Of Simultaneous Translation

During simultaneous translation the speaker pronounces his speech into the microphone, or reads it and translator hears this speech in his earphones and speaking together with the speaker interprets simultaneously. The interpreter works in a special room and can’t hear anything but the speaker’s voice. The complexity of such work is evident. Specialists pay attention to the following psychological, physical and linguistic factors that determine the interpreter’s activity:

– psychological discomfort emerges from the fact, that usually we listen to the speaker and only when he finishes we give the answer;

– psychological pressure, stipulated by the impossibility for the interpreter to correct his own mistakes;

– psychological pressure, determined by a high tempo of speaking. The worse situation happens, when the speaker reads the text as here the tempo is even higher. The interpreter must speak quickly, without pauses not to leg behind a speaker. Making ungrounded pauses looks as if an interpreter doesn’t know what or how to say, and the audience, being ignorant of the difficulty of simultaneous translation, starts questioning his professionalism;

– psychological discomfort might take place if the pronunciation of the speaker has strong accent, therefore his language is unclear;

– psychological discomfort comes from knowing that there is no connection with either speaker or audience, that the interpreter is isolated in his cubicle and nobody is capable to help him out in difficult situation;

– linguistic problems may chase the interpreter if the speaker’s language abounds in non–standard vocabulary – jargon, slang, phrasal units, idioms, pun, and other stylistic nuances and peculiarities, abbreviations, proper names, figures (precise information) which complicate the process of translation dramatically;

- structural differences of two languages, which takes some time to adapt thinking in a target language;

- new concepts, ideas and notions that are not yet fixed linguistically and have to be created on the spot this very moment;

- physical endurance is necessary to stay in closed space with minimal motion and maximal concentration for unpredicted period of time, having no time to drink or eat, relax and have some rest stretching your legs;

- Ukrainian words and, hence, sentences are somehow longer than the English ones, therefore more time is needed to just pronounce them. The problem of reducing Ukrainian sentences in some points is acute;

Simultaneous interpretation, as a kind of oral translation, is widely used today due to breakthrough in technology and rapid growths of translators' skills. First attempts to use simultaneous interpretation at international conferences date back to the late twenties but its fist extensive professional application is usually associated with the Nuremberg (Nurnberg) Trial of the Nazi war criminals (November 1945 – October 1946) where several dozens of interpreters from different countries worked together as one team. Academic research of simultaneous interpretation began in the mid–sixties and involved linguistic, psycholinguistic, psychological, and practical aspects.

Broadly speaking, there may be the following four kinds of simultaneous interpretation:

1. Simultaneous interpretation (without preparation) of the written text, or "off–hand" interpretation (переклад з аркуша);

2. Simultaneous reading of the text which has been previously translated;

3. "Whispered" simultaneous interpretation, i.e. interpretation without special equipment for one individual or a group of persons (usually not more than two or three people);

4. Professional simultaneous or "conference" interpretation with the use of special professional equipment. However, only the fourth of all these kinds is a "real", professional simultaneous interpretation, which meets certain organizational, technical, and employment requirements set out by the corresponding rules, regulations and agreements of The International Association of Conference Interpreters. These requirements are recognized by the majority of international organizations, institutions and agencies throughout the world which hold international conferences, congresses, meetings, seminars, workshops and other events.

Professional simultaneous (conference) interpretation maybe, therefore, defined as a kind of oral translation at an international forum, which is performed simultaneously with receiving the source language (SL) oral messages with the help of special equipment. The interval between the source massage and the start of simultaneous interpreting ranges from 3 to 7 seconds with professional interpreters, recruited by AIIC.