Why Interpreters Should Forget About Quality (and concentrate on value)

by Jonathan Downie How can we define “quality” in interpreting? What does it mean to be a “good interpreter”? Before I answer that, let me tell you a little story. I was doing chuchotage interpreting at a wood industry conference. The first plenary talk was given by an economist. This particular economist crammed as many […]


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Call for papers! Special issue on Signed Language Interpreting and Translation

Translation and Interpreting Studies Special Issue Signed Language Interpreting and Translation CALL FOR PAPERS Guest Editors Laurie Swabey, St. Catherine University Brenda Nicodemus, Gallaudet University Translation and Interpreting Studies (John Benjamins) invites proposals for a special thematic issue on signed language interpretation and translation to be published in April of 2018.  The editors aim to […]


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Intensive Interpreting Practice – Easter Course 2015 !

In April this year Heriot-Watt University will be running an Intensive Interpreting Practice CPD course. The course is designed for: Interpreting students who are in the middle of their training and wish to improve both their English skills and their Interpreting skills. Professional interpreters who would like to improve their English, either with the intention of making it […]


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3rd Edinburgh Interpreting Research Summer School!

The 3rd Edinburgh Interpreting Research Summer School (EIRSS) will take place from 22 – 26 June 2015 ! EIRSS 2015 offers intensive research training for existing and future scholars in any field of Interpreting and will include lectures from our Guest Speaker Claudia Monacelli as well as leading Heriot-Watt Speakers, including Professor Ian Mason. It will be […]


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Collaboration and innovation to explore sign language brokering experiences

by Jemina Napier Click here to see this post in British Sign Language Previous blogs have reported how I am conducting research on experiences of language brokering in the Deaf community, which looks at the communication support that both deaf and hearing PDFs (People from Deaf Families) give to their deaf parents to communicate with hearing […]


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How do you teach note-taking for consecutive interpreting?

It’s one of those ‘how long is a piece of string’ questions. Consecutive interpreting involves listening to a speech delivered in one language in front of an international audience, taking notes and then giving the same speech in another language, making sure it is as close to the original as possible in terms of content, […]


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Interpreting Needs Troublemakers

Author: Jonathan Downie I was in London on Saturday for a meeting and I got chatting to some fellow interpreters about the ways that research is challenging how we think about and practise interpreting. Here in LINCS, for example, Robyn Dean is arguing for us to fundamentally shift how we think about ethics, Penny Karanasiou […]


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