Interpreter Training, Workshops and Master Classes
Well, I made it! One more semester to go. As I write, the train wheels rumble underneath my seat. We are somewhere between Toronto and Montreal. When I made this journey in reverse three months ago, the leaves still adorned
Do you want to know the funny thing about notes? The better you get at taking them, the less of them you need. I noticed this one day in court, a few years into my career when I took a
I kind of feel like my fall should be entitled, Conference Interpreting: The Final Frontier. Because (that’s right, drum roll!) on September 10th I begin classes at Glendon College, York University, for the Master’s in Conference Interpreting (MCI) program. The
There are few things more off-putting than to hear an interpreter fill their delivery with um and uh, to second-guess themselves, and to interject side commentary. In real-life situations, this sort of delivery makes the listener tune out. On a test,
…or, How To Forget About Interpreting and Just Listen You know how the saying goes: The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. I’m sure you have heard it; we all have. But have you heard the saying
Ah yes. Sight translation. The interpreter tendency to ignore sight translation is kind of like that affliction suffered by us middle children. You know middle child syndrome, right? It’s like this…
Do you remember that time, growing up, when you heard someone speaking and you spontaneously replicated what they had just stated in another language? Wait, you can’t remember doing that? Good! Neither can I!
If you have ever taken a class on interpreting, you know the drill: We listen not for words, but ideas. We don’t write everything; we take notes on key words. And yet, even though we may have heard this from
When I first started learning to interpret, I constantly shadowed the radio in English.
Question: How can I be a great interpreter? Answer: Make sure you understand what you are interpreting.