Poll: When I find a difficult word during an interpretation I mostly... Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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I am a translator, not an interpreter...
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Lingua 5B 
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 15:59
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
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I mostly…transcreate. In what way difficult?
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| I don't quite understand the question | Jan 11 |
And "during an interpretation" sounds wrong to me (but I take it to mean "during an interpreting session"). How can I find an alternative word or sentence if I don't understand the difficult word or the entire sentence containing that word? It's likely that the difficult word doesn't exist in the target language and needs to be explained in creative ways, which is a problem interpreters face all the time. The option to ask the speaker to repeat suggests that the word was difficult in terms of th... See more And "during an interpretation" sounds wrong to me (but I take it to mean "during an interpreting session"). How can I find an alternative word or sentence if I don't understand the difficult word or the entire sentence containing that word? It's likely that the difficult word doesn't exist in the target language and needs to be explained in creative ways, which is a problem interpreters face all the time. The option to ask the speaker to repeat suggests that the word was difficult in terms of that you didn't quite catch it, which is a whole different aspect of "difficult." My answer is I'll try to make my best guess about the word's meaning based on the context in the case of semantic difficulty, it being understood that I've found the job to be within my limits, accepted it, and done my homework, or I'll politely ask the speaker to repeat in the case of hearing difficulty provided that my guessing abilities are failing completely. After making a guess, I'll be happy to take cues from the audience if anyone thinks I'm wrong and wants to suggest a better option. Just in case: the last time I did an interpreting job was many years ago ▲ Collapse
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| Asking for clarification | Jan 11 |
I prefer to ask for repetition. Sometimes the issue may be as simple as having misheard the first time around. If repetition of the term/phrase still leaves me stumped regarding how to portray that in the target language, it's not too much to ask for clarification.
If there is no direct word for what is meant upon clarification, it's perfectly fine to interpret the clarification given within the context of the original statement.
It's also entirely acceptable to ask bot... See more I prefer to ask for repetition. Sometimes the issue may be as simple as having misheard the first time around. If repetition of the term/phrase still leaves me stumped regarding how to portray that in the target language, it's not too much to ask for clarification.
If there is no direct word for what is meant upon clarification, it's perfectly fine to interpret the clarification given within the context of the original statement.
It's also entirely acceptable to ask both parties for a moment while the interpreter consults available resources. I usually keep linguee and DeepL open in another tab while interpreting. It only becomes troublesome when the interpreter has to pause repeatedly to look up a word. ▲ Collapse
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| I think it would be better to have already known about the topic being discussed so that you are men | Jan 11 |
I think it would be better to have already known about the topic being discussed so that you are mentally prepared.
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Daryo
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:59
Serbian to English
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| You don't interpret "words" | Jan 12 |
never mind any particular word being "difficult" (=you dont know the meaning?) or not.
You "interpret" a whole message, not words.
IOW in interpreting you have to figure out in few seconds what is important and not to be missed and what is just "verbal padding". Individual words are secondary. Completely different approach from translating.
BTW even if in translating you can't omit anything, you STILL have to understand the intended message of... See more never mind any particular word being "difficult" (=you dont know the meaning?) or not.
You "interpret" a whole message, not words.
IOW in interpreting you have to figure out in few seconds what is important and not to be missed and what is just "verbal padding". Individual words are secondary. Completely different approach from translating.
BTW even if in translating you can't omit anything, you STILL have to understand the intended message of the whole text. Preferably.
If you don't understand a part of what the speaker says, AND it's a key part of the speech, there is not much else you can do but ASK for clarification. All that assuming that you haven't accepted (or been pushed into) interpreting a subject matter you know nothing about - then no amount of asking / just ignoring the parts you don't understand / guessing some "alternatives" will save you - in interpreting it's immediately obvious if you're doing it right or not.
As Ahmed Abdelaziz pointed out, you must be prepared. No one can expect miracles: a professional organiser will give you at least a relevant specialised glossary, if not the whole documents / drafts prepared for the meeting days before the meeting. ▲ Collapse
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Poll: When I find a difficult word during an interpretation I mostly...
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