‘One of the students in my interpreter training class in Shanghai was an in-house translator/interpreter at Jaguar Land Rover. She told me today that her boss complimented her on the improvement in the quality of her interpreting. Eleven days of hard work paid off. She was very happy. So was I.’ – Dr Kevin Lin
The annual Post-MA Professional Training kicks off today. The training is designed to bring participants as close as possible to the KL standard of professional interpreting. All twenty of them are from leading universities in the UK – Surrey, Bath, Nottingham, Leeds and Durham. They’ll be in our office twice a week to receive training and testing, and will also need to complete a substantial amount of homework at the end of their working day. An essential part of the training concerns professional standards and so participants will be subject to the same rules and requirements of KL staff interpreters. At the end of November, the very best participants will be offered full-time contracts and will join the KL team in the New Year.
Kevin starts his annual summer series of interpreter training courses in China today. In addition to Beijing and Shanghai, he’s adding Chengdu in central China this year. The courses are hosted by Ce Ma, the leading translator and interpreter training organisation in China. They are run during university winter and summer holidays to allow interpreter wannabees on campuses to receive training directly from Kevin. The training is as intensive as it is effective. Here is the proof – two of our current staff interpreters were recruited from participants of previous courses.
KL provided interpreting at Royal Ascot this year for the very first time, and for our interpreter it was particularly exciting and challenging because horse racing in China is nothing like as well developed as it is in the UK. There’s a huge amount of terminology which simply doesn’t exist in Chinese and so our interpreter had to spend many hours researching equivalent terms to effectively and creatively bring the sport to life in Chinese. Our ‘racing expert’ has been requested again and is re-visiting this topic on Sunday with a trip to a stud farm. Any topic. Any occasion.
Brexit can mean one of two things to us. It can be negative. China has always seen the UK as a gateway to Europe. Brexit can be read in China as the UK losing that attraction. This can mean fewer bi-lateral events and activities requiring our services in the UK. Brexit can also be positive. It may reinvigorate UK efforts to grow its relationship with China. The UK will also be free to negotiate a free trade agreement with China. Both can mean an increase in demand for our services.
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