Second-year interpreter Liu Chang took fifthplace at the 5th Cross-Strait Consecutive Interpreting Competition which was held on October 19th at Xiamen University in Xiamen, Fujian Province, PRC. Ms. Liu was in competition with 25 talented student interpreters from the major Chinese translation and interpreting programs at universities in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the U.S., and the U.K. There were three categories of consecutive interpreting covered: gist, conference, and dialogue.

Please join us in congratulating Liu Chang on her achievement! For more information, please visit http://www.xiadakouyi.com/dasai-update.htm (site in Chinese).

We sat down with Liu Chang to ask her a few questions about her experience:

Q: How was it? Was it intense?

C: Yes, of course. It was quite different from what we did in class. I was interpreting in front of several hundred students, most of whom were trained to be interpreters. And you know you were judged for every word you said.

Q: Do you find your training here at MIIS helpful to your performance?

C: Of course! Both during the dialogue, which was both into English and Chinese, and the speech, which was into Chinese only. These are the skills that I’ve been practicing at MIIS, so they were quite helpful. After the contest, I had people from the audience, mostly students, approaching me, saying how much they’d enjoyed my performance. That’s quite encouraging!

Being a student at MIIS already gives you a lot of advantages: professional training, star professors/practitioners, and an immersive learning environment, which is critical for any language learner. For example, I saw competitors with great skills but who struggled with their languages, both Chinese and English. So definitely, being a MIIS student is at a great advantage. There were contestants coming to me, asking about my study here and how to apply. It made me feel proud as one of the MIIS mafia. MIIS is highly regarded in Chinese interpreting circles.

Q: Fall forum is coming. Do you feel more comfortable interpreting for a large audience?

C: I was there last year. The format and the scale was similar to the contest that I was in. The challenge is also the same: you are interpreting in front of a bilingual audience. If you get something wrong, you will know it right away because you can hear murmuring coming from the audience. Really, if you can pull if off, you are ready for anything. There are as many professionals watching your performance as you would ever expect to have. That being said, it can also be encouraging. As most of them understand both languages and our profession, you know they appreciate your effort. So fall forum is a great opportunity to show what we’ve got.

Q: Anything you’d like to say to our potential audience?

C: Come and join us! Watch our performance and see how far we have come within just one year.

Congratulations again, Liu Chang! You made us all proud!