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Translation and Interpretion Training:
The University of Queensland's Master Program
The Masters of Japanese Interpreting and Translation Program (MAJIT) at the University of Queensland is a two-year course that covers Japanese interpreting and translating. It is the only program in Australia currently accredited by the National Accreditation Authority of Translators and Interpreters (NAATI) as meeting the standards of Conference Interpreter Level, and one of only two programs accredited at the Advanced Translator Level, and was ranked the second highest interpreting course in the world by the International Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC) in 2001.
MAJIT is a world-class interpreting and translation course for many reasons, but the biggest one would have to be the experience and dedication of the staff behind it. The lecturers who teach both the interpreting and the translation sides of the course are active professionals in their respective fields. Hence, students have a chance to not only learn the actual skills required as a professional, but also to pick up tips on professionalism in general, be it advice on how to dress when conference interpreting or how to bill clients when working as a freelance translator. These are not things usually associated with interpreting or translation training, and not required to pass the final exam, but are vital pieces of information when entering the professional arena.
Every November UQ holds an admission exam for prospective MAJIT students, which requires examinees to try their hand at interpreting and translating, and those who are deemed the most promising are chosen. Class sizes in the past few years have been around 15 students, but I have a feeling it is slowly increasing each year, and would roughly estimate the ratio of native Japanese speakers to native English speakers to be two to one.
Just like MAJIT itself, the admission exam is challenging, even for a translator or interpreter with some previous experience. It is impossible to predict what topic examinees will be expected to translate or interpret any given year, but it is not usually a simple, general one. In the year I took the exam, for example, the examinees had to interpret the history of apartheid in South Africa, so a wide knowledge of general—or not so general—affairs will be a student's best friend here and throughout the course.
After being accepted into MAJIT, students make their way out to sunny Brisbane, Australia for orientation in February. Regardless of how hard the rigors of the program might be, I couldn't think of a nicer setting to go through it all than Brisbane, and the University of Queensland in particular. There is nothing like taking a break from all the stress and strain and enjoying the warm weather and pleasant surroundings. Still, few MAJIT students find time for such pleasures, so it is best to get there a week or two early to enjoy sun and sand before the course begins. Upon entering MAJIT, students are told that it is not a language course, and they are expected to be highly proficient in both English and Japanese. Obviously all students learn a great deal about their non-native language and possibly even more about using their native language, but it would be difficult to get in without at least close to Level 1 on the Japanese Proficiency Exam for non-native Japanese speakers, or a TOEIC score of 900 for non-native English speakers.
I'd like to point out here that there are plenty of MAJIT horror stories of stress, sweat and tears—although I am not aware of any blood thus far—and while there is no doubt the course requires a lot of hard work, most of these are a bit of an exaggeration. I think one of the hardest things for students in the course pertains particularly to those who have left the comfort of their homes, be them in Japan or elsewhere, to study in a different country. This is not an easy transition for anybody, and there is not doubt that this, combined with the stress of the course, causes some students to crack and throw in the towel. The pressures of the course itself, however, many of which are due to individual expectations, are not as terrible as the stories go. Of course all the talk about how difficult and stressful MAJIT is does ensure almost everybody studies harder than they might normally, and perhaps that is the intended purpose.
On to the classes themselves, the two years are broken up into four semesters of increasing difficulty and specialization. The first semester eases students into the world of translation and interpreting, working on public speaking, research and translating general texts. The public speaking classes give students a feel for speeches in a variety of formal situations while gaining confidence in speaking in front of an audience.
On the translation side of things, the first semester is a real eye-opener, and possibly the most difficult translation class in the course. For the uninitiated, this first semester is vital to getting a feel for how far translations can be taken given the situation and really sharpening an attention to detail. Just this first semester transforms students from eager novices to fairly competent professionals. Throughout the course the students take all classes together except for the translating classes, which are divided into English-into-Japanese for the native Japanese speakers and Japanese-into-English for the native English speakers.
In the second semester students get their first taste of actual interpreting, working on consecutive interpreting skills in a classroom situation for the majority of the semester. Most speeches are of a general nature, giving students a chance to develop some basic skills before moving on to more specialized situations. Meanwhile, the translation stream has moved on to economics and finance. With the more specialized texts comes a need for serious research skills, which is something most students become quite good at by the time they finish. During this semester students also have a chance to look at the theory of translation, including the decision-making process, the major schools of translation theory, ethics and practical advice on working as a professional translator.
Another advantage to taking MAJIT is the authenticity of the materials used in both the interpreting and translation classes. As the lecturers are active professionals, they all collect speeches, papers, or anything else they can get their hands on to use in class. This gives the students an opportunity to work on material that is actually used in the professional world, giving MAJIT a much more practical flavor than a more academically focused course.
In the second year things only get more technical in the translation half of the course, with scientific and technical texts being translated in the first semester, and medical and legal texts in the second. This further enhances students' research skills and aims to give them a broad understanding of these fields, although that is a pretty big ask. Still, I think most graduates come out of the course having at least a clear view of what fields they are confident they can continue to work in to become proficient, and which they will be avoiding at all costs.
The interpreting not only gets more technical in the second year, but the pressure is cranked up a few notches with the students taking part every week in what is simply known as "forum", where guest speakers visit and speak on whatever their field of specialization might be, while the students either consecutive or simultaneously interpret. This is where things can get stressful, with students interpreting in front of a live audience, as forums are open to the public, in addition to the interpreting lecturers waiting in the wings to point out each of their errors in an often painful debriefing after the forum. All of this stress is of course intended to harden students for the unforgiving world of conference interpreting, and most come out of the course with that thick skin needed to take criticism of one's work.
UQ is one of the few universities to offer specialized interpreting facilities, with soundproof interpreting booths and the latest equipment used for simultaneous interpreting. This allows the students to not just practice simultaneous interpreting while listening to tapes in a classroom, but to experience simulations of actual conferences complete with live speakers, and an audience listening to their every word via wireless receivers. Of course, with five booths going at once, it is impossible to know who is listening to your interpreting—until you make a mistake and get that dreaded, reproachful stare from the lecturer down on the floor that is.
Finally all the hard work put in over the two years culminates in the final exams. There are exams throughout the course, of course, but they all lead to the finals. As I mentioned earlier, MAJIT is accredited by NATTI, and it is the final exams that determine if students will receive this accreditation. The translation exam is a whopping eight hours long, covering each of the fields of the past two years. Some say it is a test of endurance just as much as a test of translating ability, and indeed choosing the right nourishment is often as important as choosing the right dictionary.
The interpreting exam has three parts—consecutive interpreting of a technical paper while looking at a script, unsighted consecutive interpreting and unsighted simultaneous interpreting. As you can imagine, this is where the pressure is at its highest, and probably the closest to actual conference interpreting. While the translation exam tests students' translation skills and ability to concentrate over a long period, the interpreting exam tests how well they withstand the kind of stress that is faced in the professional world of interpreting?
After the enormous relief of surviving the finals most MAJIT students take a nice, long rest, and head back to their respective corners of the globe in search of employment. But like any group of strangers who go through an intensive experience, graduates tend to keep in touch and continue helping each other out long after they have left the course. This is a great benefit to taking MAJIT in addition to becoming a proficient translator and interpreter, and picking up a master's degree along the way.
For more information on MAJIT, see www.arts.uq.edu.au/slccs/pgmajit.html or contact MAJIT Program Coordinator Jill Reid at j.reid@mailbox.uq.edu.au .