Online Class Assignment

Mohamad Syahril Paneo

Interpreting and Subtitling

Review Book

Title of Book : The interpreters Resource (Topics in Translation, 19)

Author : Mary Phelan

Publisher : University Of Massauchets

1. Chapter 3 : Hints for Speakers at Conferences

Before the conference:
1. If at all possible, speak in your mother tongue. It is silly to insist on speaking a foreign
language if interpreting is available from your language.
2. If you have to give a speech in a language other than your mother tongue, ask a native
speaker to check through it to ensure that it makes sense and to eliminate any possible
grammatical problems or sources of confusion. It could also be a good idea to rehearse
your speech with a native speaker or speakers as your audience.
3. Despite increasing globalisation it is a good idea to avoid references to or comparisons
with local personalities or events which may mean nothing to people from other
countries.
4. Many speakers like to begin their talk with a joke to put their audience at their ease.
Very few jokes work when interpreted into other languages. If your joke is based on a
pun for example, the chances are that it will be untranslatable.
5. If you plan to work from a prepared speech, send a copy of your speech to the
conference organizers well before the date of the conference, ideally a few weeks before.
This will allow the interpreters to prepare terminology and will ensure a better standard
of interpretation.
6. Consider delivering your speech extemporaneously. For example you could prepare
overheads on a computer programme such as PowerPoint. Supply the interpreters with a
photocopy showing overhead content. Then talk around the overheads. Before you speak:
7. Sometimes, if the conference is running late for example, the time allocated to you
may be reduced. If this happens, do not decide to deliver your speech at top speed in a
shorter time. Ask to meet the interpreters and tell them that you intend to delete certain
sections of the speech. Specify exactly which parts you will omit. This will mean that the
interpreters will not be frantically going through the text trying to locate sections of your
paper.
The speech itself:
8. If a microphone is provided, don’t forget to use it.
 9. Speak slowly and clearly, particularly if you are reading your speech. Speakers tend to
speak faster in this situation than when speaking spontaneously. If you speak quickly you
make the interpreter’s task more difficult, if not downright impossible. Some speakers
speak very quickly due to nervousness but speed is detrimental to understanding by
everyone, both audience and interpreters.
10. Take particular care with figures – say them slowly and it may in fact be a good idea
to repeat them.
11. Quotations can also be problematic. In the case of well-known literary quotations
there may be only one correct, accepted translation. The interpreter may need a few extra
seconds to think quickly. Of course, if they have time to go through the speech before the
conference, they will be able to find the accepted version.
12. Excessive speed of delivery is particularly counterproductive in the case of very
technical material where the interpreter may be struggling to grasp the process being
described in order to give an acceptable interpretation. Remember that this is your subject
so of course you understand it and it seems simple to you. It may not seem so simple to
others.
13. If members of the audience ask questions in your native language, it is a good idea to
repeat the questions as this facilitates both the audience and the interpreters.

Comments : Chapter 3, entitled "Hints for Speakers at Conferences", which comprises a page-
and-a-half numbered list of suggestions and nothing more. At first reading, I mistook it for an
appendix to Chapter 2, coming as it does between the chapter describing the different types of
interpreting, and that treating community, court, and medical interpreting. Why these latter were
given a chapter all their own and were not included in Chapter 2 can only be guessed at. The
blurb on the back cover identifies them as the author's principal research interest, and in the
introduction she says that community interpreting (which is generally understood to include
court and medical interpreting) is "the next growth area" (p.5). Perhaps it was reasoned that as
such they deserved a chapter unto themselves.

2. Chapter 4 : Community, Court and Medical Interpreting

a Community Interpreting
Community or public service interpreting is provided face to face and over the
phone in the spheres of health, social services, the law and edu cation. There is a
certain amount of confusion about what term to use to describe this type of
interpreting. Public service interpreting is the term used in the United Kingdom.
Most other countries use the term com munity interpreting. In Australia the
preferred term is community based interpreting. Some commentators prefer the
term ad hoc interpreting or even contact interpreting or dialogue interpreting. In
some countries com munity interpreting includes court interpreting. In others,
court inter preting is regarded as a separate speciality. In the United States and
Canada medical interpreting is fast becoming a specialised area too.
AUSTRALIA
In Australia the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs offers a
round the clock telephone interpreting service and face to face interpreting. This
is known as the Translation and Interpreting Service (TIS). Telephone interpreting
is used for contact with government depart ments and some community
organizations. Face to face interpreting is available for hospital appointments and
with community organizations. About 2,000 interpreters and translators work for
TIS in over 100 languages and dialects.
FRANCE
In France, the Paris based ISM Interprétariat was founded in 1971 and offers both
face to face and over the phone interpreting in 80 languages and dialects. Face to
face interpreting is provided for medical services, schools, social services and
appointments with psychologists. New inter preters are assigned mentors for the
first six months. Ongoing training is provided. Interpreting is provided in 3,000
institutions each year and adds up to about 110,000 hours a year. The hospitals
and schools pay for the interpreting service. The telephone interpreting service
has been avail able for emergencies day and night since 1990.
ITALY
In Italy, a non-governmental organization called Cospe has developed training
courses for interpreters who work face to face and over the phone with non-native
Italian speakers. Cospe also plans to educate user insti tutions on how to work
with interpreters and on the role of the interpreter.
THE NETHERLANDS
In 1999 at the First Babelea Conference on Community Interpreting, Giuseppe B.
Raaphorst of the Dutch Ministry of Justice provided a back ground report on the
situation in his country. The Netherlands is one of the few countries where the
government has taken responsibility for the provision of community interpreting
services. The system is that there are six interpreter centres or tolkencentra that
were set up by the govern ment in the 1970s. The Ministry for Justice pays the
interpreters. Interpreting is provided both face to face and over the phone with an
even split between the two.
SWEDEN
Sweden is a very good example of what can be done to train and test community
interpreters. The Institute for Interpretation and Translation Studies at Stockholm
University is responsible for the training of com munity interpreters at high
schools throughout the country. Interestingly, the Institute is also responsible for
training programmes for sign lan guage interpreters, interpreters for the deaf-
blind and courses for sign language teachers.
UNITED KINGDOM
 The system in the United Kingdom is quite different in that the initiative for
change did not come from the government or from the universities but from the
Institute of Linguists and Language Line. A number of col leges offer training
for the Institute of Linguists Diploma in Public Service Interpreting (DPSI).
UNITED STATES
In the United States, the Texas Department of Human Services is another example
of public service interpreting over the phone. Ninety languages are spoken in the
Dallas – Fort Worth area and volunteers are sought to interpret over the phone for
people who are elderly, disabled or marginalised.
b Court Interpreting
As we have seen, interpreting is essential in a number of areas. But it is
particularly important in the case of court interpreting where so much depends on
what people say and whether they are perceived to be telling the truth. There have
been miscarriages of justice in cases where no for eign language was involved.
There is greater potential for miscarriages of justice when untrained, unqualified
interpreters are at work.
Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, adopted by the
Council of Europe in 1950: In 1988 an American citizen called Theodore
Kamasinski took a case against Austria under Articles, 6, 13 and 14 of the
Convention. The case was taken on a number of grounds but one issue was
interpreting. Mr Kamasinski claimed that the process of accreditation for court
interpreters in Austria was inadequate. He also alleged that some court testimony
was not interpreted for him and that he did not receive written transla tions of
court documents. The Court agreed that important court docu mentation should
be translated.
c Medical Interpreting
If a person with very little English is hospitalised in England for example, an
interpreter should be made available to explain the doctor’s diagnosis of the
medical problem and the procedures that will be carried out. It is unfair to expect
family members or friends to interpret in this type of situation. It is also unfair on
the patient who should be entitled to the professional services of an impartial
interpreter. The patient may not want his family or friend to know about his or her
medical problems. When a proper medical interpreting service is provided doctors
can make their diagnoses faster. If medical professionals are unclear about exact
symptoms they will refer their patients on to consultants or they will carry out
procedures that could be unnecessary. In less serious cases, patients may return
several times to a doctor unnecessarily. Language is the obvious problem but
cultural differences can also be important. People from different cultures have
different attitudes on a huge range of issues from illness and dying to blood
transfusions to organ trans plants. They may also have different attitudes
 towards the medical pro fession. Many of these issues are included on the
Transcultural and Multicultural Health Links Web site, which is divided up into
General Resources, Religious Groups, Ethnic Groups and Special Populations.
Comments : The era of globalization has removed the boundaries of space and time
between countries around the world. However, this is not accompanied by smooth
communication between each country. Differences in language and culture are the main
factors hindering communication. So no wonder, the role of a translator to become a
language liaison is very necessary.

In Indonesia, the presence of a translator, both oral and written, is still relatively small.
The languages mastered also only cover certain languages such as English, Mandarin,
and Japanese. But apparently, there are also translators who are interested in translating
other foreign languages.