History of the profession

Reminiscences of post-WWII conference interpreting: international unions

When the victorious alliance broke apart immediately after the Second World War, and country by country Eastern Europe fell under the sway of communist regimes, it was inevitable that the hitherto united socialist trade union movement would split into two blocks.

Danica Seleskovitch: an exceptional life

There are sometimes encounters that determine the orientation of a lifetime. As I say in the foreword to my book, this is what happened to me: my encounter with Danica Seleskovitch was decisive for my career as an interpreter, and to a large extent, for the whole course of my existence.

Wroclaw, les interprètes évanouis, Picasso et l'officier d'occupation

Lieu : été 1949, Wroclaw, ex-Breslau en Silésie orientale, devenue " terre récupérée " de la Pologne. Ville gravement endommagée lors d'une des dernières grandes batailles sur le front de l'Est avant la chute de Berlin, mais avec un Palais des expositions épargné et de la place pour loger quelques centaines de participants au 1er Congrès Mondial des Intellectuels pour la Paix organisé sous le patronage de l'UNESCO.

Bookwatch

Jesús Baigorri has published a timely reminder of the role played by interpreters in the history of The United Nations, that most international of all international organisations. “Interpreters at the United Nations” completes the narrative the author embarked on in his earlier “La interpretación de conferencias: el nacimiento de una profesión. De París a Nuremberg.”

Lunch with a legend

Peter Less has been living in Chicago, where he practices law, for over 50 years. He attended the Geneva School of Conference Interpretation and, in 1946, interpreted at the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals. Less, whose mother, father, sister, and grandmother were killed by the Nazis, had to sit in the courtroom and interpret for some of the masterminds responsible for these atrocities. How could he do it?

From dragomans to interpreters: a brief overview of the profession in Turkey

At a time when Turkey is about to start accession negotiations with the European Union it is interesting to note that Europe's first institutionalised effort to train interpreters goes back to the 17th century when France reached an agreement with the Ottoman Empire, then in its heyday, to set up an interpreting school in Istanbul.

Pat Longley – in memoriam

On Friday 27th June, interpreters, academics and students gathered at the University of Westminster to commemorate Pat Longley. The event marked the fortieth anniversary of the founding of the postgraduate course in conference interpretation – the course still known to many as PCL, the Polytechnic of Central London.

Extrait de "Tous les fleuves vont à la mer"

The Nuremberg trial

The War was over. An International Military Tribunal had been set up in Nuremberg to try the leading Nazi war criminals. The Main Trial lasted from November 1945 until the verdicts on 30th September 1946 - and I was present during the last four months.

Some memorable moments

The profession, as such, was scarcely known in the 1950s. It is not, after all, so many light years away (the year that AIIC was founded) that I was greeted as a kind of being from outer space, with newspaper articles headlined "Ruth Makes a Living Just Talking” or "Ruth Talks Her Way Around the World" in the Australian press.

1950-2000

Un demi-siècle d'interprétation de conférence moderne (et du rôle de l'AIIC dans ce domaine)

Un cédérom sur l'histoire de la traduction et de l'interprétation

Dans tous les domaines, se multiplient les applications des nouvelles technologies. La traduction et son enseignement ne font pas exception. Dans le suite de cet article, nous aimerions présenter aux lecteurs de Communicate le contenu d'un cédérom expérimental unique en son genre dans le domaine de la traduction.

Justice in four languages or "interpreters and mistresses"

Review of "The Origins of Simultaneous Interpretation: The Nuremberg Trial" by Francesca Gaiba, 1998