Program Overview

MSc Chinese-English Translation and Interpreting

MSc Chinese-English Translation and Interpreting is a twin-focus masters degree which will prepare you for an exciting, international career as a professional translator and interpreter from Chinese-English and vice-versa.

This specialist programme develops a necessary balance of theoretical knowledge and professional language skills, with options to study intercultural communication or international politics and organisations alongside your translation and interpreting courses.

Professional skills

Studying MSc Chinese-English Translation and Interpreting at Heriot-Watt University will give you access to our excellent facilities, which include professional-standard translation and interpreting labs.

You will be taught by professional interpreters and translators and your learning will focus on developing a professional expertise in areas such as:

• Technical and scientific translation
• Subtitling and audio-visual translation
• Use of Computer Aided Translation tools
• Sight translation
• Simultaneous interpreting
• Consecutive interpreting and note taking

You will develop these skills to a proficient standard and learn about the different approaches and skillsets required from interpreters when working in distinct professional contexts such as healthcare, court and legal, educational and conference interpreting.

Professional-standard classrooms

Our state-of-the-art language labs and suite of simultaneous interpreting booths will provide you with the ideal setting in which to perfect your translating and interpreting skills to professional standards.

Our Interpreting Booths are modelled on those used by the United Nations, the European Union and the Scottish Parliament, whilst Translation Labs provide access to industry-standard software such as TRADOS, a computer aided translation memory tool and WinCAPS, the professional subtitling tool.

Your practical interpreting and translating skills will be developed through a combination of practice seminars, lectures, masterclasses, and workshops and virtual classes delivered by our external partners. In addition to regular practice seminars in your chosen language combinations, you will attend mock conferences throughout semester 2 to practice simultaneous interpreting, relay, event chairing and public speaking for a real audience including lecturers and peers.

You will also fine-tune your conference interpreting skills on a larger scale at the annual Heriot-Watt University Multilingual Debate. This is a formal debate between two multilingual teams which is watched by thousands of school-aged languages pupils from across the United Kingdom.