Program Overview

Heriot-Watt University’s 2-year MSc in Chinese–English interpreting and translating provides students with time to immerse themselves in a new culture and lift their language, interpreting and translating skills to a professional standard.

As part of the most established suite of Interpreting and Translating masters degrees in Scotland, this 2-year Chinese – English degree programme offers a uniquely dual-focus.

This 2-year degree will prepare you for an exciting, international career as a professional translator and interpreter with specialist skills to use in distinct professional contexts such as healthcare, court and legal, educational and multi-lingual conferences.

Our globally recognised interpreting and translation masters programme has been tailored to meet the needs of industry and will allow you to develop the ideal balance of theoretical knowledge and practical skills in Chinese – English and English – Chinese Interpreting and Translating.

The first year (Stage 1) will equip you with a solid, theoretical and practical foundation in interpreting and translating. Year 1 includes 2 courses in Research Preparation (English Study Skills), which means you will improve your English language abilities whilst gaining introductory interpretation and translation skills. The second year (Stage 2) is the same as our current one-year MSc degree in Interpreting and Translating which equips students with the professional standard interpreting and translating abilities.

The further benefits of an extra year of learning on our Interpreting and Translating programme are huge.

You will bring your language skills up to an advanced level whilst immersing yourself in two fascinating cultures and becoming familiar with the demands and delights of British university life.

You will also have with an extra year to prepare for professional life as an Interpreter and Translator. You will develop deep-rooted academic and professional expertise by training on weekly basis in our state-of-the-art interpreting booths and translation labs which are equipped with the latest computer aided translating software packages.

Over the course of two years, your learning will focus on developing a professional standard of expertise in key areas of interpreting and translation 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
• Sight translation

You will learn about how different approaches to interpreting and translating should be implemented when working in different professional contexts. You will become increasingly confident in your interactions with clients and fellow professionals and your transferable communication skills including public speaking, note-taking, revising and editing, and summarising will be sharpened to a professional standard.