I'm quite put out with the interpreter, and sternly told her so.
My guests noticed that the interpreter isn't quite doing her job. She defended herself with, "Their English is very good!" That's so not the point. Whether my guests' English is decent, is totally irrelevant. An interpreter was hired at their request. Both my guests and I expect consecutive interpretation to be done, regardless.
The interpreter is supposed to do instantaneous interpretation from English into Bahasa Indonesia for my guests. She doesn't seem very good. My Bahasa Indonesia isn't fantastic; when I can understand and realize that certain phrases or words she used as rather juvenile and don't reflect their true meaning, it's not a good thing. I'm also not pleased that she only interpreted about 70% of what the speaker said. She is too slow. It's almost as if she doesn't really have the macro view of certain strategies, concepts and details, in spite of the briefings given.
This isn't a very technical discussion. The speaker understands the audience and has drawn simple yet illustrative examples for the topic. I'm sure the interpreter's not that dumb. But she doesn't seem very clever either. I want to give her the benefit of doubt that she isn't trained in this area of discussion and hence she struggles to find the words. However, the longer I listen, the more I realize that her grasp of English isn't that strong and it's still way better than her grasp of academic Bahasa Indonesia, which is supposed to be her native tongue.
It's almost like how I can easily translate/interpret Thai to English or Mandarin to English. But I can't do it the other way round. She is helpful and tries her best. She flips through her handwritten notes and has a webpage open to a translation site. But really, I think in this case, her competencies are insufficient for my needs. SIGH.
My guests noticed that the interpreter isn't quite doing her job. She defended herself with, "Their English is very good!" That's so not the point. Whether my guests' English is decent, is totally irrelevant. An interpreter was hired at their request. Both my guests and I expect consecutive interpretation to be done, regardless.
The interpreter is supposed to do instantaneous interpretation from English into Bahasa Indonesia for my guests. She doesn't seem very good. My Bahasa Indonesia isn't fantastic; when I can understand and realize that certain phrases or words she used as rather juvenile and don't reflect their true meaning, it's not a good thing. I'm also not pleased that she only interpreted about 70% of what the speaker said. She is too slow. It's almost as if she doesn't really have the macro view of certain strategies, concepts and details, in spite of the briefings given.
This isn't a very technical discussion. The speaker understands the audience and has drawn simple yet illustrative examples for the topic. I'm sure the interpreter's not that dumb. But she doesn't seem very clever either. I want to give her the benefit of doubt that she isn't trained in this area of discussion and hence she struggles to find the words. However, the longer I listen, the more I realize that her grasp of English isn't that strong and it's still way better than her grasp of academic Bahasa Indonesia, which is supposed to be her native tongue.
It's almost like how I can easily translate/interpret Thai to English or Mandarin to English. But I can't do it the other way round. She is helpful and tries her best. She flips through her handwritten notes and has a webpage open to a translation site. But really, I think in this case, her competencies are insufficient for my needs. SIGH.
6 comments:
Ummm.... the UN? EU?
Frankly I have similar "difficulties" translating live presentations and discussions quickly and accurately from Norwegian to English even though I'm fluent in both.
Consecutive interpretation is a skill not every multilingual person has, unfortunately.
kachunknorge: i know. stil i expect the best! gaaaah. for all our fluency, we can probably do it very well one way.
Is she a professional translator?
When my wife translates for me from Spanish into English or translates my English into Spanish, she has a tendency to completely rephrase. Some rephrasing is acceptable, but dropping whole pieces or inserting new pieces is not.
Reminds me of the following joke: the President of a large corporation was visiting a branch plant in a foreign country and wished to address the employees. He began with a joke and went on for about five minutes. The translator then spoke for a few seconds and everyone laughed.
After the presenttion was finished, the president asked the translator how she was able to translate the rather involved joke into so few words. The translator replied, "I told them you had told a joke and they should laugh politely."
richard: i doubt she is. Heh. that joke, yes! it's so telling sometimes of an interpreter's job vs client's expectations.
i can speak bahasa indonesia! hire me!
lovexlb: only if you promise you can translate terms and convey concepts of 'exponetial increase', 'progressive facilitation',
block budgeting'!
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