News from Mengmeng Shi

I can still recall the first time I stepped into the booth, realizing that I was one step closer to my ideal career as an interpreter! I am able to do what I truly love thanks to all my professors of ITS who have helped along the way and the fantastic trip I had at ITS.

 

I am currently employed at Wake Forest University as a full-time Chinese teaching assistant of East Asian Language and Cultures (EALC). My working languages are Chinese and English. Teaching Chinese requires the ability to alter languages at any time, which is comparable to interpreting. On top of that, I am a freelance translator and interpreter working for several platforms. Since I graduated, I have translated over 500,000 words covering disciplines such as energy, education, mechanics, business, etc. In addition, I served as an interpreter for three webinars.

 

Looking back on my time at ITS, everything seemed both challenging and rewarding. Throughout the first year, we focused on translation, including theoretical study and massive practices. In addition, we learned about Trados Studio, one of the computer-assisted translation software. This is indeed a highlight on my CV and it helped me receive several translation-related offers. In the second year, we concentrated on interpreting. To be honest, the booth was one of the reasons I chose the ITS program at Wake. ITS offers excellent equipment for us to practice simultaneous interpreting and I always love the “little world” in the booth, where you can focus solely on interpreting practice. Also, Professor Chen of ITS provided us a lot of opportunities to perform webinar interpreting. I completed my very first consecutive and simultaneous interpreting debut under her guidance. Here, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to her.