Advice on the road to interpretation?
littleblue
was hoping somebody might be able to give me some career advice anyway
as the circles are similar.
I'm currently living and working in Japan and want to be an
interpreter in the future, however I have little idea on how to
achieve this goal.
Could anyone who is knowledgable on this subject or maybe who is an
interpreter themselves give me some advice? Would the best way be to
enrol in a graduate program somewhere in Japan specialising in
interpretation (presuming there is one)?
What should be my immediate goals for courses/exams/qualifications/etc
that I would need for getting into interpretation be?
Any other suggestions/tips/etc for helping me on my way would also be
appreciated.
Thanks in advance
Jamie
Manako Ihaya
If your aim is to be an interpreter between the Japanese and English languages, then you're already where you need to be. There are many interpreting training schools in Japan, such as Simul www.simul.co.jp and ISS www.issnet.co.jp, as well as courses in universities (for which you would have to be a student at the university, such as ICU and Sophia).
There are many ways to become an interpreter, but I became one after many years of working as a translator (I work as both now). I personally found that the years of building a bilingual vocabulary database in my head as a translator helped me tremendously when I decided to go out there in the field to interpret between the two languages. The words came so naturally to me when they would not have before I spent those years working as a translator.
I wish there were Japanese-focused interpreting courses here in the United States, too (besides the university programs....I can't really afford the time to be a full-time student to earn a degree now with four dependents), but I made do with what was available to me here. I attended a 10-week course in court interpreting at UCLA Extensions (non-language specific), where I also learned about a self-study kit you can purchase from www.acebo.com, including a tape set for Japanese.
Good luck!
Manako
--
Manako Ihaya (aka Monica)
ATA-Certified Japanese-English Translator
Lake Forest, California
Friedemann Horn
and PPT presentations, I've never billed myself as an interpreter, but
here goes anyway:
I've always wondered whether there are many fulltime interpreters.
The obvious downside with interpreting is that it is time and place
specific. In other words, while it is fairly easy for competent translators
to be booked out (possibly easier than *not* being booked out ;-),
I don't think this is true for interpreters, because interpreting jobs
cannot be "queued" but need to be scheduled. So my guess is that
interpreting is a side business for most professional interpreters.
Except for perhaps a handful of interpreters at the UN or similar.
Can any interpreters here confirm or deny this?
Manako mentioned court interpreting. I have to go on mostly anecdotal
evidence here, but I think in Japan, there's basically two kinds of
court interpreting: One is for the ragged flotsam who have washed up on
Japan's shore trying to smuggle narcotics or so into the country. Not exactly
where the money is. And Chinese <> Japanese might be the better
language combination for this.
The other is deposition interpreting. From what I've heard, there
is a market for about 3-5 depo interpreters (or was that native English
speakers?) in Japan. And the ones I've met are *very* good, basically
functionally native Japanese speakers.
Anyhow, my guess is that most interpreters started out as translators.
I also think that doing a decent interpretation that goes beyond meaningless
chitchat is more difficult than producing a decent translation. It is certainly
more stressful.
Add to that the income insecurity and general inflexibility and I'm starting
to wonder why anyone would want to be an interpreter, except perhaps as a
paid hobby to break the boredom of translation. But then again, professional
translation takes a certain degree of anal retentiveness that many people lack,
so perhaps that's where all the interpreters come from.
Just a few points on the graph,
Friedemann Horn
www.horn-uchida.jp
On 5/29/07, littleblue <little...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
Mari Hodges
> more stressful.
> Add to that the income insecurity and general inflexibility and I'm
> starting
> to wonder why anyone would want to be an interpreter, except perhaps as a
> paid hobby to break the boredom of translation. But then again,
> professional
> translation takes a certain degree of anal retentiveness that many people
> lack,
Just thought I'd mention an interesting thing that some friends who are
interpreters and I have realized. There seem to be personality differences
between those who like translating and those who like interpreting. My
interpreter friends thrive on the stress, and can't be bothered with the
details (like the perfect word, or punctuation) of getting a written
translation perfect. I, on the other hand, love to sit at my computer and
get it just right.
Mari Hodges
Steve Venti
> interpreter in the future, however I have little idea on how to
> achieve this goal.
Let me start by saying that, just as there are many different niches
withing the translation market, there is a wide variety of work
conditions for interpreters, too. In some situations, an interpreter
will be expected to take her* time and focus on getting things right,
while in others it will be enough just to keep up and basically
provide a summary of what has been said. Not everyone is suited to
both; I tend to describe myself as an "industrial strength"
interpreter, who will do hour after hour of technical discussions at a
fast clip, but I don't promise that I get every last detail of the
conversation. I doubt that I would be successful as a court
interpreter without adjusting my mindset and working style to a very
great degree. <g>
My experience is similar to Manako's, however, in that I too started
interpreting after many years of translating, and benefited from the
knowledge I acquired from translation work. So I would recommend--and
this is perhaps contrary to conventional wisdom--that you consider
doing both. They are indeed two entirely different skills, but one
will complement the other quite nicely.
If you are just starting out, I further I recommend that you seek an
in-house position at any good sized Japanese company. Working in-house
will really shore up your comprehension of ordinary spoken Japanese as
well as provide you with field specific knowledge.
*I used the pronoun "her" with a bit of irony here. If you live and
work in Japan, 80% of your colleagues will be Japanese women.
HTH
--
Steve Venti
The source of all unhappiness is other people.
--Wally
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Chris Poole
(Oral) interpreting (not "interpretation") and (written) translation are
just two modes of the same activity and the dividing line between them is by
no means distinct. The fact that some individuals work in both, or
predominantly or exclusively in one or other of those modes is a function of
personal preference and market conditions. That this accumulation of
individual choices has become the default system of categorisation of the
industry into "interpreters" and "translators", who many people think are
totally different animals, (and where lists are apparently focussed on one
or the other), I think is bizarre and unfortunate. (Re Mari's comments
below, who says translation isn't stressful sometimes, and who says
interpreters don't have to get every word right??) "Unfortunate" because it
has retarded the development of our occupation into a profession. It fosters
the notion that we are getting paid because we are stress bunnies or anal
retents, postponing the day when we all realise that the only reason they
pay us is because it is cheaper than NOT having the strings of words
converted into another language. The more you understand that the more money
you can make. If I needed to have a conversation in a hospital interpreted
I'd choose an experienced translator who had never interpreted, over a
bilingual doctor any day. And... [ooops! Sorry. Just noticed I had "rant
lock" on].
The (very fortunate) market conditions and personal preferences that apply
to me in Melbourne Australia are that Melbourne is the centre of
manufacturing in Australia; I speak Japanese; I am a male; and I have never
said "no" to any offer of work. So I started out as an interpreter which was
my side business for about ten years (used to be a builder), then only
really got into translation after employing a native J speaking
translator/interpreter, also fortunately around the time they invented word
processors.
Over the past twenty years our business has been about 60/40 interpreting
translation, rising to 80/20 in the past four years. I employ several people
and am madly trying to recruit more :
http://www.seek.com.au/users/apply/index.ascx?Sequence=85&PageNumber=1&JobID=9507931
feel free to apply if you have PR, if not please contact me anyway as we are
thinking of advertising in Japan for employer sponsored Australian visas.
We are occupied full time interpreting, mostly in auto manufacturers.
But otherwise everything from courts, hospitals, telecom, pharma, media etc
etc.
As Steve said, there is pretty big market in Japan for in-house interpreters
who obviously work full time.
The point that Friedemann raises about scheduling versus queuing is
perfectly
valid, but overcome by having an organisation of more than one, and by
setting your prices high enough to cover the gaps.
I would need to know your age and number of dependants to say whether it was
a good idea to study. I never studied anything formally. Just have a go and
learn
from your mistakes I reckon (I'm Verrry learned!).
HTH
Chris
Mari Hodges
> below, who says translation isn't stressful sometimes, and who says
> interpreters don't have to get every word right??)
Very true! How could I forget my own stress when I wrote that? But it's
different. Interpreting's more on the spot and I think it's more of an
adrenalin rush. At least that's what my interpreter friends say.
Mari Hodges
Alan Siegrist
> > (Re Mari's comments
> > below, who says translation isn't stressful sometimes, and who says
> > interpreters don't have to get every word right??)
>
> Very true! How could I forget my own stress when I wrote that? But it's
> different. Interpreting's more on the spot and I think it's more of an
> adrenalin rush. At least that's what my interpreter friends say.
I mostly translate but have done some interpreting, and I can definitely
agree that there is stress in both. Stress in interpreting can be more like
a performance anxiety sort of thing. And with tape and video recorders
around, it can be very embarrassing when they play back the tape and point
out where you had made the mistake that sent the conversation off into
never-never land, wasting the limited time of some very important people. It
is just as embarrassing in translating when your editor finds errors and
omissions.
I was very nervous and self-conscious when I did my first few interpreting
assignments but I have gotten used to it. One good thing about interpreting
is that you can have a little more personal contact and immediate
gratification, knowing that you have managed to allow people to communicate
where they would not otherwise have been able to (that is, if it goes well).
In translation, you often hear little other than "Thanks!" from the client
as your translated text, the product of your blood, sweat and tears,
disappears down some bottomless rabbit hole.
I guess I still stick to translation rather than interpreting mostly because
I like staying in my home office but also having the freedom to travel where
I want, rather than having to go where the interpreting jobs are.
Anyway, getting back a little closer to the road to interpreting, I suppose
some people do go to school to become interpreters but certainly not all (I
never took any such courses), and I do know of some good programs that seem
to have a good track record at turning out competent interpreters.
Regards,
Alan Siegrist
Orinda, CA, USA
AlanFS...@Comcast.net
Tom rockwood
I do both, but mostly translation because my handy laptop allows me
the freedom to work when and where I want. Interpreting jobs require
traveling and you also have to where half-decent clothing. I don't
wanna say I can translate in my underwear, but...
Interpreting is interesting in a funny way. Most of the other
interpreters I have ever worked with are women and a tad anal to put
it bluntly. Despite their personality, they tend to miss a lot
especially when doing simultaneous. And, this can be a bit unnerving
when working in tandem because you're always covering up. I also get a
little peeved those who bring a electronic dictionary and use it
during the simultaneous interpreting session, inevitably missing key
points while they search for a word they should have already known if
they had prepped properly.
Another point I have noticed is that there are many people who are
referred to as 'A' rank. I never really understood it and still don't.
I was originally intimidated by the rank thing when I first started
out, but soon learned that it means nothing. In fact, I found it
amusing that I was much better than any of the so-called 'A ranks' I
was working with.
BTW, in Japan, 'A rank' means that you demand about 90,000 yen/day per
simultaneous job. The agencies make even more for coordinating.
I have spoken to full-time interpreters and most of their solid work
is in particular seasons like autumn, and the most number of full-day
jobs one can do logistically speaking is around 10 per month. That is,
unless you do no prep and pull ぶつけ本番 all the time.
Interpreting can be fun and some jobs are so easy you feel almost
guilty for receiving the money, but it serves a good purpose and
people thank you unlike translating when most people don't even
acknowledge receipt of the work sent.
Tom Rockwood
pg...@gol.com
including a highly competent simultaneous interpreter who ran a training
course and had detailed knowledge of the industry here in Japan -- maybe the
following comments might be germane to your inquiry.
Another poster's recommendation that you try to start in-house seems to be
spot-on.
Working for agencies in Japan seems to be dodgy, according to my (admittedly
dated) information from some years ago. They have their stables of
interpreters on call, ranked by specialty and competence evaluation, but the
women spend their days sitting by the phone waiting for assignments, maybe
killing time studying up, and knowing they can be displaced in the rankings
any time by some newcomer who has spent more time in the US/UK or had the
luck to be born of missionary parents, whatever. Some of the agencies, it
was said, seem to run rackets: Telling sponsors of an important
international conference to be held in Tokyo that no interpreters are
available except at premium rates because of scheduling difficulties, then
when the sponsors get desperate charging them double.
I make no representations about the foregoing, except to say that it comes
from sources then considered reliable.
Perry Gary
ayako....@jcom.home.ne.jp
>
> A lot of those commenting have said some very telling things.
> I do both, but mostly translation because my handy laptop allows me
> the freedom to work when and where I want. Interpreting jobs require
> traveling and you also have to where half-decent clothing. I don't
> wanna say I can translate in my underwear, but...
Sounds familiar!
I first wanted to be an interpreter and started out with
courses at ICU (in the old days of Saito-sensei or "Micchan").
I was doing both but switched mostly to translation around
mid-1980s when PCs became available and it became a lot
(thousands of times!) easier to do EtoJ translation (JtoE too
but at least there was a typewriter).
I still do both like combining,
1) インタビューや会議の通訳をする and,
2) 自分の通訳をチェックしつつ、訳し忘れたところを足したり
まちがいを直したりして（汗;）テープを起こして、雑誌や記録集に
載せる原稿をつくる.
In some cases I get the genko from the speaker a few
(or more) days before the meeting, I translate the whole text,
and read the genko (adding the speaker's ad-lib, if any) after
the speaker talks for a few minutes (or sometimes s/he may read
the entire page).
Once the meeting sponsor wanted to spend a lot of time on Q&A
so the speaker explained it to the audience and said "my
interpreter already has the text translated so she'll
read it through and I'll be taking a nap <or a similar kind
of joke>." It was before the days of sophisticated presentation
tools and the meeting room was not equipped with such facilities.
Now if I can get Powerpoint files before the meeting I interpret
I try to translate them and show to the audience (if there are two
projectors, both the original and the translation). I get paid
for the both if the PPT files are to used for the proceedings
and the like.
... All these have come to my mind while answering Jim Breen's
questionnaire at
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/enquete/enqgen.cgi
It was a lot of fun thinking about each item and I'm looking
forward to his address at IJET.
The deadline is today.
If you haven't taken a look at it please do so!
♪ 佐藤綾子 ♪
Emily Shibata-Sato
ayako....@jcom.home.ne.jp