About Us
Welcome to the joint platform for interpreting practice groups!
Whether you are setting out to add a new language to your combination, reactivate a rusty C or try your hand at consecutive for the first time since graduation, you’ll find a practice group to suit your needs here.
Following in the footsteps of IBPG (Interpreters in Brussels Practice Group), interpreter-led practice groups have popped up all around the world, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic forced most of us out of the booth and into our homes. They are a wonderful place to work on your skills, elevate your knowledge of your working languages and their cultures and meet new colleagues in your market or elsewhere. Some would argue they have kept us sane during this challenging time for our profession.
The basic principles shared by all our member groups are deliberate practice (systematic and purposeful practice aimed at improving specific aspects of a skill) and exchange between peers —an exchange of practice materials, feedback, and advice. Anyone participating in an interpreting practice group acts as Speaker, Interpreter, and Listener.
Listeners and Interpreters work together for a profitable practice session and they pair up based on their language combination (for example, someone working on adding an English B would pair up with a native English listener). Interpreters communicate what specific skills or difficulties they are working on so that Listeners can focus on them while listening to their performance. During the feedback parts of the session, they get together again in private to discuss the Interpreter’s performance, and the Listener provides their feedback and advice for improvement.
Speakers, on the other hand, are expected to prepare or find practice-appropriate materials such as speeches or debates. For more information on this, we invite you to read the specific guidelines of the group, but you can also find inspiration on the EU’s Speech Repository or some of the groups’ YouTube channels.
Click on the specific group pages (there are more than those on the side!) to find out more about their system, meeting times, requirements and contact information, or use our calendar feature to find out who is holding the nearest practice session, be it online or in person.
If you’re the organiser of a different interpreting practice group and you wish to join our initiative, or if you need advice to set up a local group, please get in touch with our website organizer at daniel@pauta4.com.br.
See you soon and happy practice!