Bilingual translators, can you answer?

[ThisIsGroundControl]

I'm trying so hard to learn a language but that is irrelevant, I've been watching the news and listening to live translation. How does it happen, are they listening ahead and then speaking in delay? How do they change the order of what they are saying (as in it's not a literal translation) I get it is a skill but just so interested.

Sign language, are they signing from the translation or translating into BSL from a sign language in another language.

Simultaneous translation is a real art and incredibly difficult. I speak another language pretty fluently and in multilingual meetings I sometimes try to see if I could do it. I can manage a few sentences but it is incredibly intense and tough. You will notice the translators swap regularly if it is a long meeting.

Thanks euro (and love how MN is like a better version of an encyclopedia)

So what do you do, listen and then translate in your head and then say it whilst still listening? Not surprised translators need to swap regularly. I hope technology doesn't make this skill obsolete.

Sign language translators are hearing or they couldn’t do their job. So they just translate the verbal English into BSL.

That makes sense, so they are translating from the translation

I'm trilingual and I don't need to translate in my head I just automatically know what it is in the other language. No idea if I could translate at speed though. I'd need a bit of practice and knowledge of specific business terminology

Quiz what language is your internal voice? How do you know when the order of words is different? Can you try for me, just listen to something in one language and speak it in another, its just so alien to me, I am in awe.

I had to do simultaneous interpreting at university, it's a fecker, but oddly, what we called "dead" interpreting (simultaneous was known as "live") was harder- we listened through headphones and then spoke onto a tape. Perhaps because you didn't see the people you were interpreting so it was harder to read non-verbal cues.

I've been in Italy now for almost 30 years and so am fluent- but I'd still not be able to interpret simultaneously as it needs a whole other skill set beyond "just" knowing the language. A trained interpreter might not even be as fluent as me, but would still interpret better than me if that makes any sense. I no longer translate in my head, I just think in Italian if that's the context, but interpreting is a whole other mindfuck.

Gea yes although I can't, I get that people can think in another language and then speak in the same language, but to listen to a language mash it up and then speak it fluently in another language is a massive mindfuck.

My friend was a Greek / English / German interpreter at the UN many years ago and she said that most interpreters are very young (and they apparently had age limits) as the stress levels are so high and unbearable for any length of time. It's such a vital job and doing it slightly wrongly, getting nuance wrong can cause huge issues.
It's fascinating.
I'm multi lingual and could never do it.

I am a translator and interpreter (although I dont work as such anymore, usually) . Simultaneous interpreting is hard. You sit in a cabin with headphones on ( I always turned up my headphone volume and almost switched off the microphone volume for my headphones to concentrate only on what was being said without hearing myself talk) and just try to keep within the same sentence as the person speaking. Some languages are more difficult than others. Even German into English has its problems - our teachers loved to troll us by making long German sentences and ending with a negative, knowing perfectly well that in the English sentence we probably already made a positive statement, and you simply cannot fall a whole sentence behind. Thankfully, most people don't always talk like that.

Conferences and such, you work in pairs because you usually can't do more than twenty minutes before needing a break. It requires a high level of concentration, and not everyone can do it. I've met some brilliant translators, who completely failed at simultaneous interpreting.

Personally, though, I prefer simultaneous to consecutive, especially speeches. I don't like to be seen. In the cabin, no one can see that you are sweating and red in the face because you just said something stupid. And if you work with someone, who is not used to having an interpreter, you sometimes have to all but kick them to stop talking long enough for you to repeat what they have just said in the other language. Not to mention the people, who give you their speech beforehand and then speak for ten or more minutes or more without stopping while completely changing the whole speech as they go along ...

There is simultaneous interpreting and consecutive interpreting. In simultaneous you speak whilst the person is speaking (perhaps starting a few seconds after they start talking) and carry on like this. Consecutive, you wait until the person has finished what they are saying (it's usually fairly shortish) and then you interpret what they have said. Then the person will start talking again and repeat. A good example of this is the interpreting done for the former Leeds football manager Bielsa. His interpreter always used consecutive. Have a Google :0)
Both are really hard to learn how to do but from experience and that of my friends, simultaneous is much harder as you have to practice your listening, summarising, translating and speaking skills all at the same time. Its often done for maximum 20 minutes I think.

I had to do it as an assessment at university (so just a few minutes). I felt I couldn't concentrate on what was being said, I almost had to bypass part of my brain. Was really odd.

This is making me feel so much better about my abilities. I am not an interpreter but I have to interpret as part of my job . (It is a very small company and I am the only English speaker). I do a sort of mix between simultaneous and consecutive (from what has been said here, I didn't even know there was 2 types). If I do an hour long zoom meeting I am exhausted at the end. And I know what I am talking about so can often answer a question without having to translate.

I am in awe of the translators at the summits and UN conferences. They do an amazing job.

Does anyone know of any online courses or information on how I can improve?

This is fascinating. Sounds like it would be exhausting!

I did a simultaneous translation taster course while at university, Russian to English. I developed a stutter by lesson 2 so decided it wasn’t for me.

I really admire those who can do it. I had a friend who was a simultaneous interpreter Russian-Arabic and Russian-French, he used to accompany trade delegations. Totally imperturbable but even he burnt out after about 5 years.

Being bilingual often doesn’t help. When I speak Italian I see the image of what I’m talking about in my head, not the equivalent word in English. I actually find it easier translating to/from English (or Italian) and languages I’m less fluent in.

Sometimes we'll get the speech in advance, but for situations that are live, we are hearing it as you do. People often ask how I do it but then I ask them if they are good at sport. I am terrible at sport. There are people who are good at sport and have an ability to do something that others can't. Everyone has their strengths.

We have to be excellent at multitasking. And as a PP said, we will normally swap with someone else at various points during a live broadcast as it's so intense.

Something I have noticed is that I'm actually struggling more to translate as I grow more fluent in a language. I think I know why too. Let's say your native language is Russian and you're learning english, in the beginning the translation process will go something like :

1. See the object
2. Think "книга"
3. Think of the english word "book"

But as you grow more comfortable, you skip the middle step and the object just becomes "book" in your head. And when you have to translate you end up struggling to remember the exact equivalent in a different language - especially as some words you may have learnt from context and never really looked at a dictionary translation of it. Not to mention some nuances are really hard (sometimes impossible) to translate faithfully.

To clarify, obviously "book" is a pretty basic word and you would usually know how to translate it, but when you're translating technical terms it can become much harder to remember the right words, even in your own native language.

Reading the comments, it's true that some politicians will use the last few words in a sentence to flip the meaning of something but generally speechwriters and PR have had good input on it. This means the sentences will be typically more simple than every day language. Not always of course!

I'm fluent in 2, proficient in 2 further (b2 level).

between the fluent languages I don't translate. I just switch my brain from one to the other.
the other languages it depends. superficial conversation I can switch as well but for greater detail I need to translate. difficult to explain.

I could never do simultaneous interpretation. especially for the language in which long and complicated sentences are deemed good style

I dream in all 4 languages.

@Alonelonelylonersbadidea

My friend was a Greek / English / German interpreter at the UN many years ago and she said that most interpreters are very young (and they apparently had age limits) as the stress levels are so high and unbearable for any length of time. It's such a vital job and doing it slightly wrongly, getting nuance wrong can cause huge issues. It's fascinating. I'm multi lingual and could never do it.

A relative of mine was an interpreter at the UN.

He also interpreted Yeltsin live on TV News in the US in 1993 on the day of the coup.

Perhaps not coincidentally he died relatively young of heart disease.

Fascinating career though.

I'm trained as a sign language interpreter. For a signed language, you aren't interpreting between two spoken languages, where you're adjusting grammar order etc. You're actually 'unpacking' the whole concept and considering the best way to explain the concept and details visually.

For example, the signed language I know doesn't have many collective nouns (eg there's no sign for clothes, cutlery, furniture) so you don't just change (for example) the following word for word: "your luggage allowance will only be 7kg land luggage, so please ensure you think carefully which clothes to bring." this might be interpreted as something that translates in a written form to 'plane, bag bring. 7kg, no more, not allowed. shirt, pants, shoes, not many.'

You're also doing this in a split second, whilst also listening to the next phrase being spoken and working out the best way to explain and interpret this. It's tiring!

What a fascinating thread, really interesting to hear how it's done.

@purplesequins
I’m fascinated to hear that you dream in all 4 languages..
I speak 4 but only dream in English and Italian ?!?
While awake my Spanish is much stronger than Italian 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️
I have never been able to figure that out 🤦‍♀️

I am fluent in three and that’s two different alphabets. It’s pretty cool to think in three languages. Translators have a quick brain. Even being fluent I spend time to translate, it mayst be a technique they acquire