Welcome to the Blog of a Freelance Interpreter and Translator
by Tatiana Kaplun
It is truly amazing how much you can learn in one week. The week I spent as a student observer at the Cambridge Conference Interpreting Course has been one of the most intensive weeks of learning I've ever done. It felt as if my brain was constantly at work, because it seemed interpreting was all… Continue reading CCIC Impressions
'Weeping Willow' by Claude Monet. A few days ago a friend and colleague of mine (you can take a look at her blog and thoughts on the matter here) suggested that I read an article on different interpreting styles by Cyril Flerov for The Linguist. In the article, the author draws a clear line between… Continue reading What Kind of an Interpreter are You?
As interpreters, we complain quite a lot. To be fair though, most of the complaints we have are not totally unfounded. That is why I would like to share with you today this brilliant post by Ewandro Magalhães: http://ewandro.com/public-speaking-secret-3/ It would be only fair to say that interpreters have a unique position to judge whether a speeach is… Continue reading Some useful tips from the booth
I guess there is nothing left to add to this post except that practice takes a lot of time, it’s almost never easy, but is always rewarding. Maybe not right away, but most likely sooner than later. And I would also like to express my gratitude for such a thoughtful and comprehensive list of links and sources of practice material.
Readers of the Diaries will have noticed that I have not been very active on this blog lately. Yes, well, busy busy and all that… Still, I’m pleased to say that I have not given up writing altogether!
Just this week I produced my first piece for AIB’s new blog, Simultaneous Interpretation. It’s all about where you can go to find useful speech resources for practicing interpreting. If you’re interested in finding out more, go and check it out!
Practice makes perfect – but where do I find the speeches?
Image courtesy of winnond at freedigitalphotos.net
It is true that learning new things, and in our case, new languages, is always a challenge. So is translation. So is interpreting. So is life in general. But I have always found that it is this challenging part that is the most exiting. At least for me.
For it gives us adrenaline, it brings us speed and energy, makes life and work more interesting, and drives us to better ourselves.
I have also found that it takes time to turn quantity into quality, as they say in Russian, “количество в качество“. And it is important not to give up along the way. You should always remember that despite the ups and downs you are working towards your goal, and that should be worth the pain, the effort, and the challenge.
Thank you for the post.
I just wanted to share this fantastic article on language learning with you. Sometimes being in an environment where our foreign language is spoken can indeed feel like we have had some sort of “brain injury” which prevents us from understanding! How much more so when you are interpreting! And I thought that the purpose of this blog is also, as Coates says, to get better at a very difficult thing slowly, in my case interpreting.
Being a speaker of foreign languages enables us to step through the door into another world, that of a different culture and people, where everything is new and we are constantly learning. But it can also bring with it a feeling of ineptitude and inability until we become masters at the next stage in the learning process. Hopefully our angst and feelings of childishness in a foreign environment can be more than made up…
View original post 11 more words
It is a simple truth that if you want to learn a language you should try to spend at least some time in the country where this language is spoken. And if you already know the language, being a tourist in that country may be full of wonderfully exiting discoveries, especially if you take the time… Continue reading Lost in Translation of Tourist Signs
Welcome to the Blog of a Freelance Interpreter and Translator 