Tag Archives: La Laguna

Creating a better classroom experience: Workshop for interpreter trainers in Tenerife

The summer professional development season is swiftly approaching, and it’s my pleasure to announce that my colleagues at the University of La Laguna have decided to offer something new this year. This June, Dick Fleming and I will be running a Training of Trainers (ToT) workshop here on Tenerife as part of the University’s INTTRA training initiative.

The ToT workshop will focus on practical tips and tricks for teaching in both on-site and virtual interpreting classrooms. It will run over the course of three days at the end of June and be held in the sunny southern end of the island (yes, there are plenty of beaches nearby 😉 ).

I’m very excited about this new ToT initiative. The aim is to create a bridge between the more “traditional” forms of classroom-based learning and new approaches in the virtual sphere. We’ll be combining Dick’s years of experience training on-site at the European Commission in Brussels with the lessons I have learned while cutting my teeth over the past few years in the virtual classroom. Together, we’ll examine best practice in both settings and explore how on-site lessons can be adapted for virtual delivery, among other things. Participants will be encouraged to bring along their own questions and case studies for discussion in the group, and will run practical exercises to put ideas into practice. I know from past ToT experiences that great things happen when interpreter trainers come together – and this time as well, I am counting on watching the ideas fly!

To find out more about the workshop and consult the detailed schedule, please check out our infomation page. To reserve your spot, you can either drop us a line at masteric@ull.es or pre-register on the INTTRA workshop page.

Hope to see you in June!

Aspiring Interpreters: Where Will You Be Next Fall?

It may feel a bit strange to be thinking already about what you’re planning to do next autumn, seeing as how spring has only recently sprung and September seems eons away. However, if you are thinking you might like to study to become a conference interpreter, NOW is the time to be putting in applications to the postgraduate programs starting in the fall.

The University of La Laguna is no exception to this rule. The coordinators here at the Master’s in Conference Interpreting are doing most of their planning for the 2013-14 academic year as we speak. The deadline for submitting an application for next year’s program is May 15th, just under two weeks away, so if you are thinking you might like to come study under the swaying palms of La Laguna’s Guajara campus, you must get your paperwork in now.

La Laguna Guajara Campus

In case you’re wondering what it’s like to study interpreting in La Laguna, you can find a description the MIC program in a prior post here on the Diaries (Portrait of a Conference Interpreting Course). Fellow blogger Clara at Bootheando published an in-depth post on the La Laguna course not too long ago as well. You can also consult the MIC website, which offers plenty of guidance and more than a few videos explaining the ins and outs of the program (not to mention the details of the aptitude tests, among other things).

Remember, the MIC does not just train Spanish interpreters. Applications are accepted from native speakers of other major European languages such as German and English (that’s my group!). The full list of prerequisites can be found here, and details on how to apply are here.

So, aspiring interpreters: I hope to see you in La Laguna this fall!

The ULL’s Interpreter Training Courses on the Social Media

Many of you will have noticed by now that the Master’s in Conference Interpreting (MIC) where I teach recently joined the social media. They’ve created a Facebook page, where they share photos and videos of what’s happening on the course, as well as useful links for aspiring interpreters. They’re also on Twitter at @MIC_ULL. And for those of you who have already made the leap over to Google+, you’ll find them there too, at the MIC ULL page.

So if you’re studying conference interpreting or thinking you might like to do so at some point, why not like, follow or circle the people at the MIC? I’m sure you won’t regret it!

If you’d like to know more about what we do down here at the University of La Laguna, then check out this video in Spanish by Carmen, a fellow instructor on the course. Or you can watch this video I recorded recently:

I’m told plans are afoot at the MIC to launch a blog and Youtube channel as well, so please watch this space (and the MIC pages I’ve given you above) for more news on that.

But that’s not all …

The MIC has a sister program, the EUTISC, that trains community interpreters. I’m pleased to announce that the Experto Universitario en Traducción y Interpretación para los Servicios Comunitarios has also jumped on the social media bandwagon. You’ll find the EUTISC on Twitter at @EUTISC. They’ve also created a Facebook page where they share resources for healthcare, legal and community interpreters as well as news on training.

To hear more about the EUTISC and the work of community interpreters or language mediators, watch the video by Marlene, the course coordinator:

To conclude, let me just say that if any of this has piqued your interest and you think you’d like to apply to either of these courses, applications and inquiries are now being taken for the 2012-2013 academic year.

See you in La Laguna!