An interpreting camp was launched by Grouphorse from December 13 to 22 in the US where the camp members took an interpreting training session at the UN, attended a banquet dinner featuring guests such as Ban Ki-moon, UN General Assembly President Peter Thomson, former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Leonardo DiCaprio. They provided whispering interpreting services for Chinese guests at the banquet dinner.

Coming after previous camps launched by Grouphorse in London, at UN agencies and in Silicon Valley in the past few years, this interpreting camp, which underscored globalization and the national drive to further open up education and promote Sino-foreign cultural and educational exchanges, brought interpreting learners to places including the Wall Street, UN headquarters, Princeton University, Yale Club, Columbia University, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Barclays Center, American Museum of Natural History, the Statue of Liberty, Rockefeller Center and Google’s first pop-up store.

Their language skills, understanding of the world, character traits, social skills have all developed during the camp.

Visit to the UN Headquarters

It was the first time that UN headquarters had welcomed a delegation from the translation industry in China.

Many Grouphorse executives and advisors have worked at UN agencies, including Vice Chairman Zou Yimin, Guo Jiading, director of education at Grouphorse and former director-general of the Department of Translation and Interpretation (DTI) of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, Shi Yanhua, senior advisor at Grouphorse and former DTI director-general and Xu Ya’nan, senior advisor at Grouphorse, former DTI director-general and former chief of the Chinese Translation Service of the Documentation Division of the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management (DGACM) at the UN.

Many interpreting trainers who used to work at Grouphorse are now working at UN agencies. Grouphorse has sent interpreting trainees to practice and take training sessions at UN agencies since September 2016.

The camp members were all given a Visitor’s Pass to visit many UN departments and meeting rooms.

The camp members visited some places open to public such as the UN Economic and Social Council and UN Trusteeship Council. They also visited the UN Secretariat accompanied by UN staff and UN delegates’ lounge and UN Learning Center.

They were the first visitors to see the portrait of Ban Ki-moon made before he left the UN, which was unveiled on December 13 in an area closed to public. They also were given the chance to stand on the UN General Assembly podium and talked to UN Assistant Secretary-General Xu Haoliang.

After visiting UN departments, the camp members joined a training session where they weretaught by both Chinese and foreign teachersand. They learned the work flow ofworkflow for translation services at the UN and interpreting materials covering hot topics such as peace-keepingpeacekeeping, climate change and the Paris Agreement, which. This helped them build a complete and diversified understanding of the job. 

The camp members had lunch with UN interpreters and used the eLUNA, a computer-assisted translation system, on the morning of December 20.

Alex, leader of the camp, gave a Christmas gift to Chen Qiong, a former Grouphorse interpreting trainer who now works at the UN.

Camp members were invited to join the UN Correspondents Association (UNCA) 21st Annual Awards at Cipriani Club 55 on Wall Street in New York as a part of interpreting practice.

Before Christmas, the UNCA honors the winner of the UNCA Global Citizen of the Year and winners of the Annual UNCA Awards for the best print, broadcast and electronic media coverage of the UN, UN agencies and field operations. The 21st Annual Awards was attended by media moguls, business tycoons, celebrities, and media outlets such as CNN, the New York Times, PBS, ABC, UN Web TV, UN Radio, Warner Bros. TV, Congress Web TV and other mainstream media outlets from countries around the world with their correspondents in the UN.