What do you think about a career in Conference Interpretation?

[wushucrab20]

Something I've been wondering lately is how many people are interested in using their Chinese skills and trying to develop them to pursue a career as an interpreter. I'm referring mainly to conference interpretation, including large conference simultaneous and consecutive interpretation. The impression that I have is that there are very few trained professional conference interpreters that learned Chinese as a second language and are not of Chinese heritage. I assume it is because among the people that reach a very high level of Chinese, most of them choose to start their own business, go into law, medicine, or a career that allows them to use language for their own work and not for the purpose of helping someone else communicate. Those other options also potentially make even more money than conference interpreters, so I think that may be a factor as well. However, I am curious how much of it is an awareness issue. Maybe it is just that many high level Chinese learners haven't really considered this as a possible career path.

 

What do you all think? From what I have heard there are very few non native Chinese students in any Conference Interpretation Masters program around the world and the same can be said for professionals working in the field. Is this a career that anyone else finds interesting or worth pursuing? Has anyone met any professional interpreters or have friends in this field? I'm interested to hear what you all think 

[Bad Cao Cao]

Going from Chinese to English -- there are non-native and non-heritage Chinese speakers.

 

Also, challenging yourself to do this is a great level up for advanced learners.

 

See Chris Parker's experience (simulataneous):

http://www.fluentinmandarin.com/content/how-train-chinese-english-simultaneous-interpreter/

 

And his ability:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX64kcZW8cs

 

- also see Jim Brown (who Obama uses) for consecutive

[889]

My impression, from a friend once in this field, is that it's not particularly good as a life-term career.

 

First, simultaneous interpretation requires immense concentration, and burn-out and ageing issues can come into play. In short, though exceptions no doubt exist, it's stressful and a relatively young person's game, especially for those not bilingual from birth.

 

Second, while simultaneous interpretation requires great skill, that skill may not help you advance your career in a large organization, since the skill is often regarded as a very technical and narrow one. Indeed, there's a certain mechanical aspect to simultaneous translation, and once you've achieved proficiency, is it really that fulfilling? As a test, just try echoing a speaker in your native language with a three-second lag. It quickly becomes maddening.
 

[wushucrab20]

@889-  I can see how it would be hard on someone over time, it takes a lot of preparation for each meeting or assignment unless you work in the same field for every meeting, which is not very common for freelancing conference interpreters. But personally I think it would be really fun, mainly because of the other challenges involved.

 

To some extent you can probably become good enough to mechanically output 70-85% of the content, but the remaining portion I think will always pose a challenge.  No one speech or speaker is completely alike and there are always phrases or expressions, jokes and other things that come up. If an interpreter manages to handle these areas well, to get the audience to laugh for example, or is able to convey they beauty or feeling from the original speaker, that must feel very rewarding. Of course it depends on the person and there may be people who would become disinterested after a period of time. 

 

 

@bad cao cao-  I've watched a few of Chris Parkers videos and I find it very impressive. I also read his article about how he trained simultaneous interpretation and it was also quite inspiring. He clearly put a lot of time and effort into it and it seems to have paid off. Jim Brown is also an interesting case because he seems to have been doing this for quite a while and I think things are very different now from when he first started out as an interpreter in terms of training and qualifications. I wonder if anyone else gets to interpret Chinese for the US president 

[Shelley]

My mother was bilingual in English and German and spent a few years in New York do simultaneous translations for the United nations. It seems to me that not only did you get to do the translations and help people she also got to mix with some very interesting people.

 

She ended up becoming one of the secretaries on Richard Nixon's staff in the early 1950's. So you could look at it as a good way to improve your language skills but it might also be a good starting point to go on to do something that is just as interesting but perhaps less stressful and better paid

 

I think if it appeals to you why not give it a go, you can always change your mind if you really don't like it, but it may also open other doors.

[akdn]

Also, challenging yourself to do this is a great level up for advanced learners.

 

For those interested in developing conference interpretation skills:

 

Lots of practice interpreting materials for working from Chinese into English are available on the European Commission's Interpretation Speech Repository.

 

It is also worth browsing ORCIT (Online Resources for Conference Interpreter Training). "An EU-funded project producing interactive pedagogical tools for trainers and students of conference interpreting." The materials are all in English, but the principles are reasonably generic.  

 

Finally, the Interpreter Training Resources website. 

[Lu]

If this is a field you're interested in, I think you should go for it. It's paid quite well, as far as I know, and as Shelly notes, you get to meet all kinds of interesting people and go to interesting places that you wouldn't otherwise meet/go. It's not an easy skill to learn, but you get a front seat to history (or other interesting developments).

 

One reason there are more ethnic Chinese interpreters of Chinese than non-ethnic Chinese is probably that there are vastly more Chinese people learning other languages, or having grown up abroad, than non-Chinese learning Chinese or growing up in China. Some of these interpreters are amazingly good, but there's nothing really stopping a foreigner from reaching a professional level (apart from the foreigner's own ability and diligence, of course).

[wushucrab20]

@Lu    I agree, I think you can never predict what type of opportunities will come from pursuing a career like this. For me it is definitely really interesting, challenging, and enjoyable. With all the possible situations I might have the opportunity to interpret it, it is hard to imagine ever getting burned out no matter how difficult things get. I am also really interested in Japanese and I think that if I can reach a level where I am able to conference interpret for both languages in both directions, it would keep me busy and stay interesting for the rest of my career. Teaching is always an option down the road too, as long as I get enough experience.