GDUFS Students First Intern in SCIC

From March 7th to 18th, students of 2014 from the GDUFS Professional Certificate of Conference Interpreting class went to the United Nations Office in Geneva (UNOG) and the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Interpretation (also known as SCIC) each for a one-week internship. This is the first time that GDUFS has sent students from the Professional Certificate of Conference Interpreting class to SCIC and the second time to the UN to undertake internships.

GDUFS teachers and students at the UN headquarter in Geneva

From March 7th, seven students attended one of the most important meetings of UNOG: the United Nations Human Rights Council, arranged by the UN Interpretation Service Office, to practise their interpretation skills. Sitting in the interpretation booths, students were amazed by the interpreters’ wonderful performance and appreciated the difficulty of interpretation. In addition, the UN Interpretation Service Office arranged Unification Meeting of European Vehicles to help students experience different types of UN meetings.

Senior interpreters of UNOG instructing GDUFS students

Apart from conference interpreting, the UN Interpretation Service Office invited some professional interpreters to instruct students during the talks. LI Zhengren, Director of the UN Interpretation Service Office, met with the students in person and awarded them internship certificates. Senior interpreter WU Jie arranged the conference hall for the students. ZHU Xiaohua, Section Chief of Chinese; senior interpreters, such as FENG Xiaolan (GDUFS alumna), HUANG Xunyu, WANG Huiyun and LI Jingzhong also shared their experience with the students through lessons, lectures and communications when visiting to the interpretation booths.

During the internships, ZHAN Cheng, Vice President of GDUFS School of Interpreting and Translation Studies, and YU Yi paid a formal visit to LI Zhengren, Director of the UN Interpretation Service Office. Both sides have reached a common ground on further cooperation in the future. They also sincerely invited UN senior interpreters to GDUFS for short-term lectures and instructions after a few talks.

ZHAN Cheng (in the middle)  and his students at European Commission

Starting from March 15th, two students, who were instructed by Professor ZHAN Cheng, took part in professional internships at SCIS in Brussels. This is the first time that SCIC has accepted GDUFS students as interns.

Students of GDUFS, together with students from the University of International Business and Economics and Shanghai International Studies University, received various forms of training. After just one week, they were able to get involved in the European Parliament and European Commission and interpreted in interpretation booths with the help of SCIC. There was also a mock meeting for students to debate and interpret. Senior interpreters at SCIC such as Paul Brennan, Andy Upton and David Smith showed up for instruction and praised the students for their performance.

GDUFS students and SCIC senior interpreters

ZHAN Cheng represented GDUFS at the SCIC Universities Conference and communicated with different interpretation institutions worldwide.

Students admitted that they learned a great deal from the internships. Not only did they practise their interpretation skills, but also they drew inspiration for future career planning. Meanwhile, professionals from the UN and EU were impressed by GDUFS students’ excellent performance and their rigorous attitude towards learning. They expressed their willingness to cooperate with GDUFS on academic communication and interpreting teaching in the future.

Chinese Report:翻译学子首次到欧盟口译总司实习