GOING GLOBAL: Preparing for the Intersteno contests

By John Wissenbach

See how you’d fare in an Intersteno competition by going to intersteno.org/competition-texts-2015/ and trying your hand at the actual dictation from last year’s speech capturing (speed) and realtime contests. You’ll notice the dictation has a parliamentary flavor to it, which is perhaps not surprising given the number of Intersteno members who work in the parliaments of the world.

If you want to compete, EuroparlTV is a great source of dictation practice. There you will be able to access video from the various committee meetings of the European Parliament. Many of the speeches are very interesting, on leading issues of the day, and offer a great source of material for training the brain to deal with a wide variety of accents and names.

Here is some of the vocabulary you may encounter:

abstentions = STWEPBGSZ

accession = KREFGS

asylum = SKWHR-PL

Baltic = PWHR-LGT

Brussels = PWRUFLS

chargé d’affaires = CH-FRD

climate change = KHR-LGT

Council of Europe = KWURP

European Commission = KWR-RPGS

European Council = KPWRUFRL

European Parliament = KWRAERPLT

European Union = KPWRURPB

Europol = KWHRAOURP

GMOs = TKPWO*PLS

harmonization = HAORGS

Juncker = *RPBG

Madam Chair = KPWHR-FPD

Madam Chairman = KPWHR-FPLD

member states = PHRERBTS

migrants = PWH-RNTS

parliamentary = PLAERPLT

plenary = PHRERPB

private sector = PRAOIFBG

public sector = PRUFBG

radicalization = WHRAFGS

rapporteur = WRAORPT

Roma = WRAO*M

Schengen = SWH-PBG

shadow rapporteur = SHAORPT

Strasbourg = STROUG

subsidiarity = STKART

trialogue = TWHROG

visas = TPWAOESZ

John Wissenbach,, RDR, CRR, CRC, is a freelance reporter in San Francisco, Calif. He has competed in several Intersteno Contests. He can be reached at john@wissenbach.com.

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