Everything you always wanted to know about the UN interpreting exams

The Complete Interpreter

Hi! Welcome to the Complete Interpreter podcast by the Interpreting Coach.
Why 'Complete Interpreter'? Because you're not just a translation machine, you're also a person and a business owner, and I hope to help you take a 360 view of yourself share some great tried-and-tested strategies to improve your interpreting skills, mindset, and marketing.
This episode is all about the UN interpreting exams, both freelance (GLR or Global Language Roster) and staff (CELP).
I couldn't have produced the episode without the assistance of many colleagues, including UN examiners Gillian Curry and Alice Ryckmans, Zilin Cui (Chinese booth), Olivier Quénette (French booth), Jonathan McGregor (English booth), Cory Bou (English booth), Maisie Greenwood, Aimee Linekar and Kirsten Coope. I am grateful to them for their time and generosity. Any errors in the podcast are my own.*
Here are some of the resources mentioned in the podcast:
- UN website
- UN Digital Recordings Portal
- Interpretation Station
- Chris Guichot de Fortis: interpreting in degraded mode
- my growth mindset challenge can be found by scrolling down the home page
- my podcast episode about reframing stress
- my podcast episode about getting over mistakes
- my course on dealing with acute stress
- Josh Goldsmith's blog post about UN Digital Recordings Portal
- free online courses about UN-related topics
- an interesting blog post about the UN exams from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies
- Emily and Amelia Nagoski's book on Burnout
- The Inner Game of Tennis (a guide to 'peak performance')
* I mentioned in the podcast that it might be possible to take 3 languages in one day for the English booth CELP; it seems that this isn't, in fact, possible, and that you'd have to do the 3rd language on a separate occasion.
Let me know what you'd like me to talk about next!
Sophie (aka The Interpreting Coach)
Support the Show.

My website and blog: https://theinterpretingcoach.com
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Twitter: @terpcoach
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-interpreting-coach/
Or email me at [e-mail]

Chapters

1. Intro and episode outline (00:00:00)

2. How long was your 'journey' to the UN exams? (00:06:03)

3. Exam prep strategies (00:13:18)

4. Useful resources (00:25:55)

5. Format of the exams (both GLR and CELP) (00:41:27)

6. Difficulty of the exam speeches? Any surprises on the day? (01:05:27)

7. Mindset tips (01:12:23)

8. What the examiners are looking for (01:23:09)

9. 'Fatal flaws' - where candidates go wrong (01:27:51)

10. Borderline fails - causes (01:33:20)

11. LONG digression: is the UN looking for word-for-word translation? (01:36:46)

12. Fairness in the exam process (01:59:20)

13. UN support for candidates (02:01:49)

14. Roundup of practical tips (02:05:40)

15. Acknowledgements and outro (02:25:03)