Course in consecutive and simultaneous interpreting - 2008

Purpose and General Description of the Course

Designed for people who wished to begin studies in interpretation, the course was offered by EIZIE (the Association of Translators, Correctors and Interpreters of the Basque Language; Euskal Itzultzaile, Zuzentzaile eta Interpreteen Elkartea) to familiarize students with and train them in specific techniques of translation, and was aimed at both those who had not had the opportunity to pursue such studies before, and those who had not yet put their knowledge of the topic into practice.

The course consisted of 60 hours of study, organized into two segments of 30 hours each, which were further divided into 3-hour class sessions. The first segment taught consecutive translation, which is considered to provide a strong basis for training in simultaneous translation, and the second taught simultaneous interpretation. The course was held from September to November of 2008 at the School of Liberal Arts of the University of the Basque Country (Facultad de Letras de la EHU-UPV) in Vitoria-Gasteiz.

The course was co-organized with the Official Translation Service of the Basque Government (Servicio Oficial de Traducción del Gobierno Vasco), with the collaboration of the University of the Basque Country.

Program

Consecutive Interpretation

1. Historical and theoretical introduction to interpretation
2. Types of interpretation and their uses
3. The importance of oratory and oral expression; practice time
4. Working on memory
5. Summarizing and restating
6. Note-taking techniques
7. Practice time on consecutive interpretation
8. The use of sight translation in consecutive interpretation

Simultaneous Interpretation

1. Breathing techniques and techniques for correct pronunciation
2. Oratory and oral expression; practice time
3. Paraphrasing
4. Listening exercises (listen and repeat, listen and summarize, etc.)
5. Simultaneous translation of written texts
6. Consecutive translation and simultaneous translation: how to integrate the two techniques
7. Exercises in simultaneous translation