Hello! Of course! To answer your questions, I chose MIIS because I knew I wanted to study both translation and interpretation and I couldn’t find many programs that would allow me to do both. I also knew that I wanted to get a Master’s degree (not a post-graduate certificate), so that further restricted my search. Finally, on a more personal level, I thought that there would probably be more jobs available to my graphic-designer husband in the Bay Area than in some of the other places I was considering.

It’s hard for me to pinpoint exactly one part of the program and say “this was the most difficult.” What I will tell you is that, in general, it’s a very challenging program. You constantly get feedback on your translations and on your interpretation performance. This is extremely helpful and I think that the excellent feedback was one of the best parts of the program. Looking back, I’m amazed at how much my skills improved. However, when you’re in class every day and constantly getting feedback, it can be a little stressful to feel that there’s always something that you need to improve.

That being said, there really isn’t anything that I would change about the program. The regular semester interpreting courses focus more on conference interpreting than on medical or legal interpreting, and I would have liked to see more of a mix of topics, but there is now a community interpreting specialization that does a great job of filling in those gaps (at least for Spanish).

I hope that this has answered your questions! Don’t hesitate to write back if you think of anything else.