Informal Interpreting Tips

[艾墨本]

Considering how many professional translators and interpreters are on these forums, I thought I might ask for some adivce.

 

I'll be taking some students to a bakery which will include an explanation of the processes. The speaker doesn't speak English and as such I will be filling in the role of interpreter. Fortunately, I have been provided with four pages of information telling me rather precisely what will be discussed. Unfortunately, there are a lot of technical chemistry words and names of baking processes.

 

Does anyone have suggestions on how to prepare for a task such as this? The obvious first step seems to be getting down the specific vocabulary and familiarizing myself with the provided task, but what can I do beyond this?

 

Thank you for any and all advice.

[Lu]

Yep, that's the main thing: look up all the words and cram. Learn them by heart, backwards and forwards. It's great that they gave you four pages of information that you can mine for vocab. It seems daunting (and it kinda is), but the more information you have, the better you can prepare and the better you will interpret.

 

If feasible, chat with the person who will do the explaining, it can help getting a feel for their accent and way of speaking (and to find out whether they will say more than is in the material they gave you). Alternatively, it can be useful to look up a Chinese-spoken video on (in your case) bread-baking and practice interpreting in front of your computer.

 

Explain to the speaker that the explanation will take twice as long because everything has to be said twice, and that they will need to pause every one or two sentences so you can translate. If they forget this, nudge them a bit every time you need them to pause. Your audience might notice and laugh a bit; this is okay.

 

Some interpreters like to bring a notebook & pen to take notes and read from those notes; some do it from memory. I do both, depening on the occasion and circumstances. (Especially for big numbers, it's very useful to write them down and count the zeroes.) I've been told it's more difficult to interpret without notes, but in my view it's really a matter of preference. If you don't know what you prefer, bring a notebook in case that works better for you. Either way, concentration is very important: you cannot let your mind wander, you cannot miss a word.

 

If there is something you don't understand, either ask the speaker to explain it again or make your best guess, depending on how important it is and how likely the speaker is to give a more understandable explanation if asked.* If you realise that you misinterpreted something a minute ago and get in trouble with the next bit, just make the best of it. ('I realise I just misinterpreted, actually it is xyz'; or stitch the bit you forgot in front of what you were going to say now; or act as if nothing happened and tell the correct bit as if it were new information. Whichever works best.)

 

I hope this is useful. Let me know if you have more questions. Good luck!

 

* I once interpreted for a man with a pretty strong Minbei accent who, whenever I asked for an explanation, just repeated what he had just said, at the same speed. That did not go well.

[roddy]

It's not really a language thing, but...

 

Interpreting a conversation often turns into two conversations - Person A talking to the interpreter, the interpreter talking to Person B, rather than Person A and B having a conversation. There are ways to avoid that - make it explicitly clear when you're introducing yourself or explaining what's happening, place yourself off to the side, and keep your eyes on whoever the focus *should* be on, or downturned. If you're speaking, people will naturally look at you. If they see you looking elsewhere, they will look elsewhere.

[Lu]

3 minutes ago, roddy said:

keep your eyes on whoever the focus *should* be on

Do you mean repeating the person's words back to them (but in the other language)? That feels odd to me, I always talk to the person they are addressing. Or am I misunderstanding what you mean?

[TheBigZaboon]

Also, don't be afraid to talk with the person for whom you're interpreting and frankly explain the situation. Many people who are not used to working with interpreters suddenly think that they're Demosthenes or Abraham Lincoln, and begin to bloviate when they see an audience in front of them. Ask the speaker to speak in simple sentences for your sake, even though the audience may be experts in the field and would unquestionably understand everything if it were in their own language. You can't ask the speaker to dumb down the speech, but you can remind him or her you're not an expert on the subject matter.

 

And it never hurts to show interest by asking for clarification in advance of anything you didn't understand from the background material you received. 

 

TBZ

[roddy]

 

1 hour ago, Lu said:

Do you mean repeating the person's words back to them (but in the other language)? That feels odd to me

That's me getting confused due to trying to type while eating a pie...

[Shelley]

mmmmm pi

 

now who is confused

[艾墨本]

Bringing this thread back on topic...

 

Thank you for the pointers! This is greatly helpful. @Lu I'll most certainly bring a small notebook, which might have to have a list of some of the longer chemical names in it as well. I'll also have to practice doing some interpretation for extended periods just to practice maintaining concentration. I could very easily see my mind wandering off for a sentence or two. That'd be embarrassing. Would it work to just take an online video discussing bread a practicing with that, stopping every few sentences to translate?

 

@TheBigZaboon I also like the idea of making sure they know I'm not a professional at this and that it might help to tone down the content. Their audience won't have any bakers in it as well so the more technical bits might not be so necessary, anyhow.

 

Also, thank you for some simple tips on dealing with mistakes. I anticipate that to be the hardest part for me. When doing oral exams, missing one bit often leaves me spinning as I think about the answer and miss the next question.

[Tomsima]

I went to a Japanese tea testing recently, where the interpreter for the Japanese tea expert explaining the ceremony was a friend not an interpreter by profession, and perhaps was his first time interpreting. While his Japanese was undoubtedly fantastic, I felt we as the audience never actually interacted with the tea expert herself, I can only remember the interpreter talking. Perhaps something to do with what Roddy was saying about eye contact

[Lu]

8 hours ago, 艾墨本 said:

Would it work to just take an online video discussing bread a practicing with that, stopping every few sentences to translate?

Yes, that's what I would do.

 

As to the names of chemicals: if you can, learn them by heart. You won't have time to look them up on the spot (unless it's only one or two, in which case it's not too difficult to learn them by heart anyway) and you won't have a free hand for it either, because you have a notebook in one hand an a pen in the other. Just cram and cram, learn them every hour until you see the words in your dreams. And if you rattle them off fluently you'll get major props, that is the kind of thing that everyone can tell is impressive. Alternatively, you can skip the chemical names, either by asking the person doing the talk to leave them out or by just translating the rest of what is going on and referring to the chemicals as 'a specific chemical that does x' or something along those lines.

 

As to what Roddy said about eye contact, perhaps it is not so much about when the interpreter is talking but when they are listening. As it happens I have a series of small interpreting gigs this week and yesterday I noticed that the Chinese speaker we were all there for was alternately looking at me and at the audience, when she should have been looking just at the audience. That might have been because I was intently looking at her, so I tried looking at the audience instead. Between thinking about all this and not looking at the speaker, I then had missed half of what she was saying. Not sure if I should try that again until I get better at it or avoid it from now on...

 

ETA: I almost forgot a very important principle: It's not about you. You are there to facilitate, you're not the star of the show. This means that if the speaker unexpectedly does speak English, you should cheerfully step back and not feel insulted that you don't get to do your work. You are vital to the proceedings, but you have the lowest status and you need to embrace that. (This doesn't mean you have to carry people's suitcases, but if for example the plans change a little, or they have you wait somewhere while they shop, or whatever, you just roll with it.)

 

Maybe @yueni has some wisdom to share as well?

[陳德聰]

All fantastic advice above, and I would add that it will also greatly improve your interpreting for you to also be very well acquainted with the process in English. For example, if you already know that yeast eats sugar and is a common leavening agent that releases CO2, you will be in a much better position to interpret 酵母吃糖會產生二氧化碳，就發揮膨大劑的作用. You can learn this through Chinese instructional videos but I find it’s quicker to just learn it in your comfortable language first.

[somethingfunny]

35 minutes ago, 陳德聰 said:

I would add that it will also greatly improve your interpreting for you to also be very well acquainted with the process in English

 

I'm no interpreter, but this would seem like the first obvious step to me.  What is this acid?  What does it look like?  What does it do?  Where else is it used?  It's difficult talking about science topics in your own language unless you really know what you're talking about.

[yueni]

A lot of good advice has already been given, so I won't belabor the point, and simply give a couple suggestions that I think might be helpful (and that is often forgotten) for a less experienced interpreter.

 

When you are preparing for this gig, keep in mind what the purpose of the presentation is. E.g. is this a technical discussion between bakers? A sight-seeing trip for tourists interested in baking? Who is your speaker, and who is your audience? This will help inform the way you interpret.

 

For instance, if it is a technical discussion between bakers, the focus on the technical details might be more important because both parties are themselves subject matter experts and it might be a discussion about some new, groundbreaking process in the field of baking breads. However, if they are baking experts, then chances are, they are already familiar with the terminology, and they might even "assist" you as you interpret, because they can anticipate or they already know where the speaker is going, and you're just there to smooth over the language details.

 

On the other hand, if it is a sight-seeing trip for tourists who are probably not subject matter experts, then it would probably be better for you to get a big-picture idea of what is going on and what is happening in the bread-baking process. Losing a highly-technical term or five won't probably be important, so long as you give your listeners a good (and accurate) idea of what is going on. E.g. "The bakery uses these additives in the bread dough so that the bread will last longer on the shelf." is probably fine instead of listing out long chemical terminology.

 

Secondly, it is normal for you to be stumped by a term during the speech. Don't focus only on the term you don't know, because once you do that, it's easy to not hear the rest of the sentence that the speaker is saying, that might sometimes explain that term that he just used, or give you an idea of where he is going. At all times, keep in mind what the big picture is, don't let your brain be distracted by that one word that you don't know. Basically, don't get bogged down in the details.

 

A good interpreter is able to anticipate where the speaker is going when he talks, and you can help that by familiarizing with the baking process, as suggested above.

[Zeppa]

I used to teach interpreters. I presume this is gong to be translated bit by bit. You won't spend much time looking at your notebook.

 

As has been said, make sure the speaker gives you time to translate, and also speaks with plenty of breaks as your short-term memory is limited. 

 

Also make it clear from the beginning that you speak as if you were the baker - that is, don't say 'He says he uses this machine every day' but 'I use this machine every day'. No third-person reporting - it just confuses everyone. 

[艾墨本]

Well, this has been one of the most informational threads I have ever read. It seems this is the part where I need to put in the hard work and make this a success. I'm excited for the new experience.

 

Thanks again for all the great suggestions. Some great pointers.

[Tomsima]

In class just now a student had to interpret the phrase "your type of diabetes may lead to cataracts or glaucoma". The student didn't know the specialist English terms, and so asked the 'doctor' in English 'are those medical problems relating to the eye?' The doctor confirmed, and the interpretation continued unhindered as the interpreter told the patient 'your diabetes may lead to eye problems'. I thought it was a fantastic way to deal with the problem. The person playing the doctor in the scenario had actually pointed to his eyes as he was saying the terms; the interpreter had picked up on the body language and could thus partially understand the meaning of specialist terms he would otherwise be clueless to. Visual clues and asking questions. (For those interested/vocab junkies: cataracts白内障，glaucoma 青光眼)

[Lu]

艾墨本, let us know how it went!

[abcdefg]

Sounds like another one of those challenges that causes some strain, requires some work, but then ultimately leads to significant linguistic growth. You will probably heretofore know more than you ever thought you would about baking. Good that you took it on. I'm sure you will succeed! 

[艾墨本]

11 hours ago, Lu said:

, let us know how it went!

 

Most certainly will. Thankful to my employer for understanding that this is a step into a new field for me and thus made effort to give me the tools to exceed and the time to prepare. I won’t have to actually interpret until 2018/12/7

 

EDIT: Changed the date format because some people just cant help but say @somethingfunny

[somethingfunny]

Next July?  That's plenty of time to prepare.

 

In the past!?