Translation vs. Interpreting. — Transcript

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1. 0:01well good afternoon ladies and gentlemen
2. 0:03I've been asked to say a few words about
3. 0:06interpreting as a career and the first
4. 0:09thing you have to sort out is that
5. 0:10interpreters are not
6. 0:13translators what I mean by that is that
7. 0:15a translator reads and writes whereas an
8. 0:19interpreter listens and
9. 0:22speaks so an inter translator will
10. 0:25receive a document read it through type
11. 0:27up a translation it's very good if you
12. 0:30need a precise translation perhaps a
13. 0:33legal contract every word must be
14. 0:37correct but it takes a long time what an
15. 0:40interpreter does is
16. 0:42immediately tell you what the other
17. 0:44person is saying that means of course
18. 0:47it's very good for meetings conferences
19. 0:49where you don't want to wait 3 days to
20. 0:51read a
21. 0:52translation it does mean though that The
22. 0:55Interpreter can never be quite as
23. 0:57precise as a translator and in fact
24. 1:00that's part of the fun of interpreting
25. 1:02it's very creative you often find that
26. 1:05you have to reconstruct what the speaker
27. 1:08is saying you don't go through word by
28. 1:10word you might find yourself telling
29. 1:12their story or making their argument in
30. 1:15a completely different way using
31. 1:17different sentences and different words
32. 1:20to make the same
33. 1:22point you might also sometimes find
34. 1:25yourself adding some cultural
35. 1:27information the speaker might say
36. 1:29something with which everyone
37. 1:30understands in their culture but for
38. 1:33your listeners to understand you might
39. 1:35quickly have to add a couple of cultural
40. 1:40points basically there are two main
41. 1:42kinds of
42. 1:44interpretation consecutive and
43. 1:47simultaneous simultaneous interpretation
44. 1:49is what you can see people doing here in
45. 1:51the rooms behind me while I'm speaking
46. 1:55they are immediately interpreting my
47. 1:58ideas so that someone else can listen
48. 2:00straight
49. 2:02away it's very good for a meeting or a
50. 2:06conference consecutive is what you do if
51. 2:09you haven't got all this technology
52. 2:12you're perhaps walking around a farm or
53. 2:14you're just meeting in a small room
54. 2:16somewhere the speaker speaks for a few
55. 2:19minutes and The Interpreter takes notes
56. 2:22and then the speaker stops and The
57. 2:24Interpreter gives an interpretation of
58. 2:26what they said and then the speaker
59. 2:29starts again and so
60. 2:30on the problem with consecutive
61. 2:33interpretation of course is that it's
62. 2:35much slower so most people prefer to use
63. 2:38simultaneous interpreters when they've
64. 2:40got the technology to do
65. 2:43it so what kind of person wants to be an
66. 2:47interpreter well it's people who like
67. 2:49the stress the excitement of
68. 2:51interpreting it's you there you're in
69. 2:53the hot seat you have got to understand
70. 2:56what the other person is saying and
71. 2:58interpret it straight away
72. 3:00it's very different from translation
73. 3:03translator you get a document in you've
74. 3:05got time to look up the vocabulary or to
75. 3:08think of just the right word the perfect
76. 3:11word to translate the word in the
77. 3:13original translation appeals to people
78. 3:15who are thorough who like to be
79. 3:18careful although it's important to
80. 3:20remember that translators very often
81. 3:23have to work under time pressure as
82. 3:26well interpreting appeals much more to
83. 3:29people who enjoy the adrenaline of
84. 3:32having to get it right now without
85. 3:36waiting some people find that rather
86. 3:38frustrating a translator at the end of
87. 3:41the day has a nice document they've
88. 3:42checked it through they've done it well
89. 3:44it's perfect they can send it off to
90. 3:46their
91. 3:47customer an interpreter at the end of
92. 3:49the day has nothing the conference is
93. 3:52finished you go home I personally like
94. 3:56that I don't take my work home but some
95. 3:59people find it
96. 4:00frustrating another aspect of
97. 4:02interpreting is that we tend to travel a
98. 4:05lot meetings don't take place outside
99. 4:08your house you might find yourself
100. 4:10traveling all around Europe or all
101. 4:12around the world well some people love
102. 4:15that other people don't but you're not
103. 4:18going to escape it if you're an
104. 4:20interpreter probably the best thing
105. 4:23about interpreting is what I just said
106. 4:25it's exciting it's creative there's lots
107. 4:28of adrenaline lots of of enjoyable
108. 4:31pressure on
109. 4:33you another Advantage is quite often
110. 4:36you'll be going to interesting
111. 4:37conferences very varied conferences
112. 4:40meeting lots of people you might meet
113. 4:42all kinds of VIPs who you otherwise only
114. 4:45see on
115. 4:46television or you might find yourself
116. 4:48going around a farm or going around a
117. 4:51factory places that you would never have
118. 4:53seen if you weren't an
119. 4:55interpreter you might find yourself in
120. 4:57some big castle somewhere or going to a
121. 5:00fancy dinner where you will be eating
122. 5:02the same fancy food as a delegates which
123. 5:04is a nice advantage