POLAND - Malgorzata

Thanks to an Erasmus scholarship I spent five months at the Johannes-Gutenberg University in Mainz, at the FASK Department in Germersheim. I had been unsuccessful previously in obtaining other mobility scholarships, as I hadn’t been acquainted with any foreign scholars who could support my efforts. Erasmus was more "egalitarian".

It didn’t require me to have any prior contacts of my own. It was granted to me on the grounds of my knowledge and interests by people from my own faculty.

The Erasmus experience influenced greatly my professional career.

Obviously, my command of German improved substantially. The FASK department library has many books inaccessible in Poland, books that helped shape my MA thesis.

The academics I met offered me a chance to write my PhD in Germersheim. They also mentioned the qualifying examinations for a post-graduate programme called "European Masters in Conference Interpreting". The latter was addressed to University graduates with a very good command of German, Polish and a " C language". I passed the exams successfully and spent further 9 months in Germersheim enhancing my skills as an interpreter in the modern facilities that FASK department offered us, supervised by some top interpreters.

Luckily enough, the European Parliament offered me a scholarship, which covered all of my expenses in Germany and the course fee.

On passing the final exams successfully, I returned to Warsaw, where I began my career as an interpreter. I intend to take accreditation exams for the position of an auxiliary interpreter in the European Commission to be held in September 2002.

Meanwhile, I am writing my PhD at my home faculty and conducting classes in simultaneous and consecutive interpretation.