Interpreter Breaks Down How Real-Time Translation Works

 

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