translate from spanish to english: 100 Days of Interpreting

To contact us Click HERE

Inspired by Dagy's performance at theaccrediting test for freelance European Union interpreters, Judy decided toinvest some time preparing for the oral portion of the Federal Court Interpreters Certification Examination, which will be held in July (she passed the written portion this summer). Now, we are twins, but there's no doubt that Dagy is more disciplinedwhen it comes to interpreting practice than Judy. Dagy practiced essentiallyevery day for a year and a half, including at a rented apartment in Santiago,Chile, in the car on the way to California, on the plane from Argentina toChile, by the pool in Vegas, in our Vienna office, late at night, in betweenappointments, early in the morning, at a coffee shop, and on a bus goingcross-country in Chile (yes, people stared), on European trains, etc.
Her well-taken point is that youjust need to practice every day, even if it's not convenient and you can't fitit into your day very well. Just do a few minutes and get into the habit of making it part of your day, just like going to the gym or brushing your teeth.Thus, Judy decided that she was going to follow suit and practice eithersimultaneous or consecutive interpreting, using a variety of materials andresources, for 100 days (7 days a week). She records all her work using theonline tool Audacity and listens back to them immediately after recording them.
Here's a brief report about the first 10 days:
Day 1: Sunday,December 2Witness expert interviews, James Ray/Arizona sweat lodge trial plus Alex King murder interview/trial reports. All videos from YouTube. Total time: approx. 30 minutes. Self-assessment: much better than I thought.
Day 2: Monday,December 311 segments of Casey Anthony trial. Opening statements, prosecution. All videos from YouTube. Total time: approx. 1 hour. Self-assessment: very strong, but granted, the prosecutor speaks quite slowly.
Day 3: Tuesday,December 43-hour paid interpreting assignment: civil deposition (employment law). Self-assessment: I was in the zone today, even though the topic was tricky.
Day 4: Wednesday,December 5Opening statements, Michael Jackson trial (Conrad Murray): Prosecution, 3 segments. All videos from YouTube. Total time: approx. 45 minutes. Self-assessment: there was more medical info that I was prepared for, so I did not get some of that right, but in general, I kept up and my voice did not sound hurried.
Day 5: Thursday, December 6Samplerecordings, Lecture 1, Southern California School of Interpreting, Preparationfor the Oral Component of the Federal Exam PLUS Opening statements, Conrad Murraytrial, prosecution, parts 5, 6 and 7 (YouTube). Total time: approx. 1 hour.Self-assessment: decent.        Day 6: Friday, December 73.5-hour paid interpreting assignment, 2 depositions: car accident in California. Inaddition: oneTED talk (traffic jams). Total time: 3 hours, 45 minutes. Self-assessment:pretty happy with my performance.7.        Day 7: Saturday,December 8 TED talks – arts festival. Total time: approx. 10 minutes.Self-assessment: poor performance.

8. Day 8: Sunday,December 9 You Tube – Mock Trial –Joon’s OpeningStatement (Defense), YouTube. Very difficult to hear. Total time: approx. 7minutes. Self-assessment: was difficult to hear; I did very poorly.

9 Day 9: Monday, December 10   Jeff Smith, business lessons from prison – TEDtalks.    Total time: 5minutes. Self-assessment: average at best, but happy that I was able tointerpret at all, as I am sick with a lymph node infection.

Day 10: Tuesday,December 11   TEDtalk (Love Letters to Strangers). Total time: 5 minutes. Self-assessment: Igot lost, but I am still quite sick, so I am proud of myself for tackling this.

Stay tuned for the next 90 days! We'd love to hear from you, dear colleagues: how do you improve your skills and/or prepare for interpreting exams?

Enjoyed reading? Share this