Interpreting experience – 30 years. One of the main difficulties for translators, Ann says, is the word order: “In German, nicht (“ not ”) can appear at the very end of a sentence. So it happens that you are already happy about something, and then the speaker suddenly inserts his nicht at the end. But if you are a native speaker of German, the final nicht can be predicted by intonation. ” Word order is a huge issue in fishing meetings that Anne adm
its she simply hates. In a long statement about a particular type of fish, and even in a language where the noun – the name of the fish – appears towards the end, the translator only has to guess the subject of the sentence right up to its end.
Among such traps, there are, of course, comical situations. Miles talked about one session on the topic of agriculture. The delegates discussed the semen of the frozen bull. The French translator translated it as matelotcongelés, that is, “frozen sailors.” And then Anne herself froze … In Milan, the next meeting on the same topic was expected soon, but at that moment the translator did not know about it. Therefore, when the delegate spoke about the need to resolve some avantMilan issues, that is, “before Milan”, she translated that the issue, it seems, would be decided by milleans, that is, “a thousand years.”
Some speakers speak very quickly. There are several strategies in this regard. Some people think it is best to stop and say that the delegate is speaking too quickly. Ann Miles herself believes
that this is not an option, because everyone has their own natural rate of speech, so that a person first slows down when asked, and then picks up the same speed again. The more efficient option is to catch up: “You need to instantly perceive the speech. And it’s not about language skills, but about making the brain react faster and learn quickly. ”
Such difficulties in simultaneous interpretation are very tiring. It is not surprising that the performers replace each other every half hour. Interpretation with a video image on the screen is even worse. Research confirms that this process is even more stressful and exhausting – perhaps because part of the message is conveyed using body language and facial expressions, which are more difficult to understand when working remotely. “We don’t like that at all,” admits Miles. “So you notice even less of what is happening, even with the video link.”
And also this monotony … Negotiations on the crisis in New York are, of course, a responsible business, but the average politician – not to mention a technical expert when discussing, say, maritime law – will not hold the attention of the audience for hours on end. The audience is dozing, and the translator has no right to do so – he must be cheerful. Anyone who has ever seen a meeting room slowly fill with the sleepy potion of multilingual translations that carefully convey speech and decisions made, each of which consists of paragraphs and subparagraphs, it becomes clear how tiring such a wakefulness must be. And everyone who at least once indulged in the arms of Morpheus at scientific meetings, most likely, will not envy the fate of the synchronized interpreters.