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Professional Interpretation | ||
Tags: Interpreting | Career | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Languages & Work |  | |
| tipdog Diglot Groupie Australia Joined 6561 days ago 50 posts - 51 votes  Studies: Spanish, English*, Japanese | Message 9 of 9 27 December 2006 at 2:15am | IP Logged |
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Excellent! However for now, I would like to continue on this thread of interpreting.
Simultaneous interpreting is an interesting phraseology. Hmmm, before I go on, I might need to clarify the difference between interpreting and translating. Most lay people use the word interchangeably; however, in the strict sense of the term, (this is one of the things that I abide by) interpreting deals with only the spoken word; in contrast, translating deals with the written word. Before I digress too much, let us get back to so-called simultaneous interpreting. In Japanese, simultaneous interpreting is misleading at best. For the people who have studied Japanese, they know that the verb at the end of the sentence is problematic for interpreters. However, what makes simultaneous interpreting even more questionable is that, Japanese can produce some very long “run-on” sentences where the meaning is not clear until the final verb is conjugated. A funny example of this was relayed to me by my friend, who would interpret for Saburo Sakai whenever he would visit the US. Mr. Sakai loved a practical joke—so one night at a dinner function, Mr. Sakai was passing out omiyage (gifts) that were small gold colored trinkets. The gift receivers asked if they were real gold. Mr. Sakai said “sore wa honmono” and paused as if waiting for my friend (Darrel) to start interpreting that phrase. Well, as everyone who studied Japanese knows, Mr. Sakai left off the verb. So, without the verb “is or isn’t” the statement can be understood as “it real.” Now everyone is staring at Darrel waiting for him to repeat Mr. Sakai’s answer. Darrel bites the bullet and makes an educated guess, saying: “It’s gold.” To Darrel’s dismay, Mr. Sakai then lets out a little chuckle and added “ja nai/isn’t.” This funny story illustrates the point of needing the verb before you can accurately repeat the sentence in the target language. So, how do Japanese interpreter get around this problem and simultaneously interpret? Well, actually they don’t simultaneously interpret. A technique that is employed is what I like to call delayed-simultaneous interpreting and very few people can do this in Japanese. In a nut-shell, the interpreter listens to the first few sentences (or until a final determinate verb is conjugated) then begins to relay those sentences into the target language at the same time he/she is listening to the next set of sentences. This is a considerable feat because the interpreter must put his/her speaking skills on “auto-pilot” as he/she is concentrating on listening to the incoming words. I practiced this, and was able to do it for short burst—but, maintaining a continuous flow is difficult. Not to mention, the speaker needs to continue speaking other wise the flow is broken. I am sure a question on people’s minds here is “How do I learn this?” It really doesn’t need to be learned, just practiced. Here are a few ways to practice this skill/technique. “Simultaneous” Interpreting Skill Development: While driving, or watching TV, listen to a news program or any program that has a constant flow of words. It must be in your native language. YES, your NATIVE LANGUAGE! While listening, start to repeat what is being said but only after a sentence is completed. For concentration’s sake, practice this technique for 10 or 15 minutes at a time. Practice this for a week or so, depending on your learning curve and since you started practicing this skill in your native language, the learning curve shouldn't be too long. But, you may be surprised at the difficult of maintaining a flow. Once you can do this fairly well, then practice paraphrasing what they are saying in your target language; that can be Japanese to English, English to Japanese. Don’t worry so much about accuracy at this point, ( you can even skip words if you have to) just maintain the flow. After your ability increases and you are comfortable doing this, then try for more accuracy by attempting the “holy-grail” of interpreting: word-for-word delayed-simultaneous interpreting. It’s a bugger of a problem, if you pause to think of a word, which you can’t immediately recall, you’ll lose track of what is being spoken and then everything breaks down from there. But, as your skill develops, such cases should gradually decrease in occurrences. Paraphrasing Technique: Lastly, I would like to touch on paraphrasing. Previously, I have written this word many times—however, I never mentioned how to develop this technique. For this skill development, you should find some written material in your target language—why written material for paraphrasing skills? The reason is that, most written words are usually different from vernacular phrases; so, it gives you more options for word and grammar choices while practicing your paraphrasing skill. Take a newspaper or magazine and read a part of the passage, then repeat the meaning of the passage or sentence using as many different phrases, grammar structures or words as possible without losing too much of the article’s flavor. Oh, this must be done with new material every session. You can not use the same material each session because you will not develop quick paraphrasing skills—it must be completely new to you. Most people already know what they are going to say before they say it and have time to rehearse it in their mind before saying it. As an interpreter you don’t have the luxury of time on your side; in addition, as an interpreter, you never really know what is going to come out of a speaker’s mouth; so, it’s very important to be on your toes and think quickly on a spur of the moment when you are interpreting for someone. At any rate, as a byproduct of practicing with new/different material every time, you are also developing your ability to deal with unexpected turns in a language. This is an excellent bonus for something as simple as using new material. Don’t despair about wasting that material on a “one-shot” session; you can come back to the material later for language development. When you come back to the material at a later time, it is IMPERATIVE to have a well educated or linguistically versatile native speaker with you (they are CONDITIO SINE QUA NON for this practice). Take your material to that native speaker who is willing to help you, have them read it, then tell them how you would paraphrase the article and ask them for other ways to say it. This will build upon your knowledge of the language. Remember don’t focus on correcting your phrase (it is not a grammar lesson), but focus on developing new ways to convey the articles meaning. I hope this information helps anyone who is interested in developing their interpreting skills. Edited by tipdog on 27 December 2006 at 2:41am 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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