By Liz Essary During my training as a conference interpreter, some of the most important advice I got was this: Don’t crush your listener with a wall of sound. But what does that mean? It took me a while to figure it out. Rather than parroting a word-for-word monotone (and likely meaningless) rendition of what the speaker’s saying, you must process the message … [Read more...]
A Tale of Two Fields: Doing Research on Interpreting
By Deborah Giustini For most interpreters, whether they work in healthcare, media, asylums, international conferences, business meetings and so forth, the very idea of research – and doing research – on interpreting may be nebulous. The life of interpreters is a notably practical, hands-on and real-time occupation, and our training focuses mainly on acquiring the necessary … [Read more...]
United Nations: The Language Competitive Examination (LCE)
By Maha El-Metwally To become a staff interpreter at the United Nations, one must pass the Language Competitive Examination (LCE). This exam has always had a low pass rate that seldom exceeded 20%. With many staff interpreters retiring by 2018, a shortage of qualified interpreters in certain language combinations exists and needs to be addressed. This led the UN to … [Read more...]
My Accidental Transition from Interpreting to Translating
By Molly Yurick I consider myself to be quite lucky when it comes to my studies. I was born and raised in Minnesota and went to Spanish Immersion Elementary School in my hometown of Robbinsdale. My middle school classes were half in Spanish and half in English and my high school had an advanced placement Spanish class. Strangely enough, in all my studies as a language … [Read more...]
The Routledge Handbook of Interpreting: A Multifaceted Resource
By Helen Eby One of my resources is The Routledge Handbook of Interpreting, edited by Holly Mikkelson and Renée Jourdenais. Its twenty-seven chapters cover a remarkably broad spectrum of topics relating to interpreting, with the following sections: historical perspectives, modes of interpreting, interpreting settings, and issues and debates. Each chapter is written by an … [Read more...]