Consecutive Interpreting

A Short Course

Andrew Gillies

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781317302612
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Consecutive Interpreting: A Short Course provides a step-by-step guide to consecutive interpreting. This user-friendly coursebook tackles key skills such as presentation, analysis, note-taking and reformulation, as well as advanced market-related skills such as preparation for assignments, protocol and practical tips for working interpreters. Each chapter provides examples of the skill, as well as a variety of exercises to learn the skill both in isolation and then in combination with other skills.

Including model answers, a glossary of terms and further reading suggestions, this is the essential coursebook for all students of consecutive interpreting as well as for interpreter-trainers looking for innovative ways of teaching consecutive interpreting.

Part I

1 Introduction

What is consecutive interpreting?

When is consecutive interpreting used?

Who can be a consecutive interpreter?

Why learn consecutive?

Should we learn consecutive before simultaneous?

How good is good enough?

About this book

How to use this book

2 Presentation

Posture

Delivery

Practice

Conclusion

3 Consecutive without notes

A word about memory

Chunking

What you already know

Narrative prompts

Visual prompts

Structural prompts

Logical prompts

Notes

Conclusion

Skills combining

4 Analysis

Structural breakdown

Mind maps

Sections

Mini-summaries

Section diagrams

Logical analysis

Recognizing and splitting ideas

Notes

Skills combining

5 Preparation and practice

Preparation

Exam preparation

Practice

6 Note-taking

Abbreviations

Ideas

Clauses

Verticality

Links

Symbols

Values (more and less important)

What language to note in

Skills combining

7 Noting less

Memory prompts

Things in front of you

Obvious in context

Obvious from the structure of the notes

8 Reformulation

What is reformulation?

Why reformulate?

How to reformulate

How does consecutive facilitate reformulation?

9 Effort management in consecutive

What is effort?

Preemptive effort management

Directionality

Notes as an effort management tool

[I]f we are to teach, we must teach something, and that something must be simple and methodical.

(Rozan 2003: 11 [1956: 9])

1 Introduction

What is consecutive interpreting?

Consecutive interpreting is one of the three modes^§ that make up what we call conference interpreting^§. It involves listening to what someone has to say and then, when they have finished, reproducing the same message in another language. The speech may be anything between a minute and 20 minutes in length and the interpreter will rely on a combination of notes, memory and general knowledge to recreate their version of the original. This form of consecutive is sometimes called “long consecutive” to distinguish it from “short consecutive”, which usually involves a speaker stopping after each sentence (or a couple of sentences) for the interpreter to translate. New, technology-assisted versions of consecutive are discussed in Chapter 13.

When is consecutive interpreting used?

Before World War II conference interpreting meant consecutive interpreting. Simultaneous interpreting^§, or the equipment to make it possible, had not yet been invented and consecutive interpreting was the standard for international meetings of every kind. Simultaneous interpreting came along after World War II, and by the 1970s had overtaken consecutive as the main form of conference interpretation.

Consecutive interpreting has not disappeared, however. It is still an essential part of an interpreter’s repertoire and is considered by many to be the superior of the two skills. Indeed, on the free market it is also better paid! Although simultaneous interpreting has replaced consecutive almost entirely at the meeting room table, where conference facilities often include the equipment required for simultaneous interpreting, there are many situations where consecutive survives and will continue to survive.

Ceremonial speeches

There are many occasions where a speaker makes a formal speech that needs then to be interpreted consecutively. After-dinner speeches at banquets or speeches to open receptions are a classic example: the host will want to say a few words to the guests and the guests will want to reply. You, the interpreter(s), are there to facilitate that. You may also find that you have been recruited to interpret for the opening of a cultural event held at a centre like the British Council or Goethe Institute. The organizer will introduce the event in, say, English or German and you will interpret into the language of the host country. There is no real limit on the type of ceremonial speech you will be asked to interpret. It could be the opening of a French supermarket in Poland, or the launch of a German ship in Korea. It could be a foreign winner of an award making an acceptance speech in their own language, or a composer’s 70th birthday at the Philharmonic.

Visits, guided tours and escort^§ interpreting

Groups of MPs, business people, technical experts and more besides will often make trips abroad as part of their jobs. Often these visits will involve seeing how things work in another country. This means getting out of the fully equipped conference centre and off into consecutive country. If your clients have come to see a certain industrial process, then you may be bussed off to a plant where it is used and expected to interpret consecutively the explanations offered by a knowledgeable guide of how it all works. Alternatively, if you are accompanying a group of agricultural experts, you can expect to find yourself down on the farm for a round or two of consecutive. There is no end to the type of place you may visit. Slaughterhouses, pharmaceutical production units, fish-filleting plants and furniture factories – you name it, and one of our colleagues has already been there and worked in consecutive mode.

Visiting groups also have social programmes arranged for them in the evenings or on the free afternoon at the end of the trip. So when you get back from the slaughterhouse you may well find yourself interpreting consecutively what a tourist guide has to say about the local sights and attractions; the owner of a local brewery as he introduces you to his products; or the host of the visit wishing everyone a pleasant meal and opening the buffet.

Working meetings without equipment

There are still normal working meetings where you will interpret what is said around the meeting room table in consecutive. Sometimes that will have been the plan all along; sometimes it might be because a meeting with simultaneous interpretation has unexpectedly split up into sub-groups that have to be interpreted for (but who can’t all use the equipment at the same time!). Sometimes it might be because the simultaneous equipment has broken down.

Other situations

There is actually no limit to the situations in which consecutive can be used. Wherever interpretation is required but bringing in equipment or using whispered interpreting are not possible, then consecutive can be used. An informal survey of around 60 conference interpreters at AIIC Training events in Europe and Asia in 2015 and 2016 revealed that, on top of the situations mentioned above, consecutive was also performed in the following settings:

• high-level bi-laterals
• negotiations
• depositions/court testimony
• press conferences
• interviews, TV or refugee with administration
• focus groups
• lecture, keynote speech
• company in-house training courses.

Consecutive might also be chosen for other reasons than the setting in which a meeting is to take place:

• some interpreters have suggested that consecutive is more accurate than simultaneous (Van Hoof 1962: 36; Weber 1989: 162), although that is disputed (Gile 2001b)
• consecutive allows the interpreter to interact with participants, for example to clarify what has been said; to manage the discourse turns; to gauge participants’ reactions as part of the discussion’s context; and to make corrections if necessary (Russell & Takeda 2015)
• consecutive might also be chosen for reasons which unfortunately have little...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Thanks
• PART I
• PART II
• Appendix 1. Versions of the tasks set
• Appendix 2. Memory techniques
• Appendix 3. The example speeches
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index