piece of advice I can leave to my fellow Year 1 (turning Year 2) students, it would be this: save your money and go on at least one of this institutional study visits. I\u2019m sure you\u2019ll have plenty of your own life-changing moments.<\/p>\n

        \"\u00c9rika<\/p>\n

        \u00c9rika and her classmates enjoy some downtime with Glendon instructor and former SCIC interpreter Helen Campbell.
        \nPhoto Credit: Author\u2019s personal archives.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

        \n

        Editor\u2019s Note: This story was originally posted by the\u00a0MCI Blog<\/a>\u00a0on July 11.<\/strong><\/p>\n

        \n

        \u00c9rika<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0is a conference interpreter who also loves translating, and truly believes one complements the other. She has worked in different sectors of the industry, including humanities, marketing, software and game localization. As an interpreter, she is proud to have worked at international events such as Rio +20 and a Bill Clinton visit to her hometown, Bel\u00e9m. She now lives in Toronto, where she is completing a Master\u2019s program in Conference Interpreting at York University. After hearing at the 2014 PLD annual meeting that they wanted help, she decided to share some of her time and talents to help strengthen the Division.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        \u00c9rika Lessa I can\u2019t think of a better way to bring my two years at the Master of Conference Interpreting (MCI) program at Glendon College, in Canada, to a more perfect end than with a trip to Europe. More precisely, to Brussels. Yes, it\u2019s a nice city to visit as a tourist \u2014it\u2019s famous for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-657","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-interpreting","7":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":658,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657\/revisions\/658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/PLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}