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I am new to the forum, maybe this is an old topic. I wanted to ask if anybody can give me some tips on improving my memory. I am starting out in the consecutive translation field and find that after about the third sentence I can't remember exactly what's been said, and that's even before I think about translating it. I usually (in the few I've done) do it sentence by sentence but if the speeaker goes on for longer I get lost!. Any ideas?
[Subject edited by staff or moderator 2005-10-27 ... See more
I am new to the forum, maybe this is an old topic. I wanted to ask if anybody can give me some tips on improving my memory. I am starting out in the consecutive translation field and find that after about the third sentence I can't remember exactly what's been said, and that's even before I think about translating it. I usually (in the few I've done) do it sentence by sentence but if the speeaker goes on for longer I get lost!. Any ideas?
[Subject edited by staff or moderator 2005-10-27 13:21]
[Subject edited by staff or moderator 2005-10-27 13:23] ▲ Collapse
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Kurt Porter Local time: 03:35 Russian to English + ...
Consecutive Exercises
Oct 27, 2005
elaine59 wrote:
I am new to the forum, maybe this is an old topic. I wanted to ask if anybody can give me some tips on improving my memory. I am starting out in the consecutive translation field and find that after about the third sentence I can't remember exactly what's been said, and that's even before I think about translating it. I usually (in the few I've done) do it sentence by sentence but if the speeaker goes on for longer I get lost!. Any ideas?
[Subject edited by staff or moderator 2005-10-27 13:21]
[Subject edited by staff or moderator 2005-10-27 13:23]
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italia Germany Local time: 00:35 Italian to German + ...
What is your background?
Oct 27, 2005
Hi Elaine, and welcome to Proz! Maybe you could tell us a bit more about your background? Do you have a degree in interpretation??? Have you alread gained some experience??? Personally I hold that doing a lot of AD HOC interpretation(sight translation) exercises,i.e. when reading online some news and translating them immediately ,will help you a lot also when it comes to consecutive interpreting. Another idea is to create your own symbols you feel most comfortable with and whic... See more
Hi Elaine, and welcome to Proz! Maybe you could tell us a bit more about your background? Do you have a degree in interpretation??? Have you alread gained some experience??? Personally I hold that doing a lot of AD HOC interpretation(sight translation) exercises,i.e. when reading online some news and translating them immediately ,will help you a lot also when it comes to consecutive interpreting. Another idea is to create your own symbols you feel most comfortable with and which you can easily remember. Furthermore, try and use online speeches from the EU which are not only good for simultaneous but also for consecutive. Antother rather new forum where you can exchange with colleagues you can find at: http://www.linguanet.org/Interpretingindex.htm, launched by Marion Sadoux (hopefully I got her name right:))). If you click on: http://www.linguanet.org/interpretingexercises3.htm You will find a list of exercises
Given that your working language is Italian, have a look at the thread "il lavoro dell'interprete" in the Italian forum:)))
[Edited at 2005-10-27 13:34]
[Edited at 2005-10-27 13:35]
I am also curious about further tips from colleagues:)))
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Silvia Baldi (X) Italy Local time: 00:35 English to Italian + ...
A few tips
Oct 27, 2005
Ciao,
here are a few tips:
- start with "monolingual" consecutive translation. Listen to a speech in your native language, write down your notes, then try to do some reformulation exercises into your native language. This will increase your confidence in reading your notes quickly and broaden your vocabulary.
- take a moment to think about your note-taking technique. You can write a lot, or use only a few written elements - the important thing is that what ... See more
Ciao,
here are a few tips:
- start with "monolingual" consecutive translation. Listen to a speech in your native language, write down your notes, then try to do some reformulation exercises into your native language. This will increase your confidence in reading your notes quickly and broaden your vocabulary.
- take a moment to think about your note-taking technique. You can write a lot, or use only a few written elements - the important thing is that what you write is CLEAR to you. it's easy to get confused with similar words (like "project", "plan", "process") but you need to make your own way through them with your own system of symbols.
- sight translation is also very useful. try to use a tape recorder and listen to yourself afterwards, or ask a friend to help you.
- another useful technique to begin with consecutive interpreting is to start listening to one single sentence at a time. listen to it, take your notes, then STOP the tape recorder and try and translate the sentence. seems like a "slow" way to begin, but you gain confidence in what you're saying, you feel no pressure to take notes hastily, and you learn how to do it THINKING about what you're writing down.
scribbling a few words on the paper is useless if you have not understood the concept itself.
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Williamson United Kingdom Local time: 23:35 Flemish to English + ...
Concepts.
Oct 27, 2005
Think in concepts, not words. Note only data, names of towns, titles etc... and connecting words/consec.symbols. Recreate the concepts in your own words, but be careful not to give your own meaning in the target language. The content has to reflect what the speaker said.
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Luisa Ramos, CT United States Local time: 18:35 English to Spanish
Agree with Kurt
Oct 28, 2005
Having taken the Federal Court Interpreter examination after studying with the ACEBO materials, I have to agree with Kurt that they are magical, money well invested.
As for note taking, very few, I find it distracting and interfering with listening and memorizing.
The other important advice is: practice, practice, practice. You cannot expect to plunge into this endeavor without having practiced a lot and having the feeling you master the technique.
Having taken the Federal Court Interpreter examination after studying with the ACEBO materials, I have to agree with Kurt that they are magical, money well invested.
As for note taking, very few, I find it distracting and interfering with listening and memorizing.
The other important advice is: practice, practice, practice. You cannot expect to plunge into this endeavor without having practiced a lot and having the feeling you master the technique.
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Nora Diaz Mexico Local time: 15:35 Member (2002) English to Spanish + ...
Use technology!
Oct 28, 2005
A digital audio recorder with immediate playback is a great asset. This works for me because I feel much more comfortable doing simultaneous than consecutive interpreting. However, there are situations in which I'm forced to do consecutive translation, and for those times, this works fairly well.
You basically record the segment spoken by the speaker, and if it's too long to remember everything, as soon as he stops, you put the recorder to your ear (should be small and inco... See more
A digital audio recorder with immediate playback is a great asset. This works for me because I feel much more comfortable doing simultaneous than consecutive interpreting. However, there are situations in which I'm forced to do consecutive translation, and for those times, this works fairly well.
You basically record the segment spoken by the speaker, and if it's too long to remember everything, as soon as he stops, you put the recorder to your ear (should be small and inconspicuous), replay and translate simultaneously from that. Alternatively, I've thought of the possibility of actually recording the translation in real time, then replaying the translation for everyone to hear, but I have yet to try that.
The advantage of a digital recorder is that there's no tape to rewind and you can play only the segments you really need, i.e., some segments will be short enough to translate directly.
Of course you need to practice using it ahead of time, you don't want to be fumbling it with it in front of 500 people!
A couple of things that have also worked well for me:
1. Talk to the speaker ahead of time. Most of them will offer to stop after a couple of sentences, though many of them forget once they have the microphone in their hands. Give them a brief explanation of the mechanics of the process and tell them where you'll be standing (try to stand within their field of vision so you can signal to them if they go on for too long).
2. If at all possible, ask if there will be any names or figures that will be mentioned during the speech. I find these to be the most troublesome when trying to get the facts right.
3. As the speaker talks, rather than taking notes, I like to mentally interpret what's being said into the target language.
4. As Stephen Covey would say "Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood". Try to understand the meaning of what's being said, that will make it easier to translate later. Remember, you're not translating words, but ideas.
I am new to the forum, maybe this is an old topic. I wanted to ask if anybody can give me some tips on improving my memory. I am starting out in the consecutive translation field and find that after about the third sentence I can't remember exactly what's been said, and that's even before I think about translating it. I usually (in the few I've done) do it sentence by sentence but if the speeaker goes on for longer I get lost!. Any ideas?
[Subject edited by staff or moderator 2005-10-27 13:21]
[Subject edited by staff or moderator 2005-10-27 13:23]
Hi Elaine, and welcome to Proz! Maybe you could tell us a bit more about your background? Do you have a degree in interpretation??? Have you alread gained some experience??? Personally I hold that doing a lot of AD HOC interpretation(sight translation) exercises,i.e. when reading online some news and translating them immediately ,will help you a lot also when it comes to consecutive interpreting. Another idea is to create your own symbols you feel most comfortable with and which you can easily remember. Furthermore, try and use online speeches from the EU which are not only good for simultaneous but also for consecutive. Antother rather new forum where you can exchange with colleagues you can find at: http://www.linguanet.org/Interpretingindex.htm, launched by Marion Sadoux (hopefully I got her name right:))). If you click on: http://www.linguanet.org/interpretingexercises3.htm You will find a list of exercises
Given that your working language is Italian, have a look at the thread "il lavoro dell'interprete" in the Italian forum:)))
[Edited at 2005-10-27 13:34]
[Edited at 2005-10-27 13:35]
I am also curious about further tips from colleagues:)))
HTH
Thank you so much for the reply, this is really useful info. I do not have a degree but I do have a little experience doing sight translations where I know the subject matter well in both languages. Thank you again. Elaine
[Edited at 2005-10-27 14:08]
[Edited at 2005-11-09 10:37]
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Ciao and thanks so much, these are great tips. I'll get cracking to practice and I'll let you know.
Grazie mille
Elaine
Silvia Baldi wrote:
Ciao,
here are a few tips:
- start with "monolingual" consecutive translation. Listen to a speech in your native language, write down your notes, then try to do some reformulation exercises into your native language. This will increase your confidence in reading your notes quickly and broaden your vocabulary.
- take a moment to think about your note-taking technique. You can write a lot, or use only a few written elements - the important thing is that what you write is CLEAR to you. it's easy to get confused with similar words (like "project", "plan", "process") but you need to make your own way through them with your own system of symbols.
- sight translation is also very useful. try to use a tape recorder and listen to yourself afterwards, or ask a friend to help you.
- another useful technique to begin with consecutive interpreting is to start listening to one single sentence at a time. listen to it, take your notes, then STOP the tape recorder and try and translate the sentence. seems like a "slow" way to begin, but you gain confidence in what you're saying, you feel no pressure to take notes hastily, and you learn how to do it THINKING about what you're writing down.
scribbling a few words on the paper is useless if you have not understood the concept itself.
let me know how it goes and good luck!
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Think in concepts, not words. Note only data, names of towns, titles etc... and connecting words/consec.symbols. Recreate the concepts in your own words, but be careful not to give your own meaning in the target language. The content has to reflect what the speaker said.
Just to thank you for this tip. A few people have replied each with a slightly different view. All of which are really useful. Thanks again Elaine
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These are fantastic tips. Thank you so much Elaine
Nora Diaz wrote:
A digital audio recorder with immediate playback is a great asset. This works for me because I feel much more comfortable doing simultaneous than consecutive interpreting. However, there are situations in which I'm forced to do consecutive translation, and for those times, this works fairly well.
You basically record the segment spoken by the speaker, and if it's too long to remember everything, as soon as he stops, you put the recorder to your ear (should be small and inconspicuous), replay and translate simultaneously from that. Alternatively, I've thought of the possibility of actually recording the translation in real time, then replaying the translation for everyone to hear, but I have yet to try that.
The advantage of a digital recorder is that there's no tape to rewind and you can play only the segments you really need, i.e., some segments will be short enough to translate directly.
Of course you need to practice using it ahead of time, you don't want to be fumbling it with it in front of 500 people!
A couple of things that have also worked well for me:
1. Talk to the speaker ahead of time. Most of them will offer to stop after a couple of sentences, though many of them forget once they have the microphone in their hands. Give them a brief explanation of the mechanics of the process and tell them where you'll be standing (try to stand within their field of vision so you can signal to them if they go on for too long).
2. If at all possible, ask if there will be any names or figures that will be mentioned during the speech. I find these to be the most troublesome when trying to get the facts right.
3. As the speaker talks, rather than taking notes, I like to mentally interpret what's being said into the target language.
4. As Stephen Covey would say "Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood". Try to understand the meaning of what's being said, that will make it easier to translate later. Remember, you're not translating words, but ideas.
That's all I can think about for now.
Happy interpreting!
Nora
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Zhijun JIANG Local time: 06:35 English to Chinese + ...
The logic connection helps memorize the meaning
Dec 17, 2005
When I do the interpretation, both consecutive interpretation and simultaneous interpretation, I just hear the source language input, and then put it in another language. Don't be limited to the source language sentence structure. The most important thing is the meaning instead of the sentence itself.
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Boryana Desheva Local time: 01:35 English to Bulgarian + ...
Note taking
Aug 6, 2006
Hi I am new to the forum so please bear with me if I have missed out on information which has already been posted or discussed.
My question has more to do with note-taking for consecutive interpretation. I generally find that my memory is quite good when it comes down to memorising chunks of text of cca 1-1.5 minutes but I have recently started taking lessons specifically to improve my note-taking and text rendering skills with 5-6 long chunks of text and find that my attention s... See more
Hi I am new to the forum so please bear with me if I have missed out on information which has already been posted or discussed.
My question has more to do with note-taking for consecutive interpretation. I generally find that my memory is quite good when it comes down to memorising chunks of text of cca 1-1.5 minutes but I have recently started taking lessons specifically to improve my note-taking and text rendering skills with 5-6 long chunks of text and find that my attention span falls dramatically after the 2 min in the sense that I continue to listen for the factual information but miss out on the logical links, which causes me difficulty in rendering the text correctly afterwards.
Anyone experienced this or any tips I could use would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks to all in advance.
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