The Complete Interpreter

Hi! Welcome to the Complete Interpreter podcast by the Interpreting Coach.

Why 'Complete Interpreter'? Because you're not just a translation machine, you're also a person and a business owner, and I hope to help you take a 360 view of yourself and share some great tried-and-tested strategies to improve your interpreting skills, mindset, use of target language, and marketing.

With Easter just around the corner, this is a lighthearted episode investigating whether chocolate can improve your mood and cognitive function.

[You may notice that I use the terms 'flavanols' and 'flavonoids' interchangeably in this episode. That's because flavanols and flavonols and subclasses of flavonoids.]

Let me know what you'd like me to talk about next!
 
Sophie (aka The Interpreting Coach)

Support the show

My website and blog: https://theinterpretingcoach.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/interpretingcoach/
Twitter: @terpcoach
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-interpreting-coach/

Or email me at [email protected]

Hi! Welcome to the Complete Interpreter podcast by the Interpreting Coach.

Why 'Complete Interpreter'? Because you're not just a translation machine, you're also a person and a business owner, and I hope to help you take a 360 view of yourself and share some great tried-and-tested strategies to improve your interpreting skills, mindset, use of target language, and marketing.

This episode is devoted to a discussion of exercises that can be useful in the 'early simultaneous stage' - particularly for improving split attention.

A bit shoutout to Andy Gillies and his book Conference Interpreting: a Student's Practice Book, as well as the fantastically useful interpretertrainingresources.eu

You can find Robin Setton's article here, and Karla Déjean Le Féal's article here. I also mentioned Cyril Joyce's early sim exercise in this episode, and Roderick Jones's methodical approach to using consecutive as a basis for early simultaneous.

And of course I suggested the ORCIT website, which contains useful material not only about simultaneous, but consecutive without notes, note-taking, and public speaking as well.

Let me know what you'd like me to talk about next!
 
Sophie (aka The Interpreting Coach)

Support the show

My website and blog: https://theinterpretingcoach.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/interpretingcoach/
Twitter: @terpcoach
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-interpreting-coach/

Or email me at [email protected]

Hi! Welcome to the Complete Interpreter podcast by the Interpreting Coach.

Why 'Complete Interpreter'? Because you're not just a translation machine, you're also a person and a business owner, and I hope to help you take a 360 view of yourself and share some great tried-and-tested strategies to improve your interpreting skills, mindset, use of language, and marketing.

In this episode, I talk about why you should get used to exam stress 😉, or rather, how the habituation effect can attenuate your response to stress - and also, why habituation is sometimes a bad thing!

Let me know what you'd like me to talk about next!
 
Sophie (aka The Interpreting Coach)

Support the show

My website and blog: https://theinterpretingcoach.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/interpretingcoach/
Twitter: @terpcoach
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-interpreting-coach/

Or email me at [email protected]

Hi! Welcome to the Complete Interpreter podcast by the Interpreting Coach.

Why 'Complete Interpreter'? Because you're not just a translation machine, you're also a person and a business owner, and I hope to help you take a 360 view of yourself and share some great tried-and-tested strategies to improve your interpreting skills, mindset, use of language, and marketing.

In this episode, I talk about collocations: identifying them, exploring them, and practising using them. Collocations can make you sound more natural in the target language, and if you get them wrong, can mark you out as a non-native speaker.

I think collocations are best practised in context (so rather than trying to memorise a list, for example, try preparing a speech on a specific topic and thinking about what collocations you could use).

I tried out several tools for you:

• Visual Thesaurus of English collocations
• JustTheWord
• Collocaid
• fraze.it
• eapfoundation.com
• forbetterenglish.com
• skell.sketchengine.eu

But honestly, the two most useful tools, in my opinion, are a good old collocations dictionary, and ChatGPT.

Let me know what you'd like me to talk about next!
 
Sophie (aka The Interpreting Coach)

Support the show

My website and blog: https://theinterpretingcoach.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/interpretingcoach/
Twitter: @terpcoach
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-interpreting-coach/

Or email me at [email protected]

Hi! Welcome to the Complete Interpreter podcast by the Interpreting Coach.

Why 'Complete Interpreter'? Because you're not just a translation machine, you're also a person and a business owner, and I hope to help you take a 360 view of yourself and share some great tried-and-tested strategies to improve your interpreting skills, mindset, and marketing.

In this episode, I talk about deliberate practice: what it is and how to do it!

Here's the link to the paper by Elisabet Tiselius, titled 'Deliberate Practice: the Unicorn of Interpreting Studies'.

Andy Gillies's book, containing all manner of exercises to work on every aspect of your interpreting, is Conference Interpreting: a Student's Practice Book.

And Ericsson's paper:
K.A. Ericsson, R.Th. Krampe, C. Tesch-Römer

The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance

Psychological Review, 100 (1993), pp. 363-406, 10.1037/0033-295X.100.3.363

Let me know what you'd like me to talk about next!
 
Sophie (aka The Interpreting Coach)

Support the show

My website and blog: https://theinterpretingcoach.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/interpretingcoach/
Twitter: @terpcoach
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-interpreting-coach/

Or email me at [email protected]

Hi! Welcome to the Complete Interpreter podcast by the Interpreting Coach.

Why 'Complete Interpreter'? Because you're not just a translation machine, you're also a person and a business owner, and I hope to help you take a 360 view of yourself and share some great tried-and-tested strategies to improve your interpreting skills, mindset, use of target language, and marketing.

In this episode, I talk about speakers with strong accents.
This is a subject I love, and so I may have become a bit carried away and shared lots of anecdotes (or....what some people may consider waffle) at the beginning of the episode. 😊

Here are some suggestions for dealing with speakers with strong accents in simultaneous:

1. don't try to 'translate' - in seeking a balance between sentence-level, 'micro' interpreting and 'macro' interpreting ('the big picture'), err towards the big picture.
2. interpret defensively, i.e. don't commit too early. Give yourself time to understand whole ideas - this may involve having a longer décalage.
3. Keep your output simple. You might want to summarise more than usual.
4. Use salami technique to give yourself more space for listening.
5. Say what you HAVE understood and/or know to be true.
6. Listen out for big ideas in the speech, e.g. is a proposal good or bad? Is the budget increasing or decreasing? Is an amount more or less than last year?
7. Pay attention to anything that conveys the speaker's OPINION, including linking words, intonation, and facial expressions or body language.
8. Make sure you use your background knowledge to fill in the gaps in what you can hear/understand.
9. If necessary, use what the audience knows to interpret in a way that is less explicit, but that the audience will still understand.
10. Even when you're not interpreting, listen to the rest of the meeting to make sure you're up to speed.

Prepare the assignment very thoroughly, and if you have the speakers' names, search for them on Youtube to see if you can find videos to practise from.

These three things will help you improve your comprehension of strong accents:

1. exposure. Get some practice! (If you're looking for interpreting practice with a variety of English accents, why not check out my collection of modules (E4T) focusing on specific topics, and designed to help interpreters improve their English C? Topics include vaccination, fake news, the circular economy, the gig economy, taxation, and supply chains. Just scroll down my home page to find the links to each module.).
2. enlarging your vocabulary.
3. making sure your working memory is in good shape.

I mentioned the following podcast episodes:

• Tips for keeping your memory in top shape
• Short decalage vs salami technique in retour
• Being concise in simultaneous

Here is Tony Rosado's blog post about heavy accents.

Let me know what you'd like me to talk about next!
 
Sophie (aka The Interpretin

Support the show

My website and blog: https://theinterpretingcoach.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/interpretingcoach/
Twitter: @terpcoach
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-interpreting-coach/

Or email me at [email protected]

Hi! Welcome to the Complete Interpreter podcast by the Interpreting Coach.

Why 'Complete Interpreter'? Because you're not just a translation machine, you're also a person and a business owner, and I hope to help you take a 360 view of yourself and share some great tried-and-tested strategies to improve your interpreting skills, mindset, and marketing.

In this episode, I talk about how you can tweak your diet to keep your energy levels high and avoid the dreaded post-lunch slump! I also discuss the importance of avoiding blood sugar spikes and troughs.

Let me know what you'd like me to talk about next!
 
Sophie (aka The Interpreting Coach)

Support the show

My website and blog: https://theinterpretingcoach.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/interpretingcoach/
Twitter: @terpcoach
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-interpreting-coach/

Or email me at [email protected]

Hi! Welcome to the Complete Interpreter podcast by the Interpreting Coach.

Why 'Complete Interpreter'? Because you're not just an interpreting or translation machine, you're also a person and a business owner, and I hope to help you take a 360 view of yourself and share some great tried-and-tested strategies to improve your interpreting skills, mindset, use of language, and marketing.

This episode is for those of you who have just begun simultaneous. There are a few habits or approaches that I think it's best NOT to fall into.  See if you agree!

1. too short a décalage
2. trying to say EVERYTHING
3. sticking exactly to the sentence structure and word order of the original
4. 'translating'
5. not having a pure client

Let me know what you'd like me to talk about next!

Sophie (aka The Interpreting Coach)

Support the show

My website and blog: https://theinterpretingcoach.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/interpretingcoach/
Twitter: @terpcoach
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-interpreting-coach/

Or email me at [email protected]

Hi! Welcome to the Complete Interpreter podcast by the Interpreting Coach.

Why 'Complete Interpreter'? Because you're not just a translation machine, you're also a person and a business owner, and I hope to help you take a 360 view of yourself and share some great tried-and-tested strategies to improve your interpreting skills, mindset, and marketing.

Have you ever been in a stressful situation and felt completely frozen, or panicky? Panic is not a helpful reaction when you're in the booth and you need to be thinking clearly so as to analyse the speaker's message and convey it confidently.

In this episode, I talk about how to find a way out of your body's 'threat response' (= fight or flight) when faced with a real or perceived threat.

Let me know what you'd like me to talk about next!
 
Sophie (aka The Interpreting Coach)

Support the show

My website and blog: https://theinterpretingcoach.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/interpretingcoach/
Twitter: @terpcoach
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-interpreting-coach/

Or email me at [email protected]

Hi! Welcome to the Complete Interpreter podcast by the Interpreting Coach.

Why 'Complete Interpreter'? Because you're not just a translation machine, you're also a person and a business owner, and I hope to help you take a 360 view of yourself and share some great tried-and-tested strategies to improve your interpreting skills, mindset, use of language, and marketing.

In this episode, I talk about how you can let the audience know a new speaker has begun talking (in simultaneous). Here are some ideas:

• say 'Question' and 'Answer' if it's an interview in that format
• Use the speakers' name or 'function' (e.g. 'the German delegation:')
• use appropriate intonation
• use question tags
• use 'turn-initial discourse markers' such as 'well', 'now', 'right'
• mark the transition between two speakers more explicitly, with phrases like 'in answer to your question', or 'let me address that point'.
• change the pitch of your voice, i.e. have a lower voice for one speaker and a higher pitch for the second.

Let me know what you'd like me to talk about next!
 
Sophie (aka The Interpreting Coach)

Support the show

My website and blog: https://theinterpretingcoach.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/interpretingcoach/
Twitter: @terpcoach
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-interpreting-coach/

Or email me at [email protected]