Every time Jinny and Irina attend an ATA conference, they wish they could be in several places at the same time. The conference in Boston offered such an overabundance of fascinating meetings, workshops, and presentations; choosing which one to go to posed a major challenge. While attending sessions, welcoming visitors at the IEO booth, socializing with language professionals from all over the globe, and conducting presentations, Jinny and Irina hardly noticed the four days in Boston go by.
This year, Irina delivered two presentations: Coping with Challenges of Simultaneous Interpretation into Russian in Courtroom Settings and Distance Interpreter Education: Benefits, Challenges, and Perspectives (with Nestor Wagner of Southern California School of Interpretation as a co-presenter). Both sessions were received with great enthusiasm and interest.
The session on virtual interpreter training attracted interpreter educators, court and hospital administrators, and e-learning specialists and stirred a fruitful discussion on online learning. While only a handful of the attendees are currently engaged in online education, the general consensus of the room after the presentation was that online learning is the way of the future and a great opportunity to expand the ranks of qualified professional interpreters nationwide and across the globe.
Tom Fennell, an English > Russian legal translator, commended the hands-on practical approach of Irina’s workshop on simultaneous interpretation. The participants offered brilliant solutions to challenging linguistic problems and discussed problematic court terminology. Due to time restraints, one of the discussions on an appropriate Russian equivalent to the term probation was left unfinished, and in continuation of this discussion, Irina offers a short terminology research piece for Russian interpreters and translators: “Probation” in the Criminal Justice System.
It was wonderful to see many of our current and past students in person and learn about their accomplishments. We look forward to next year’s conference in San Diego, CA.
For more information about the conference, please visit http://www.atanet.org/conf/2011/index.htm .
