General Ideas

The taking of notes is the crucial point in the technique of consecutive interpretation. The quality of the work done depends on it far more than on any other factor for which training may lead to an improvement. The way in which the notes are taken may even remedy various deficiencies in the interpreter. The importance of technical preparation in this connection can therefore never he overestimated.

Generally speaking, the object of the notes is to supplement memory efficiently. The interpreter who could keep a full and accurate remembrance of all that was said – and there has been at least one such case – would have no need of them. Notes are therefore essentially individual in character; some people have a faculty for remembering details, and others for recollecting the sequence of ideas. A beginner should therefore no more borrow a system of notes which a more experienced interpreter has found successful than a patient should use a prescription prepared for somebody else. Only practical experience and repeated experiments can show the interpreter what type of notes would be the best suited for him. After this general warning, it is possible, however, to give a few hints.

The interpreter should always start taking notes as soon as the speech begins. What looked like “just a few words” may unexpectedly turn out to be an endless discourse, sometimes even though the speaker himself never expected it. An interpreter who is taken unawares in such a case may have to face considerable difficulties.

Some interpreters prefer to take running notes as the speech goes on, not waiting for an idea to have been fully expressed; others prefer to lag behind so that their notes may be more logical. Everyone should find out from his own practice what system suits him best, but the first of the two offers greater security to beginners.