A Community of Practice for Interpreting: the missing link

T ime has come to let go of secrets. Mine is simple: every year, at the same period, I feel stressed out and lost. Make no mistake, it always coincides with teaching a new cohort of interpreting students... More than 40 postgraduate interpreting students have entrusted me to bring them through a personal and professional journey  of learning and discovery. They have paid money and made sacrifices with the hope that their interpreting career can take off and allow them to earn a living, gain satisfaction and make progression. Every year, the same symptoms creep in about one week before the teaching starts; I feel I do not know anything. A spiral of thoughts and doubts bombard my confidence and I am reduced to a nervous wreck. I anticipate the joys, think about the students I interviewed, the work we will do together and the development of professional lives including mine. What is normally positive becomes paralysing. However hard I try, I cannot convince myself that it will be

This week, on the 11th and 12th September, I attended a very good interpreting conference in Newcastle University:   talking to the world . Two days of inspiring presentations and discussions, networking and socialising with interpreting on centre stage. I always feel it is a privilege to take part in such forums. One presentation in particular grabbed my attention; t he role of the educational interpreter: A dynamic model by  Herculene Kotzé,  North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa . Herculene explains how at a superficial level the role of the interpreter seems to be well defined in most codes of conduct, despite some controversies. In South Africa, there are 11 official languages . As such, universities face the true challenge to decide on their language strategy and choose official languages to use in the classroom and still remain inclusive. North West University, Potchefstroom decided to use English and Afrikaans. As such, educational interpreters are used to in

Photo taken from NewTrendsinManagement:  http://newtrendsinmanagement.wikispaces.com/Communities+of+Practice The summer holidays are now officially over. Even though I have worked all summer on PhD research and admissions of interpreting students for the master's interpreting programmes at London Metropolitan University, I have enjoyed the flexibility, balanced meals and the luxury of eight hours sleep of the August period. It is now time to get ready and juggle with the numerous balls in the air...  timetable... language combinations...  resources... conferences... communication with students... Facebook page... staff meetings and so on. I have to confess that I actually love it! Y esterday I received an invitation to speak at Hogeschool Universiteit Brussel  HUB  about the  Communities of Practice spirit that enhances a collaborative approach in interpreting courses. When speaking to the course leader asking for further details on what participants would benefit from, I

In my previous post, I presented the three essential ingredients for a Communities of Practice to exist,  as presented by Etienne Wenger . However, let's have a quick recap. Remember what they are?  - a Domain        - a Community   - a Practice Excellent, you remember them all. Let's now try and see if these ingredients work 'in real life'. Today, I would like to illustrate the 'theory' with a concrete example: the Public Service Interpreting and Translation Network Group  (PSITNG). A few words about the PSITNG; the group was launched in 2008. Founding members of the PSITNG are mostly representatives of the PSIT industry who were consulted during the curriculum design of the new Master's in Public Service Interpreting - MAPSI (Health and Legal ) at London Metropolitan University. As course leader of Master programmes in interpreting, I invested quite a lot of time and energy making sure the MAPSI was meeting the needs of the profe

picture:  http://www.sdc-migration.ch/en/Home/About_the_Network/Community_of_Practice I seem to be going on and on about Communities of Practice (CoP). But I can already hear your questions. What are these so important-much-talked-about-in-your-blog communities of practice? Why do you spend so much energy on communities of practice? What difference do they make? A PhD about Communities of Practice for Interpreting? Are you sure? It is only fair that I dedicate some time to explain and make you think about Communities of Practice. That's what this blog is all about; a platform to chat and bounce ideas at each other so that I can 'test' some of my findings and you may test some of yours! I am a very down to earth person who needs to 'do' things. A PhD is a great idea but there is no way I am going to spend so much effort speaking to myself for the sake of getting a PhD. Pointless. I am using the PhD as a framework to help me think, reflect and structure

Whilst researching Communities of Practice (CoP) as a model for interpreting studies, I increasingly realised, even though I was already aware of it, that interpreters have often been considered to be rare souls and as such quite unique . Rare  and unique  are not the first two features that come to mind when considering Community of Practice (CoP) as a possible framework for interpreting studies or indeed the interpreting profession. Rare and unique But let's take a leap back in time and explore who interpreters were in Antiquity. Interpreters were found where there was a need to solve or avoid conflicts, negotiate business or public relations or indeed, in courts where 'foreigners' were tried. As such their status varied. The Greeks considered interpreters as semi gods; they used the words ' translator'  or  'interpreter'  indifferently which meant ' a human being who performs one of this god's numerous activities (including lin

TODAY IS THE DAY!  Finally, I have found the time to start my blog. ' Why bother ' is the question that comes to mind. There are already so many blogs. Do I really have the time to sit down, write on a regular basis and keep my audience interested? Only time and you my reader will tell.Time is a concept that is highly personal. Some people never have the time, others seem to make the time. I will hopefully make the time, at least this is what I intend to do. Community of Practice for Interpreting: the missing link  will host information, contributions from guests and personal views on the concept of communities of practice, education, interpreting studies and new technology. These areas of interest reflect my professional and research life.  As an   Associate Professor  in interpreting studies at London Metropolitan University  and Course Leader for MA Interpreting , MA Conference Interpreting and MA Public Service Interpreting (Health and Legal) , I have been