Internship in the UN：Students Majoring in International Conference Interpretation for the First Time in School History

Recently, under the guidance of Professor JAN Cheng, the Vice-President of the School of Interpreting and Translation Studies, seven sophomores had a one-week internship in United Nations Office at Geneva. During the internship, they attended the conference onLethal Autonomous Weapons Systems and Certain Conventional Weapons, a conference on Trade and Development, the Forum on Global Primary Commodities, the Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the conference on the Rights to Education for Persons with Disabilities. The real practice was done in the interpretation room in Palace of Nations. It is the first time that GDUFS has sent students majoring in International Conference Interpretation to the UN for their internship.

LI Zhengren, the Director of the Interpretation Department visits the GDUFS students

The working time was from 10:00 – 18:00 every day. Besides interpreting, students made full use of this opportunity by seeking guidance from veteran interpreters in the U.N. Interpretation Department. Also, they visited various work areas in the United Nations Offices in Geneva, including the meeting places of Human Rights Council, Disarmament Commission and other plenary session halls for International Red Cross and other International Organizations. Apart from that, students had a general understanding of the daily working situation within International organizations. After the one-week internship, student’s accumulated experience on simultaneous interpretation, had further understanding in interpreter’s daily life and the working status of interpretation. All-in-al, this internship not only improved their professional knowledge but also added experience for their future career.

WU Jie, veteran Chinese interpreter from Interpretation Department, guiding a student in the interpretation room

Principal ZHONG Weihe signed the contract with Dr. Shaaban, the UN Deputy Secretary-General in 2011, officially making GDUFS a member in the UN’s University Extension Cooperation Programme. The United Nations Office at Geneva paid high attention and offered great assistance to the first groups of trainees of our university. LI Zhengren , the director of Interpretation Department paid a visit to students and granted them certification himself. GDUFS alumni FENG Xiaolan, together with other two veteran Chinese interpreters, WU Jie and HUANG Yuxun, arranged the conference and equipment for students and had interaction in the forms of lecture and free talk. Professor JAN Cheng participated in the entire conference by supervising the interpretation outputs and guiding students on site.

Veteran Chinese interpreters FENG Xiaolan and HUANG Yuxun gave summary comments on the meeting for the interns

During the internship, on behalf of the school leaders, Professor JAN Cheng visited several departments in United Nations Office at Geneva. He met Director Li from the Interpretation Department and AN Jianguo, Section Chief of the Editing Sector. They had reached a consensus on extending cooperation and came up with specific outcomes desired. At the same time, he also attended several working conferences with UN senior interpreters and invited them to offer short-term lessons and professional guidance when visiting GDUFS.

The one-week internship in United Nations Office at Geneva ended as a great success. Both UN officials and the working staff are very satisfied with the performance of our students. They fully affirmed the achievement GDUFS has made in interpreting educational practice and the high quality of GDUFS’s interpretation teaching. Additionally, they also expressed the intention of participating in our school’s interpretation teaching in order to promote the cooperation on personnel training.