If you are a regular blog reader, you will have noticed that my posts have been a little less frequent lately. This is because I have had my fair share of travel this fall.
My latest trip was to Brussels on November 13 and 14. The Glendon MCI was fortunate enough to be invited to the 3rd Rectors’ Conference, an event hosted by the (DG INTE) of the European Parliament. Here are some things I think you should know about the trip.
The DG INTE should be on the radar of every aspiring interpreter. It is one of the largest interpreting services in the world — it has over 150 staff interpreters, and it typically supplies over 100,000 interpreter days a year. In short, the DG INTE is used to doing things in a big way, and the Rectors’ Conference was no exception.
The conference was attended by some 200 representatives of universities all around the world. Most of these people came from the member states of the European Union, but also from China, Turkey, Africa, and North America. Each university sent the person responsible for its interpreting program (that’s why I was there), but also the president or rector of the institution (91ÑÇɫ’s president was represented by our Associate Vice-President of International Affairs).
DG INTE does this — very astutely, in my opinion — to get buy-in from the highest levels of the university sector. Let me pull back the curtain for you and explain why this is necessary. When you sign up to be trained as an interpreter, the program that you join will be very special. It will be unlike most other traditional university programs. (For example, to make sure you have the best teachers, we hire people first and foremost with professional experience. A PhD is a secondary consideration.) So by reaching out to rectors and presidents, the DG INTE helps to make senior administrators aware of the special nature of interpreter training. In so doing, it seeks to turn them into champions of the work we do.
You should also know that university folks were not the only people at the conference. Indeed, the other attendees were a veritable who’s who of the interpreting world. The chief interpreters of the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the US Department of State and other institutions were all on hand. As a result, the conference turned out to be an excellent opportunity for networking. I was able to talk to a number of people about internships and study visits for our students, and I was able to learn about the latest developments gripping the industry. The information I learned from these people will benefit my students directly.
In addition, the conference also assembled a cast of presenters who spoke on a range of cutting-edge topics. The speaker that I found most engaging was from Florida State University. Dr. Ericsson does research on how people become experts through deliberate, reflective practice (You no doubt know that the topic, as discussed in the article Are you an artisan or a virtuoso? has caught my interest) as well). He told us about some of the habits that set experts apart from others in the same fields — for example, experts constantly seek out feedback on their performance. So, interpreting students, all the time we spend having you assess yourselves and your peers is well worth it!
The conference marked an important turning point for DG INTE. Director General Olga Cosmidou has been at the helm of the organization for over 15 years. She has left an indelible mark not just on interpreting at the European Parliament, but also on interpreter training around the world. Under her leadership, DG INTE has provided valuable practical support to university programs in many different ways, including . When run bilaterally, these online training sessions allow student interpreters to benefit from feedback from staff interpreters at the European Parliament. When run multilaterally, students get to interact not only with staffers at DG INTE but also with their peers at other universities internationally.
In short, imagining DG INTE without Ms. Cosmidou is nearly unthinkable. But this is unfortunately what we’re all going to have to do. At the gala dinner on the Thursday evening, Ms. Cosmidou announced that she would be taking retirement at the end of the calendar year. As one colleague presented her with a going-away gift, the rest of the room was on its feet to give Ms. Cosmidou a standing ovation.
Yet while some chapters have come to an end, others have just begun. The Glendon MCI was invited to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the DG INTE, something that we very enthusiastically did! So you can expect to see more news in this space about collaboration between the Glendon MCI and our friends at the European Parliament. Stay tuned…