Interpreters and Conference Interpreting

The advantage of a really small combination is that you are alone witht he teacher for on hour. It is quite tiring (non stop pressure for 90 min ) but you learn loads!

Thank you very much for this reassuring info. I'll do that. Talk with people.

mistoufle wrote:The advantage of a really small combination is that you are alone witht he teacher for on hour. It is quite tiring (non stop pressure for 90 min ) but you learn loads!

Tried and true

didine wrote:

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).

Sorry if I'm so boring, but why could't you have finnish C at ESIT? Because it's not among the "langues de travail" or you just didn't want to? If you read the very last posts in this thread maybe you understand my doubts... in fact they say the opposite, that you can have virtually any language you want, no matter how "small" (=not widely spoken) the language may be...

This really caused me a lot of confusion!
Hope you've got time enough to answer, and thanks in advance!

Cristina

Kristiina wrote:Sorry if I'm so boring, but why could't you have finnish C at ESIT? Because it's not among the "langues de travail"

That's it. But it wasn't an obstacle, I added it later on, after I graduated.

Thank you for your patience!

Cristina

Hi all of you! (sorry not too familiar with all your names yet)

It's hard to know how good you have to be in all of theses languages to do well or even to get in ESIT! After reading about the "alingual" people you've bumped into... I'm wondering.

I'm English...well that's what's on my passport! I've been living in France since I was 7 (now 24) and was brought up by English parents. I've got a degree LLCE in English...a boss that does not speak a word of English and has me follow him to all his confcall meetings to explain what the chinese men on the other side are saying. I love it! And that's why I want to do this course.

But I must admit that Im the only English speaking person in the department and haven't got much to compare myself with...

How can I possibly get an idea of the level required for ESIT?

Thanks also for all the great info I've found in this forum.

xxx

Hi Rachel,

If you want I can send you some consecutive interpretations done by an English A, an English B, a French A and a French B, so you can get a rough idea of the required level. If you think you could do as well as both A's then you could probably have an AA combination... Tell me if you're interested...
If you have a third language, an ABC combination with a very strong B is very good too.

Hey, Aymeric, that's a great idea you have there.

If anyone is interested in a couple of speeches in Spanish, I will oblige.

And Rachel, Aymeric is dead right in what he says. I guess an ABC is safer, but that's up to you.

Just check your English:

1. If the only conversations you've had in English are the "can you take the garbage out, dear?" kind of conversations you might have a problem when it comes to... don't know, chemistry or law. Also cultural things (can you name the main political scandals in British politics? that kind of thing)
2. Make sure that you don't mix them, ever, ever, ever, specially grammar.

rachel wrote:Hi all of you! (sorry not too familiar with all your names yet)

It's hard to know how good you have to be in all of theses languages to do well or even to get in ESIT!

But I must admit that Im the only English speaking person in the department and haven't got much to compare myself with...

How can I possibly get an idea of the level required for ESIT?

hi rachel,

you sound like you are probably French A and English B. And that is a great background for the French interpreting market which works primarily EN-FR in both directions.

Did you go to a French speaking school in France? (School has an incredibly strong influence on how we speak a language and the vocab we have. ) What do your parents think of your English? Perfect? English enough? Have you spent longer periods in the UK since you were a kid?

You might be a AA. You could....apply for both ISIT or ESIT and explain to them at the test that you are not sure which language is your A. I would suggest that whatever you do you apply as AB though, because then if you are really AA they can mark you up to AA, which is better than giving them the opportunity of marking an AA down to AB.

You won't know unless you try!

Try a little test... dig up an old school geography book and find a page about, i don't know what, rivers, glaciers something like that. Can you comfortably translate that into your other language without much hesitation? If not, you're a B. But that is not a problem. B has a market value too.

You could also go to a language school. Pretend you want to take private lessons and ask for a test lesson to establish your "level". After that lesson ask them what (if anything) they intend or think they could teach you.

You could also ask for an informal meeting with a teacher or the director of ISIT or ESIT to discuss the same doubts. You can inquire informally, only the admissions procedure is formal, with tests etc

edna

Hello,

I am planning one day to apply for ESIT, and have a questions about the verbal puzzles in the initial exam.

Being a non-native speaker of French, is the exam different than for a French speaker, or less harsh? Also, is there any kind of preparation that can be done for this exam, or sample texts of similar types of question? It seems that there is much more emphasis placed on French in the exam, and understandably so, but what about students with French C combination?

Thanks

David
English A, Spanish B, French C

edna wrote:Try a little test... dig up an old school geography book and find a page about, i don't know what, rivers, glaciers something like that. Can you comfortably translate that into your other language without much hesitation? If not, you're a B. But that is not a problem. B has a market value too.

Hey, that's some of the soundest advice I've ever heard! I'll quote you from now on if you don't mind.

bonzarei wrote:French exam

Dear bonzarey!

Don't fret, the exam is different for French A's and the rest.

Essentially the exam is the same in structure and content. The difference is that for non-French A the exam is only terribly difficult, while for French A's it's insanely difficult

Now, seriously, don't worry. It's just an exam to check two things:
- First, that you level of French is up the mark
- Second that you can comprehend difficult texts and reason.

The best training you can have is get a copy of past exams. There are only a few of them, so if you can get a private tutor to create similar exercises, you're on it.

One piece of advice, though. The admissibility exam is, what, in March? Don't go looking for them in February, you are not going to find them. And let me tell you, ESIT students deep in a working session do not appreciate being interrupted by whiners trying to find copies of the annals way too late.
(I don't mean you, of course, but it has happened, and it's very annying. I'm just venting againts them)

So, try to get them early. The publish a limited number of copies, and run out of them quickly. I had my copy by October.

I have a little question: are you able however to have some student job over your studies in that school?....

Weeeeell... if it's is part time and/or with an extremely flexible schedule, then yes. It's difficult, though.
I translated, which I could do morning or evening, whenever I was free. But it was not easy.

didine wrote:

Kristiina wrote:Sorry if I'm so boring, but why could't you have finnish C at ESIT? Because it's not among the "langues de travail"

That's it. But it wasn't an obstacle, I added it later on, after I graduated.

Hello, and thanks for the useful information you are providing here

1) I think about what are "usual" language combination, and about the market demand.
Do ESIT students have to/ can they add another language to their language combination, during the master courses? I suppose they have to already speak that new language proficiently...

Didine, you are saying that you had French/English/Polish/Russian at ESIT, ans now, that you have graduated, you use the interpreting methods to Finnish, in your professional activity?

I have A Romanian, B French, C English, not extremely unusual....

2) as for the work amount at ESIT, is it 45 hours a week? And the (warmly!!!) recommended practice with your colleagues, "homework", projects students have to write, newspaper reading, television watching.... all this is another part of the continuous interpreting training, isn't it?

Thank you all!
and I believe you that despite all the sacrifices and the "rough" life here, the interpreting work is worth, once you've passed through hell!