Course Philosophy

We on the CCIC do understand that you will want to show yourself at your best. We also realize that to do so means never stepping out of your comfort zone. Our aim over these two weeks is to inspire you to become better, happier and more confident interpreters under whatever (often unforeseen, inevitably) circumstances may arise, by pushing you outside your comfort zone and exposing you to new ways of interpreting.

To that end, we feel it is counterproductive to give you the texts or exact titles of speeches ahead of time; this would indeed allow you to study and prepare each unfamiliar word and concept, however, such a tactic is not pedagogically desirable, in that it distorts the speaker/interpreter relationship and modifies the interpreting dynamic.

Our teaching faculty needs to see how you ‘manage your incompetence’ when outside your comfort zone. For this and other reasons, we manage and ramp up speech difficulty and text availability in a realistic manner, while pushing you far enough to reveal your intrinsic strengths and weaknesses. Teachers may then tailor their comments and advice based on your base ability, without the masking effect of extensive preparation. If you are willing to go along with this programme, and throw yourself into the deep end without trying to hang on to the side of the pool, you will definitely find you make the most progress over the two weeks.

The topics we present realistically arise (and in every case have arisen!) in international conferences, under conditions which are equally realistic. The themes and levels the CCIC covers encompass virtually the entire spectrum of interpreting challenges. We consider that, as professional interpreters, you are already familiar with the main international issues of the day, and possess a wide lexicon covering, and sound knowledge of, all the primary disciplines of human endeavour and concerns.

The CCIC aims primarily not to teach vocabulary or language skills, but rather high-quality, dynamic, reasoned, analytical and thoughtful conference interpretation. You may and should trust us, as decades of experience ensure that there is indeed “method in our madness”!

Important

The Cambridge Conference Interpretation Course is not an interpreting school, and students are expected to be capable of working at a professional level.