Roderick Jones – Conference Interpreting Explained

1 Introduction
What is interpreter?
Pat definition – immediate oral translation Barriers
– are mainly linguistic – in communication
People from different countries not only speak different languages, but have also different bodies of
knowledge, different educations, cultures, intellectual approaches.
Communication difficulties lead to cultural difficulties – are explicit and implicit.
 Explicitly, a speaker may make references to political, economic, social or intellectual
concepts, television catchphrases that has no direct equivalent in the language of the
listener, and the message is therefore meaningless – interpreter should instil meaning into
the text for the target audience (by explanation, changing the original reference)
 Implicitly, the intellectual approach to any given question will depend on the speaker´s
cultural background. Certain forms of expression (irony, hyperbole) may be difficult or
impossible to reproduce in a different language without affecting the original speech.
Interpreter can do the conveying by choice of synonyms, by rewording the sentence, by
appropriate tone of voice.
Interpreter is called in to explain what each of the participants wishes to say in turn. He is
like a teacher.

What is Conference Interpreting

Conference interpreter must:
- Provide an exact and faithful reproduction of the original speech
- Deviation is permitted only if it enhances the audience´s understanding of the speaker
´s meaning
- Additional information should be provided only to bridge the cultural gaps
- Interpreter cannot add own points of view
- Interpreter speaks in the first person (becomes a delegate)
- Have broad general knowledge and be intellectually curious to widen that knowledge

Two modes:
- Consecutive interpretation
o listens to the speaker´s comments and then reconstitutes the speech with the help
of notes taken while listening (can be also done sentence-by-sentence without
notes
– cannot be longer than the original speech, aim at taking three-quarters of the time
- Simultaneous interpretation
o listens to the beginning of the speaker´s comments then begin interpreting while
the speech continues throughout the speech and finish almost at the same time as
the original. Easier to provide genuine multilingual interpreting. It is done with the
equipment (delegate – microphones, interpreter – sound-proofed booths and
earphones and then microphone, channel, delegation – headphones). Without
equipment – whispered interpreting (chuchotage – interpreter simultaneously
whispers into the ear of the one or maximum two people)
Process of interpreting:
- Listen to the speaker
- Understand
- Analyse the content
- Resynthesize the speech into another language

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The Context of the Conference Interpreter´s Work
International organisation

- Use mainly simultaneous interpreting

- Anonymous voice with little or no personal contact
- A certain amount of work becomes routine (procedures, issues, topic), but in the last
years globalization makes changes

Private market
- Little risk of becoming routine
- Relationship between the interpreter and delegate is as of a client-service provider one
- Provides a degree of continuity (if satisfied they are employed again)
- Irregular time
- Needed wide range of clients
- Interpreters tend to cope with difficult vocabulary (technical, scientific, medical)

Bilingual meetings - Prefer interpreters who can work both ways between the two languages
Multilingual meetings – interpreters will work only into one language, usually their mother
tongue, but translate out of a number of the five other languages used in the meeting
General – the interpreter may need no specialized vocabulary at all, no specific knowledge, but
interpreters have to deal with the nuances of meaning
Technical – needed preparatory reading of background documentation, a briefing given by
participants or specially prepared technical glossary (technical also means to legal content,
services)

Definitions and Examples

Refers to specific circumstance:
- The source language means the language in which a speech is mage in the original, and
out of which it is to be interpreted.
- The target language is the language into which it is to be put and which the
interpreter therefore speaks.

General capacity of an individual:

- A passive language is a language out of which an interpreter is capable of interpreting.
- An active language is one into which they are capable of interpreting.
- An interpreter´s working languages are the sum of their active and passive languages.

The mother tongue means the best active language. An interpreter should have total mastery of their
mother tongue, can express themselves fluently, grammatically and precisely, with accurate and
extensive vocabulary, understand the meaning of the range of topics. This language is independent
from the language of parents, country of birth. An interpreter may have two mother languages.
Retour means an interpretation where the interpreter is working into an active language other than
their mother tongue.
Relay refers to a situation where a meeting is multilingual and not all the interpreters understand
all of the languages used. The use of one interpretation as a source for others. The interpreter
providing the source for other interpreters is called the really, as is the interpretation itself. Relay
can be used in consecutive and in simultaneous.

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2 Basic Principles of Consecutive Interpreting
Three basic stages of consecutive interpreter´s work:
o understanding
o analysing
o re-expressing

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Understanding
We need to understand ideas not words, interpret ideas.
It is possible to understand speaker´s meaning without understanding every single word.
But, there are occasions where a word is too important to be skated round in this way. (Norwegian
motorways – toll). In consecutive they can listen for the whole speech and deduce the meaning from
the context. Two further points should be made here:
o interpreters must accept that there are times when they do not know a word or an
expression and can neither avoid it nor deduce its meaning from context, and are
consequently stuck (in consecutive must admit the ignorance or ask the question)
o In order to understand meaning without knowing all the lexical items or
deduce meaning, the interpreter must have knowledge of passive language
Pure linguistic understanding is not sufficient condition for the interpreter to be able to re-express
ideas in another language. Interpreters must be able to seize meaning in a second and listen
actively.
Common people do just passive listening (the essence), specialists in the field (active listening with
a narrow view – select and picks up only the elements useful for replying) interpreters practice
active listening (the notions should appear in the interpretation, conclude which idea is crucial)

Analysis – Analysis of speech type

Types of speech:
a. Presenting a logical argument
i. Reasoned argument that present both points of view on a question,
weighting up pros and cons before arriving at a synthetic conclusion –
must pay attention to the logical connections between ideas and present
them – by using but, however, on the other hand. Speaker has two options:
1. Navigate to and from between two points of view - interpreter
should follow the development and fits the points in
2. Present one argument in its entirety, then make a major caesura and
present the other point of view – interpreter identify the central
linchpin of the speech (indicate changing to the opposite – however,
notwithstanding, clearly, obviously, it is true that

ii. Sequence of logical deductions leading to the only possible conclusion

(one- sided argument) – if it is well expressed it is easy to interpret, pay
attention on all the logical links of the speech (as, given that, therefore,
consequently, because, hence) – interpreter need to be precise to follow all
the steps A, B, C because if he misses one out, the whole construct comes
wrong without understanding (done by making structure, numbering,
lettering ideas and sections – if not sure, clarify or if the speaker didn’t
create structure, the interpreter can)
b. Narrative – adopting a purely chronological sequence (history, story, procedure, outcomes,
interpreter must pay attention to time phrases, dates, verb tenses – interpreter should put it
into chronological order if not done already – deliberate or involuntary)
c. Descriptive – mean anything from describing a scene or an event to a detailed statistical
presentation, a description is ultimately a juxtaposition of a number of items
determining one another – interpreter should concentrate, decide what is the most
important information, remember and note down as much as possible
d. Polemic – where the speaker is hell-bent on convincing the audience, sometimes to the
detriment of logic and honesty, but to be polemic does not necessarily mean being
illogical, discourteous, dishonest but it may involve it (also combination), it may be
defence of one

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 position and rejection of another – interpreter must be sensitive, flexible, faithful to
the speaker (also tenor of comments, intensity), but he is still a communication
professional (interpreter may tone down the comments)
i. One where editing by the interpreter is unjustifiable
ii. Another where it may be defended – if it is irrelevant
e. Rhetorical – where the form is important and detail of content is secondary, even
irrelevant, the main aim being to sound impressive with elegant style and number of
cultural references, or pay tribute to somebody or some organisation, does not to be
interpreted word-by-word, speeches involve specific proper names and titles (must be
included and not missed out) or made to historical figures, events, literature, works of art
(must be picked up), speakers use metaphors, images, similes, flowery language, jokes
i. Stone-walling – the speaker going to some considerable lengths to hide their
point of view or to withhold information, thus speaking without
communicating anything – interpreter should follow the speaker as closely
as possible
The interpreter must make no substantive addition to a speech. Interpreter have to show discretion
and make judgements or clarify meaning if needed.

Identification of Main Ideas

The most important ideas must be included. Interpreter´s role is also to reflect the tenor, the spirit,
the underlying significance of the speaker´s comments, literal sense. Text should be divided into
main ideas and additives. Reasons for identifying main idea:
o if not done, it is difficult for the listener to know what is the speaker trying to say
o the interpreter may be under duress because of the difficulty of the speech or the
speed of the speaker, and therefore he has to omit elements (include main elements,
miss out details)
o recall of the speech in consecutive is easier in f the interpreter has a number of
key ideas
o it is useful to be capable of providing a summary of a speech
Hierarchy of relative importance of ideas. One or more ideas are central to a proposition. Others
may be secondary, do not need to be interpreted but are still important, third category of ideas are
extraneous, digressions or mere illustrations (may be interpreted as the colour of a speech,
example).
Three basic questions: WHO does WHAT, and WHEN, and WHO says or thinks WHAT. Main
ideas:
- Subject-Verb-Object analysis – the analysis of an utterance in terms of the basic structure
X (subject) act upon (verb) Y (object), allowing that the object Y may in some cases be
a complement (She is poor). In interpreting, this mode of analysis need not be restricted to
the level of clauses or sentences but should operate on the wider level of discourse
- Allusions to point of view may be oblique, interpreter must try to be aware of whose point
of view is being represented, make it clear (objective, subjective, third party).
Secondary information is
- Epithets and adverbs in the sentence – get form the context
o false epithets – adjectives present as epithets but which have predicative value
o adverbs of time – they tend to be of rather more importance (also tense, mode)
- Examples – interpreters must indicate clearly that it is an example and the interpreter
may have to decide whether examples are purely illustrative (from Richard II to Henry
VIII) and can be edited or whether they have some intrinsic importance and should be
dealt with exhaustively and include everything. (list of aspects)

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 - All kinds of asides, parentheses, digressions, comparisons, verbal redundancies –
interpreter should pay attention on them and choose the main idea – they do not have to be
untranslated just are of lesser importance

Analysis of links
There is an identification of the main ides and the second is an analysis of the links between those
ideas. Links are:
- Logical consequence – it may be expressed very clearly, with words such as consequently,
as a result, therefore, it may be expressed more casually or by ambiguous words as so
- Logical cause – the interpreter must likewise register all words like as, since, due to,
because
- Sequence – following one from another, but without logical cause or consequence,
sentences may be simply juxtaposed or the ideas linked with the little word and (when
there is a zero link – they are juxtaposed, interpreter most not create another link), key
words because, therefore cannot be omitted and, we cannot create link when there is none
- Oppose two ideas – there are different sub-sets that the interpreter should also be aware of,
opposition may be offering an alternative or casting a different light on a question or it
may contrast two situations or it may simply attenuate a previous idea – used by but,
whereas or however

Memory
The interpreter must be able to recall ideas, so call upon their memory. Use of short-term memory.
Memory is a misnomer for the intellectual faculty to be exercised by the interpreter. He should
order and stock ideas in their mind.
Use of mnemonic techniques are where the interpreter attaches notions or labels to the ideas they
wish to recall. (there are general – used in school). Interpreters must attach tags to ideas rather than
individual words. It can be done by:
- Visualisation – inventing arbitrary visual images as a memory aid (used by narrative,
descriptive speech concerning physical, observable events), create the scene in the mind
and take words as lexical items (with counterpart in target language) – cannot be used for
abstract notions
- Imagined map – with geographical locations we can recall image of map and the trace on it
- Numbers – interpreters tag the idea with numbers with abstract notions and create
a structure (points) – negative effect: distracts from the substance of ideas, sometimes
difficult to identify points to number, it can restore the original message
- Skeleton – interpreter thinks of speech as a structure in mind, then the basic elements can
be numbered and the basic structure of the speech can be a kind of skeleton on which to
hand the other elements
There are two crucial moments in any speech, the beginning and the end. If the interpreter
starts from the wrong point, they have can lose the direction and don’t arrive where needed.
The end is most important as there is a conclusion.

Re-expression
Before re-expressing the speech, there is parenthesis – intermediary phase – if the interpreter still
not understand everything or cannot reproduce it.
In consecutive interpreting, interpreter can ask a question. Few rules:
- You must ask yourself whether the advantage of putting a question outweighs
the disadvantage. (in small groups it is okay, in big no)
- You must ask yourself in all honesty whether the question is necessary to improve
the interpretation, or whether it is just for your personal edification
- The interpreter should put their question politely, to the speaker in the speaker´s
own language, no forget to thank the speaker when the info is given
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 - The question, to be useful, must be clear and precise, and elicit an equally clear and
precise answer from the speaker (as Could you clarify? Or Could you repeat? Could you
remind me?)
- When an interpreter asked a question, they must concentrate particularly hard when
listening to the answer and make super they get it right in their interpretation
Interpreters must act as public speakers: establish contact with audience, speaking up clearly,
articulating, establish eye contact, avoid looking at notes.
Interpreter should deliver the speech efficiently. – shorten the original text – last about 2/3 or ¾
of the original, interpreter must begin right after the speaker, interpreter should speak at a
sustained, steady pace, without hesitation or unnecessary repetition and use correct intonation.
Re-expression is also in the terms of ideas and relies on understanding and analysis. Interpreters can
express themselves freely, with own words to respect the original. (sometimes it must be done –
related to grammar, cultural reference)

3 Note-taking in Consecutive Interpreting

Notes are no more than an aid to enhance the work done. The interpreter who invests too much
time in noes is running a twofold risk:
- By trying to note as much as possible in a form as close as possible to the original, but
their notes can become a mere transcription of the sequence of words used by the speaker.
Notes influence the interpreter and their version will be as a transliteration not re-
expression
- Interpreter who pays too much attention on notes, pays insufficient attention to
genuine understanding and analysis while listening to the speech. They are superficial
and make errors. Speech is not coherent but a series of sentences.

Purpose of taking notes:

- To relieve memory – to easier recall, especially with numbers, names which are out of
logic, remembering distracts the process of listening attentively, it was used to cover
noting down specific elements, so the interpreter can reproduce the content of a speech

- Jogging the interpreter’s memory – used to enhance the interpreter´s ability to reproduce
the structure of a speech, notes show what is important what is secondary, it is a product
of the analytical work – also in mind, it is helpful because: writing down the structure
creates discipline and forces the interpreter to make analysis and the it is prepared for
reproducing (it can jog the memory)

Practical Points for Note-taking

- Interpreter must be able to take notes quickly and write upon something convenient to
hold and easy to handle
- Recommended is to write into a note-pad, not loose sheets of paper (they can be
disordered), write only on recto side and use pencil
- Notes should be easily legible, write in large characters, the notes should be well spread
out over the page (to differentiate),
- Notes should be totally unequivocal, it is reading of notes should be efficient (not
silly mistakes), invent symbols in advance (or should be obvious)

What to Note
1. Main ideas (provide a skeleton outline of the speech) – it helps to reproduce the
speech without moving swiftly from one idea to the next
2. Links and separations between ideas (it is critical to render the links correctly), they
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 should be noted systematically
3. Point of view being expressed

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 4. Tense of verbs (what happened when) – if appropriate add the mode, in
particular the conditional, modal verbs
Elements that an interpreter cannot remember or does not want to remember and they need to be
noted down.
a. Numbers/Dates – they are abstract, it is important to note everything, so when the
interpreter hear the number, thy should drop everything and note it immediately. (if
given a series and they are important – note them as many as possible and then go
back to the previous sentence)
b. Proper names – we retain well-known and familiar names, but as more are
mentioned and interpreter do not know them, notes are essential (also include
geographical names, names of companies, acronyms), sometimes there is difficulty
which how is the name written (unfamiliar) – in this case interpreter should ignore
orthography and write as they hear. If the speaker cannot pronounce it correctly we
can note down what we heard and reproduce it or identify the mistake and say it
correctly
c. Lists – the interpreter should note the elements completely as possible, because they
have little chance to remember them, again they stop what they do and note the list,
if not catcher, note that we missed something (at the end we can ask the speaker)

How to Note
Diagonal Layout
The main ideas based around a subject-verb-object analysis should be noted. The interpreter should
separate the three components clearly and allocate each on the given position. These positions will
form a diagonal axis, working from left to right of a page and from top to bottom. They can also
build other details if needed. Reason for using diagonal axis:
- It forces the interpreter to separate components of a sentence on a page in a way which
avoids confusion (easily readable)
- The beginning of each new idea is clearly marked
- Notes must be taken in a concise and non-literary manner
Why not horizontal? – they are slavish reproduction of the words of the speaker, and interpreter will
follow the notes in this way, unanalysed interpretation with inferior style

The Left-hand Margin

The links lie outside the subject-verb-object presentation. As the diagonal layout involves
bringing eyes back to the left-hand side of the page. So, the logical place for link is the extreme
left of the page – it is best to leave left-hand margin of one to two centimetres for links – at the
same level as subject. Left-hand margin is also good for representing points of view.
Ideas do not just need to be linked, but also separated. I tis useful to draw a short line after each
idea to separate it clearly from the next one or each complete sentence. If not ideas each separation
should be made between different paragraphs or sections of speech – line across entire width of the
page. (or three vertical in the left-hand margin)

Verticality of Lists
Lists are the exception which should be notes vertically. The elements in the list have the same
value and should therefore be attributed the same position in notes.

If I’ve Missed Something Out in My Notes

In the case that you want to put a question afterwards, we need to know where we missed the point
and in what context. The interpreter should note that something is missing – to put a very large
cross in the right-hand margin of the notes at the level of missing item. – mark on which page it
was.

Abbreviations and Symbols

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Advantage of them is that they help save time in taking notes. Interpreter reduces an idea which
may be expressed by number of words into symbol. The symbol represents an idea, rather than the
word for words. The minimalist view of use of symbols by Rozan do with 20 symbols and only 10
are indispensable. Maximalist approach developed system of symbolization by Matyssek.
There are a number of basic principles:
- Symbols and abbreviations are a means to an end and not an end in themselves
- Symbols and abbreviations must be unequivocal, it must be obvious what they mean
- Prepare them in advance, be clear and make sense to the interpreter – if not, the difficulty
to listen attentively and analysing
- Symbols and abbreviations must be logical to the interpreter using them – should have
and intrinsic connotative function for the interpreter who uses them
- Symbol should stand a good chance of becoming organic in the sense that other symbols
can be derived from them by using the same subjective logic – not complete and complex

Frequently Occurring Notions

The most frequent notions should have their own symbol. For example, in international sphere, the
abbreviation for country could be their registration code.
International organisations are designated by acronyms, which can be copied or in some situations
as World Bank (specific abbreviation may come in handy)
Each interpreter should have abbreviations or symbols for the notions that come up frequently in
their own particular area.
One way of creating symbols in inner logic is to take them in groups. (economic,
monetary, budgetary, financial – Greek alphabet). Then, they can be combined with others
(Increase ↑, economic growth can be noted as €↑).
But!! Creating family groups, the interpreter should take care and use symbols with total rigour to
avoid vagueness and confusion. – not exchange symbols within the family
Notions that occur only in the context of given meeting. For these, symbols and abbreviations can
be devised. For example, town and country planning – TCP. – serves for the meeting and the next
day will be forgotten.

Links
They have to be noted systematically – very short forms. In English as for anything in the because
family, but for all words and phrases of that family including however and on the other hand, and so
for anything in the therefore family.
We can use mathematical sign:. – to mean therefore, or inverted it means because.
We can use arrows → this can be therefore and ← this can be because.
Points of view should be easy to note, in particular the notion of saying something and thinking
something. They also cover a wide range of expressions. Say reflect – announcing, declaring. To
think refers to note feeling, opinion. Indications of subjectivity two symbols suffice, perhaps for to
say and tri čiarky nad sebou for to think.

Tense
Differentiate between past, present, future. Also differentiate between different past tenses –
imperfect, past perfect.
Sometimes they can be noted by using short words will and has as signs – unnatural for inflectional
languages.
Second options is to add suffixes to verbs as -ed and -ll for future.
Third option is symbolic – graphic presentation of tense. Backward looking by _/, future by /_ and
present by default.
They are easy to recognise. Just note then reformulate.
When noting the perfect form, we can indicate it by double underlining of past or future.
The conditional and subjunctive modes – to place a circumflex accent over the verb.

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 Modal verbs
They are short so, one may get by without any symbol.
Better to have symbol because: notions expressed by modals can also be expressed in a number of
other ways. useful to have one symbol for forms of expression – must! will be obliged to!/_. Second
modal can have more than one meaning and therefore we can pinpoint the correct notion and not
create ambivalence of the modal. – the best is to create an organic system

Stress
We need to stress particular points and words. This can be done by the system of underlining. Very
important can be underlined once. Extremely important can be underlined twice. Fairly important
could be notes by underlining, but using a squiggly line.
Comparatives and superlatives can be indicated as er and est or just by giving plus for comparative
and plus plus for superlatives.

Arrows
Arrows have intrinsic meaning. Where arrow up means increase, arrow down means the opposite.
They can also be used in combination with others. As mentioned before (economic growth €↑)
They can also indicate the continuity.
They can also have made oblique and used to express trends and progressive change. (inflation
tends to increase /). Or they can attenuate.
Arrows can signify simply movement. (US → Japan). Or two-way arrows to indicate reciprocity.
They can be also double-headed for special meanings.
Arrows can be used to indicate logical links as causality.
Interpreters also use lines without arrow head which is done to express meaning directly. Or use
lines if the interpreter does not want to use the same notion more than once on the same page so he
draws a line from the place where it is noted to the place where it would be noted and leave the
space empty.

Suffixes
We can group words in to family groups and add suffixes. For example, using prod as a stem and
then add suffixes as t (product), n(production), y (productivity). Or to symbols as for example * for
international, internationalisation is *n.

Parentheses
Sometimes an interpreter registered the information but did not note it down. If they are sure
they will remember it, but forget when to mention it, they need to indicate the existence of the
point by including a parenthesis in their notes – like a warning sign.
Also, useful when something difficult to fit logically into notes is said as a colourful anecdote or
joke (interpreter can write parenthesis and one key word within or just the word joke).

Numbering
It is useful to number points in their mind to enhance analysis of structure. If they number the
speech they will follow it. Or if not for numbering, I tis still useful for creating structure. It can be
from the speaker or from interpreter (include points, sub-points, sub subpoints). Take care of
creating numbering system. If the point is numbered with Arabic numeral, then sub-points must
be noted with letters of Roman numerals and so on.

Efficiency
Interpreters must choose the most efficient form of notes. The wides possible range of sings
– using mathematical signs as plus, minus, rovná sa, väčšie, menšie
using punctuation marks as !? .
using arrows of all possible forms and directions
using letters of different scripts
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using music notation is known using
schematic drawings
using table of elements from chemistry or Newtonian abbreviations

Interrater should not:

- Develop symbols and abbreviations which are complicated, are long or are unable to use
ad hoc (just perfectly obvious)
- Write down in their notes – these are mainly words which re-emerge automatically from
the context or have intrinsic meaning but exist to oil the syntax. These are the verb to be
because they are understood by context (the only thing that needs to be noted is tense or
mode), then the word not or negation need not be written just indicated by crossing out the
notion. Or the word that, get, make, do also relative pronouns.

The Language in which to Note

The advantage of noting in SL is that you will not be bothered by questions of translation while
noting, therefore you will have better notes (rely on the mastery of target language). The second
advantage is that notes in SL have the superiority that if a speaker uses a word or concept very
specific to the culture, which can be expressed just by explanation in the TL, then noting in SL is
more efficient. But this case has a tendency to note words, not ideas – follow the speaker
passively.
The advantage of noting in TL is that you are obliged to use the mental processes that should be at
play in interpreting – PREFERENCE by the author.
BUT there is not a right answer which to choose because – the notes are mainly in symbols and
abbreviations of metalanguage and language is composed not just of words but also of grammar
and syntax – it may be the same in both languages. The third point is there is no reason why notes
must be dogmatically in the one or the other language – they can be combined or using third
language.

When to Note
The consecutive interpreter is more limited in their note-taking by speed as simultaneous
interpreter by speed of delivery in the booth. The simultaneous interpreter can always accelerate to
Cath up with speaker, even if speaking fast, but the consecutive interpreter is under more time
pressure and he cannot accelerate.
Secondly, SI is making a choice about their final delivery and their decision will determine what the
delegates hear, and the CI is taking decision about notes, as they are only help.
The risk of being behind is bigger in CI, but he has the freedom in taking notes.
So, CI should start taking notes as quickly as possible (not the first word, because it can be S as
well as O, wait for the verb – if passive they can indicate or exchange), whereas SI just after first
idea.
Another difference is in timing of note-taking in S and speaking in S with sentences beginning
with subordinate or relative clause in the original. SI cannot use relative pronouns at the
beginning, in CI it’s important to note it at the beginning. I tis better to say Proposition A,
therefore proposition B.

How to Read Back Notes

They need to look at the audience not at notes, even if they are perfect and complete. Therefore, it
is important to make clear notes presenting ideas.
The specific technique is reading then speaking, so interpreter before finishing the previous
passage he glances at the next passage and automatically continues. Interpreter is reading ahead,
preparing the next passage (smooth, uninterrupted interpretation).

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4 Simultaneous Interpretation
Similarities between CI and SI
- Same intellectual activities – listening, understanding, analysing, re-expressing
(more consecutive)
- Conduit for communication
Differences between CI and SI (simultaneous difficulties)
- Acoustic – in consecutive the interpreter listens, then speaks, in simultaneous,
the interpreter listens and speaks at the same time
- Intellectual – in consecutive, the interpreter speaks after the whole speech, know the
context, in simultaneous you don’t know where the speaker is going on both macro
level (speech as a whole) and micro level (individual sentence)
SI should maintain eye contact as much as possible with delegates and even use gestures in the
booth, even though nobody is watching (watch the atmosphere, body language, gestures, non-
verbal information).

The Acoustic Difficulties of Simultaneous Interpreting

Use of equipment
Headphones – hear the speaker and themselves – two ways: 1. the interpreter wears bot hear-pieces
of a pair of headphones half on each ear, 2. the interpreter wears one earphone fully on one ear and
the other remains uncovered (right-handed the left ear, left-handed the right ear). The interpreter
needs to control the volume at which to listen to the original – keep the speaker at low or
comfortable hearing level (because of other interpreters)
Microphone – voice should remain constant, normal conversational one, sit directly in front of the
microphone, avoid moving to any side, 30 centimetres from microphone
Without technical equipment – chuchotage – interpreter should sit where he hears the speaker and
being in a position to speak sufficiently softly (ask to change places with delegate if needed) – if the
working conditions are bad, they should inform the meeting organiser and cease work, offer
consecutive interpreting or decide.

Cultivating Split Attention

Interpreter listens to two lines of discourse. How to deal with it?
1- One has to recognize the need to listen to consciously to oneself when interpreting – need
to monitor output because they can be ungrammatical, forget words, pronounce words
correctly
2- You must accept that if you try to concentrate on more than one thing at a time you
increase the risk of error in at least one of those areas, therefore the interpreter should be
concentrated at maximum.
Situations in simultaneous interpreting:
- The interpreter may come across a word in the original they do not know at all – must
ignore the word and get on with the interpreting the sense of the speaker´s sentence
- Or the word they do know but are not sure how to render it in TL – must make a split-
second decision and go clearly for one option and even if it is wrong, it is better than say
nothing. (do not say synonyms) – but he cannot get hung up on the words

Listening to Oneself in Simultaneous Interpreting

Listening must be in terms of content and form. In term of content you must be checking that the
interpretation is correct and complete rendering of the original. In term of form you must check that
you are being grammatical and making sense.

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 Rules:
- To speak as far as possible in short, simple sentences. (If long, complicated there is a rick
of making mistakes and forget what you wanted to say) – only one principal clause, it is
easier to listen to oneself and provide ease of listening for the delegates
- To make sure, that each individual sentence has sense, grammatically and logically –
never say nonsense or something meaningless
- To finish their own sentences – the worst thing for the delegate is to leave the
sentence hanging in the air

The Golden Rules of SI

The simultaneous interpreter must:
- Remember they are communicating
- Make the best possible use of the technical facilities
- Ensure they can hear both the speaker and themselves clearly
- Never attempt to interpret something they have not heard or acoustically understood
- Maximize concentration
- Not be distracted by focussing attention on individual problematic words
- Cultivate split attention, with active, analytical listening to the speaker and critical
monitoring of their own output
- Use, where possible, short, simple sentences
- Be grammatical
- Make sense in every single sentence
- Always finish their sentences

The Technique of Simultaneous Interpreting

When to start speaking?
The interpreter must say something almost immediately, in order to reassure the participants
listening to them. (because they can become nervous) – safest thing is to say Thank you, chairman.
The answer cannot be given in the terms of time, it depends on grammar and syntax used by the
speaker, the speed and the source and target language.
Pragmatic principles:
- The interpreter should try to begin speaking as soon as possible, cannot wait after
finishing the first sentence (because they will miss the rest), the interpreter will have a
tendency to rush through the sentence when they are speaking, blurting things out and
listen to the next sentence
- The interpreter must be able to express something meaningful if they are to open
their mouth – wait for the first notion (slice or chunk of speech) – it is a unit of
meaning
Unit of meaning – Lederer and Seleskovitch – a cognitive representation in the mind of the listener
(interpreter) of the intended meaning of the speaker (words or background knowledge – context of
meeting, speech) – therefore the cognitive representation is different from the words of the speaker
– it is a product of words and other elements of the interpreter.
- It is a micro-component of the meaning of a speech
- It can be one word, group of words, parts of sentence, and the maximum length is
determined by the length of an oral passage that can remain present to the ear at any one
given moment
- Depends on syntax and other cognitive information
- Begin speaking when you have understood a unit of meaning, and remain one unit
behind the speaker, proceeding from unit to unit
- Good interpreter does proceed by operating with units of meaning
Other approach used when units of meaning are insufficient:

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 - Unit of meaning is not a very handy one for an interpreter to use consciously in the heat
of the action of the SI – it is more descriptive than prescriptive
- When interpreting from certain SL, working with unit of meaning may mean waiting an
awful long time
- Working with unit of meaning forces the interpreter to make long, artificial pauses in
the middle of sentences, rather than making pause between sentences
Practical rule – all the principles can be applied here – to begin a sentence with one idea in mind
and then choose to change tack, but if they are faithful to the speaker it is not problem.
Advantages are:
- Interpreter does not launch into a sentence without having at least one way of finishing it
- If the interpreter is sure to being to finish a sentence when they start, they can also
pause between sentences – and seek for the way of expression
- If the end of a sentence is in sight as soon as it begins, this will help to speak in short,
simple sentences

How to continue, what distance to keep. There are three points:

- The interpreter should continue as they have begun, the distance should remain
constant and they should have a way of ending correctly
- The interpreter must be flexible – some variations are necessary, depending on the speaker
´s rhythm, style, content.
- The interpreter should try to end a speech as close as possible to the speaker – they
should accelerate their own output to finish the speech

Technique – Reformulation
Reformulation means to create a new medium, the discourse that will have the same effect on
their audience as the speaker´s words have on those who understand the source language – cope
with all the difficulties to remain faithful to the speaker.
A fundamental difficulty in reformulation is when the SL has a word or concept that does not exist
in the target language. – not only cultural or institutional, technical notions, also simple (shallow in
French is just not deep enough).
Other possibility is that words exist, but things have to be rephrased because they will sound just
too strange if translated literally into the TL. (grammar, syntax). – objective of an interpreter is to
provide a correct translation that sound as natural and as authentic as possible in the TL. It is called
stylistic. Each interpreter should have a feeling for the structures used in the target language and be
able to use them naturally irrespective of the SL input. Interpreters could achieve two aims:
- They may make life easier for themselves by avoiding complicated grammar and syntax.
(It would be important that we simplified into It would be important for us to)
- A reformulation that respects the distinctive character of a language can give an
interpretation that renders meaning through syntax. (in English, syntax is not as important
as intonation and stress or in Czech – theme, the things already mentioned are at the
beginning of a sentence and rheme, the new information are at the end of a sentence)
In some cases, the word-for-word interpretation is possible, when the SL and TL syntax are
compatible. The problem is, that it works only some of the time – they don’t know how to finish
sentence, the interpreter may use only calque, what they say is nonsense or mistranslation. Second
problem is one can obviate the difficulty of what we might call multi-translations – working in a
number of passive languages, if he is too dependent on the form of expression in the SL, each
translation will be different. – interpreter should remain consistent and don’t change terminology.
On the other hand, reformulation enables the interpreter to deal with words they do not
know – maybe they know the meaning but not the expression in the TL. In consecutive they hear
the whole speech and have time to express themselves – may grasp the meaning from the context
or grasp the general meaning of the word or may ask the speaker for clarification or some
technical delegate. In simultaneous the interpreter does not have the whole context, but they have
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some – meeting, comments of the speaker, agenda, documents – they must at least listen to the
conference even if not interpreting. Second thing is that the interpreter is not really following just
behind the speaker and have a little time to react to the unknown word. Third, the interpreter is
reformulation so, if he works from the context, has sufficient distance and uses reformulation, the
interpreter can work out the result.
One of the options if the word is not known is to ask the colleague in the booth – they may know
the word or look it up in a glossary. If the translation of the word is still not known and it is
important, the simultaneous interpreter should be honest and inform their audience that there is a
word or expression that they cannot translate.
Interpreter´s overall intellectual approach increases by using reformulation, it is a sign that they do
their job properly - they have to analyse, process information.
How the interpreter sets about reformulating:
- It should come about as a matter of course if the interpreter adopts the approach
concerning the moment when to start speaking.
- Even if the speaker begins a sentence in an unproblematic way from the point of view of
the interpreter, the interpreter should still be cautious about just rushing in and following
the speaker´s line.
- Reformulation becomes a kind of a second nature to interpreters as they listen to ideas and
express them freely in their own words. Interpreters must keep in touch with target
language by reading the press, keep current affairs and terminology, publications, read
literature.

The Salami Technique

The logical conclusion is that the interpreter must divide up the speaker´s sentences into a number
of short, self-contained ones and then link them as appropriate. As this is slicing up a sentence,
rather as one might cut slices of a salami, the process is generally referred to, as the salami
technique. The interpreters need to look have note-pad to remind themselves of the subjects at the
beginning of the sentence without verb being used.
It is useful particularly with languages with a natural tendency to long sentences, like Russian doll-
like structures, with one subordinate clause fitting in another one, which in turn fits into a main
clause.
Once the interpreter gets going, he adds extra information that the speaker gave. They do this in a
form that is easy for them to produce.

Efficiency in Reformulation
One of the main objectives of SI is efficiency of expression. Sometimes an interpreter´s choice
will go to one the expression which contains the least syllables. For some languages it is easier
than for others.
- One way of being efficient is to make use of a speaker´s reference to previous comments in
the meeting. If the thing is described more times, it can be explained just once and then
refer to it by one word. If necessary, the explanation can be given simply or the interpreter
needs to repeat the whole explanation when the speaker check if the delegation understood
the information correctly. It can be done as to use smaller shorter words instead of the
whole information (shorten the international trade tribunal into tribunal). – it means
exploiting the cognitive knowledge shared by the interpreter and audience.
- The interpreter can also refer to documents, organisations in an abbreviated or
simplified form, provided this form is clear for the audience and is accepted usage.
- The interpreter should remove all useless filter words such as really, actually, well –
these words are being kept in store for slow speakers where one need to fill in the
silence
- Not taking rhetorical precautions with one´s audience by adding phrases as so to speak,
if you like, if you see what I mean – they are a waste of time

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 - Unnecessary repetitions are banned – only permitted with synonyms or near-synonyms
used by the speaker
- Interpreters must be generally vigilant about their form of expression and choose the
shortest form, where possible (as far as, is concerned can be replaced by on, or; we must
do this in cooperation with one another can be we must do this together)
- Interpreters should be prepared to provide a no-frills interpretation where this is appropriate
– where the speaker´s verbosity is ironed out – but maybe a delegate wishes to adopt a
literary or rhetorical style and it needed to be done or it may be that a speaker is trying to
be particularly diplomatic (use all the nuances) the last option is that the speaker refers to
their instructions and says my delegation (distancing them from official position)

Simplification
For highly technical material it is desirable to simplify a speech, for two reasons:
- It may be that the speech is so technical that the interpreter, despite their efforts to prepare
for the meeting with documentation, just cannot render all of the technical details
- The speaker may be talking over the heads of their audience – should be used carefully
and should maximize the communication
Simplification helps the interpreter when the going gets too tough for them – maybe
interpreter understands the whole but don’t know some vocabulary or do not understand some
parts – they may ask the speaker

Generalization
For the reason of saving time the interpreter can mention a number of specific items by one generic
term. But take care if each element is significant, the interpreter must do their best to reproduce it.

Omission (Under Duress) and Fast Speakers

Interpreters omit because of the technicity of a subject, mode of expression, fast speaker, mixture of
all. There are two comments:
- The interpreter must carry on making their analysis of the speech so that they keep in
the essential elements and miss out only what is illustrative or accessory
- The interpreter must give themselves a bit of time and have sufficient intellectual
distance from the original – with fast speaker the interpreter should take distance as
well, analyse fully and choose the technique
For too fast speaker there are some options: the interpreter may speak through the microphone to
request that their delegates ask their speakers to speak slower. If the speaker is reading a text in a
speed it should be made available to the interpreters before the meeting to prepare it. If not
possible, then at least before the speech (technical terms, proper names, numbers). If the
interpreter do not have the text at all, they should do their best and warn the audience that they do
not have the copy of the text. But highly technical interpretation is impossible (statistical analysis,
geographical regions, medical terminology).

Two forms of omission:

- Omission under duress - Case when the interpreter is not in a position to provide a totally
complete and accurate interpretation, he omits in order to preserve as much of the essential
message as possible
- Omission from choice - Case when the interpreter provide a fuller interpretation but
quite deliberately omits with a view to economy of expression, ease of listening,
maximize communication

Summarizing and Recapitulation

In some cases, interpreter can add things. An interpreter may wish to summarize or recapitulate
what a speaker has already said, and what they themselves have already interpreted, if they feel
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the audience may have failed to grasp the point. It is just added to the full text, recapitulating the
main idea.

Explanation
Interpreters may be faced with notions, cultural and institutional references that have no direct
equivalent in the target language and should be explained. But it takes much time and interpreters
should not force themselves to provide the explanation to the detriment of the speaker´s other
comments. But it can save time if it is repeatedly used, once explain and then, refer to it by
abbreviated form. – but if it is needed to explain to the audience

Anticipation
Interpreter must begin a sentence without knowing where the sentence is going. The interpreter
must learn to anticipate.
- It is possible to anticipate the broad structure and sometimes the general thrust of a speech
– form the context of a meeting
- Interpreters should learn to recognize speech patterns and rhetorical structures, particularly
in the languages they have to interpret from. (French use thesis-antithesis-synthesis) –
above all, the interpreter is given tips by the speaker as to what is coming next, they should
use this info by writing it down
- Interpreters can anticipate specific words or phrases in individual sentences because it is
simply so obvious how the sentence is going to end – especially if the TL and SL are
different in syntax (German – verb at the end, negative at the end)

What if I make a clear mistake?

These errors can occur because of mistakes in anticipation, mishear a word, not hear a word at all,
misunderstand a word, misconstrue a speaker´s logic, interpret incorrectly a reference, make a slip
of tongue. If it is made we can:
- If the interpreter made a mistake on a little or no important point and the meeting
proceeds and nobody has noticed it, he can leave it that way and continue
- The interpreter might make a mistake that is more significant which is obvious (wrong
page reference, illogical information) - it is not necessary to make a correction, but they
can do it quickly with an apology saying sorry, the speaker is referring to page 33, not 56.
– it improves the delegates confidence in the interpreter
- The interpreter might make a clear material mistake that is important and the audience
does not realize it, but they still have to correct the mistake as quickly and clearly as
possible
If the interpreter translated correctly and want to provide a better, more exact translation, they
should not backtrack to correct themselves.

What if the speaker makes a mistake?

Extreme caution is to be exercised by an interpreter ascribing an error to a speaker.
1- The delegate may make a slip of the tongue, by wrong reference to something during
the meeting – in this case the interpreter can react. It could happen that:
a. the speaker really has just made a slip of the tongue (instead of five thousand,
says five million) – make a correction automatically
b. the speaker might be saying something quite wrong and the interpreter feels they
know what the right version should be, but are not totally sure – interpreter should
interpret the original sentence and then add, says the speaker, but I think he means..
c. the speaker might say something clearly wrong but the interpreter has no clear idea
what the correct text would be or the speaker´s mistake is based on
misconception– the interpreter should proceed as in the previous case, but not give
any alternative, so just add – says the speaker.

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In the case the delegate is speaking in foreign language and makes unclear statements, the
interpreter does not have to use the phrases says the speaker, maybe he can just add that the
speaker has to speak a foreign language.
Avoiding Committing Yourself
The simultaneous interpreter should not mention the signs about what will come next, because one
can never trust a speaker to provide what they have announced in advance – if he needs to be
faithful to the original and allow clarity – it is possible that speaker mentions few points but
interpreter cannot pick out all of them from the speech. The interpreter should note the facts and
structure but don’t announce them to the audience.
If announcing a joke, the listeners expectations are raised, but jokes are not easy to translate or are
not funny in other language. Therefore, jokes should not be announced by interpreters, just if not
funny, say something like but I am only joking. Some rules for dealing with jokes:
- if the joke is translatable, then the interpreter should obviously do their best to render it,
he should be close to the speaker – so the audience will laugh right after the joke
- if the joke is not translatable, the interpreter can try providing some other light, humorous
treatment of the text, to achieve a similar result, if not possible, the interpreter must
inform the audience that the speaker is making an untranslatable joke (at least explain the
essence or say straightforwardly that they should laugh)
There are also literary allusions (Bible), historical quotations, and all other clauses with
annunciatory effect. The interpreter does their best and add, as Shakespeare wrote, or if not
interpreted perfectly something like to paraphrase Shakespeare.

Metaphors and Sayings

The same rule applies to announcing metaphors and sayings. There is the risk that the interpreter
will not understand the saying. Or the interpreter understands the saying but then find hat exactly
the same thing exists in the target language – or the saying in the SL does not exist word-for-word
in the TL but has an exact equivalent in meaning. If the interpreter does not understand the saying,
they should ask themselves if it is important or they can miss it out or translate it literally and
announce that it is a traditional saying.
Interpreters should avoid creating their own metaphors and images in a meeting. Mainly in
meetings with more languages.

Using Pat Phrases

Pat means known thoroughly and ready for any occasion. They are the formulations that occur
frequently in some area. SO, all interpreters should have a battery of pat phrases that they can sue
without having to make any intellectual effort. In what situations can be used?
- Delegates often say that they agree or disagree, support, endorse ideas, understand, don’t
understand the information – so interpreters dealing with certain texts or speeches should
be aware of relevant phrases – not just know the vocabulary relevant to the subject area
but also to use right formulations

Intonation, Stress and Pauses

Simultaneous interpreters are subject to a number of constraints with intonation, stress, pause:
- SI is in a sound-proof booth a long way from delegates, they can feel cut off from
the proceedings – we can encourage interpreter to take an active interest in the
meeting
- There is the risk that interpreters may feel under pressure to keep up a continuous flow of
sound in the booth (because of delegates) – interpreter should know that appropriate pauses
do add to the meaning of a speech and give them time
- Overreaction to being under pressure, which manifests itself by an exaggerated attempt
to sound cool and calm – sound bored, monotonous, supercilious
- Providing too much stress, emphasizing words that do not deserve it, and generally

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 hamming it up (mainly if the text is uninteresting, but this will highlight the emptiness of
the text)
- SI does not know how a speaker is going to proceed – interpreter´s intonation may
indicate that they are always in a state of expectation (audience cannot hear when the
sentence begins and finishes) – interpreters should signal the end of the sentence by falling
intonation

Numbers
How to cope with them:
- One must realize that numbers, are much more complex than they at first seem, there
are five elements:
o The arithmetic value
o Part of that arithmetic value – the order of magnitude
o The unit – after the number
o What the number refers to
o The relative value of a number – part of the whole, proportion, decrease/increase
Interpreter will be able to deal with one number easily by remembering it, but with more
numbers, the interpreter will need some assistance
- he can say them as quickly as possible after the speaker (drawback is preceding other
sentences), leave the preceding sentence and move to numbers (say the numbers first)
- he can note down the numbers as they hear them and fit the numbers as appropriate, it
reduces the risk of misinterpretation and if they write it down they can easily read it in
another language
- he can let his colleague to note the numbers down, they should write down solely
the relevant numbers with units – not more because it leads to confusion.
There are occasions when the numbers should be interpreted accurately, with every digit correct
(customs tariff codes) or in other cases it is possible to be more approximate (where there is a
sequence of numbers or where there are other very difficult elements of a speech)

Retour
If a professional conference interpreter work into a language other than their mother tongue and is
thus engaged in retour interpreting, they should be able to interpret accurately, clearly and with
correct grammar.
The main problem will be understanding the ideas expressed in the original – they may have
problems to interpret the ideas, mainly from mother tongue as there are nuances not conveyed.
There are a number of things to live with:
- the interpreter should accept that there are certain nuances, shades of meaning or stylistic
niceties that they will not be able to express, particularly from their mother tongue (it can
be a specific notion, the interpreter does not know the exact title in other language or
connotations ang groupies are difficult to convey if one does not have to hand the same
word in the TL)
- the interpreter doing a retour should be modest in the style they adopt – not using a very
literary style, lot of images, metaphors, similes, cultural references – if they use them,
they should be sure they master it
Interpreter should be aware:
- of what kind of meeting they are in
- that the problem exists and of the discrepancies between the use of linguistic register in
their mother tongue and in the retour language
- should make life as easy as possible for themselves by avoiding highly complex
grammatical forms

Relay
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The interpretation has to serve as a source text for one or more colleagues. The relay should:
- give absolute priority to clarity in their interpretations, the content provided must be
limpid, he cannot leave shadow of doubt in what is meant, clarity also in the grammatical
form, he should articulate clearly
- be closer in time to the original than would other modes of simultaneous to
enable colleagues to be able to finish as closely in time as possible to the speaker
- bear in mind the psychology of the colleagues on relay, it is necessary to say something
as soon as you know you are being taken on relay to reassure colleagues that you are
there, continues calmly and smoothly
- remember that the colleagues listening to them may have an imperfect knowledge of
the relay language, particularly of idiomatic usage and specific cultural references

The last point is a consideration that an audience is composed of people not listening to their
mother tongue and they should adapt their style accordingly.
If language of the original changes, the relay must make it clear to the colleagues. Some
colleagues can listen then directly to the speaker, because when they will be interpreting form
English through relay to English it may be modified.

5 The Pleasure of Interpreting

Interpreting is a routine:
- interpreter is faced with meetings of all kinds, delegate of all kinds, subjects of all
kind Repeating what others say:
- it is about re-expression and reformulation
- the interpreter processes the information they receive from the speaker and creates from it
their own line of discourse
Pleasure is two-fold:
- social – establishing communication and overcome the barriers of languages, ordinary
and unimportant are not as interesting as working for people who genuinely need their
services and another thing is that interpreters work with politicians, ambassadors and can
witness historical events
- intellectual is two-fold:
o the interpreter has the pleasure of dealing with the ideas expressed by the speakers
or can find interest in dealing with different points of view and arguments
o the interpreter has the pleasure of dealing with the linguistic problems created in
interpreting (idioms, sentences)
Frustration of a man in this job:
- being an interpreter can imply a high degree of responsibility
- game-playing nature of the activity – men like playing games
Interpreting is like a chess game, even better, because interpreting is not a pure science, as it is
sometimes objective, but mainly subjective based on decisions (audience, situation).

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