Working with the Speech Repository in conference interpreting training

Dear Community Members,

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Dear users,

Due to a technical maintenance, it won't be possible to stream videos from the Speech Repository and My Speech Repository.

This situation will last from this evening (04 December) around 21:00 (UTC+1) until tomorrow morning (05 Decmber) around 08:00 (UTC+1).

Thank you very much for your understanding.

Your Speech Repository Team

Dear users,

9 Intermediate consecutive speeches have just been published.

Find the list hereunder and practice your new languages with them!

ES: 29427 - 29429 - 29403

PL: 28975

RO: 29308

LT: 28650 - 29278

ZH: 27703

HU: 29322 (restricted)

AR: 28944 (restricted)

Happy practice!

Your Speech Repository Team

Dear Speech Repository Users,

We are delighted to announce that we have added a new language to our incredible archive of speeches: Albanian (SQ – shqip)!

Is Albanian one of your working languages or have you always dreamt of learning this fascinating Indo-European language spoken by more than 5 million people? If so, this is your chance… Don’t waste any time, start practising your interpreting skills with the Speech Repository!

With this new language, the Speech Repository contains 31 languages. Besides the 24 official languages of the EU, it offers 4 non-EU languages (Arabic, Russian, Cantonese and Mandarin) and 3 official languages of candidate countries (Turkish, Macedonian and Albanian).

Stay tuned, a new language will join the list very soon!

Here are the numbers of the first speeches in SQ: 29237 – 29470 – 29471 – 29477.

Have fun and enjoy your practice.

Your Speech Repository Team

Dear users,

We are very pleased to announce new speeches have been published in the Speech Repository!

Don't wait any longer to discover them:

• IT : 28534 - 29188 - 29189 - 29191 - 29192 - 29193
• LT : 28572 - 28573 - 28576 - 28577 - 28578 - 28580 - 28581
• MK : 27179
• RU : 28719 - 28720

Happy practice!

The Speech Repository Team

Dear all,

The good weather is officially over and we all know how days can seem endless when you are stuck at home. Want to find new exciting ways to spice up your life a bit? We have your back! Check out our newly published Intermediate Consecutive speeches and have some fun while putting your interpreting skills to the test!

PUBLIC SPEECHES

ES: 29524

EN: 29326; 29522; 29570; 29575; 29574

IT: 29532

RESTRICTED SPEECHES

ES: 29312

EN: 29324

IT: 29506

DE: 29365; 29364

Happy practice!

Your Speech Repository Team

Dear users,

We are currently facing an unexpected technical problem with the Speech Repository and My Speech Repository.

None of the videos available in the platform can be played.

We are aware of this issue and our team is doing everything to fix it as soon as possible.

Thank you very much for your understanding.

Best regards,

Your Speech Repository Team.

Dear users,

First of all, we hope that you are all healthy and well during these difficult times.

As many of you have surely noticed, we have lately been facing some access issues to My Speech Repository, which is most unfortunate given the current circumstances, where remote training has become the only possibility for many, if not for all. You will probably remember that we recently launched the #Stayhome Collection with speeches that our interpreters had recorded in their homes so that your students would have new material to practise with before their final exams. Given the persisting access problems to My Speech Repository and to that collection, and as we understand that practice during these weeks is crucial for your students, we have decided to make this collection completely public.

There are a total of 150 speeches, in EN, FR, DE, IT, ES, PT, NL, BG and MT. The collection can be found in the Speech Repository (https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/sr/) if you select #StayHome in the language drop-down menu.

The title of each speech includes a language code at the beginning (e.g. “FR – Le coronavirus”, “DE – Elektromobilität”), that indicates the language of the speech. Please click on the “Title” header so that the speeches are displayed according to the language, in the following alphabetical order: BG, DE, EN, ES, FR, IT, MT, NL, PT.

We hope that this will be a helpful resource for you and your students.

Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

Your Speech Repository Team

Dear users,

We encounter some technical problems and the Speech Repository website is currently not accessible. Our IT teams are working to bring the situation back to normal as soon as possible. We will keep you informed.

Have a nice day!

Dear colleagues,

Today we have added 50 new speeches in 9 languages to our new #StayHome Collection in My Speech Repository, created thanks to the enormous generosity of our interpreter colleagues. Altogether there are now 95 speeches to keep on practising your skills. You won't get bored; more material is coming soon!

You don't have your access yet? Don't wait and write to scic-speech-repository@ec.europa.eu.

Stay home & stay safe!

Marta

Dear Speech Repository users,

In these challenging times in which everybody is trying to lend a hand and solidarity is the name of the game, we want to offer our pedagogical material to all the institutions training interpreters around the world. In this context we will grant access to My Speech Repository to all teaching establishments training interpreters. You simply need to send an e-mail to SCIC-SPEECH-REPOSITORY@ec.europa.eu. Each request will be duly considered and new members will receive clear instructions on the proper use of the tool. Please note that the registration and access procedure remain unchanged.

In addition, we created the #StayHome Collection in My Speech Repository. This idea was born out of a spirit of solidarity among SCIC interpreters and their excellent initiative to record speeches at home with devices they have to hand and to put them at the disposal of interpreting students and colleagues. These speeches are being uploaded into a special dedicated collection in My Speech Repository called #StayHome Collection. Let me remind you that My Collection, a feature in My Speech Repository, allows for creating private speech banks in a secure and dedicated space, whilst keeping all the functions of the tool e.g. recording interpretations with SCICrec.

Until now, we have already received nearly 100 speeches in 8 languages (BG, DE, FR, EN, ES, IT, NL and PT), and are in the process of uploading them to the collection. More are arriving all the time and will be uploaded regularly. These speeches might not meet the required technical quality standards of the regular Speech Repository material and do not come with the usual grading. This means that they will not be transferred to the main Speech Repository. Once the crisis is over, we will contact the colleagues individually and ask if they are willing to record their speeches in our studio according to their availability.

Access to this Collection is given on request to all registered users, universities and organisations of My Speech Repository, by sending an e-mail to the functional mailbox SCIC-SPEECH-REPOSITORY@ec.europa.eu. Interpreter colleagues of the EU Institutions can also ask for access and practise. If you do not have an account yet in My Speech Repository, make a first login here https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/sr/user/login and then contact us at the above address to add you to the #StayHome Collection.

These actions will run until the end of the academic year and will be reviewed in September.

Don't miss this opportunity!

We hope that in this way we can help universities and future colleagues that are experiencing real difficulties in completing their training paths. We would like to thank all the interpreters who have contributed so generously to these initiatives.

Dear colleagues,

Many of us will be working from home in the coming weeks. University classes are being organised online, through virtual platforms and distant teaching tools. Please remember that two of our tools, the Knowledge Centre on Interpretation and the Speech Repository can be especially useful for you.

Let me remind you that My Collection, a feature in My Speech Repository, allows creating private speech banks in a secure and dedicated space, whilst keeping all the functions of the tool e.g. recording interpretations with SCICrec. It means that you can create a group and upload your speeches. You can decide who has access to speeches and when. You can also assign interpreting exercises to your students individually, by sending an invitation to record interpretation with the use of SCICrec.

A Collection can be composed of users from any institution who have access to My Speech Repository. You have the possibility to name administrators and editors with special access roles. Each institution with access to My Speech Repository can create one or more Collections. Creating cross-university collections is also an option.

We have prepared a detailed user guide, which will help you with the setting up of your Collections. Please e-mail us to scic-speech-repository@ec.europa.eu for more information. Our team will be happy to assist you!

Best regards,

Marta

Dear Users,

On the occasion of the International Mother Language Day, we have prepared a selection of speeches on the subject of mother language, languages and multilingualism. Please have a look here: https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/sr/news/international-mother-language-day and search for more speeches in your languages using the search tool of the Speech Repository.

Have a nice week-end,

Sara

Dear Speech Repository users,

This short message to remind you that every time when we add new speeches to the Speech Repository, we create a news item on the homepage https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/sr/ . You can find the News and announcements section under the latest videos, in the lower part of the screen. I also post it on my Twitter account, so don't hesitate to follow me (it's already the case for many of you!) @marta_kakol to be up to date :-)

I wish you all a very nice day!

Marta

Dear Users,

On the occasion of the European Day of Languages, we have prepared a selection of speeches on the subject of multilingualism and languages. Please have a look here: https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/sr/news/european-day-languages-26-september and search for even more speeches in your languages using the search tool of the Speech Repository.

Have a nice day,

Marta

Dear registered users,

We published 23 new speeches in My Speech Repository:

4 NL 28964, 28965, 29145 and 28967

5 HU 28709, 28646, 28235, 28236 and 28708

4 HR 28914, 28915, 28916 and 28918

4 PL 28252, 28237, 28713 and 28715

3 SK 29047, 29048 and 29050

3 ZH 27057, 26530 and 26541

Enjoy your practice!

Your Speech Repository team

Dear all, Firstly, I would like to say what a wonderful resource this is, and how much I appreciate it as a trainer! Thank you, SCIC, for making it available and providing such exemplary pedagogical speeches! I'd like to share a few thoughts about the specificities of working from "A" to "B" with the Repository. The new document with the description of levels is very useful, and I just wanted to bring in this additional dimension, which I feel can have a significant impact on "grading" speeches. Here are 3 case studies from my own use. 1. PT into EN (C to A for students, C to A for me as trainer) I have used every single PT speech, and find the grading extremely relevant. The only variations would be e.g. a student more familiar with Brazilian PT struggling with European PT phonetics etc. Conclusion: Very helpful classification system. You are an EU resource, so I understand that you take usage in member state Portugal as the "norm." 2. IT into EN (A to B for students, C to A for me as trainer) It so happens I have been helping several established IT-booth interpreters add an EN retour. The grading designed for students working from IT "C" seems to differ from the perceptions of IT "A"s in several key ways: a. Beginner speeches describing everyday life in an informal register can be incredibly challenging to convey idiomatically in a "B" language, if the student is lacking some aspects of "lived" experience. b. Intermediate and advanced speeches: students working from "A" (especially if they already have some professional experience) can often render factual substance more competently than the personal touches- this can make these speeches notably "easier" (for them) than many Beginner speeches. Terminological guidance often focuses on idioms which are familiar to "A" listeners, and technical vocabulary which is "do-able". c. In a nutshell, comprehension of the speech is not the no.1 challenge when working from A to B. Aside from the challenges of "B"-language expression, there are other challenges with the source speech, such as recognising redundancy in mother tongue, capturing nuances and implicit information for the source-language audience, and not getting obsessed with specific word choices in the original. Because of the latter challenge, I often find it more helpful to deprive students of access to the Repository's terminological hints entirely as they can easily become a distraction- instead, I will digest them myself in advance and use them to create a "B"-language expression brainstorming exercise. Conclusion: As with (1), I understand that you have a perceived "norm"-work from C to A. Perhaps this could be clarified in a disclaimer somewhere? For some EU languages, "retour" work is marginal (but still ongoing at interpreting schools, and recognised in recruitment profiles); for others, it is vital and even a sine qua non. Perhaps further exploration of this topic might be justified on that basis? 3. ZH into EN/ES (A to B for students, a non-working language into A or B for me as a trainer) I rarely use the Repository, as I have a ready supply of live ZH "A" speakers. Nonetheless, the grading and pedagogical classification are immensely helpful to me, as I will want to choose source speeches in a non-working language very carefully in order to ensure specific features are present, and that the "difficulty" is calibrated. Coincidentally, I often do team-teaching with ZH "A"s who helped with your grading when they were in Brussels. We have discussed the theoretical basis of grading speeches which are likely to be used in more than 95% of cases by students working from A to B. Conclusion: I thought we could helpfully bring that discussion onto this platform (I have encouraged them to register!). For some languages (especially non-EU, but not exclusively), the majority of students are working A-B (not C/B-A), so it could perhaps be helpful to explore "parallel criteria" for grading such speeches, given the specific nature of the challenges the combination can present. Best wishes to all, and thanks again for the fabulous resource, Matthew

Happy New Year, dear colleagues! Please check the Files section. I just uploaded a document with the description of the Speech Repository levels. We use these guidelines internally for the evaluation of speeches. We also give them to our speakers before they record new speech material. I hope you find it useful! I would also like to remind you that on the My Speech Repository website we also have some explanation on how to choose the right speech level and at what stage of the training: https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/sr/content/how-does-it-work-which-speech-level… (you have to be logged in to access the page). Best, Marta

We are starting a new Téléparrainge pilot in the current ACI tests cycle. The first language unit will be Estonian, which will have ACI tests in February; in the weeks before the test,if they accept our invitation, the pre-selected candidates will interpret 3 speeches and receive feedback from SCIC tutors via My SR and SCICRec. Let's hope we will be able to help them succeed the test.

A Chairde, If anyone has an opinion on their use of the Speech Repository in training (that they haven't already shared with me via their University) please don't hesitate to get in touch. The Steering Committee are meeting on Monday and I'll do my utmost to make your opinions known.

Thank you for creating this community Marta! I am writing from my phone and I can say the kci is phone friendly. This is great news as we can contribute on the move. Could there be an App in the future to make it even more integrated? Today, I will teach consecutive interpreting for 6 hours. In the past, I would have to spend so much time finding out speeches for our practice in all working languages. Now with the speech repository, I can do this in no time. I know it is reliable. I select speeches and send the links to language specific tutors. It is then easier for me to know the level of speeches students practise with. Same for homework. What do I do with my spare time? I have more time to design pre- interpreting exercises and teaching materials such as assessment tools. I would like to use ScicRec but... This is not easy... The one feature I would like to change is the integration of the speech repository to other tools, more specifically notifications. If you don't go on the speech repository, you don't know if anyone has applied to join, done some work etc... In my opinion, this is essential! I don't imagine teaching without the speech repository! Thank you for this excellent initiative!