Anthony Pym, visiting researcher at GSTILE, is in Brussels on October 25 to present the results of a one-year research project on Translation and Language Teaching.
The presentation will be part of the DGT’s Translation Studies Days, to be webcast live: http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/translation/publications/studies/.
The research has been carried out for the European Commission’s Directorate General for Translation. Professor Pym is the lead investigator, with input from the European Society for Translation Studies, the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom, and over 100 experts contacted worldwide.
The research shows that there is no strong empirical evidence that the creative use of translation has a negative effect on the learning of a foreign language.
The Executive Summary can be downloaded here.
The final report can be downloaded here.
While in Europe, Professor Pym will be in Tarragona on October 24 for the public defenses of two doctoral dissertations that he has supervised: Postediting Machine Translation Output and its Revision: Professional Translators versus Subject-Matter Experts, by Özlem Temizöz, and Training for the Translation Market in Turkey: an Analysis of Curricula and Stakeholders, by Volga Tilmaz-Gümüs.
For the third consecutive summer, Professor Cas Shulman-Mora taught and directed the International Conference Interpretation Practicum at the Universidad Internacional Menéndez 
Pelayo in Santander, Spain. She was joined again this summer by teaching assistant Arielle Weisman (MATI 2011). This year, the course included a large contingent of current MIIS students and alumni: Susana Piñón (MACI 1999), Laura Merino (MACI 2011), Katerina Borghi (MATI candidate 2014), and Miguel García (MACI candidate 2014).
During the two-week course, Spaniards who recently graduated from interpretation programs at local universities, as well as professional interpreters from Belgium and Romania, worked alongside the MIIS students and graduates interpreting in mute booths at live conferences held at the seaside Spanish conference center. One of the bonuses of having such a diverse group of participants was that the MIIS students had the chance to network with Monterey Institute alums who are already active in the Spanish market, as well as other interpreters who primarily work at the European institutions.
The conferences covered a wide variety of topics, such as smart cities, psychology, immigration policy, and how to write a crime novel. Exposure to high-level material enabled participants to hone their skills in an authentic environment while receiving extensive feedback on their interpretation. Because the conference topics change every summer, some interpreters have even opted to repeat the course two years in a row.
All in all, the camaraderie and conference material—not to mention living and working in a turn-of-the-century former royal palace located on the scenic northern coast of Spain—made this summer practicum an informative and enjoyable experience for students and working professionals alike.
On September 9-10, 2013, Chinese T&I students Chung-kuan Chen (MACI ‘14) and Yanbo Wang (MACI ’14) will join twenty contestants from world-renowned interpreting programs in the first Chinese-English Simultaneous Interpreting Competition, to be held at Newcastle University in the U.K. A total of nine T&I programs from the U.S., the U.K. and Taiwan are represented in the competition. The format of the competition is a series of keynote speeches in a simulated conference with English and Mandarin Chinese as the working languages. The panel of judges includes experienced conference interpreting practitioners and educators from world-leading interpreter education institutions and international organizations, who will also give comments and feedback to the participants. Professor Wallace Chen (GSTILE) is invited to sit on the panel of judges at the competition. Mr Nöel Muylle, Honorary Director General of the European Commission, is the convener of the competition.
Professor Miryoung Sohn visited Ewha Womans University in Seoul to sign a Memorandum of Understanding between MIIS GSTILE and Ewha GSTI on student exchange. The signing took place on 6/14 with the Dean Lee Jin Young of GSTI and other GSTI faculty members present. Provost Amy Sands was also present at the signing.
MIIS hopes to attract more qualified Ewha GSTI graduates into the T&I program through this MOU.
Professor Kavenoki spoke on June 3, 2013 at the 5th Industry of Translation and Interpretation International Conference in Perm, Russia on the T&I Market in the United States, Russia, and Other Geographic Locations in the Russian-English Combination. The conference was held at the National Research Polytechnic University.
She also gave an open lecture on June 5, 2013. The topic of this lecture was the training of T&I Professionals in the United States.
To view an article about the conference (in Russian), please click here.
Chinese T & I Professor Minhua Liu is the new Co-Editor of Interpreting: International Journal of Research and Practice in Interpreting
Beginning with the Spring 2013 issue published in March, Professor Minhua Liu started her tenure as the new Co-Editor of Interpreting, the field’s premier academic journal. Interpreting was established in 1996, and for the past eight years was edited by Dr. Franz Pöchhacker and Dr. Miriam Shlesinger, who passed away in 2012. Dr. Liu comes to the journal with eight years of experience as a member of the advisory board, and as a former contributor to the journal. Dr. Liu brings to Interpreting her research expertise in working memory and testing, as well as her experience working in Asia and the U.S. as a conference interpreter and as a teacher and director at Taiwan’s first T & I graduate institute. For more information about Interpreting, click on any of the Interpreting hyperlinks or contact Professor Liu at mliu@miis.edu.
Guest Lecture
on Arab Spring, organized by the Arabic Studies Program.
Prof. Alaa Eligibali from the University of Maryland will speak Thursday, April 4th, from 2:15pm to 1:15pm in McGowan 100.
A little more than two years ago, parts of the Arab world experienced what later came to be known as the Arab Spring. Initial world and domestic consensus of hope and optimism are turning into ambivalence and even skepticism. As chaos claims the day, many wonder if that spring has turned into a true Arab spring of sand storms and poor visibility. Was the imagery drawn for the Arab revolutions indeed prophetic?
As part of the MIIS International Bazaar, the second-year Korean T&I students will be showing the film “Dancing Queen” which they’ve been subtitling as part of their Translation project.
Come support the second-years, and get a look at their hard work in action!
“When people mention Lydia and me at the same time, one thing [that] stands out is the dinner we had on Monday evenings for so many years…
Even though I’ve lived in this country for many years, I still, naturally, prefer Chinese food. Lydia knew my preference, so she always suggested that we go to a Chinese restaurant, and for quite a few years, our Monday dinner restaurant was the Great Wall – almost exclusively. Several times I suggested that we eat in a restaurant of a Western style, but she would always reply that SHE preferred Chinese food. However, I knew that she was only accommodating me.
We talked about a wide range of topics, including culture, politics, language, literature and, of course – translation. Lydia liked to emphasize the importance of language and literature and said several times that even though our students are not going to work in the area of literature, some amount of literary training is still necessary. She liked to unpack condensed language in difficult texts and I am so grateful that I have benefited so much from those language talks.
Once, when we were stepping out of the restaurant, we looked up to see a bright full moon in the deep blue sky. ‘The Postmodern Moon’, I exclaimed. Lydia was so happy to see the moon and agreed with my description of the moon. Yet later, neither of us had any idea how I could link this moon with postmodernism. There must be some reason, perhaps over the dinner, our topic was postmodernism, or perhaps we talked about some postmodern guys and mentioned deconstruction. There is no way for us to recover that memory. But that is not important. The important thing is that since that night, whenever we saw a bright moon together, we would say to each other “The ‘Postmodern Moon’. Lydia, if by any chance, you now know that ‘something’ that linked that bright moon to postmodernism, I would like one last chance to discuss it.
Thank you, Lydia.”
~ Excepts from a memorial speech given by T&I Professor Zinan Ye