The“9th Conference Interpreting Training Seminar” is held at MPI
In order to develop professionals in the field of interpreting in the Portuguese-speaking conferences in Macao and the Mainland China, the “9th Conference Interpreting Training Seminar” jointly organised by the Macao Polytechnic Institute (MPI) and the European Commission Directorate-General for Interpretation (SCIC) was held at MPI on June 24. More than a dozen interpreters from the government departments of the Mainland and Macao SAR attended a two-week high-level, high-intensity, intensive training course in Portuguese. The organisers looked forward to strengthening the “One Belt and One Road” and the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area through the seminar, and to enhancing the role of Macao as a platform for exchanges and cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking countries.
The opening ceremony of the “9th Conference Interpreting Training Seminar” was hosted by Fernando Leitão, Júlio Monteiro, Trainers of SCIC; Lei Ngan Lin, Vice-President of MPI; and Han Lili, Director of the School of Languages and Translation of MPI. Lei Ngan Lin said that MPI attached great importance to the international cooperation with SCIC. Since 2006, MPI has cooperated with SCIC in training conference interpreters. More than 100 interpreters participated in the previous training seminars and expressed high praise. At the tenth anniversary of the cooperation, MPI and SCIC jointly held a seminar on interpretation and translation, and signed a framework cooperation agreement. The participants of this seminar are Chinese-Portuguese translators and interpreters from the government departments of the Mainland and Macao SAR. The seminar had a positive significance for the development of interpreting talents. It is particularly important in the construction of the Portuguese-speaking platform in Macao, and the construction of the “Belt and Road” and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
Fernando Leitão expressed his appreciation for the contribution of MPI in the training of Chinese-Portuguese translation and interpreting talents. He emphasised that MPI, as a well-known institution of higher learning in Macao’s Chinese-Portuguese translation field, plays an important role in cultivating Chinese and Portuguese translation talents. In particular, this year, MPI has taken the lead in launching the Master of Chinese-Portuguese Translation and Interpreting programme, and made efforts and outstanding contributions to the training of high-quality Chinese-Portuguese translators. He said that MPI has a long history of cooperation with the SCIC. Over the past three years, the Director General of SCIC has visited MPI, and SCIC has also invited MPI’s academic staff in interpreting fields to participate in the SCIC-Universities conference in Brussels every year. He believed that the participants of this seminar benefited from the two-week high-level, high-intensity and intensive training.
The training seminar is taught by Fernando Leitão and Júlio Monteiro, the heads of the e-learning department of SCIC. They are senior interpreters of SCIC. They also have extensive experience in conference interpreting and interpreting training. They teach translation knowledge in the training, guide participants to strengthen practical operations, improve interpreting skills, and strive to enable participants to master more solid and practical professional knowledge, and better apply their knowledge to interpreting practice in the future.
