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<\/p>\nBy Junqiao Chen | \u9648\u4fca\u5de7<\/p>\n
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Gigi Yau (\u5c24\u5efa\u4e4b<\/strong>)has been participating in the Chinese Language Division (CLD) since she attended her first ATA conference in San Francisco in 2016, but she has been translating and interpreting\u2014trilingually\u2014 for many years before that.<\/p>\n Join us in our conversation this issue to learn about Gigi\u2019s unique entry into translation and interpreting, the challenges she has overcome as a trilingual translator\/interpreter, and some of her most memorable experiences, as well her valuable advice for up-and-coming language service professionals.<\/p>\n \u201cGigi, how do you introduce yourself as\u00a0a professional translator and\u00a0interpreter?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n As an interpreter, I have native or near-native fluency in English, Mandarin, and\u00a0Cantonese and can interpret fluently in any\u00a0direction among all three languages.\u00a0I translate from English into Chinese as\u00a0well as from Chinese into English and use\u00a0both traditional and simplified characters.\u00a0Long ago, when Billy Graham Evangelistic\u00a0Association needed a Chinese-English\u00a0translator, they called the Chinese church I\u00a0attended, and the Christian education\u00a0minister referred me to them. After the\u00a0first testing assignments, the Hong Kong\u00a0office commented that I did a better job\u00a0than any of the translators in their Hong\u00a0Kong office at that time.<\/p>\n \u201cWow, so your translation career began\u00a0with the Billy Graham Evangelistic\u00a0Association?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Yes. Just like that.<\/p>\n \u201cHow did you start interpreting?”<\/strong><\/p>\n I had a roommate who was an interpreter\u00a0of Cambodian and English. One time when\u00a0she was out of town, an interpreter\u00a0scheduler left a message on the home\u00a0answering machine, so I replied informing\u00a0the agency that this interpreter was not\u00a0available. Somehow, the scheduler who\u00a0answered recognized my spoken English\u00a0carried a foreign accent and talked me into\u00a0interpreting for that agency. About three\u00a0years later, I quit, and then a year or two\u00a0after that the owner of another agency\u00a0pulled me back in because the industry was\u00a0in need of good interpreters.<\/p>\n “It sounds like your work has been in\u00a0<\/strong>demand. How do you keep your career-related knowledge and skills up-to-date?”<\/strong><\/p>\n I attend workshops organized by The\u00a0University of Minnesota and take training\u00a0courses such as Bridging the Gap.(1)\u00a0I attend\u00a0the ATA Annual Conference and learn\u00a0from its workshops and sessions and by\u00a0visiting booths in the expo hall. At the\u00a0Chinese Church I attend, I purposefully\u00a0attend the Mandarin worship and mingle\u00a0with native Mandarin speakers to keep my\u00a0third language sharp.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat do you consider as important\u00a0milestones in your career?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n I have translated hymns and songs between\u00a0Chinese and English into singable lyrics,\u00a0which I consider to be an accomplishment.\u00a0I have accepted voiceover assignments in\u00a0Cantonese as well as in Mandarin, and for a\u00a0year and a half I was engaged almost\u00a0weekly at a professional recording studio\u00a0recording in my third language. I am a\u00a0classical singer, and my use of voice helped\u00a0me with excellent delivery.<\/p>\n \u201cHow have you been involved in the\u00a0CLD?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n I first met members of the CLD at the first\u00a0ATA annual conference I attended in 2016.\u00a0I was happy to mingle with other\u00a0translators and interpreters working in the\u00a0Chinese-English pair.<\/p>\n \u201cHow has it helped you?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n I have benefitted much from the group<\/p>\n messaging: when I have questions about\u00a0pricing my projects or other things, I bring\u00a0them up in the messaging group and also\u00a0observe other\u2019s discussions. It has been\u00a0useful as well as lots of fun.<\/p>\n \u201cHave you ever regretted embarking on\u00a0the journey of translation and interpretation?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n I stopped doing translations around the\u00a0mid-1990s and started interpreting in 2001.\u00a0In hindsight, I should have pursued\u00a0translation when I changed my career from\u00a0IT to sales and mortgage home loan\u00a0origination. At the time, I thought that\u00a0interpreting might allow me to meet people\u00a0of limited English proficiency and\u00a0hopefully broaden my clientele in my\u00a0mortgage business. In reality, when I\u00a0interpreted, I would not bring up my sales\u00a0or mortgage origination business unless\u00a0asked.<\/p>\n Moreover, I was not as specialized as I\u00a0should have been. Looking back, I should\u00a0have pursued subtitle translation like when I\u00a0started at Billy Graham. I should have\u00a0pursued legal court interpreting\u00a0qualifications sooner and started working\u00a0directly with the court system earlier as well.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, it sounds like the regrets might be\u00a0more about timing than the work itself.\u00a0What have been some of your most\u00a0memorable clients or projects?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n I worked on one project where the clients\u00a0debated whether the Chinese texts in their\u00a0next book publication should be top-down\u00a0instead of flowing left to right like English.\u00a0One time, a client brought up a tongue\u00a0twister using only the si, shi, and xi sounds.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s always interesting to hear about\u00a0<\/strong>some of the unique requests our clients\u00a0come up with! Have you faced any\u00a0particular challenges in your\u00a0translation\/interpretation career?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n For voiceover, when I record using my\u00a0third language, Mandarin, I usually\u00a0transcribe the text into pinyin\u00a0(Romanization) and study it that way\u00a0before recording. One week, I had around\u00a0eight hours of recording coming up, and\u00a0on the first day at the recording studio, my\u00a0professional recording partner suggested\u00a0that we record the longest and hardest\u00a0scripts first. I agreed because he had\u00a0decades of experience in this industry and\u00a0I usually accepted his suggestions, but I\u00a0realize now that I should have expressed\u00a0disagreement and recorded the easy scripts\u00a0first (things like text of daily-use phrases,\u00a0phone numbers, etc.) on the first day and\u00a0taken more time to study the texts with\u00a0harder vocabulary (things like medical\u00a0writeups). Because I went along with that\u00a0suggestion, I probably made more mistakes\u00a0in the recordings, and after that our\u00a0bookings thinned out.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat would you say to the newer\u00a0<\/strong>generation of translators and\u00a0<\/strong>interpreters?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Do whatever you do as if it were a full-time and long-term career, and continue to\u00a0get as much education as possible. Observe\u00a0people with more experience and ability\u00a0and learn from them.<\/p>\n \u201cHow do you perceive the importance of\u00a0knowing more than one language?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Once, when vacationing in Europe, I\u00a0arrived at the Munich airport late in the\u00a0evening and a flight attendant was waving\u00a0at me. So, I let her speak with me. That\u00a0flight attendant spoke German and French\u00a0fluently and some English. She was with a\u00a0passenger who spoke only Mandarin. I was\u00a0able to help them figure out the passenger\u2019s\u00a0connecting flight, which was the next day. I\u00a0was able to host her in my hotel room\u00a0where she could sleep on the sofa and have\u00a0a hot shower. The next day, as we took\u00a0public transportation to the airport\u00a0together, I realized that I had helped\u00a0someone who was very worried and\u00a0vulnerable at a time she most needed help.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Junqiao Chen | \u9648\u4fca\u5de7 Gigi Yau (\u5c24\u5efa\u4e4b)has been participating in the Chinese Language Division (CLD) since she attended her first ATA conference in San Francisco in 2016, but she has been translating and interpreting\u2014trilingually\u2014 for many years before that. Join us in our conversation this issue to learn about Gigi\u2019s unique entry into translation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":715,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-695","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-interpretation","8":"category-interview","9":"entry"},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/CLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/you.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/CLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/CLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/CLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/CLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/CLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/CLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":734,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/CLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695\/revisions\/734"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/CLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/CLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/CLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/CLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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June, our interviewer, is a professionally\u00a0trained Chinese < > English interpreter\u00a0and translator with a master\u2019s degree from\u00a0the University of Maryland. While located\u00a0in the greater D.C. area for the past five\u00a0years, she has assisted with mutually\u00a0beneficial exchanges between Chinese and\u00a0U.S. government officials and between\u00a0educational institutions and private\u00a0companies, helping them to establish\u00a0enduring relations and achieve concrete\u00a0goals.<\/em><\/p>\n