Tutor Profile - Mariana Asminian

Languages & Interpreting

DPSI

I am a qualified interpreter trainer for level 6 DPSI and levels 2 and 3 Community Interpreting courses. While level 3 certificates are achieved by building a portfolio of assignments, DPSI exams are taken externally at the Chartered Institute of Linguists, and candidates who pass the exam are considered professional interpreters.

I have always loved teaching, and initially started training to become a language tutor, but the head of school where I was training offered me the opportunity to teach interpreting, thus combining my interpreting knowledge with teaching. I love the interaction with students, and I hope I am mostly successful in inspiring my interest in legal interpreting in them.

It’s not a regular 9-5 job - there is soul and interaction with human beings. I teach adults, often who are changing careers or starting out, and I feel our courses can sometime change the way people feel about themselves, their lives and their future prospects. That is what I like most about the job.

I love teaching people of various abilities and backgrounds who are committed to improving. I try to incorporate all types of activities in my classes, because my main objective is for students to be engaged and motivated, therefore I use a lot of pair-group activities and discussions. I also like telling anecdotes from past cases and I find learners are fascinated, a bit like hearing a story-teller!

Many excellent teachers have inspired me in the past, whom I have taken as role models for my own teaching. I also take a lot of cues from great spiritual leaders, for example; the late Pope Francis or the Dalai Lama; and philosophies, because in order to teach, you need to reach the student at a deeper level than just on an intellectual basis. Students come to courses with a background, problems, challenges, limitations, and if I am unable to tackle those, then I might not help them achieve. Apart from that, the feedback and requests from students are the main factor that spurs me to change things and evolve.

I am currently teaching medium-size groups of up to 15 students but my aim is to dedicate time to each learner through 1-1 observations, enabling them to discuss and get feedback.

As well as teaching, I am a freelance interpreter in Spanish and Armenian, working mainly in police and legal settings, but I also do booth interpreting, football and even TV!