by bonzarey on Sun Oct 25, 2009 6:43 pm
Hello,
I don't know about the MSc course but I did do the undergraduate course, the MA.
The lecturers are or have been interpreters and/or translators. My French and Spanish classes were all taught by native speakers. For final year students we had mini conferences in 5 languages every 2 weeks, so a similar or more frequent system must be in place. We did translation, written composition, liaison, spoken, consecutive and simultaneous (1 class) and International Organisations. In this last class the MSc students were also present. We did NATO, UN, EU, and had a project to hand in and a written exam with 3 essays to be completed in 3 hours.
As far as reputation goes, I would say it is good. It has links with ESIT, ISIT (I did my 3rd year there and in ISTI Mexico), as well as other schools that appear in the AIIC directory in Belgium and Germany (Brussels, Heidelberg, Saarbrucken). The facilities are very good - I was shocked when I went abroad (3 classes with about 10 soundproof booths in each, and more with open booths, TVs) - and we had labs with about 15 or so (open) booths where we could practise. There were lots of speech pratice tapes and at the time (2005) there were videos of the news in various languages, although this may have changed to something a bit more modern (or not!).
The uni itself is good - about 30 mins from Edinburgh, you can basically live quite isolated and study 24/7 if that's what you like! What I mean is that it's like its own community, with shops, sports facilities and bars. The halls of residence were divided and final year and postgrad students are generally kept away from the 1st years, although as with everywhere noise was sometimes a problem at weekends. The more expensive halls are best. If not, Edinburgh is close but it means travelling every day and not being able to cram from 8am till 11pm in exam time. There are lots of students from all over the world and French, German and Spanish exchange students in the actual school of languages.
I hope this helps, but I'm afraid I only did the undergraduate course. However, I do think they have a good programme and I don't think you would be disappointed if you went there. They generally interview you anyway so you would see it all before you went.
Incidentally, I do NOT want to do my Master there because I feel it would be better to do it in my B or C language country, not because of anything to do with the uni itself.
On ne fait bien les choses que si l'on a très envie de les faire
