Quote:
Original Posted By
Ambrosiana ►
Aah... Certainly jchristie... Interpreting is like different 'department' of translation... Feel free to share....
Thanks, Ambro....OK, here's my recent experience on the last 3 days job as an interpreter for an organization. I must admit that at first I'm not so confident in translating. However, when a friend asked me to replace him, I instantly said YES (as for the why, see the end of this post).
Here are some take-outs that I learned on the past 3 days:
a. READ as much as you can
Of course I refer to the materials that are going to be presented on the workshop. This will help you familiarize yourself with the terms used and you can prepare the vocabulary (either in English or in Bahasa) before hand. Reading also helps you to understand the context better. Have a quick reading, just enough to grasp the theme of the presentations.
b. DISCUSS with the participants and the presenters
In my case, the resource persons are Norwegians and Brazilians. Having more discussions will allow you to learn about what kind of translation that they need. Thankfully, they did not mind when I proposed to summarize everything before interpreting. That way, it won't take double time as interpret any single word said beforehand.
Also, discuss with the participants as well, make sure that it is OK for them if you interpret in such a way as said above. I fear that some participants cannot accept my method and prefer the word per word interpreting. So, discussing with both parties will be able to work this out.
Of course, you should also discuss this with the organizer as well. They are the one who signed the bill for you later, right?
c. TAKE NOTE
Some people tend to speak for a loooooong time and when it is your right as an interpreter to stop them, it is always useful to take notes. This will help you to identify the key points when you summarize. Another benefit will be for you to identify key terms used as well.
You might find some terms will be rather challenging to be directly interpret. My suggestion will be to take some time to 'explain' them a little bit so that the context will be clearer.
I guess that's all I can share for now and hopefully it is useful for you when you interpret. I personally believe that you can apply them when you are translating as well.
In my case, all I can say is that both the foreigners, the Indonesian participants, and the organizers were satisfied. I got one t-shirt from the presenter plus a bonus money and a request to be the interpreter on their meeting sometimes in the end of 2011. Hopefully....
Ah, for the reason why I said YES instantly? Hope these pictures can tell you more:
Simply put, I took two days off (on leave) from the office to go to this beautiful island of Sikuai, spent 4 days, 3 nights on a resort - all expenses paid! in the end, I still got the bonus and a potential interpreting job in the future.....
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