This coming Wednesday, August 20, is your last chance to submit an to the MCI. After that date, we won’t be able to consider any new applicants for admission for September 2014.
In light of this, we held an Open House this past Saturday. Our goal was to let people know about their final opportunity to join the program this year.
The event was a great success! Not only did we have a great turnout, but we also tried to make this event a little different from the others we had run in the past (see , and ). In the past, our focus had been mostly on sharing information about the program. This time around, we set out to actually do some teaching during the session.
Here’s a short recap of what happened.
1. Where is the profession headed?
I was first up at bat. I think there are some major changes that are currently shaking up professional interpreting and that will continue to do so for the next 5-10 years. The most significant is remote interpreting. As InterpretAmerica’s Katharine Allen has pointed out, mobile telecom is rapidly bringing the developing world online, and horizontal communication means that any one of us can reach out around the world with a device we have in our pocket. The only thing stopping us from going fully global is the language barrier. Some actors are positioning themselves very quickly to fill this void by offering interpreting services over the internet. But not all these players have interpreters’ interests after the art. Interpreters need to get savvy about remote interpreting — and fast — or risk having someone else dictate the terms of our new reality to us. This is one of the reasons the first year of the MCI is delivered entirely online. We want to train a generation of interpreter who excel at remote interpreting.
2. Conquering consecutive
Next up was Alejandro, one of the students who recently completed the MCI. He began by explaining how consecutive in the community differs from consecutive in the conference setting. For starters, community-style consec usually consists of interpreting short turns at talk. When a doctor says to a patient, “You need to take 10 mg of tamoxifen twice daily,” the interpreter may need notes to get all the details bang on. However, the note-taking time can typically be measured in seconds, not minutes. In contrast, conference-style consecutive usually involves the speaker going on at great length — perhaps five minutes, or even an entire speech — before the interpreter takes over. Alejandro gave a demonstration of long consecutive using an authentic speech. He then showed the audience the principles and symbols that shape his note-taking technique. Before wrapping up his segment, he also spoke about the importance of giving a polished performance as a public speaker.
3. Taming simultaneous
At this point, we turned the floor over to Jack, another student who just finished up Year Two. Jack spoke about the allure of simultaneous interpreting. Simo is often seen by outsiders as the pinnacle of interpreting prowess, a mysterious ability possessed by the select few. But as Jack pointed out, the reality is different. Once you have mastered long consecutive, the skills you have put in place make the transition to good quality simo fairly straightforward. That said, Simo does require a few new techniques and competencies — strong buffer memory, careful control of the voice, and an ability to play with lag time, to name but a few. Jack went over these carefully with the group before setting them up in the booths to try their hand at a simple speech. At the end of the segment, Jack had the group come out of the booths for some feedback.
4. Taking charge of your online learning
Capping off our day were Fannie and Weiyu, two soon-to-be MCI grads. With support from Year One students Ania and Rebecca, they spoke to the group about the particulars of being a student in virtual classes. Once they had made the transition to online learning, Fannie and Weiyu took the initiative to personally put in place a number of parallel practices. For example, Fannie and her classmates regularly met via Skype (and therefore outside of their virtual classes) to take stock of their learning and offer one another support. Weiyu made use of a Facebook page that students had set up to stay in contact with her counterparts from the other language teams. This was vital because the different language groups did not initially have a lot of opportunities to interact. Some of the other points mentioned were the importance of scheduling regular practice sessions with classmates outside of class time and the effective use of online resources.
Our students have always had a central role to play in our other Open Houses. But this time around, they were called upon to show more leadership. They did this by actually teaching during the segments that they themselves planned.
As I stood at the back of the room and watched them move gracefully into their newfound roles, I was impressed. Here was a group of new interpreters who had clearly reflected carefully on their own professional development. As a result, they are now able to leverage their experience to lead others through a learning curve. I was immensely proud of the professionals that they have become.
Got a point to share about your development as an interpreter? Or maybe a question about enrolling in the ? (Remember, the deadline for applications is this Wednesday!)