Consecutive Interpreting - What actually is that?

There is a short description of Consecutive Interpreting on the page Services. Still, I’d like to dive a bit deeper into that subject to answer the questions: What is consecutive interpreting? And how does it work?

As stated on the Services page, consecutive means one after the other. So, two people don’t talk at the same time, one sharing their thoughts and one interpreting, instead those two happen consecutively. First, someone shares their thoughts, then the interpreter relays the information in a different language. While the speaker is talking – whether he’s giving a speech of asking an interview question – the interpreter listens attentively and takes notes. Once the speaker is done, the interpreter uses their notes to repeat the words in the other language.

That doesn’t sound like the most riveting thing to do on the planet. You write everything down and then read it aloud. So, what? And that’s the twist. This is precisely not what the interpreter does. When somebody speaks in their normal speed (or perhaps ever so slightly slower because they’re aware that an interpreter is present), there isn’t enough time to write down every word. The notes an interpreter takes don’t make up a text as such, they consist of individual words, abbreviations, and symbols that are supposed to remind the interpreter of what has been said.

The challenging thing about consecutive interpreting is that you have to really listen and save all the shared information. Every interpreter has to develop a feeling for themselves; what information will always be remembered, which sort of things can you not remember, even if your life depended on it? The more you interpret consecutively, the more you’ll be able to remember without notes but you get to know yourself better, too. So, you’ll know which information you have to write down in order to properly remember and relay them.

The interesting thing about consecutive interpreting is that no two interpreters write their notes in the same manner. Even, if they’ve been taught by the same teacher. He can remember this, she can remember that. That’s life, isn’t it? And all of us think differently as well. You’ve surely come across the term Visual Learner. Or Auditory Learner. These are terms used to describe how people best take in new information. How they best learn. Some people prefer to see graphics, diagrams or pictures to best understand (visual learner), some would rather hear all this info (auditory learner). There are also people who best learn if they read the new info or write it down (read/write learner) and some people prefer learning by doing (kinesthetic learner). Most of us are probably our own individual mix of all four of these.The point is that the notes of every single interpreter are based in the way they perceive and process information best.

I like using keywords and arrows. 95% of my notes are just arrows pointing at words. Pointing forwards, backwards, up and down. I know that I can always remember which arrow means what in any given context. Sometimes -> means “results in”, sometimes it means “and then”. Sometimes it means “thus”.Some interpreters rather use one specific symbol for each of those words or phrases because they want to be certain they don’t have to remember what that arrow was supposed to mean in this specific situation. I tried a system like that while studying and I found that it stresses me more to have to remember all of these different symbols. I am more calm and collected when I have to only be clear on the meaning of one arrow in its context.

Whenever I write „symbol” I do mean exactly that. A symbol. A small doodle or sign. Decisively not a word. Words for the same thing or concept often vary vastly between two languages. Therefore, it might work against the interpreter to write down the word in one language (or an abbreviation of it) because it may lead to a stutter or complete block. The interpreter reads the word in one language and races to find the exact translation of that word, which they might not succeed to do, especially under pressure. A symbol is much easier to use. It works as traffic signs do. When you see a red round sign with a horizontal line through it, you know that you’re not supposed to enter the road. How this sign is called in your native tongue doesn’t matter. You know what you’re (not) to do. That’s the point of the sign. And that is also the point of a symbol in interpreter’s notes.

Which symbol the interpreter uses for which concept is absolutely up to individual preference. Some symbols are used in the exact same way by nearly all interpreters, but there are thousands of symbols that are only used in their specific manner by one single interpreter.Important factors for finding one’s symbols are the personal and cultural background of the interpreter, their working languages and how they learned note-taking.

I was taught the following things:

·       Write down numbers immediately ( you will not remember 6,742.129£)

·       Always write down names

·       Always write names in capital letters

·       Rather write names down phonetically than correctly. You have to be able to say them properly.

Furthermore, most interpreters write their notes diagonally and top to bottom. We call that diagonalisation. You split up the message into its building blocks and write those down from the left top corner to the bottom right corner.

WW

                             Intpret

                                                          G<>En

                                                                                      Website -> Blog -> consec

You could note down the above for the below message:

WoordenWechsel is a one woman business for interpretation services in the languages German and English. The business has a website, on which you can find a blog. The posts on that blog dive into the different aspects of being an interpreter. On of them is about consecutive interpreting.  

I’ve chosen the word message instead of sentence several times now. The reason for that is, that you note down messages of ideas, not senctences. The mix of keywords and symbols above is summarising four sentences but those four sentences form one message. With consecutive interpreting you don’t only listen to what the speaker says, you also analyse it. Break it down into the different ideas or messages and find ways to note down those. What do they want to say? This may lead tot he above notes being interpreted as follows:  

WoordenWechsel is a business offering interpreting in German and English. The WoordenWechsel website offers a blog posts that teaches you about consecutive inerpreting.

This is of course a shorter version of the message but all of het crucial information is there. The name of the company, what it does, which languages are relevant and that you can learn about interpreter terminology on the website. The fist version more detailed but the second one isn’t wrong. None of the essential details are lost. That is the art of consecutive interpreting.

You need to identify the message and write that down. This is what you have to pass on. There is no need to repeat (or write down) every stutter, restart of a sentence or “uhm”. Doing that will only take more time and generally, the rule is that the interpreter should – at max – speak as long as the speaker. Better take less time. Because, as we all know, time is

By the way, some interpreters don’t take any notes at all. They just remember everything. Or they draw something while the speech is delivered. When interpreting they look at their picture and remember what was said when they sketched this chair or that owl. Naturally, that is mega cool, but I could never do it.

Consecutive interpreting is often used when there are no long speeches or when there are small groups. The equipment that is necessary to facilitate simultaneous interpretation is expensive and often it just doesn’t add up to spend that money on a 20-minute conversation.  You could of course whisper in such situations, the interpreter sits next to the person who needs interpreting and interprets simultaneously in a hushed voice. But this can be disruptive and is strenuous for the interpreter and the client. It is often just easier to use consecutive interpreting in those scenarios.

Moreover, consecutive interpretation is employed when interpreting over the phone. Organisations like hospitals, the police or migration officials can spontaneously find themselves confronted with a person who doesn’t speak the country’s official language(s). It is far too expensive to have several interpreters on site – just in case someone stumbles in and doesn’t speak the language. Much easier (and cheaper) to call a general interpreter number, which will then connect you with an interpreter who speaks both required languages. I’ll dedicate an entire post to over-the-phone-interpreting – at some point.

This one we’ll end with the knowledge that consecutive interpreting is not just listening, writing, translating and talking, but also analysing, remembering and producing. I have such a cool job!