MAIT-3: Placement at the European Union and the second semester!

Wow. I have neglected this blog. A lot.
It has been absolutely ages since I updated the blog (like, last year?). This masters has been hectic, no joke. I had initially planned to start writing these updates back in Easter and that didn’t happen because I actually had a fair bit of work to catch up on. I re-attempted after my exams but with tight deadlines for my dissertation work and getting sucked into not actually doing anything when my real responsibilities were more or less dealt with, it’s now August and yet here I am. I can now work on the blog and update you on the whirlwind that the past few months have been. I will split this beast of an update into different posts, so you don’t end up on overload. You’re welcome. Here we go.
Let’s begin by rewinding all the way back to January… 

Back in January I only had two official exams, which were translation. They went quite well, although I’ll never forget the panic when I saw the title of one of the Spanish texts –‘El sarampión’ – and I though, omg, I have no clue what that is in English… But I was saved by the very short glossary stating what the MMR vaccine is. I decided to reward myself for the exams and work over the holidays with two trips to the cinema, to watch two historical films: The Favourite and Mary Queen of Scots. I really liked both of them but The Favourite was, sure enough, my favourite *badumtsss*
We did have some interpreting mocks during revision week in January, which happened to be straight after my placement in Brussels. These were quite interesting… But more on that after I talk about my placement…

SCIC VISIT – PLACEMENT AT THE EUROPEAN UNION IN BRUSSELS

My placement was a 3 day study visit organised by DG LINC and DG SCIC (28th to 30th January). Since it was in Brussels and our hotel was paid from Sunday to Wednesday, Manon, Katie and I decided to take the Eurostar on the Saturday and spend an extra night so we could do some exploring. I hadn’t been to Brussels since first year and it felt like I was coming full circle, being back five years later to actually practice in the interpreting booths! Weather was not amazing and it rained (and snowed!), but we did some sightseeing nonetheless! Lots of chocolate samples and waffles were eaten and it just felt like a short but sweet interpreting holiday with my peers.
Actual placement was amazing though! Monday was induction day and we had different staff members give us talks about how the interpreting services work in the EU, what the recruitment process is like, how to prepare for meetings and actually prepare for our Wednesday meeting… It was all so interesting and we had all our questions answered. We went along with some students from Hungary whom we chatted with over lunch and they were so nice! Overall I really enjoyed the first day, it felt unreal!
On Tuesday we were scheduled to go to the European Parliament. It was insane to actually be in the booths while meetings were going on. We got to do some dummy interpreting in small groups for some meetings on the principle of sovereignty and also climate change. I attempted both ways, from Spanish and French to English, and from English to Spanish. It was really hard work and, although I really enjoyed it, I have quite a way to go until I feel confident enough to attempt the exams. Future goals though… 

Wednesday was our final day (I did say short but sweet). The meeting we had been assigned to that day was at the Europa Building, discussing some directives on consumer rights. It was very detailed and complicated, so we were all glad that we had done some meeting preparation beforehand. Our chaperone interpreters were all so friendly and encouraging; it was great to have the chance to ask questions about their careers and what it’s like to work for the institutions.
I think my placement was very useful. It gave me a real feel of what the daily life of an EU interpreter is like (and also a reality-check!). The path to the institutions will be a long one for me but I don’t mind, I have so much more to learn and experience and there is no hurry! I’m only 22…
In regards to the mocks, we had them straight after our placement. Literally, French was on Thursday. We were all super tired but made it to the test. However, that same evening it began snowing quite heavily, which meant the Spanish mocks on Friday had to be rearranged… It ended up being a relaxed day with fellow course mates out in the snow on Bathwick Fields, snowball fight and snowman included. Sadly, the snow also meant that I missed Megan’s birthday weekend in London, but I got to see her in March instead.

THE COURSE

This second semester was intense, like the first one. The bar was raised a fair bit, which I think caught quite a lot of us off-guard. It was now not just learning the technique, but applying it as well as possible. Because the course is so intense, we didn’t really have time to practice our technique and assimilate everything properly and that made us even more nervous about the exams coming up at the end of the semester… Again, we continued with the interpreting units, consecutive and simultaneous for both of our languages, as well as the two translation units. I continued to audit Editing and Revision, I don’t know how because I didn’t really have the time, but it was worth it if not simply for Teresa’s funny remarks in class. I also audited another module called ‘Using technology in the I&T industry’ which was essentially a crash course on MemoQ, a computer-assited translation tool. It was useful but I really have to sit down and practice with the software. 

This semester I had an optional extra interpreting module which was Public Service and Commercial Interpreting. Of course, I chose Spanish and English for it, why make my life any harder? It was fun but it also made me realise how rusty my Spanish has become. I just couldn’t conjure up the words I needed or I’d say a phrase that I knew sounded kind of weird… It’s hard to explain to someone who is not a linguist. How can you start to forget your mother tongue? But I was certainly out of practice, having spoken English for the better part of the last five years. I’m working on it again now, but it’s a slow process. HOW DO MULTILINGUALS DEAL WITH KEEPING UP ALL THEIR LANGUAGES? ANY HELP IS APPRECIATED! What I will say is thank-you for this module for boosting my average because some of my French final marks were dire…
A new element which was introduced this final semester were the mini-conferences. These were small UN-like meetings on different topics, in which some of us would act as delegates and others would be interpreters. They were useful practice as we would be in the booth with another team-member who maybe shared one language with you, but you were basically on your own and the delegates actually needed your interpretation to follow the discussion. It was fairly realistic, although I think we generally didn’t put as much effort as we should have because we didn’t have time to research the topics properly unless you were a delegate and had to make up speeches on the topic (which I was two or three times, both for Spanish and French-speaking countries). Some topics were more interesting than others, but overall they were tiring but useful two-hour sets of interpreting every fortnight (or more often depending on the rota!). 

That’s it for my first update, I will keep the rest coming until I’ve covered what I’ve been up to over the past few months. Thanks for being so patient!

Zoe x

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