ABSTRACT

Interpreter training at the university level in Hungary dates back to 1973, when the first Department of Translation and Interpreting was established at ELTE University. Until the end of the 1990s, this was the only translation and interpreting course offered in Hungary. Change came with the turn of the century and the preparation for Hungary’s accession to the EU, when conference interpreters were needed in great numbers. Another milestone was reached in 2006, when the Bologna Process resulted in the launch of two-year MA courses in translation and consecutive interpreting. In 2013 the first university-level court and public service interpreter training was launched by ELTE University. This chapter briefly summarises the history of interpreter training in Hungary with special emphasis on methodological developments. It identifies the factors underlying the evolution of interpreter training in a Central European country of barely 10 million inhabitants such as the size of the interpretation market, characteristics of the interpreting student population, the country’s legislation on interpreting, interpreter training methodology, as well as the geopolitical context. Finally, it describes how the emergence of PhD-level research in Interpreting Studies can create synergies between theory and practice.