Good morning.
Last week I was in Germany as interpreter in Frankfurt Fair. Through my new profile Robles Traducciones I received the offer to accompany a company in order to visit the spectacular area of the Frankfurt Fair, that for a week hosted the exhibition Light and Building of lighting and architecture companies.
It was a great experience because it was the first time I did something like that and I could learn a lot. As I talked you about some months ago in the post about liaison interpreting, in this post I can confirm what I said, taking into account my experience.
· This interpretation job has been different from other I have done (for example when I was doing practice in the hospital), because I have traveled to Germany. I translated in English and German and not only in the fair, but also it was necessary on the plane, in the airport, in the transport by taxi or shuttle bus and in the hotel.
· It must take into account the previous preparation in order to get a correct interpretation. In this case were lighting issues. This preparation spread it out also in the whole trip (to send confirmation e-mails to the hotel and ask for hotel's services, location of the fair and organization of the stands, airport-hotel-fair transport...).
· The difficulty to talk a language in which you are not native (in my case, English), with people who don't have neither English as native tongue (Chinese people, Danish, Bulgarian...). There is an important barrier, however much we know the language, that it is difficult to dodge. When we study English, we have our ears prepared to listen standard English, British or American. If is not that way is complicated to understand the other person.
Interpreter features:
1) Self-confidence: it is important to be self-confident and what you have to do. It is possible that we don't understand 100% what the other people says, but there is a lot of ways to say the same thing. The interpreter must be attentive and prepared in order to the message arrives correctly (say it another way, repeat the idea in order to know that is clear, write details and dates).
2) Patience: in a negotiation both parts want to get something and they will do their best to understand eachother. The interpreter has to have patiente and calm to explain in the best way possible what both parts want to say. It is possible that the person we have to interpret doesn't keep that calm, but in my opinion, the interpreter has to do it.
3) Professionalism: with the experience in interpretation that I have, I have realized the importance of professionalism and good manners that one should leave in his work. I mean kindness and respect towards people we deal with. Maybe it won't be always reciprocal, but the interpreter must be a professional, firm and quiet, and he should ignore what is irrelevant to his work.
I hope my experience has been helpful, specially if you want to be interpreter. Obviously I still have a lot to learn, but working is the way I learn the most.
