Conference Interpreter
Probably all
colleagues have experienced the same conversations with delegates at coffee
breaks. Along with "Ah, so you´re an interpreter - how many languages do
you speak?" (try replying "One"), one of the most recurrent questions
is "Do you understand what you are saying, or do you just repeat
words?"
Now there´s a can
of worms. The meaning of meaning is a
real philosophical bodice-ripper, but what are we to understand by
understanding?
How much grey
matter activity is going on
·
when
a dog obeys the instruction to "Sit"?
·
when
a toddler trained in a second language correctly points to the blue flower or
the square brick or their nose ?
·
when
we say "Sure smoking is bad for you" but continue on forty a day?
·
when
an amateur translates word for word? ("From lost to the river...")
·
when
a UKIP voter is told "Let´s take back control of our country" or
indeed when a top Tory is warned that referendums can go either way?
Ever noticed what
a bad sign it is in a relationship when the phrase, "I can´t understand
why you..." is used frequently? Indeed what difference does it make to
reality whether we understand it or not?
Does our delegate
sipping their coffee and savouring the Martinez biscuits really believe that
the conference organisers would pay us what they do if we were engaged in mere psittacism?
A machine could certainly do that.
Passing all comprehension
is the understanding of the simultaneous or consecutive interpreter: the
professional listener. This is deep listening, constantly monitoring the
message for inconsistencies or contradictions, considering the speaker´s
intention and register, collating with the context and our own knowledge of the
subject matter, while also continuing to listen to the original, and to
ourselves (ever wondered why interpreters generally only use one side of the
headphones?)
What has become
known as ´reformulation´ no doubt has a lot to do with all this. One of the
main traits acquired in interpreting school is this separation, distance, from
the form, the shape, the words, the word order, of the original discourse (I
say trait, rather than technique, because it is surely an outcome of the
training). Lewis Carroll understood: "Take care of the sense, and the sounds will
take care of themselves."
Another question
often heard is what language a person thinks in. The contention that thought
does not take place in any language at all is borne out by considering that there
are experiences, for example dreams, which defy expression; or that often a
person knows precisely what they wish to say, yet cannot find the words... It
is to this conceptual plane that Seleskovitch´s immortal triangle refers: the
interpreter should be processing the original words into the message, beyond
words, and then, in a second stage, re-expressing that in the appropriate words
of the target language. Which is part of the reason why interpreting is so tiring.
And explains why you could memorise equivalents of endless sets of words until
you were blue in the face, to no avail. And why it is so annoying to be asked,
"What would you say for (for example) ´My widgets are discombobulated´?"
Answer: "Try me - in context - sometime."
It is apparent
that a translator, possibly even a virtual one, can render the words (for
example) "The European Parliament urges the Council to oblige the Commission
to revise its proposal on gussets" from one language to another in a
comprehensible fashion. Put the same, however, through an interpreter who is
not cognisant of the realities lying behind the message, and even if they
succeed in uttering the right words, they will not bear a sufficient burden of
meaning, of "vouloir dire", for the meaning to be apprehended by the
listener: empty words.
On a good day,
the conference-goer, unaware of the interpreter´s identity, may even ask them
where they practise as (say) a nuclear physicist. For while it takes many years
to learn how to design a nuclear power plant, the science involved can be grasped
in a matter of days´ study. We charge not so much for the day´s work as for the
years spent acquiring the necessary techniques.
This interpreter well
remembers how, after a student had produced a succession of inadequate
renditions of a message in consecutive, the aforementioned Mademoiselle S would
draw herself up to her full height, stamp her foot, and loudly demand
"Mais qu´est-ce que ça veut DIRE?" Very often the shock would be
sufficient to galvanise the hapless candidate interpreter into finally getting
away from the hypnotic effect of the original words and cutting to the essence.
Another enduring
memory of interpreting school is more paradoxical. Success at the final diploma
required passing six tests. Having achieved this, I was moved for some reason
to seek a breakdown of the grades per test. There must have been some kind of
fudge or scam, however, for in his office the Director of Interpretation, the excellent
Monsieur T (interpreter to successive Présidents de la République) replied by
exhorting me, "Monsieur P, ne cherchez pas à comprendre!" Seems quite
reasonable to me in context, but splendidly ironic after spending two years
learning to do just that!
"Thank you
for your understanding."
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