Cool short video about simultaneous interpretation and how complex a task it is. It reminds me of a question I remember getting (that I imagine other people get) when telling friends/relatives I was majoring in a foreign language: "So what are you going to do with that, interpret?" No, well-meaning friends and relatives, interpretation is a whole separate skill set from knowing more than one language. The only (sporadic) interpreting work I've ever done was all for parent/teacher conferences when I worked in the bilingual literacy program of a Minneapolis elementary/middle school. With little to no training, each semester (I think) for one afternoon and the next full day, all the bilingual teachers and associate educators in the building ran around with walkie talkies. I noticed that teachers would rattle off for over a minute if given a chance, then turn to me expectantly like I was supposed to remember everything that was said. So I started (pseudo)interrupting every time they took a breath to break what they were saying into phrases instead of paragraphs. That's the closest to simultaneous interpretation I've gotten. I always ended those days with a headache; any kind of interpretation is mentally exhausting work.
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AuthorThis is a place where I record thoughts on second language research and pedagogical theory Archives
June 2019
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