Interpreting is one of the most challenging language industry jobs in the world. But it is, at the same time, also one of the most rewarding and well-paid professions.
How do these linguistic magicians listen and talk at the same time? How do they keep their composure when the stakes are so high, all while working directly with world leaders and business tycoons?
In this article, we dive into the world of the simultaneous and consecutive interpreting, learning how these mythological figures called interpreters work, and sharing some expert advice to help you follow their journey.
The personality of the interpreter
To begin, let's try to get inside the heads of those who choose this career. Is there a personality type more inclined to follow the path to becoming an interpreter?
The response from experts and practitioners is generally negative. Having an introverted or extroverted personality neither decreases nor increases the possibility of doing this work successfully.
That said, it seems that the most successful performers share some common traits, among them the ability to empathize with others and curiosity.
Empathy is the ability to relate to others, to empathize with an external point of view by grasping their thoughts, ideas, emotions, nuances and cognitive facets.
Curiosity is that call that arises from within and leads the performer to always ask why things happen and to go beyond the surface. Curiosity is the propellant through which an interpreter relentlessly trains and improves.
The skills of the interpreter
Personal inclinations, as mentioned in the previous section, are decisive in shaping what we might call the performer's forma mentis, but they are not sufficient if taken alone.
Like any other high-profile professional, the intepreter must also possess technical requirements in order to learn their craft.
Just as an aspiring pianist needs ten fingers to learn to play the instrument, a special talent and love for music, and manic training to achieve high levels of performance, so the aspiring performer should possess a whole range of gifts and qualities.
First, a premise: the sooner you start getting serious about interpreting, the better. This is a universal rule shared by most of the most coveted and selective professions and trades.
If you are fortunate enough to have learned two or more languages from an early age, we suggest that you immerse yourself in training in the techniques and skills proper to interpreting as soon as possible. As we have said elsewhere, language proficiency alone is not enough to be an interpreter.
Other skills that an interpreter should have include communication skills and the ability to memorize a large amount of information in a short time. In this regard, we have already proposed a series of exercises and memory techniques to help you enhance this skill. It is clear that to mentally translate spoken speech and reproduce it in another language, instantly, requires absolute mastery of the grammatical, lexical, and syntactic structures of both languages.
What kind of training is needed to become an interpreter
There are different types of interpreting out there and just as many ways to train and train in those specific types, but regardless of these important differences, there is one assumption that applies to anyone aspiring to become an interpreter: train, through specialized and highly professionalized schools and courses.
There are no shortcuts. Interpreter training must be entrusted to professionals in the field. One cannot improvise in this field because there are too many things to learn.
In addition to the right language skills, the interpreter must also be familiar with the context in which he or she works and the sectoral skills needed to work in that context. To be more clear, the work of an interpreter working in a specialized medical center will never be the same as that of his or her colleague in a court.
What is the next step in becoming an interpreter?
To sum up, interpreting is a very demanding job because it is done in very different situations (specialized conferences, political or business negotiations, meetings of international organizations...). Regardless of the theme of the conference and the accent or manner of expression of a speaker, the interpreter is responsible for ensuring that the message reaches its recipients with total fidelity and correctness.
Therefore, before beginning training, it is necessary to ensure that the student possesses certain knowledge and skills that will make him or her eligible to acquire consecutive and simultaneous interpreting techniques. It is also advisable for the student to seek guidance on his or her language combination to ensure that he or she can enter the job market.
Marketing Team Congressi Internazionali
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