Specific Skills required for interpreting

Professional interpreting requires certain specific skills, which interpreters must have and constantly improve. The most important of these skills are as follows:

1. Ability to perceive and understand the message which includes:

■ phonological aspects: ability to perceive “the phonic substance” of the language, i.e. ability to comprehend various accents and regional variants of pronunciation both of the native and non–native speakers of the SL, as well as mispronunciation of words by the SL speaker;

■ lexical aspects: ability to render the meaning of words and phrases in messages which requires knowledge of special subject field terms, proper names, non–equivalent lexical units, set phrases, idioms, polysemantic words and expressions, as well as the ability to use the tools of cohesion to reinstate the meaning of the misheard words with the aim of filling in the interpreter's “gaps” in comprehension of oral speech;

■ grammatical aspects: ability to perceive the morphological (mainly the use of the tense forms of the verb and forms expressing unreality, negative as opposed to affirmative constructions, etc.) and syntactical (word order as means of arranging the theme and rheme of the message) structures of messages;

■ communicative aspects: ability to interpret the meaning of the utterance in the context of the given communicative situation, bearing in mind relevant cultural and other extra–linguistic factors.

2. Memory factor, which is of primary importance for the consecutive interpreting: an interpreter must memorize speech messages of any length (from one to five–seven utterances) and has to master interpreter's note–taking skills, which allow taking quick short notes of the SL utterances;

3. Ability to anticipate the probability of occurrence of certain patterns of information in speech being guided by the communicative situation (skills of the so–called “anticipation”), “automatic reaction” to set phrases (to hold – триматись, to take hold - взятись), clichés, idioms, proper names and certain subject field terms (the so–called “pat phrases”), and the general “encyclopedic” knowledge (interpreter's cultural competence);

4. Synchronization of perception and speech (the so–called “split attention”), which is of primary importance for simultaneous interpretation, where an interpreter listens and speaks simultaneously with an allowed delay of 3–7 seconds;

5. Ability to “switch” from one language to another, i.e. to find a proper strategy in arranging the final result of interpreting. Ability to arrange the “final design” includes the ability to construct coherent messages in the TL avoiding “gaps” and grammatical distortions; ability to speak clearly, distinctly and loudly so that the audience has no difficulties in perceiving the interpreted messages;

6. Compliance with the interpreters' professional ethics and moral code, rules of the etiquette, respect of the culture, traditions and customs of the SL and TL countries; compliance with the requirements of professional impartiality, integrity and confidentiality;

7. Ability to work under mental, moral pressure and physical stress;

8. Ability to relax and ensure personal physical and mental health.