Dear Speaker,You Are Going to Be Only as Good as Your

Interpreter,So Please…

November 2013 Toronto Canada

Akiko ShinodaConference Interpreter

Tokyo Japan aswkiki@y6.dion.ne.jp

Tour Guide

Types of Interpreting

Methods of Interpreting

Consecutive

Whispering General

Interpreting

Community Interpreting

　 Medical Care

Conference interpreting

Broadcast Interpreting

Simultaneous

Relay-Simultaneous

Semi-Simultaneous

Time-lag Simultaneous

＊ Understanding what’s being said （ Input) ―― 　 Only half the job done

＊ Rendering what you’ve understood into good, adult target language (Output) Only when you can do both can you be an interpreter.

INTERPRETING: WHAT IT ENTAILS

In other words,

Failing to do a good job, because…

1. Problems with input ――Didn’t really understand what’s being said

2. Problems with output ――Poor ability to express in the target language

3. Lack of knowledge about the subject matter

INTERPRETING: WHAT IT ENTAILS

In everyday life, we all tend to be sloppy listeners

But in an interpreting situation, you have to be a most rigorous listener

You didn’t really understand, because…

You were not listening properly

Not just listening to the words, but listening for the meaning

Constructing Meaning / Information

（意味付け／情報化） out of the words you are hearing, in the same ORDER and at the same SPEED as the speaker

Intensive Listening / Active Listening

―― the most important and fundamental training

In a thought-provoking article / in the New York

Times / last year, / Ｎ .Kato, /a professor of

literature, / suggested / that Japan had

entered / a “post-growth era” / in which the

illusion of limitless expansion / had given way /

to something more profound…

SLASH LISTENING / SLASH READING

He sounded a little like Walter Berglund, / the

heroic crank of Jonathan Frazen’s Freedom, /

who argues / that growth in a mature

economy, / like that in a mature organism, / is

not healthy / but cancerous. “Japan doesn’t

need to be No 2 in the world, nor No 5 or 15,”

Prof Kato wrote. “It’s time to look to more

important things.”

SLASH LISTENING / SLASH READING

Even when doing Consecutive Interpretation, UNDERSTANDING has to be

Simultaneous & Automatic In the case of Simultaneous

Interpretation, EXPRESSING (output) has to be Automatic also

No “searching” for the right word 

A delay by a split second decides the outcome ( 瞬間の勝負 )

Gymnastics on the bar Monkeys in the zoo

For beginner-interpreters who have not yet fully acquired the habit of Intensive Listening,

Assignments in the fields of familiar topics will help,

because what they missed catching (ie, information, meaning…) may be supplemented by Knowledge.

KNOWLEDGE- ASSISTED

COMPREHENSION

KNOWLEDGE- ASSISTED

COMPREHENSION

Knowledge can fill the gap in understanding

black

Crows are White?!

Kingfishers are…??

Bald eagles are… ??

But it never works that way

Usually, the hardest jobs are given to starters

Tributyl-chlorostannane, Hexabutyl-distatannoxane,…VS

Little Leo-chan and Ms Lucy

Murphy’s Law

THEY are to blame:

Interpreters ( 通訳者 )

Interrupters( 妨害者 )

1. How can you expect me to interpret

when I cannot hear? (bad sound)

2. When I cannot see? (too dark, too far)

3. Maybe this is English? (very strong accent)

(Relay interpreting) *

THEY are to blame:

Interpreters ( 通訳者 )

Interrupters( 妨害者 )

4. Speeding (Crack down on hot-rodders, please!)

5. So many personal names, place names, names of organizations…

6. If you are going to tell a joke, tell me the joke beforehand .*

THEY are to blame:

Interpreters ( 通訳者 )

Interrupters( 妨害者 )

7. Puns and word plays should be forbidden at international conferences

8. Sloppy sentences with no subject, no verb, no…

9. Reading out a speech is generally a bad idea. Non-communication.*

THEY are to blame:

Interpreters ( 通訳者 )

Interrupters( 妨害者 )

10.Quoting from legal documents, laws, treaties, contracts, etc

11.Providing no manuscript of the speech, talking points, reference material

12.No briefing session. “He is such a busy person we can’t possibly ask him to set aside some time for briefing the interpreters.”

THEY are to blame:

Interpreters ( 通訳者 )

Interrupters( 妨害者 )

“You are going to be only as good as your interpreter, so please…”

If you get praise for doing a good interpreting job, it is mostly because the speaker was doing a good job.

WE are to blame:1. Language proficiency lacking (Listening as

well as expressing )

2. Special Interpreting Skills lacking

(Intensive Listening / Quick Information

Processing)

3. Analytical mind and overall comprehension

wanting

4. Lack of study and preparation 5. Lack of intelligence and liberal arts

education Bible, Qur’an?, Shakespeare, poems, famous historical

speeches, Latin(terra incognito…)

Haiku, yojijukugo( 明鏡止水、我田引水 ) 、 proverbs( 馬の耳に念仏 )

WE are to blame:

External Memory (dictionary) vs Internal Memory

Must enrich your Internal Memory

WE are to blame:

6. Lack of sleep, health problems, fatigue

7. Depressed / feeling low

WE are to blame:

1. Choose which fields you want to

specialize

Medicine, pharmaceuticals, IT, computer, finance,

business, economics, politics, international

relations, human rights, environment, gender

issues, etc

2. Devote yourself to study and

preparation

CAREER DEVELOPMENT

3. Have courage to take risks4. Do not be deterred by mistakes

and failures; use them so that “failing” does not lead into “losing”

5. This can be done only by giving a good “aftercare service” (review lessons) to the work you‘ve failed to do well

CAREER DEVELOPMENT

( 運も実力のうち )

Luck is where preparation meets opportunity

　 Keeping up with the times and

reporting on the latest move （ We got

him! ）

Coming into contact with world’s top-

class thinkers / with various different

ideas and thought patterns

Hearing and translating inspirational

speeches

REWARDS ( 通訳冥利 )

Meeting Wonderful Personalities

Getting eyes and mind opened

to the world

Becoming interested in

communication 

Changing myself

REWARDS ( 通訳冥利 )

“Thank you for being me, but mostly for being you.”

 私になってくれてありがとう。

でもそれ以上に、あなたであってくれてありがとう。