| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4] | URGENT: been asked to interpret, zero experience Thread poster: blahdibla (X)
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Kay Denney 
France
Local time: 22:46
French to English
| Yeah, go for it! | Feb 5, 2012 |
blahdibla wrote:
Also, I just randomly decided to try myself out, and tried ''interpreting'' from some radio panel discussions, in both my B and A languages. I found that I was equally appalling in both  BUT - I found that listening in English (my native tongue) and interpreting into my B proved easier than the reverse...which I find baffling, as I expected the opposite. Is that normal? Is it perhaps easier to ''keep up''listening to your native language, because if you get distracted interpreting what was said before you can tune back in more easily? I find listening to the B and talking in the A more energy-draining, perhaps because I need to concentrate more to follow the B?
It doesn't surprise me that much.
When you start speaking a foreign language, the words don't come naturally. Your thoughts just naturally bubble up in your brain in your A language and so you translate them into B.
So when you interpret A to B, it's simply an extension of what you have been doing throughout the learning process. You obviously understand what you hear, then you probably just say the first thing that comes to you, to get the idea across, without worrying unduly about constructing sentences that flow beautifully.
When working from B to A, you do indeed need to concentrate harder to understand everything, then as a native speaker of A you may unconsciously set yourself a higher standard than when speaking in B. If you're relatively inexperienced then you haven't yet learned reflexes and so you can flounder more easily.
I first started out as a translator with a tiny baby in my arms and no diplomas whatsoever, just an ardent love of the French language and total ignorance as to the difficulties in translating well. I was offered a translation I barely understood and had very little time to do it in. My husband said "accept it, then take the time to sort out how you're going to do it afterwards". My first inclination had been to say no, but I took the plunge and have never regretted it.
| | | | Nicole Schnell
United States
Local time: 13:46
English to German
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In memoriam | Don't smoke? Quite the opposite, Tom. | Feb 5, 2012 |
Tom in London wrote:
you'll be talking continuously. Ask everyone not to smoke !
That's the only chance to get each of the 15 attendants to shut up for a second. Allow them to smoke. Why the non-smoking issue? Are you Maria Callas or some other famous opera singer, being afraid for your precious voice?
| | | | Steffen Walter
Germany
Local time: 22:46
Member (2002)
English to German
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Nicole Schnell wrote:
Tom in London wrote:
you'll be talking continuously. Ask everyone not to smoke !
That's the only chance to get each of the 15 attendants to shut up for a second. Allow them to smoke. Why the non-smoking issue? Are you Maria Callas or some other famous opera singer, being afraid for your precious voice?
I'm afraid Tom is absolutely right here. Inhaling the smoke-laden air for just a couple of minutes will inevitably kill your voice (my own experience). Then try and carry on interpreting - mission impossible, I'd say...
| | | | Nicole Schnell
United States
Local time: 13:46
English to German
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In memoriam | Yes, but you are a seasoned, top-notch pro. | Feb 5, 2012 |
Steffen Walter wrote:
I'm afraid Tom is absolutely right here. Inhaling the smoke-laden air for just a couple of minutes will inevitably kill your voice (my own experience). Then try and carry on interpreting - mission impossible, I'd say...
As a beginner, every second of silence might be welcome. I only have interpreting experience during rare family gatherings involving my husband who does not speak a word German. After 20 minutes I am exhausted.
I received formal training in phone interpreting two years ago, pretty cool. As for the final test, this highly professional company had a very special and very sinister test up their sleeve: A conference call was set up between a non-native speaker of "German" with a very thick accent sprinkled with serious gibberish and speaking at the speed of a machine gun and an American. How I wished that person would have suffered an unexpected sneezing fit or something...
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blahdibla (X)
TOPIC STARTER | Re the big smoking question | Feb 6, 2012 |
That would actually be a dream come true for me. As a chain-smoker myself, the smoke wouldn't bother me, and if I could smoke I would definitely feel more relaxed...except I doubt this is going to happen, I thought smoking now was a big no-no!
| | | | blahdibla (X)
TOPIC STARTER
José Henrique Lamensdorf wrote:
You got plenty of different opinions here. One thing I didn't notice mentioned is the fact that everybody will be rooting for your success.
Compare that to a seasoned, high-priced, hired simultaneous interpreter. They would be be demanding top performance. You will just be a goodwilled friend who is there to help the communication they all want so much to happen. Some of them may come to your rescue if they know occasional words you don't in the other language, even if they can't pronounce them properly. The foreign (?) visitor will be interested in getting their messages across, so s/he might restate/rephrase ideas that may be hard for you to grasp.
Keep in mind that their goal is to get communication across two different languages out of your goodwill, and not their money's worth from professional interpreting services.
This is definitely the post I'm going to read before I head out.
| | | | Parrot
Spain
Local time: 22:46
Spanish to English
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You won't have time, believe me.
| | | | Audra deFalco (X)
United States
Local time: 16:46
Italian to English
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| So did you end up doing it? | Feb 12, 2012 |
So did you end up doing it? Let us know! We're all rooting for you.
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blahdibla (X)
TOPIC STARTER | well, I did it! | Feb 16, 2012 |
So guys, 2 days I ago I did it.
It was absolutely terrifying, especially as like I said, it was such a high profile institution. They normally have interpreters on hand, but they don't work in their lunch break.
Originally I was told it was going to be whispering into my A language. As it turned out, the guy I was there for had a lot to say...more than anyone else. So as well as doing the whispering, 80% of my time was used interpreting ''out loud'' into my B language -... See more So guys, 2 days I ago I did it.
It was absolutely terrifying, especially as like I said, it was such a high profile institution. They normally have interpreters on hand, but they don't work in their lunch break.
Originally I was told it was going to be whispering into my A language. As it turned out, the guy I was there for had a lot to say...more than anyone else. So as well as doing the whispering, 80% of my time was used interpreting ''out loud'' into my B language - the guy also wanted to start with a speech. It lasted around 2 hours, and was probably the most difficult and tiring thing I've ever had to do. Afterwards, a few of the people there told me I did ''extremely well for a first go'', and I didn't feel it went too badly, although of course I was very aware that what I was doing was sloppy work compare to a pro. Here are the things I took away from this:
- There was a 6 course meal in the institution's dining room...of which I tasted NONE. I really thought I'd be able to sneak in a few bites, but nope. The one time I did risk it, I popped some cheesecake into my mouth and my guy immediately started a rant. Arrrrrrrgh. I was starving.
- One guy at the end of the table kept looking at me and glaring/shaking his head. I was thinking ''Christ, he thinks I'm appalling''. It was only later (thanks to some comments on here!) that I twigged he was looking at me, but responding to what the guy was saying.
- The biggest thing I hadn't expected, was the conscious effort required to keep your concentration. Does this happen to everyone, or is it just that I'm not trained? I mean, at some points I almost felt like I was leaving my body and seeing the situation from above, and I had to really force myself, after an hour or so, to keep focused on what was being said
- I tried to prepare for the topic, but inevitably got really stuck with some fairly obscure acronyms. Everyone there obviously knows these acronyms in their respective languages, but I didn't. Translating that was difficult.
- Everyone there knew I was a translation student, and were quite patient with me. One awkward moment: my mind went blank, I couldn't remember the word for ''lawsuit''. Just clumsily made it into ''cases brought before a court''. Forgot the word for ombudsman - tough luck for me, he said it 3 times in one sentence. Total fail. Tried to just create a sentence with the basic gist. Some of my sentences in the B language obviously didn't make sense...I was desperately clutching at little snippets of the sentence, I didn't have time or training enough to be able to keep what he'd said in my memory and reformulate into proper polished sentences, so it was quite shoddy. At one point one of the women said ''I don't understand what you're trying to say''. Lol! Had to get the guy to repeat, and I tried again.
- Difficult moment when it turned out there was another woman there who didn't understand the main discussion language, so I would also be interpreting for her. Christ! She wanted to say some stuff as well, but the difference with her was her accent was so incredibly thick, it made my work twice as hard. She was speaking my A language, but I just couldn't understand her.
- I did some things that later I found out are unprofessional, from an interpreting pro point of view (a mate who's an interpreting student told me): I closed my eyes and grimaced a few times when trying to search for a term, and also I got on extremely well with the guy I was working for, and really sympathized with his cause, which meant that when he was getting fired up, I really wanted to get that across, and really felt it actually, so I was doing a lot of gesturing and my voice got quite belligerent.
- The guy spoke a very little bit of the B language. He started a sentence with ''Currently, the air in [country]'', and I started interpreting, and said ''Currently, the atmosphere in....'' and he cut me off and said ''No. The AIR'', which I still don't really understand. I mean, there's only two possible meanings of ''air'', right? The physical air (this wasn't about green issues or pollution or anything) and the ambience, the atmosphere? Could it be it was because he wasn't ever talking in his mother tongue, and air has yet another meaning in his native language? Maybe I just missed the point? Meh, I don't know.
So there you have it. If any of those points reminded you of an experience you've had, I'd love to hear more. This was a truly brilliant experience for me. I think I did a good job, in that yes it was clunky, and rough, but the ideas got passed along. It struck me that one of the most important things for an interpreter must surely be the ability to stay unruffled, to keep cooler than cool even after a mistake, or even when you've lost the thread of the conversation. It was annoying how the waiter would keep coming up an asking if he could clear my (untouched) plate off, and I'd answer him, turn back, and bang, the debate had moved on.
Thanks for all your supportive messages though, I re-read them before going in, and it really helped settle my nerves. The building itself was so imposing, and like nothing I've ever been in my life. I almost felt sad to leave. It's made me quesion whether all I want to do in my life is really translate. I've never felt as nervous, as stressed and as afraid before, but God what a rush doing something like that gives you. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Parrot
Spain
Local time: 22:46
Spanish to English
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| Congratulations | Feb 16, 2012 |
Sounds like a real learning experience and a fiery welcome to the real world
| | | | JaneD
Sweden
Local time: 22:46
Member (2009)
Swedish to English
+ ...
I'm glad to hear it went well for you.
It was a great chance to learn an enormous amount; the kind of things that you have to appreciate for yourself before you can really take them on board, so it's good that it went off smoothly.
Yes, interpreting is *INCREDIBLY* tiring! (That's another reason why you need to eat before you start, so that you have the energy to keep going!)
| | | | Phil Hand
China
Local time: 04:46
Chinese to English
| Congratulations | Feb 16, 2012 |
It sounds like it went really well. Audiences notice your "mistakes" much less than you'd think, so don't worry about them too much. And speakers who know a little bit of the other language can be a pain in the behind. If you get corrected, just accept it and move on, even if the correction is actually wrong or pointless.
Concentration through that length of time is very very difficult, especially when people are making speeches. You shouldn't really be asked to do consecutive for hours on... See more It sounds like it went really well. Audiences notice your "mistakes" much less than you'd think, so don't worry about them too much. And speakers who know a little bit of the other language can be a pain in the behind. If you get corrected, just accept it and move on, even if the correction is actually wrong or pointless.
Concentration through that length of time is very very difficult, especially when people are making speeches. You shouldn't really be asked to do consecutive for hours on end, but clients don't remember for consecutive. It can be almost as tiring as simultaneous, and your quality drops off in the same way. ▲ Collapse
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Joseph Tein
United States
Local time: 13:46
Spanish to English
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| We all have to start somewhere | Feb 18, 2012 |
It sounds like you had a great learning experience. All the advice in the world doesn't compare to jumping in there and dealing with the real thing. Now you know why it's important to learn about specialized terminology in advance, and why interpreters need breaks to rest their brain cells ... which are all working extremely hard 100% of the time when you're interpreting.
Reading your earliest posts and your report of how it went, it sounds like you were excessively hard on yours... See more It sounds like you had a great learning experience. All the advice in the world doesn't compare to jumping in there and dealing with the real thing. Now you know why it's important to learn about specialized terminology in advance, and why interpreters need breaks to rest their brain cells ... which are all working extremely hard 100% of the time when you're interpreting.
Reading your earliest posts and your report of how it went, it sounds like you were excessively hard on yourself ... expecting far too much perfection for a first try ... and all the more courageous for that. It also shows how much you care about doing good work.
Good work! ▲ Collapse
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