these two diplomats are about to begin a
negotiation this one is from an
unspecified spanish-speaking country
hola and this one is from an unspecified
english-speaking country hello and these
are real interpreters and I'm Barry
slaughter Olsen a conference interpreter
with 25 years of experience interpreting
for diplomats and world leaders at
places like the UN when you think of
interpreters scenes like these are
probably the first that come to mind
people in soundproof booths interpreting
in real-time to government officials
below but interpreters often have to do
their jobs in private closed-door
meetings this is called bilateral
interpreting and as anyone who heard
about the Trump Putin meetings knows
it's a very real situation when certain
meetings just have a limited number of
people in a room and those people are
sworn to secrecy this is a demonstration
of what can typically happen in these
meetings behind closed doors going
someone's actually things began before
anyone even arrived most of the time
terms are agreed upon in advance of the
meeting the agendas are carefully
negotiated and outline they can range
from arms reduction to economic
cooperation to water rights all we need
is a plausible topic to get started
let's say dolphin-safe tuna fishing to
start our interpreters position
themselves you'd think they'd be in the
middle somewhere because they've got a
here will right well for meetings in
front of the press they don't want to be
the center of attention or appear in
press photos see how they're on the
sidelines here that's so they can easily
be cropped out of the pictures to be
published later which doesn't always
work out so before this meeting begins
there are things that need to be decided
will recordings be permitted is a record
being kept who's going to attend but
this is a closed-door bilateral meeting
so it'll just be these four now there
are two styles of interpretation
simultaneous and consecutive consecutive
is the most common style of interpreting
in diplomatic situations here's an
example it's been awhile since I've been
here I'm so excited to be back thank you
for having me
and then again Pokeno venía SEK moti
Samaras oppressive in Manoa meant a the
interpreter waits until the speaker
pauses time on weird I see a poetical
award I don't know I mean
no suffice and then interprets we're
very happy to be able to collaborate
again with the government of your
country simple right but what happens if
the speaker goes on and on without
pausing hey come on we're die seals
their political award contest
interpreters rarely translate word for
word instead we remember specific ideas
and translate those ideas accordingly
but when the speaker goes on and on for
a long time
interpreters rely on note-taking we want
to authorize the use of the dolphin
friendly label by your country's tuna
processors these symbols represent the
speaker's ideas but each interpreter has
their own style watch as three different
interpreters take notes on the same
sentence we want to authorize the use of
the dolphin friendly label by your
country's tuna processors but we must
have a reliable way to verify the use of
authorized equipment and fishing
practices interpreters usually come up
with the symbols beforehand and as you
can see here on Caddy's cheat sheets she
carefully thought about what will be
most useful for this particular meaning
the DFL stands for dolphin friendly
label that tu in a box refers to tuna
that's being caught you get the idea now
let's watch as caddy interprets her own
notes into Spanish GMOs dr. Lesage ellos
son and a lady kita the dolphin friendly
para lo processor horas de pekka de soup
is pero necesitamos para verificar
kitten odorless and o aqui pose it
technically Pecola koalas now let's
switch to simultaneous interpretation
simultaneous interpretation is usually
used with earpieces and microphones and
with interpreters working from a
soundproof booth but we won't have
equipment in this demonstration when
we're right next to another person like
in this scenario we can employ what we
call shushil - which means whispering in
French this usually is an ideal
whispering for a long time is bad for
the vocal cords it can also be hard to
hear
due to ambient noise in the room like
ventilation
now let's talk about pacing in
simultaneous interpretation you try to
maintain an optimal distance from the
original speaker this is referred to as
Nicholas or ear voice spam we'll call it
Evi so when one diplomat starts speaking
the person employing shushil Taaj would
probably start here understand perfectly
references in the conceived inif the
speaker is speaking at 100 to 110 words
per minute which research tells us is
the optimal speed for interpreting the
interpreter still has to figure out the
optimal eds here's the problem the
further back in the diplomat speech the
interpreter is consuming orestes y es y
por ESO también queremos references the
more the interpreter has to keep in
their short-term memory their listening
and processing as they're interpreting
it's a lot is high quality dolphin
dolphin but get too close to the
original speakers words and they may
screw up things like grammar syntax and
style and of course interpreters are
prone to fatigue and burnout fatigue
will hit at around 30 minutes of
straight interpreting this is why
simultaneous interpreters often switch
out in intervals of 30 minutes or less
if pushed to our limits interpreters can
really suffer you may recall the 2009
incident in which more Marga da fees
interpreter collapsed at the UN after
simultaneously interpreting for over 75
minutes so what happens if the
conversation turns emotional or the
speaker becomes rude well my friend I've
listened to what you have to say and the
only conclusion I can come up with is
that you're a damn fool interpreters are
not meant to be mediators our only job
is to stay true to the message of the
speaker if someone becomes rude or angry
if threats are made then we're supposed
to interpret those threats faithfully so
in this situation interpreter would not
say no conclusion a la cual puedo llegar
es que attention puckateeto imprudent a
and here is an example of a faithful
interpretation young Christian aleck
well well you got a key okay that is
perfect
idiota although a speaker may become
emotional and just stick you late the
interpreter is not going to parrot the
behavior of the speaker this is not the
way the people my boy has said to me
given to get moja migos how could you do
this to me I thought we were friends
this is more realistic robo-moe me voy a
hacer esto me your pencil Karamoja migos
how could you do this to me I thought we
were friends
so the situation has gotten quite
intense maybe a joke would be helpful to
lighten the mood but jokes are some of
the most difficult things to interpret
because they can get lost in translation
easily what it one dolphin say to the
other after splashing him you did that
on purpose
never mind that this joke barely makes
sense in English in Spanish it
completely doesn't work because porpoise
is Maricopa and purpose is propósito
al otro tipo del piccolo oh that is so
Louise in similar sopa untranslatable
pun Nintendo attempts at humor are often
lost and there's not much an interpreter
can do there's an anecdote about an
interpreter who when faced with an
untranslatable joke simply said
colleague acabo a contouring chief take
a result the totalement intro
simplistically a support for of course
what we've seen today is a tiny excerpt
of what are often longer and arduous
negotiations and that concludes our
bilateral meeting behind closed doors
this job is tough to juggle the many
things that we have to do to be able to
interpret well and accurately but this
job is important because it's what makes
communication possible between countries
and between peoples I've been at it for
25 years and I wouldn't trade it for the
world
very will interpret a financial speech
we have seen that the GDP of Latin
America and the Caribbean has increased
and then Cathy will interpret a text
message exchange between two friends I
mean if you're seen killing Eve I mean
it's not that realistic but I love it
are you kidding I've never seen it
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