?????? Lecture One: An Overview

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??????Lecture One An Overview

• Lecturers YU Hongliang, Xu Zhan, Zhang Yan, Tang
  Lei

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Interpretation Course

• Course Objectives
• Introduces learners to skills and processes
  required to produce consecutive interpretations.
• Focuses on developing basic cognitive, semantic,
  and dual tasking abilities required to interpret
  rehearsed and/or spontaneous texts.
• Train learners to incorporate semantic choice,
  register, and ethical behavioral decisions and
  understand how they impact their interpretations.
  
• Time allotment 1 semester (36 periods) two
  periods per week

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Unit 0

• Types of interpreting
• A Brief history of conference interpreting as a
  modern profession
• What Makes A Good Interpreter?
• Professional Code of Conduct

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Types of Interpreting

• Conference Interpreting Simultaneous
  /Consecutive
• Most frequently used for large conferences or
  meetings, simultaneous interpreting requires that
  the linguist translate what the speaker is
  saying, as they speak.
• Thus, the interpreter is both listening and
  speaking at the same time. This takes intense
  concentration simultaneous interpreters often
  work in teams, taking breaks every 30 minutes or
  so.
• Simultaneous interpreting generally requires
  equipment such as microphones, headsets, and in
  some instances booths.

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Consecutive Interpreting

• Most appropriate in a smaller setting, the
  speaker will speak for a few minutes (a few
  paragraphs), then pause.
• The interpreter takes notes and then translates
  the speaker's message during the pause.
• The key element in consecutive interpreting is
  note taking the interpreter must record ideas
  and then translate them back into the words of
  another language without pause.

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• Escort Interpreting
• Another form of consecutive interpreting is
  often called escort interpreting. If you are
  hosting a delegation of visitors from another
  country, you may want to use the services of an
  escort interpreter for meeting clients at the
  airport, city tours, and shopping excursions.
• Escort interpreters generally translate
  informal conversations.

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A Brief history of conference interpreting as a
modern profession

• The oldest and youngest profession.
• At the time the course was founded, conference
  interpreter training was still in its infancy
  with the first simultaneous interpretation having
  been used after World War II at the Nuremburg
  Trials (English, French, Russian and German).
• In the interwar years consecutive interpretation
  alone was provided at International gatherings,
  such as at meetings of the League of Nations in
  Geneva where English and French were used.

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• The first interpreters were not trained but
  entered the profession on the strength of their
  mastery of languages, prodigious memory, and
  their impressively broad cultural background.
  Some of the legendary figures of the world of
  interpreting include Jean HERBERT, André KAMINKER
  and Prince Constantin ANDRONIKOF, who was
  personal interpreter to Général de Gaulle and one
  of the founders of AIIC, which was established in
  1953.
• With the setting up of international and European
  organizations (United Nations-1945, Council of
  Europe-1949, European Community-1957) there was a
  growing need for a much larger number of trained
  professionals. To meet this continuing challenge,
  the course has expanded and now encompasses the
  languages of the European Union including
  accession countries and the UN family.

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• Two historical events stimulated the development
  of the profession.
• The Paris Peace Conference of 1919
• The Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals.
• The symbols of the formal establishment of
  conference interpretation as a profession
• The first interpreting school was set up in 1950
  in Geneva, Switzerland
• AIIC, the International Association of
  Conference Interpreters, was founded on Nov. 11,
  1953 with its Secretariat in Geneva.

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• Interpreting, as an internationally recognized
  profession, began to take shape only around the
  turn of the twentieth century.
• Chronologically, Consecutive Interpreting (CI)
  antedates Simultaneous Interpreting (SI). The
  Paris Peace Conference of 1919 was conventionally
  cited as consecutive interpreting official debut
  .
• Between the two World Wars, consecutive
  interpreting had predominant status.

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• The first attempt to introduce SI was made
  shortly before the Second World War. SI was first
  patented as a technique by IBM in 1926, and its
  first implementation (in whisper form) was at
  Geneva in a tentative form in 1927 and, on a
  larger scale, in the former USSR in 1928 for the
  Sixth Congress of Comintern.
• However, it was during the Nuremberg trials of
  the Nazi war criminals, which were conducted in
  English, French, Russian, and German that real
  full-scale simultaneous interpretations was first
  used. From 1947 onward, simultaneous
  interpretation had come to stay at the United
  Nations.

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• In the years after the Second World War, with the
  establishment of the United Nations (UN),
  European Union (EU), Organization of Economic
  Cooperation and Development (OECD) and many other
  international organs, there was a growing need
  for new interpreters to join the ranks of the
  first generation of highly skilled but untrained
  conference interpreters.
• Several training institutions were founded in
  Europe. Since then the training institutions for
  conference interpreter have sprung all over the
  world.

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• The earliest establishment of interpreting
  officials in China goes as far back as the Zhou
  Dynasty (1100--770 BC).
• According to written records, there was an
  official post called ?, ?, ? and ??? ,
  ?? and ?? respectively in the eastern,
  western, southern and northern part of China.
  These interpreting officials had, at that time,
  dual function interpreting for internal and
  external purposes.
• The internal purpose referred to the interpreting
  activities between the central imperial
  government and the various ethnic nationalities,
  while the external purpose was for communication
  between the central imperial government and its
  neighboring states.

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• The oral form of translation came into being
  earlier than the written translation, which
  appeared in ancient China in the Spring and
  Autumn period (770 476 BC).
• However, regarding the training of conference
  interpreters, China is a relatively newcomer the
  People's Republic of China did not start until
  the late 1970s.
• The first such programme began in Beijing after
  China was accepted as working language of the UN.

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• The profession of conference interpreting was
  formally introduced into China with the
  establishment of the United Nations Training
  Programme for Interpreters and Translators in
  1979.
• Set up as a joint project between the UN and the
  Chinese government to train professionals for the
  United Nations, the programme turned out 98
  interpreters (out of 217 graduates), many of whom
  are now working for the UN and other
  international organisations, some for the Chinese
  government, and a few as full-time freelances.

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• In 1994, the UN programme was reconstituted as
  the Graduate School of Translation and
  Interpretation of Beijing Foreign Studies
  University (Bei Wai).
• It continues to offer a two-year course of
  professional training in conference interpreting
  at the MA level, but its graduates (32 in
  conference interpreting out of 57 to date) are
  now responsible for securing their own
  employment.
• Most become staff interpreters or officers in
  government ministries and agencies, with a
  minority taking positions in the private sector
  it is still rare for a graduate to go freelance.

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• To date, the majority of China's professional
  interpreters have been trained at Bei Wai, but
  these make up only a fraction of the large number
  of practitioners, including government officers
  and corporate personnel who perform
  interpretation duties.

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• Now as we are approaching the 21st century, the
  globalization of the world economy has become an
  irreversible trend.
• Economic activities such as investment, banking,
  business and trade are increasing rapidly, the
  transformation of science and technology and the
  training of personnel continue apace, and
  international exchanges in politics, foreign
  affairs and culture are flourishing. All of these
  would be impossible without the involvement of
  interpreters and translators.
• Furthermore, with the implementation of economic
  reform and its opening up policy, China' s demand
  for qualified interpreters and translators has
  become all the more urgent.

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Practice Texts

• Reading The Art of Interpreting
• Berris makes a distinction between translation
  and interpreting, and she looks at a host of
  potential problems that can impede intercultural
  communication. Among the more serious issues is
  the problem of not having enough interpreters for
  long sessions. She also discusses the importance
  of proper preparation, the differences between
  precise translations and simple paraphrasing, and
  nonverbal communication and its role in
  interpretive events.
• Listening At the Shoulder of History
• An interview of the BBC correspondent with world
  famous interpreters. Listen to the recording 2- 3
  times and you will gain a better understanding of
  the profession.

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The Art of Interpreting

• Interpreting, is a physically exhausting and
  often emotionally draining art. But those who
  work with interpreters can do a great deal to
  help maximize the interpreters effectiveness and
  minimize his or her weaknesses.
• 
  JAN CAROL BERRIS former Vice President of
• the National Commission on U.S. China Relations

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• Jan Carol Berris has been with the National
  Committee on United States-China Relations since
  1971 - first as program associate, then program
  director, then vice president. She is responsible
  for directing all program activities of the
  Committee.
• Ms. Berris has been actively involved in
  preparation and operations for the visits to the
  United States of hundreds of Chinese delegations,
  including the 1972 Chinese Ping Pong Team, the
  first PRC group to come to this country.
• At the request of the State Department she
  coordinated Chinese press activities during
  Premier Deng Xiaoping's February 1979 visit to
  the United States. And she has overseen the
  visits of hundreds of American delegations to
  China. She herself has traveled to China about
  seventy times since 1973, with people and groups
  as diverse as a tennis team and a Supreme Court
  Justice.

Jan Carol Berris
http//www.ncuscr.org/articlesandspeeches/Articles
andspeeches.htm
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I. What Makes A Good Interpreter?

• Bilingualism and biculturalism
• A good command of both languages and alertness to
  their constant evolution is the foundation of
  effective interpreting.
• A good interpreter is more than a translator of
  words, since language skills are only a part of
  the process of communication. Biculturalism
  sensitivity to cultural and social differences is
  often as important as bilingualism.
• Another important aspect of biculturalism is
  knowing what makes people laugh in the other
  culture.
• Political sensitivity is also an essential aspect
  of biculturalism.

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• Bilingualism and biculturalism can be learned
  though often only by a process of osmosis during
  long years of study and/or living in another
  country. But there are other, more innate
  characteristics that contribute to the making of
  a good interpreter.
• A special kind of personality, or a somewhat
  schizophrenic one.
• and aggressive enough to be relaxed
• of submerging their own egos and take on the
  personalities of the speakers

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• Projection
• Being able to do two (or more) things at one
  time is important.
• Listen
• Jot down key words to jog their memories
• Look up unknown words in a small dictionary
  (which usually appears magically out of a
  pocket)
• Juggling notebook and dictionary, write down the
  unfamiliar word so if it is repeated later the
  dictionary will not have to be hauled out again.

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• And speaking of writing things down,
  interpreters should always carry notebooks and
  use them.
• Obviously interpreters should be matched to
  specific jobs

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II. THE INTERPRETING SITUATION

• Preparation
• Pacing
• Precision Versus Paraphrase
• The interpreter should always be given a sense
  of how precise a translation is expected.
• Another aspect of this issue is when to
  translate and when to leave people alone.
• Sometimes we encounter interpreters who feel the
  need for great precision and will take several
  seconds (which always seem like eons to
  listeners) to think of the word or phrase
  carrying the precise nuance of the situation.
• Another kind of interpreter is the paraphraser
  or editor who tends to give the gist of what the
  speaker is saying, ignoring the details.

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• Supplying Background Information
• Sometimes, trying to be helpful and fill in gaps
  in the audience's understanding, interpreters
  will add background information not supplied by
  the speaker.

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• Length of Speech Units
• Invisibility of Interpreters
• Interpreters should confine themselves to
  facilitating communication, and not (except in
  unusual situations) add their own personal
  comments.

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• Direction of Translation
• Numbers
• Translating Substance
• Questions
• Nonverbal Communication
• Helping with Problems

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Qualifications of a good interpreter

• Knowledge of the general subject of the speeches
  that are to be interpreted.
• General erudition and intimate familiarity with
  both cultures.
• Extensive vocabulary in both languages.
• Ability to express thoughts clearly and concisely
  in both languages.
• Excellent note-taking technique for consecutive
  interpreting.
• At least 2-3 years of booth experience for
  simultaneous interpreting.

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Listening

• An interview of the BBC correspondent with world
  famous interpreters. Listen to the following
  recording 2- 3 times and you will gain a better
  understanding of the profession.

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Professional Code of Conduct

• Serve the interest of their organization
• Scrupulously observe the secrecy to which they
  are already bound to their professional code
• Maintain the professional standards of their work
  by keeping abreast of organization activities, of
  subjects under discussion and of relevant
  terminology
• Prepare for meetings with the help of duly
  supplied documents and by obtaining additional
  papers for meetings of exceptional technical or
  linguistic difficulty
• Liaise with free-lance interpreters, when called
  upon to do so
• Act as interpreters outside the organization only
  with the latter's consent and in compliance with
  the local working conditions of free-lance
  interpreters who are AIIC members.