Informal Interpreting Tips

[艾墨本]

So I've got a draft of what the tour guide will say once at the food processing plant. I think I'll be able to manage most of it once I learn the vocabulary and practice some. The section that is leaving me dumbfounded, though is the first paragraph where they just list all the awards they've gotten. So many seem horribly clunky once translated. For example, 中国团餐品牌30强 --> Top 30 China Catering Brand. Others I've just no idea, i.e. 上海市政府早餐工程实施项目先进单位 --> Shanghai City Government Advanced Unit in Breakfast Engineering Implementation. Another is 市政府实事项目, what is 实事? I found the website and still haven't figured it out. I actually thought it might be a typo due to how many shishi words exist, but nope.

 

The other question is how much liberty is acceptable for more literary bits like slogans: 民以食为天，食以安为本 --> The people regard food as heaven, while food takes safety as its root. Alternatively, Food is heaven for the people, while hygiene is the root of good food?

 

I've listed out all 30 of the awards the company has received and the organizations that it belongs to and worked through most of them. I think about 70% have good translations so far, while the remaining poor translations hinge company names and weird phrases like the one above (早餐工程实施).

 

Thank you again for all the help. I'm learning all sorts of fun vocab for discussing hygiene and manufacturing. As a side question for all the translators and interpreters here, how long does the vocabulary from one project stay with you after you finish it? With such specific vocab, I can't imagine much is retained.

[Jim]

实事 always seems to come up as an implied contrast with empty government projects for show and political prestige  or just talking a good game, i.e. 多干实事,少说空话 which was Deng on his Southern tour. Can take it to mean practical projects of real use in everyday life, so maybe in your example something like a Municipal Quality of Life Project?

[艾墨本]

14 minutes ago, Jim said:

多干实事,少说空话

That's going in the phrase book! I love it. Thanks for the context.

[Lu]

I put the words that have a clear, unambiguous meaning in my Anki and they stay with me. The rest I mostly forget pretty soon.

 

In my view, you have all the liberty with the slogans. It would be different if you were asked to translate their website and they put it on their menu or something, but for oral translation, there are no long-term consequences, so don't spend too much time on finding the best translation, settle for a decent one.

[艾墨本]

I did the interpreting yesterday. It was difficult in many way while also more easy in others than I had imagined.

 

The person leading the tour quickly picked up on the limits of my language ability and as such skipped the "wall of honors" section that would have just been her rattling off a list of achievements the company had. While that was the part I had prepared for most, I was more than willing to skip that, especially since I doubt anyone in the audience would have cared for it.

 

The bulk of the time was spent actually learning how to make dumplings in fun little animal and plants shapes (rose, hedgehog, rabbit, etc.). That was by far the easiest, not only because of the language, but also because the language was accompanied by demonstration which made it easier to figure out how to interpret her words but also easier to remember what she had just said since it accompanied a series of movements. The one word the tripped me up was 刺猬. I just said the Chinese for the word and we all figured it out together once she had finished making the dumpling that was a hedgehog.

 

The hardest part was the tour of the building, less because of the language (which I had prepared in advance for and was delighted to find she was just repeating a script she had memorized and which I was holding in my hands with translations next to difficult words) and more because of act of a tour added complexity to the two roles. Where do I stand? What should I do if she has already moved on from the object she just described and pointed to before I had the time to interpret it? Do I first finish the interpretation and then catch up or move with her while interpreting? This also made it seem that she might be new to the idea of a translator accompanying her.

 

Overall, thank you for all the bits of advice. Making sure I kept everything I interpreted in the same perspective as was spoken ("I" and not "she"/"her") and making an effort to keep attention on her and not me made the whole process a lot simpler.

 

Thank you to all who shared their experiences on how to approach being an interpreter.

 

 

[Lu]

Of course, you spend all this time learning how to say this or that award and then they suddenly start talking about a hedgehog ? I can see how the museum part would be difficult, that is really a duet with the speaker, it's more than just language, it's also logistics. Glad to hear that overall it went well and that the advice you got was useful!