The Multilingua Training Center on Consecutive and Simultaneous Interpretation is the first -and -- so far -- the only training program in Serbia intended for aspiring and professional interpreters. The first Multilingua course for interpreters was held in 1995. Most of the rationales behind the Training Center still persist to date and some are amplified in the context of Serbia's recent isolation with scarce low intensity exchanges with other cultures:

1. The formal education system offers limited applicable content and university graduates face many issues when trying to enter the world of work.
2. The majority of Serbian citizens aged under 30 have never travelled abroad and have had few direct or indirect interactions with other countries and other cultures.
3. The global pace of technological and social advances has gained in momentum over the past decades. It is becoming more and more difficult for small middle- and low- income countries to follow the development of new concepts, let alone to fix new meanings in languages of a limited distribution.
4. On the job training opportunities that were rare to start with have lately started to drain as a result of the global and local economic crises.

Countering these trends is the appetite of young generations in Serbia to learn about and learn from The World, to better understand multilateral and bilateral institutions, policies, laws, financial and accountability mechanisms, medical, pharmaceutical and other scientific breakthroughs.

Perhaps among the most curious and willing to learn are Serbia's interpreters/translators. By the nature of their trade, they stay connected, in a constant effort to catch up with the latest terms and concepts they encounter in their daily work. With a market too small to specialize and operate within a particular niche, these well educated 'generalisits' still need to cover a vast territory in order to make a living.

The Multilingua Training Center on Consecutive and Simultaneous Interpretation aims to enhance quality and availability of interpretation services in Serbia through provision of basic and advanced training for aspiring and professional interpreters. In addition, Multilingua facilitates the Alumni network for a continuing support and access to the internationally recognized professional standards and to help reverse Serbia's marginalization of intellectual service providers.

To the extent possible, training sessions and exercises resemble or simulate real life working conditions for interpreters. Sessions are held at Belgrade's convention center -- The Sava Center--, room 3/I, which is equipped with professional simultaneous interpretation equipment.

Multilingua's instructors are not only experienced professionals and some of the leading interpreters in Serbia but they also share an interest in and commitment to training of new generations through dissemination of experience and peer learning.

The Honorary Director of Multilingua and one of its' founders, Mr. Vladimir Pavlovic, former Head of the Federal Government’s Translation Bureau was trained at the Interpretation Service of European Community Commission in Brussels. Multilingua Training Center is based on the principles and methods of the Brussels training

As many as 600+ individuals in 16 generations completed the basic training at the MULTI LINGUA Training Center. Approximately 40% of our trainees have developed a full capacity for interpretation and they are now able to perform consistently well in all segments of interpretation (consecutive and simultaneous, from and into a foreign language). Approximately 90% of our trainees are equipped to work in particular segments of interpretation, including consecutive + simultaneous from foreign language into mother's tongue; consecutive + simultaneous into foreign language; or written from foreign language + consecutive. Therefore, Multilingua helps trainees to determine where their strongest assets lie in the interpretation and, to a much more limited extent, translation business. Multilingua trainees receive certificates with final examination grades.

The Multilingua Training Center is not part of the formal education system in Serbia.

There is an on-going debate on whether interpretation is an art that requires talent, or simply a skill that can be attained through hard work.

Through hard work, people can learn to paint, sing, write… but the real exceptional painters, musicians and writers are those whose innate proclivity, capability and senses, have been polished by hard work. Hence, talent helps as does hard work.

Simultaneous and consecutive interpreting require certain qualities that cannot be acquired but that can be enhanced through training and exercise, such as delicate intelligence, ability to concentrate and maintain focus, or excellent short term memory. A capability to quickly establish connections between notions, imaginative associations, and capacity to handle unexpected turns of events gracefully are also indispensible.

Most importantly, interpreters study and learn forever. They constantly seek to complement and actualize the acquired knowledge in various areas. An interpreter needs to be able to distil the essence of an information and to adorn it with detail and tone inor5der to stay true to the speaker's intentions.

The ability of experienced interpreters to concentrate and memorize often amazes people. A good consecutive interpreter is able to reproduce up to thirty minutes of speech from or into the mother's tongue, relying on his or her shorthand notes. For the sake of comparison, an actor needs three to six hours of intensive text study in order to be able to reproduce a half an hour’s monologue correctly.