Graduate students in the Japanese-English Interpretation and Translation Program practice simultaneous interpretation in a joint class with undergraduate students
November 19, 2024
On Thursday, November 14th, 2024, in the Simultaneous Interpretation Room (Research and Lecture Building 204), graduate students from the Japanese-English Interpretation and Translation Program practiced simultaneous interpretation in a joint class with the “Interpretation Basics II” class for undergraduate students studying the basics of consecutive interpretation. We will introduce the interpretation practice report of the graduate student who was in charge of simultaneous interpretation and the impressions of the undergraduate students.
Ms. ISHII Anna, 2nd year of Master's Program, Japanese-English Interpretation and Translation Practice Program
In this practice session, we simultaneously interpreted presentations given in English by undergraduate students about people they respect into Japanese. We met with the undergraduate students who were to be interpreting two weeks before the event, and prepared by receiving the presentation materials in advance. We prepared by researching news articles related to the content of each speaker's talk, and paying attention to the phrases and expressions used in the articles so that we could translate them into natural Japanese.
On the day of the training, we were a little nervous, but we put our hearts and souls into it, thinking that “all the mistakes we make in training will lead to our growth”.
After the simultaneous interpretation, the undergraduate students in the audience were asked to give feedback on what they thought was good (e.g. the use of intonation, the ability to select and discard information) and what could be improved (e.g. omissions and mistakes in translation, inconsistent speed of interpretation, filler words). The feedback from the audience's perspective was very helpful, as it pointed out many things I had not noticed myself.
From now on, I would like to work on my practice for the next exercise, being aware of correcting mistakes and reducing fillers while carefully monitoring my own interpretation.
Ms. NAKASHIMA Saei, 3rd year student, School of Language and Culture Studies
In this presentation, the audience mainly listened to the voice of the simultaneous interpreter, so I was less aware of the audience than I was during the consecutive interpreting practice. Also, as this was the first time I had experienced a situation where my presentation was being interpreted at the same time, I tried to slow down and speak more deliberately so that I didn't rush.
When I listened to the simultaneous interpretation as an audience member, I could tell that the interpreters were translating at the same speed as the speakers, and I could also sense the high level of their preparation and vocabulary. Also, due to the nature of English, it is sometimes not possible to start interpreting until the end of the sentence, but I was impressed by the fact that the interpreters were able to translate without becoming too fast or falling too far behind, after listening to the English sentence in full.
The point that the graduate student mentioned in their comments, that they should have done more research on the unfamiliar topics, was something I also felt through the interim presentation. If you are not familiar with the topic, it is difficult to understand the context, so I felt that gathering information in advance is important.
