The annual Fall Forum hosted by the Monterey Institute of International Studies Graduate School of Translation, Interpretation and Language Education, held in early November, chose a provocative theme: Communication through Technology. The Forum is a school-wide event that is masterminded, hosted and interpreted entirely by second-year Translation and Interpretation students to showcase their consecutive interpreting skills. 15 guest speakers presented at the event and 25 student interpreters had the opportunity to practice their consecutive interpreting skills.
This year’s program kicked off with a series of position statements delivered in Spanish, Chinese, French, Japanese, Korean and Russian, all of which were interpreted consecutively into English. Speakers’ concerns ranged from the pros and cons of social networking, privacy protection, state covert internet surveillance, the role of technology in the classroom, and identity theft, to the impact of technology on global climate change. These presentations were followed by a panel discussion on the same topic by speakers and panelists all speaking their native language and interpreted into English. The panel featured guest speakers from the Naval Postgraduate School, the Defense Language Institute, Google, the Stanford Hopkins Marine Station, as well as from the MIIS community.
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