Talks and Conversations 4

Welcome to my lecture on interpreting. Interpreting is a relatively new area of research. It is all too often subsumed under the heading of translation. For example, many translators associations include interpreters. Many books on translation include a section on interpreting. Many translators do some interpreting work and vice versa. Of course, there is an overlap between the two areas that are so alike and yet so different. All of this means that interpreting is still in the process of establishing itself as a discipline in its own right.

My aim in this lecture is to provide an overview of interpreting to anyone interested in interpreting in general, or indeed in becoming an interpreter. For years, I have been collecting information about international and regional organizations in this field. I was quite surprised about some of the results of the questionnaire.

Firstly, with the exceptions of the European Union and the United nations, the actual number of interpreters employed by many organizations is quite small.

Secondly, I have not found any support for the common notion that interpreters do not have a lifelong career that they work solidly for five years or so, earning quite a lot of money, and then disappear into the sunset. On the contrary, they continue to work as interpreters until retirement age, and in some cases, beyond it.

Thirdly, English is the international language of business, and it’s used in boardrooms and business meetings throughout the world. English is also the international language of science. In the 1960s and 1970s of the last century when foreign languages were not like widely taught, many international conferences needed interpreters. Nowadays, most educated people learn foreign languages. And as a result, the need for interpreters at this type of meeting has diminished.

Questions:

23. Who are most likely to be interested in the lecture?

24. Which of the following is not true about interpreting?

25. What is the common notion about interpreters?

26. What accounts for the smaller number of conference interpreters today?

【评析】

本文节选自美国作家费伦的The Interpreter's Resource（口译员的资源），属于“外教社翻译硕士专业系列教材”口译实践指南丛书。内容上，先是讲口译与翻译的一些区别，然后说明是要对口译做概述，最后提出在调查研究中发现的一些比较奇怪的现象，包括：①公司录用口译者很少；②并没有任何证据表明口译者 的工作是吃青春饭的；③现在社会对商务和科学方面的口译者的需求正在减少。文章介绍的都是口译翻译相关的词汇，这些词本身并没有太大的难度，属于考生比较熟悉的词汇范围之内。