On April 12, the 4th All China Interpretation Competition was held in Beihang University with forty-two competitors including students from Beijing Foreign Studies University, Beijing Language and Culture University, the University of Foreign Affairs, the University of International Business and Economics and Tsinghua University competed. Despite the tough competition, with Foreign Language Department Prof. Zhao Zhuxuan as their mentor, three UCAS students from the MTI program participated. Wu Fang, Chen Beibei and Zhou Jingjing respectively received second prize, third prize and honorable mention. Wu Fang and Chen Beibei qualified for the East China competition.
The All China Interpretation Competition, sponsored by the Translators’ Association of China and China Translation & Publishing Corporation, is annually organized by Global Tone Communication Technology Co.,Ltd. With the Cross-strait Interpretation Competition it is one of the two most important events for interpretation graduate students.
The competition consisted of two sections — English to Chinese interpretation in the morning and Chinese to English interpretation in the afternoon. The respective topics of the two sections were Sea Level Rising as a Result of Climate Change and Alibaba & Single’s Day in China. In each section every contestant was asked to interpret with both precision and conciseness immediately after a 2 or 3 minute speech was finished. Despite strong accents in the first part and large numbers in the second part, with their excellent language command and interpretation skills, contestants from the UCAS MTI program were praised by the audience and judges.
The outstanding result achieved by UCAS contestants was a consequence of the skilled guidance of Prof. Zhao and Prof. Li Lijun. Prof. Zhao watched the 8-hour-long competition during which she not only raised the three students’ morale but also provided valuable suggestions. Prof. Li fully prepared these students for the competition and followed the competition closely. Thanks to the tremendous efforts of these two teachers, UCAS students enjoyed definite advantages in this contest.
After the competition, all UCAS students learned something as this competition, helping them to identify their strengths and weaknesses in order to perfect their skills for future interpretation tasks.
By Chen Beibei
