Shadowing is an indispensable tool for both the budding and experienced simultaneous interpreter, but it is an often misunderstood technique.
In our opinion, to all professionals in theconsecutive interpreting and simultaneous should be taught this practice, as long as you do it the right way, believing in what you are doing and not underestimating its potential.
Shadowing:'Is it exactly?
Shadowing consists of spending many hours in a real or virtual booth following the speech delivered by a speaker of the target language. Since the goal is to replicate the conditions proper to interpreting (simultaneous interpreting, in this case), a simple laptop/ipod/headphone combination will suffice, in the absence of a real booth.
Using MP3/MP4 files, choose speakers who express themselves in their native language and have an excellent command of it, without strong regional accents, and with oratorical skills that allow full expression of the language's natural inflections.
We will never tire of repeating that the designated speaker must be selected with extreme care, depending on accent, elocution, delivery, register, etc. Shadowing is an excellent technique that acts on multiple levels, as it involves about 80% of the neurolinguistic operations that are activated during simultaneous interpretation.
It is useful in all of the interpreter's active languages and can be employed to correct and refine a multitude of interpretive weaknesses: accent, delivery, voice quality, vocal extension, emphasis, cleanliness of rendering, etc. However, it is important that:
- is carried out in a gradual, thorough and reasoned manner.
- is regularly supervised and evaluated by both the professional and their teachers, supervisors or peers.
- be carried out over many hours and in each of the language combinations you wish to enhance.
- Is combined with more conventional training techniques.
Good practices and useful tips to get the most out of shadowing
Shadowing initially involves the repetition of the speaker's words without modification. This allows the interpreter's brain, ears and mouth, working in concert, to begin reproducing the sounds and rhythm of the target language without conscious mental effort.
In doing so, we begin to define what is called "language muscle memory"; the same that we naturally acquire when we learn our mother tongue as children. For this to happen, dozens of hours of actual practice will be required: it is essential that the language be reproduced vocally, otherwise the exercise will prove futile.
It is also recommended, to help yourself with a text during repetition, since it is true that we cannot hear or learn what we do not know, and if we do not hear all the articles, prepositions and sounds, even the most imperceptible ones, we will not be able to perform well in our exercise and will end up losing most of the benefits. In addition, we recommend recording the session and then playing it back to compare it with the text and measure the degree of fidelity achieved.
The main goal of shadowing is to accustom the brain, ears and mouth to the flawless and effortless reproduction of the sounds and cadences of a foreign language. This will be done gradually and naturally through the creation of new synaptic and neuronal pathways. So don't expect instant results: many hours of actual practice are required for each language combination, and there are no shortcuts!
How to perform the'shadowing exercise
During shadowing, it is important to experience multiple levels of interval time (between 0.5 and 5 seconds), to gain mental resilience and train the brain to respond readily before a variety of different situations and stimuli.
In this regard, it will be particularly useful to also train yourself to use your voice and brain at the same time, tasking them to perform two different tasks simultaneously, so as to recreate the mental process that professional interpreters perform in their daily practice. To this end, for example, while shadowing you could practice writing down fixed numerical successions (1, 3, 5, 7... or 1, 6, 11, 16, 21, etc.).
Using increasingly complex sequences is doubly fruitful, and the goal, evidently, is to ensure an acceptable level of language production even while mental processing efforts are devoted to other tasks. Be sure, however, not to increase the difficulty of the exercises until you reach a high level of accuracy and precision, otherwise you will only end up wasting time.
As you become better and more fluent at shadowing, you can increase the level of difficulty even further by performing the exercise with very fast-talking speakers.
Try shadowing to become there'interpreter you want to be
Remember, shadowing is intended as a supplement to other techniques. There are no tricks or shortcuts to becoming a language professional.
Shadowing will not magically help you turn into a fluent interpreter, but it will help you build a respectable technical background and prepare your brain for language learning by improving accent and intonation.
Marketing Team Congressi Internazionali
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