Tell Your Story

I have submitted a story to the From Our Lips to Your Ears project.

If it doesn’t get published, I’ll post it here.

If you are an interpreter, you can tell your story. See all the details below (as provided by From Our Lips, the deadline is now February 2008):

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***CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS***

July 18, 2007

Dear Interpreter,

What an important job you do each day, and what fascinating tales you must have to tell about the people you’ve encountered, the conversations you’ve interpreted, and most importantly, the lives you’ve touched.

Now, you have the perfect opportunity to share these stories in an enduring publication, so that others may read them for years to come. The only question is this: which of the many stories you’ve saved up over the years will you decide to share with the world?

The FAQ and Guidelines at the official website, www.fromourlips.com, will help you choose, and will also show you how to ensure the best chance of publication in an exciting new book that is all about you and your important work:

From Our Lips to Your Ears: How Interpreters are Changing the World

The project website will provide you with all of the information you need. Here are some of the basics:

· Interpreters working in all settings are encouraged to submit stories.

· Stories should aim to provide readers with a greater understanding of the importance of interpreters’ work

· Submissions are accepted online, via email and via postal mail, starting on July 18, 2007.

· The final deadline for submissions is December 3, 2007.

If you have questions after reviewing the information on the website, feel free to contact me, and I will be happy to attend to your concerns. As additional questions from potential contributors are received, the FAQ, Guidelines and related materials will also be updated accordingly.

It is both an honor and a pleasure to be working on this exciting project, in the hopes that it will help bring greater recognition to interpreters everywhere.

Respectfully,

Nataly Kelly, Editor

From Our Lips to Your Ears

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***PRESS RELEASE***

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Language Interpreters to be Featured in New Book

July 18, 2007 — Nashua, N.H. — The publication of a new book that will showcase interpreters and their contributions to society was announced today. From Our Lips to Your Ears: How Interpreters are Changing the World marks the first published compendium of stories about this unique and complex profession from the perspective of interpreters themselves.

“Millions of people throughout the world communicate each day without sharing a common language,” explained Nataly Kelly, editor of the publication, “This book shines a light on the unsung heroes that enable much of this communication to take place.”

The book will include personal anecdotes from interpreters working in an array of settings, Kelly said. “Interpreters are out there each day, helping deliver babies, interpreting witness testimony, rendering the words of foreign diplomats, and assisting consumers who wish to purchase goods and services.”

The stories in the collection will cover a range of topics of interest to the general public, Kelly pointed out. “This book shows how interpreters are helping meet a basic human need— the need to communicate with others.”

More information about the book is available at http://www.fromourlips.com.

The web site also provides detailed information for interpreters who would like to share their stories for possible publication in the book.

Contact:

Nataly Kelly, 603/891-1101
Fax: 877/572-0779
Email: editor@fromourlips.com
http://www.fromourlips.com

Too Busy Today…

Too busy preparing the documents for tomorrow’s conference.

Clients who complain that conference interpreters charge high fees do not realize that we do have to spend some time before:

• reading their presentation papers (when they do provide them);
• preparing a glossary of words, acronyms, etc.;
• surfing the internet for articles and glossaries on their subject;
• and more generally spending as much time, if not more (especially for a one-day assignment) as we will spend interpreting.

And I’m not even mentioning:

• experience,
• years spent studying, then expanding our knowledge in various fields, etc.

Paid vs. Unpaid Translation-Take 2

After this first experience, I retreated from formal voluntary work for a long time. I don’t have the guts to work for Amnesty International, for example, and I feel a little guilty in that department.

Having thus lost myself in translation for many years, there came a point in my life when I wanted to make myself ‘useful’ again, and I started voluntary translation (written).

But, how do you reconcile a busy schedule with voluntary work?

Voluntary organizations, especially the smaller offices, need a commitment that makes your work meaningful. I assigned one day per week to one particular organization. One day can mean a lot of money for a translator, so it wasn’t a fixed day, I was able to move it in the week as I needed in order to cover an urgent deadline, or I couldn’t work around a paid project. And with modern technology, I was still able to receive notifications of projects offered by my clients on my mobile, so I wasn’t losing anything.

From my observations, I can list at least 3 good reasons for doing this kind of voluntary work during your working life, and I can tell that this was truly a win-win venture. It has broadened my expertise into the field of community development, where I can now work with confidence and get paid, it has broadened my social network, as I made a few friends through my voluntary work, and my personal perception is that you can assert yourself more as a professional than when you are just a student or a beginner. I phased out after the one-point-five-million-word mark, it was probably more because I didn’t start counting from Day 1. I wasn’t bored, but I needed more personal time for other pursuits.

I also do occasional unpaid work for friends, but also for young people (not homework, though!). There is a young lady out there in a US university, whose transcripts I translated so that she could get accepted. I was so proud for her when she did (she got in because of her brilliant ratings, not because of my translation)!

Paid vs. Unpaid Translation-Take 1

When young translators look for jobs to improve their practice, the first thing that comes to mind is ‘voluntary work’. A good idea, as it provides real-life practice, something that one is keen to get after a couple of years of learning how to translate.

When I started out as a translator, about 30 years ago, one of my first assignments was voluntary interpreting at a conference of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament held in Bradford, England. We were a small group from the same Paris university. Bradford seemed cold and grim, even in July, but the first evening, we ventured outside in search of a restaurant, only to find what seemed to us a crowd of Pakistani young men hanging out in the streets, just standing, not moving, looking very sad and idle and lonely… so -those were the days- we hurried back into the conference, into the comradeship of (unpaid) workers for a Good Cause. Our working conditions were very amateurish, probably violating every single rule ever devised by our international association, but this was offset by the warm, genial atmosphere.

Nicolas Sarkozy’s Speech to the United States Congress, interpreted

Please note that my blog has been transfered to my own domain. If you wish to visit again in the future, I recommend that you go here, where it will be updated. Thank you again for visiting!

You will not see this kind of post very often on my blog, but I selected it because it is very representative of our work, irrespective of one’s opinion on the political content of the speech.

Just listen for a couple of minutes, for the flavor of it. And it’s only Part 2 of the speech, it’s in 4 parts on YouTube, if you want to listen to the whole speech.

The One-Million-Dollar/Euro Question

‘Tell me: Your Facebook and LinkedIn profiles say that you are a Translator & Conference Interpreter. Is there a difference?’

The answer is ‘Yes, there is’.

Let’s put it simply: these two job descriptions have about one thing in common (apart from adrenalin production). They deal with languages. Translation is the process whereby a statement in one language is converted into a statement having -hopefully and ideally- the same meaning in another language. That may sound boring as a definition, but some brilliant colleagues are authoring real PhD’s on the subject.

Human beings have more than one way of communicating. The two that are involved in ‘translation’ are the written word and the spoken word. Written words are translated, spoken words are interpreted. It’s as simple (apparently) as that. We navigate between two languages, but for each job, we use different mental patterns, different techniques, and we are submitted to different time constraints.

Imagine a translator with a 30,000-word manual needed next week. She may be typing away at her keyboard, feeding the text to a machine translation system, dictating it, whatever. If she is tired or bored, she can get up and get herself a cup of coffee.

Now imagine an interpreter faced with a PowerPoint presentation on the private life of some newly-found microcellular organism, delivered at Eurostar speed, in front of a 500-strong audience. See the difference? I don’t mean that the translator is working at a leisurely pace. She has a deadline to meet, so she can’t afford to waste any time, but the type of pressure is different.

Now, the one-million-dollar question: can you really be both?

My answer is Yes. It is a great pleasure for me to be able to develop these very different skills. I love trying to catch up with the Eurostar, and I love working from the comfort of my home office.

The glass panel syndrome

If you have seen photos of major international meeting places, such as the United Nations or the European Union, you must have noticed people sitting behind glass panels somewhere at the back of the room or on one side. It’s the interpreters, doing simultaneous interpreting.

Those of us (including me) who work for less glamorous meetings don’t have the luxury of generously-lit spacious fixed booths, part of the time we have to satisfy ourselves with smaller, darker quarters, mobile booths set up in a corner of a room. There is an ISO standard for interpretation booths, of course, but although the suppliers are doing their best, sometimes, well… yes, it’s not possible, so it’s a bit cramped.

The booths, as we call them, are our working quarters. In some conference halls, they are so well-hidden or high-up in the auditorium that it takes some effort on the part of the speakers to reach us, to bring a copy of their presentation or simply to come and say ‘hello’ and maybe reassure themselves that we are real people. We appreciate it when they do that, because we too need reassurance that we exist.

The soundproof glass panels are essential to simultaneous interpretation, but they can be very human-proof, too. Delegates don’t always notice us. Those who listen to us all the time are aware that we exist, but since they don’t necessarily see us, they don’t have an opportunity to acknowledge us.

Which reminds me of this anecdote. Last year, I worked for several days for a group in a semi-mobile booth. People would walk past our glass panel many times each day, but there was little interaction. After 3 days, there was a field visit, and we did consecutive interpreting. So there was, after all, a real person behind the glass panel! The day after, the delegates were all greeting me, chatting to me, in the most cheerful manner.

Doesn’t that say something about the power of human interaction?

English vs. French

A good friend of mine was asking me the other day:

Friend: ‘You’re French, why would you want to communicate on the ‘net in English?’

Me: ‘Well, most of my clients are in the English-speaking world nowadays’

Friend: ‘…’

Me: ‘Most of my income comes from foreign companies or entities’

Friend: ‘…’

Me: ‘I have to talk to my real clients, what else can I do? Anyway, I mostly translate into French, so English-speaking people are the ones who need me most, if they want to communicate to their French clients!’

Friend: ‘Well, I suppose so…’