Translation Whitepaper - How to Prepare for Interpretation

Translation Whitepaper > How to Prepare for Interpretation

Whether you succeed or fail at an interpretation job is entirely based on the preparation you do beforehand. It's common for preparation for a one hour interpretation job to take anywhere from several hours to several days. Of course each job is different, and you have to adjust your preparation style accordingly, but the hints below should be useful in most situations.

Materials

First, get materials from the person that asked you to do the job. In an ideal world, you will be able to get complete materials in both Japanese and English, but in many cases the materials won't be ready on time, or will only be available in one language. But, if you make sure that your employer knows that it would be better to receive information early, even if it's not complete, in most cases they will be accomodating.

Also, because you never know when you'll be asked to do a similar job again, always save any materials that you receive.

• List of Participants: A list with the name, gender, affiliation, and position of all participants. Make sure to get this in both languages.
• More detailed information about participants: For the people you will be interpreting for, make sure to get other detailed information such as a short bio, where he/she is from, information about previous visits to the area, other places he/she is going to visit on this trip.
• Itinerary: A list of where the visitor will go when. Use this to look up proper names of the locations you will be visiting.
• Script: If you will be interepreting a speech or address, make sure to get the script beforehand. If there is no script, get notes or a powerpoint presentation if possible, and at least speak with the presenter for 2-5 minutes beforehand if nothing is available.
• Description of Facilities/Organizations: In the case of a facility, what is special about the facility and what kind of things they do there. For organizations, what they do and why they do it. For companies, their main products and areas of expertise.
• Menu for Meals: If you will be eating, make sure to get a copy of the menu beforehand, especially if the food will be something you or some of the participants might not be familiar with.

Research

In addition to the materials you receive from your employer or client, it is necessary to do research. This often must be exhaustive, and can be quite time-consuming.

Country Information

It is important to know about the home countries of the people you will be interpreting for. Information should include history, main cities, politics, the economy, and current events. It's also a good idea to print out a map and bring it with you in case the participants decide to talk about geography.

Also, it's a good idea to study proverbs, quotes from the Bible or Confucious, and other phrases that might be well-known in the speakers' cultures.

• English: CIA World Factbook
• Japanese: Ministry of Justice - Country/Regional Information

Facilities and Organizations

When you don't receive materials from your employer or when the materials you received are not enough, you will often need to search online for more information. In the case of a large Japanese organization or facility, there will almost always be pages in both languages. For organizations or facilities in other countries, it often helps to look for a similar place in Japan and then study the terminology used on that site.

Technical Terms

In nearly every interpretation job you will almost certainly end up translating technical terms. Of course, it's ideal to always work in your area of expertise, but in many cases we can't be so picky. Google is a good place to start, but it pays to be careful about English terms that only appear on Japanese web sites.

• Online Dictionaries
• NII Scholarly and Academic Information Navigator: A large database of academic papers. The abstracts are often written in both English and Japanese, which makes them a good source of academic terms.
• proz.com: A community of translaters. If you can't find a proper translation for a word there are a number of people that specialize in each area and are willing to help.

Word Lists/Memorization

Before an interpretation job, it is essential to figure out what sort of content you will be expected to interpret and make lists of words that are likely to come up. Of course, there are a number of ways to do this, but if you start with the steps below you should be able to come up with your own style as you gain experience.

1. First, read the materials that received, interpreting them aloud at the same time. If you are only going to be interpreting into one language, only use the materials of the source language. If you are going to do both languages, use materials from both languages.
2. An words, phrases, or proper nouns that you had trouble translating, write them on the left side of the page. Even easy words often have unique translations in certain fields, so write down all words no matter how easy they may be.
3. Pick a time to stop (ie. when you finish one page), and look up all of the words, writing their translations on the right side of the page.
4. When you've finished reading all the main information that you plan on reading, make flashcards with all of the words that you think you should memorize.
5. Write long organization names and other hard-to-memorize words on a sheet, and bring it with you to reference while you're interpreting.