Simultaneous translation

[MilleBille]

I really want to learn simultaneous interpretation. I want to become an interpreter at some point, and I think this could be a useful skill.

Anyone in here who know some tips and tricks, or is it all in practising?

Thank you!

[Saholy]

I have done it for sign language before. It can be challenging if you have no background information but it is always recommended to have some. For example, before going to a political rally, you would want to know on what issues the person running might speak about. This will help you be able to know where he is heading because in some languages the grammar structure and the way to emphasize the main points may vary. Word for word translations are never clear, which means at times you have to pause and listen to make sure you have the complete though. But for those very familiar, like a person who has the same interpreter all the time, the audience might not even notice that there is any delay at all. The speaker never pauses for the Terp though, but the Terp might have to pause and take in some information before continuing to make sure they have down the concept of what the speaker is going to say. You can just practice in your home while watching the news to a pretend audience. Also, you can have a mentor, someone who has a higher skill level than you, who can watch you and then critique you when you are done with a pro-bono interpreting session.

[VNtomboy]

Practice is around 90% of it, I think. The other 10% is whether or not you have a natural knack for interpreting. What you can try and do is find volunteering gigs at events and things like that (depending on where you live and what you do, of course). I've done several interpreting jobs at college fairs here

[jabay]

I would say that you should look out for the dialect. I would also look into getting into the slang and less formal versions of the language. Most of the times the written and formal version of a language are not anywhere close to what the normal fluent speaker of a language uses on a regular basis. Experiment and find ways of increasing your knowledge base.

[czarina84]

I've only seen interpretation done on TV and in movies.  I know that a lot of times things are exaggerated.  Do you really have to translate and talk while the other person is talking or do you wait until they have said what they want translated and then talk to the other person? 

[Jordan94]

I've been doing this recently as well. I've been taking online language learning courses for about a month now, and so far it's been working out really well for me. I can say that it is very difficult at first, but once you get the hang of it it's really easy and simple to learn. I think learning a new language makes you more intelligent, and makes it easier to get a lot of other jobs. Just really fun and it's something that I'm really excited about. I'm hoping to peruse this full time. That's how much I love and enjoy it.

[Lingua Franca]

The important part is to be completely comfortable with the two languages, you should be able to jump from one language to another with out any difficulty. A good way to start is speaking to two different people in their respective languages but not necessarily translating for them. If you can do this, you can move on to the next step, but as it's been mentioned before the most important part is practice.