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Career Interpreting | ||
Tags: Interpreting | Career | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Languages & Work |  | |
| iouabook Bilingual Diglot Newbie SpainRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4868 days ago 10 posts - 13 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish*, French | Message 9 of 15 30 July 2011 at 5:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi Lecorbeau:
I have been a free-lance conference interpreter for nearly 24 years. Why don't you check this link: http://interpreters.free.fr/ Best, :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5128 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes  Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 10 of 15 30 July 2011 at 5:42pm | IP Logged | ||
Everything depends on the demand of your language pair(s) where you live. Some gigs pay quite well. Some states have recognized organizations that certify both translators and interpreters for their court systems. I'm registered with my county's circuit court system as an interpreter, and once I passed their review process I was hired on as a court interpreter and am classified as a contracted officer of the court. It pays well, but I'll say that court interpreting is my least favorite form of interpreting. If you can get yourself registered with as many private agencies as you can, they usually can provide you with much more interesting work, albeit usually at a lower rate, at least in my experience. In any case, you will most likely be working as a freelancer and not relying on any single source of income. R. == 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5207 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 11 of 15 28 August 2011 at 6:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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Two-page article on a conference interpreter
You folks may enjoy this article, in today's Globe and Mail, about Andrew Dawrant, "widely considered the top Chinese-English language interpreter working in China today, a position he has held for nearly a decade." It's a fascinating look at not just Chinese language interpretation, but the art of conference interpretation itself. ---------- A couple of snippets, one on the intensive training Darwant took: The next stop was a brutal interpreting school in Taiwan where, like a U.S. Marine, Dawrant was physically and mentally dismantled to be built back up as an interpreter. “It was class, practice and then more class and more practice. We never went anywhere. It was like special forces training for two years,” he says. “They completely reconfigured the way your brain works – the way you deal with language and memory. Constructing a discourse model. Getting inside the speakers head and becoming very flexible with all your languages. It is kind of like torture, basically.” And another on an interpretation-related incident at the U.N.: And yet, incredibly, major mistakes by professional interpreters are exceedingly rare. But when they do occur, the consequences can be extraordinary. In October of 2007, a delegate from Syria was speaking at the United Nations in New York regarding a recent air strike on a Syrian target by Israeli war planes. There had been reports that Israel bombed the target because it believed it was a nuclear facility. Syria denied this and, speaking in Arabic at the UN, the delegate described the action as an unwarranted “military aggression.” To interpret every speech into the UN’s six official languages – Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), English, French, Russian and Spanish – a system called “relay” interpreting is employed: A speech is interpreted from one language, in this case Arabic, into another, in this case French, and then translated from there to the next language and the next. The interpreting problem occurred going from French into English: The French interpreter picked up the Syrian delegate’s description “military aggression” and used the word “militaire.” The English interpreter, however, whether through a lapse of concentration or a slip in auditory processing, heard the word “nucléaires.” The implication was that Syria had admitted the planes had bombed a “nuclear facility.” Chaos ensued. Almost immediately news outlets in the Middle East began reporting the stunning, yet wholly false, admission. Only hours later did the UN publish a statement saying the Syrian delegate had been “misquoted” and that the interpreter, whom the UN refused to identify, had been “reprimanded.” -------- The article touches on differences in interpretation philosophies: how much "presence" the interpreter has. - Whether he/she translates dispassionately; how much he/she reflects the tone (e.g. insulting) of the original speaker; or whether they "underplay" insults. I'd love to hear what those of you who are working "in the field" as interpreters feel about the article in general, and the last point above in particular. Edited by songlines on 28 August 2011 at 7:16pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5207 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 12 of 15 27 September 2011 at 3:00am | IP Logged | ||
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I don't know if the original poster still visits the forum, but in case he (or anyone else) is interested, I recently came across a couple of good videos on interpreting.
One is a Youtube clip from a teacher at the Montery Institute of International Studies, in which she talks about: her own language background; the skills, backgrounds, and aptitudes that successful applicants to the school have; and the interpreting and translation courses at Monterey ("second semester financial statements; third semester patent applications, legal documents..."). DG Interpretation, the official interpreting arm of the European Commission, has a Youtube channel. The video Do you have what it takes... features David Smith, the head of DG Interpretation's English unit, covering frequently asked questions such as "Which languages will I need?", "How do I become an interpreter?". Smith also appears in an earlier, livelier video, which has short snippets from interpreters in the field. It covers some - but not all - of the same ground, with an additional focus on EU/EP interpeters. In both, he makes the point that, as a significant percentage of the current generation of interpreters reaches retirement age, there is - and will be - a real need for more interpreters. (He was speaking of those with English as their native language; no information on whether the demographic situation is the same for those with other L1s.) Edited by songlines on 29 September 2011 at 2:45am 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5379 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 13 of 15 27 September 2011 at 3:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm not sure why the OP says the pay isn't great -- the interpreters I know in Canada make around $600-700 for a 6-hour work day. And you only really work half that time because you are sharing the work with a partner. At least, this is for simultaneous interpretation -- I'm sure the pay is lower for other kinds of settings. However, these people don't do it full time. They usually also work as translators. I'm sure the situation is different in Europe, though.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| slymie Tetraglot Groupie China Joined 5226 days ago 81 posts - 154 votes Speaks: English, Macedonian Studies: French, Mandarin, Greek Studies: Shanghainese, Uyghur, Russian | Message 14 of 15 17 October 2011 at 10:02am | IP Logged | ||
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I've only been working as an Interpreter/Translator for under a year but I can tell you
its very taxing at times depending on the content. I do interpreting for Chinese Lawyers with foreign clients and its quite easy, but for another company as well which does marketing for foreign brands in China, it is quite difficult and several times I have felt like just standing up and leaving as all the technical words and names can cause my brain to go into meltdown. The money is not terrific and it's a very demanding job. I spoke to established translators before I got into the field and heard it all before, yet thought I would enjoy it where others don't. I don't. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5379 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 15 of 15 17 October 2011 at 4:06pm | IP Logged | ||
What kind of interpretation do you do? Liaison? You mention Chinese, but it's only in the list of languages you study, so I'm not sure. I accompanied two people who had a simultaneous interpretation contract (French/English) for a conference this weekend and I did a few stints of a few minutes of interpretation for them (I'm still learning). I quite enjoyed it actually. It's definitely challenging. Unlike your experience, the money is VERY good. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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