Translator Astana

For a week I worked as a translator for the Secretary General of the Bureau of International Expositions (BIE) – H.E. V.Loscertales who came to Astana for a work visit for the first time after the city won the right to host Expo 2017 in Astana.

Secretary General’s visit to Astana started with a meeting with the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan. Mr. Loscertales expressed his congratulations to the Prime Minister on the occasion of Astana’s victory a couple months earlier in Paris. Prime Minsiter reassured Mr. Loscertales that all the preparatory works necessary for a successful organization of EXPO 2017 will be done according to the schedule and will be closely monitored by the Government.

We then had another meeting, this time with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan. The Ministry is responsible for ensuring a high level of participation at the EXPO 2017.

The following day started with a press conference during which Mr. Loscertales answered to a numerous questions that the kazakhstani media had. Press conference was followed by more meetings: with the National Coordinator of the project Expo 2017; the meeting in “AstanaGenPlan” – the office for urban planning of Astana where the main architects of Astana explained how Astana will change by 2017 and where the Expo plot will be located.

The next meeting was with the Mayor of Astana who underlined the need for infrastructure development in Astana which would include building a new railway station, expanding the existing international airport and construction of new hotels, among many other developments.

On the last day of his stay in Astana Mr. Loscertales met with the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev.

After a short but very intense visit Secretary General returned to Paris to come back to Astana in half a year with a new inspection mission to follow the progress of the city’s preparation for the international event to be held in just a couple of years – EXPO 2017.

Another event as a part of the promotion campaign “Astana – candidate city to host EXPO 2017” is the official reception “Yacht de Paris” that was held in Paris on behalf of the Government of the Republic of Kazkahstan.

The reception that was held on the yacht cruising Seine gathered about 160 BIE delegates with their spouses. The reception with the theme “Dances of four continents” had an official part during which the speeches were delivered by H.E. Ambassador of Kazakhstan to France, Minister N. Kapparov, national coordinator R.Zhoshybaev and a french actor Vincent Perez. The official part was followed by dances from four continents letting the guests learn more about each other’s culture: Viennese waltz and feerie representing Europe, Chinese and Indian dances representing Asia, oriental dance and “jungle” dance showcasing Africa, salsa and samba being traditional Latin American dances.

My role was to “meet and greet” guests as they were arriving to the yacht, then make sure I was available if they needed me to translate their conversations, at the end I was responsible for seeing the guests off.

The atmosphere at the reception was very warm, even hot when everybody started dancing to the rhythm of latin american music. This reception was the last event of the promotion campaign before the day X – the day when the BIE delegates will vote for either Astana or Liege to be the host of EXPO 2017.

As the follow-up of the EXPO 2017 Astana candidacy promotion campaign I worked as a simultaneous translator in Astana at the Symposium which gathered 160 International Bureau of Exhibition’s delegates from all over the world.

Symposium was organized to show Astana to the delegates who will later vote for the city to host EXPO 2017. The idea was to explain in more details the theme of EXPO 2017 – Future Energy as well as introduce delegates to the Kazakh culture, to show places of interest in Astana. So the first day was spent in the palace of Independence where several panel discussions took place. I worked as a simultaneous Russian-English translator and I was lucky to work with simultaneous translators who came from Paris specifically for this Symposium. It was a great opportunity for me to learn something new about simultaneous translation. The day ended with a reception held by the Prime Minister. The guests could listen to Kazakh music and try out Kazakh food.

Next day was dedicated to sightseeing in Astana: Baiterek, Khan Shatyr, Palace of Independence, Pyramid and other places of interest in Astana were shown to the guests.

The voting will take place in Paris in November 2012, we are all looking forward to it and crossing our fingers to get the right to host EXPO 2017 in Astana.

I spent last two weeks in Paris in preparation for the General Assembly of BIE (International Bureau of Exhibitions) and for the reception hosted by the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan dedicated to the Expo 2017 bid.

I already worked as a translator during the Enquiry mission visit to Astana which aimed at checking whether Astana was able to host Expo 2017. So this was sort of a follow-up.
All the countries –candidates for Expo 2017 and Expo 2020 gave presentations to the members of the BIE and later that day the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan hosted a reception for 300 BIE delegates which was a part of the official procedure in the BIE. The reception was accompanied by the performance during which all delegates could learn more about the Kazakh culture through traditional dances, music, sings, customs.
I came to Paris two weeks before that day as a part of the organization team. Since more than 150 people were coming to Paris from Kazakhstan for the performance during the reception, the organization had to be perfect and required a lot of preparation. My role was not only to translate but also to communicate in French or English with hotel or reception venue stuff, to coordinate French-Russian assistants that were there to help the performers, to make sure that everybody had a hotel room, and a number of other organizational issues.
On the day of reception I was actually doing English –Russian and French-Russian translation between the BIE delegates, the Kazakh authorities, Ambassadors and other guests. At the same time I had a chance to enjoy a very interesting performance.
The following day there was a meeting between the BIE Secretary General and the Kazakh authorities where I provided English-Russian translation.
I was happy to be a part of the team in Paris as I could do more than just translation; I was given more tasks and more responsibilities which made the trip even better. That’s not to mention that there were plenty things to do and to see in Paris after work!
Next step of the bidding procedure – the international symposium to be held on June, 28-29 in Astana.