Interpreters and Conference Interpreting

didine wrote:

And I have a question for Didine: you said you finished ESIT last year, didn't you?

Yes, in June 2006.

And now you already work for the EU? so does this mean that the EU is very keen on assuming interpreters coming from ESIT?

I took (and passed) the EU's accreditation test in December 2006. I started working as a freelancer for the European institutions in January 2007. I have an usual language combination, that's why I was lucky enough to be offered a contract as a temporary agent straight after my accreditation test. My contract at the EP started last April.

(the very last one, which is just a curiosity: which is your language combination?)

French A, English C, Finnish C, Polish C at the moment, and I'm planning to add Russian some time next year. I had a different language combination at ESIT: French A, English B (not very useful at the EP), Polish C, Russian C (couldn't have Finnish C at ESIT, I wanted to work with Finnish first since it's much more useful here).

Thanks very much! But you raised other questions in my mind hope you have some time to reply:

1) The fact that at the EP you have to show 4 years of experience is worth only for staff mebers, isn't it?
2) Did you study all your languages at university or some of them on your own? When you apply for the EP as a freelance can you apply with languages you've studied by yourself?

ok it's enough for now.. thanks in advance and enjoy your work!

Cristina

1) The fact that at the EP you have to show 4 years of experience is worth only for staff mebers, isn't it?

I'm not quite sure I understand your question. What do you mean by that?

2) Did you study all your languages at university or some of them on your own? When you apply for the EP as a freelance can you apply with languages you've studied by yourself?

You can apply with any language, provided you're sure you master it well enough. If you don't, the jury will see it immediately.

Cristina, I think you mixed up with having four languages as a common prerequisite.

dawncloack wrote:I don't know wether Didine will agree with me, but I think that it is much more common (and less dangerous) to repeat first year. During first year you are learning the basic, underlining technique of interpreting. I'd even go further, and say that you are assimilating a way of thinking and analyzing. Those of whom the teachers think can't learn that, or will take to long, are kicked out. Those who pass are considered to have mastered it. Those who repeat are deemed hopeful.

So, I think, it is normal to have to repeat first year, you are learning something radically new. When you have to repeat second year, the tune changes. Usually it's because people have a perfectly normal linguistic insufficiency in one of their pairs languages. I think, however, that it makes the teachers think: "Did we only THINK he learned the method" ?

I don't agree! First of all, it's not more common to repeat first year, the proportion of people who repeat second year is quite similar. I repeated second year and I'm quite happy I did so! I would have hated to repeat first year! A year is usually enough to be good at consecutive, but sometimes it's not enough to have a sound simultaneous. Repeating second year allows you to get better at simultaneous while continuing to improve your consecutive. If you make it to second year, you're deemed good enough to become an interpreter. If you don't master your languages well enough, you don't make it to second year. The reason why people repeat it is that they're good, on the right path, but not completely ready yet and thus need a bit more time. I'm glad I repeated second year, because when I graduated I had the confidence I didn't always have a year before, and it's a crucial point.

Aymeric wrote:Cristina, I think you mixed up with having four languages as a common prerequisite.

No! I've really been told that before working at the European Parliament you must have worked for at least 4 years as a conference interpreter and that you must be able to show that (through documents or something like this I suppose). But maybe that was wrong information...

Oops sorry then...

Hello Pablo!

Do you know by chance when the brochure issued by ESIT on how to improve one's languages was last updated?

The one I actually have dates back from the year 2000 or so ...

Thanks in advance for your reply.

Take care,

Vincent

the AA thing causes a lot of problems and some bad feeling. A lot of people speak two languages equally well. But are not articulate in either. When they are then told they have no A language they get understandably upset. It is after all something of an attack on your identity.
I think A should really stand for "Articulate" rather than "mother tongue". You can only be truly articulate in a mother tongue, but a mother tongue is only articulately spoken when it is spoken very well. Everyone has a mother tongue, it is simply the language we prefer, but we are not all articulate.

A little anecdote from a chief interpreter I have worked for. (He dined out on this one many times). A interpreter comes into his office to introduce themselves and offer their services as an interpreter. The first thing the chief interpreter asks is, "what is your language combination?". To which the candidate replies, in English, "Double A. I speak English and French indifferently." "Yes, I rather think you do" remarks the chief interpreter and makes a mental note never to recruit said candidate.

edna

I think we might wanna stop being so elitist to begin with and go humblefor a change. Newsflash, everyone: double A's are among us! Welcome to the Matrix!

edna wrote:A little anecdote from a chief interpreter I have worked for. (He dined out on this one many times). A interpreter comes into his office to introduce themselves and offer their services as an interpreter. The first thing the chief interpreter asks is, "what is your language combination?". To which the candidate replies, in English, "Double A. I speak English and French indifferently." "Yes, I rather think you do" remarks the chief interpreter and makes a mental note never to recruit said candidate.

edna

Excellent!
Reminds me of the time I had to "help" a friend write a CV in English...One thing hr didn't know was how to say "parfaitement bilingue Anglais- Français" in English!
Mistoufle

Vincent wrote:ESIT brochure

I don't think it has been updated yet. Last time I got hold of a copy, around a year ago, it was still the 2000 issue. I guess they think that, if it works, why change it? But I think that it is not very useful, unless you taylor the advice to suit you, as I do, having my private lessons.

Dear Effet, I don't think we are being that elitist here. I have never denied the existence of double A's, they do exist, and I can introduce you to some, if you feel like it. But the fact that they exist does not mean, in any way, that:

1. We have to accept anyone who says he or she is as one (as in I speak French and English indifferently kind of people)
- or -
2. That everyone that thinks to be one should become confident or smug on that

It was a simple piece of advice, specially for everyone that thinks to be, not to let their guards down.


Apart from that, this post and Effet's belong to the Alinguism? thread, I think.

Effet wrote:I think we might wanna stop being so elitist to begin with and go humblefor a change. Newsflash, everyone: double A's are among us! Welcome to the Matrix!

Don't misunderstand me. I am not being elitist at all. Quite the opposite. (I have 1 A.)

I was only trying to highlight the fact that AA is not the same as speaking 2 languages equally well. It is to speak 2 languages articulately as a native speaker. This is a rare gift. (Given by circumstance and your parents mostly, because if you aren't AA by the time you are 19/20 you probably never will be.)

The problem is that some intepreters and future interpreters think they are AA and unfortunately they are not. (And indeed even more think they have a B language when they are miles off).

Humility is definitely the watchword, and before anyone advertises themselves as AA, or AB, or ABB it is worth applying some. By asking, for example, "just how good is A or B?" and "how good am I actually?". Most people overestimate their abilities. I know I have in the past.

edna

Apart from that, this post and Effet's belong to the Alinguism? thread, I think.

Yes, I have opened another thread on that specific issue. This thread is for anything related to ESIT, thanks !

Hello,
I'm quite interested in trying and entering ESIT (though not before a few years), for the reason that it's french, reputed and cheap all at once. However, my desired language combination is the following: A french C english C czech C polish, and I'm afraid czech might be one of these too small languages, in which they open a section only if a given year, there are enough students to fill it. But that means that if they don't open it, my combination becomes an ACC one, which is not possible... Would that definitely be a reason for my inability to be accepted at ESIT?
My problem is that, though not unthinkable, the idea of moving english or polish to a B position confronts me with the annoying 12-month-in-a-row stay prerequisite, which I would like to avoid, for my own patience's sake. I'm actually planning on going to Poland next september for the whole year; say I try and pass the ESIT entry exam in april-may '09: is it possible to promise I'm going to stay in Poland up to september before starting ESIT, thus completing a 12-month-long stay? Or must said stay already be complete and over at the time when you're passing the test?

Hello!

Yours sounds like a fine combination.
The thing about ESIT is, there are no combinations too small. Of course you would have to check with the director, Ms. Donovan,
but I think that, even if you are alone in Checz, you will go in. You will simply be "régime spécial".

Even so, if you want to make Polish a B, you would have to speak with Ms. Donovan. I'm sure that your proposition would sound just fine. I know people who sat English B and they have never ever lived in an English speaking country. They had just worked in an English-speaking environment for a long time. Write and ask, nothing lost! I'd bet they agree.

Cheers!