CHINESE-ITALIAN SIMULTANEOUS INTERPRETING MOD.2

The language skills acquired enable university graduates to successfully perform simultaneous and consecutive interpreting and language mediation services. Graduates can carry out professional activities in the field of international relations; they can work as freelance professionals or as permanent translators or interpreters at the EU and at international institutions. They can also provide to companies, institutions and public and private bodies operating in multinational companies, adequate linguistic, oral and written assistance (including translation and editing of texts) .

- understanding communication and conference interpreting issues;
- understanding speeches in Chinese, including technical speeches, by preparing appropriate glossaries;
- being familiar with both traditional and digital search tools, as well as being familiar with software and tools necessary to work as a conference interpreter;
- expressing yourself fluently and effortlessly in Chinese;
- simultaneously translating speeches from/into Chinese, using the relevant technical terminology in an appropriate manner;
- using in full autonomy traditional and digital search tools, as well as being familiar with software and tools necessary to carry out the profession of conference interpreter to responsibly develop, manage and evaluate complex interpretation projects;
- analysing and assessing the speeches to be interpreted;
- applying the most suitable strategies to each professional environment and to the most complex communicative situations;
- motivating choices and formulating opinions also in relation to professional ethics and to the practical aspects involved in conference interpreting.

To access the course, it is required to have a level of oral and written Chinese language proficiency not lower than HSK4 (level B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages - CEFR). It is also essential to have a perfect knowledge of the Italian language, a rich vocabulary and oral and written expression skills.

The course aims at enhancing and perfecting the simultaneous interpretation skills acquired during the first year, helping to develop the ability to perform at the same time the cognitive, linguistic, communicative and interactional operations that this activity requires.
The lessons will include activities aimed at strengthening the ability to listen, understand, process, memorise and record speeches in the source language (SL) and to produce them in the target language (TL).
In particular, students will focus on perfecting simultaneous interpretation techniques by interpreting speeches on relevant issues ( Covid-19, sustainable development, human rights, financial crisis, climate change, ...) based on real events. In addition, they will learn how to prepare for interpreting technical speeches.

Recommended texts:

- Caterina Falbo, Mariachiara Russo, Francesco Straniero Sergio "Interpretazione simultanea e consecutiva: problemi teorici e metodologie didattiche" Hoepli, Milano, 1999
- The didactic materials will be uploaded on the MOODLE platform.

The exam will consist of a simultaneous interpretation test from Chinese into Italian. During the examination, students will be asked to demonstrate their ability to prepare adequately for a short mock conference in which they will be asked to interpret technical speeches by using the techniques perfected during the lessons.
The criteria according to which students will be assessed are the following:
accuracy in content delivery (25%);
correct use of language (25%);
ability to apply the interpretation strategies learned (25%);
fluid and dynamic speech delivery (25%).

The course will be mainly focused on simultaneous interpretation exercises of real speeches of political-economic, general and technical nature. The speeches to be interpreted will consist of a selection of recordings and video extracts from conferences or other public meetings chosen by the professor.
With regard to the teaching methods adopted, the students will carry out various exercises aimed at improving their performance. In particular, it will be essential that the teacher and the students themselves give their feedback on the communicative aspects of the speeches produced during the exercises (register, style, prosody, disfluencies, etc.).

Italian

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