Hello, I am interested in the translation and interpretation course that CLAIR offers. I tried looking for an email from CLAIR about it but I couldn’t find any. I also didn’t see any posts about when it is this year on here either.
Does anyone know about it? Is it happening now and I missed out this year?
Any information would be really helpful.
Thank you.
6 comments
Your supervisor gets emailed about it. Ask them for info. All I remember is that you need to be N2 for it.
The online course for this year started a month ago. I’m not 100% sure, but I heard that the version of the course with the in-person, 5-day intensive programme will start later.
As for how I found out about it, our PA emailed everyone about it (but it was kind of short notice).
Whenever it becomes available again your BoE should get an email about it. I informed mine that I wanted to take it last year and when the info arrived they handed it off to me. Ask your BoE/Supervisor for the info when it gets sent out.
Thank you for the info everyone! I’ll talk to my BOE about the in person one.
If you’re not a CIR then honestly it is not worth doing it imo, unless you want to force yourself to learn hundreds of Japanese words that you probably won’t hear in daily life. The course is aimed at CIRs because all the material is split into sections about the work CIRs usually come across. You’ll just have tons of videos and slides to look online and monthly translation and interpreting tests for very little gain imo. I did it last year as a 1st year CIR. There is no guarantee you will get to go to the 5 day in person training, you have to do a translation test and even if you score well, you are competing against hundreds of CIRs. Last year only 70 ppl could attend the in person training, each year they hold a lottery where they will take 20 people from the previous year who passed all the monthly tests.
I did learn some new words and phrases but I was swamped with translation work that I ended up having to use Google Translate on my monthly tests because I just wanted the course to be over. The hundreds of words per lesson, went in one ear and out the other. This was my experience with the course, if you are planning to be a translator or interpreter in the future then it is a really good course for that if you can maintain motivation for 6 months.
Hope this helps.
I got an email from the BOE when it was open for applications. I didn’t have to ask about it, but my BOE is good at communicating about JET things. It was the online one though. Apparently there used to be a 5 day in-person seminar as part of the course, but it’s now not necessary, ([https://jetprogramme.org/en/clairnewsapril2021/](https://jetprogramme.org/en/clairnewsapril2021/) Translation and interpretation course renewal) and wasn’t a part of my course last year.
But yeah, it started around this time of year when I did it. So you might have to wait a while for the next one. (I forget if its once or twice a year, but if it’s twice, it’s every six months.)
Also, someone metioned you need N2. They RECOMMEND N2, but it’s not required. I didn’t have it at the time of application. I was able to get my school to vouch for me, saying that they thought I was proficent enough to do it, partially because I was supposed to take the N2 around when the course was starting. I just barely passed it though .
But the course was pretty hard for me. There was lots of vocab I didn’t know. I passed because the tests let you take your time with things. But i had to try my hardest.
edit: typo and I’m starting to remember it only being once a year. I started in Summer, did it for six months. Then didn’t see anything about it until a couple months ago.