Писал для LinkedIn, поэтому на английском. Об одной из тех вещей, что отличают опытного устного переводчика от начинающего – предвидении типовых ситуаций.

One of the subtle things that differentiates a seasoned interpreter from a greenhorn one is the ability to anticipate the typical situations that might require interpreting.

Imagine your average talks on arms control. What would typically come up at an event like this? Nuclear sharing? Forward basing? Silo launchers? Sure. But these are the known unknowns.

Once the business is done (however badly the talks went) there will probably be a reception or a dinner. What will be served? Local specialty! And the local specialty will be different in American mid-West and on the East Coast, in late spring in St Petersburg and in winter in Kazan. Knowing your steak cuts and seafoods is different from knowing your flavored vodkas and local chakchak variety ;)

Where does the job take place? Is there a must-see local attraction in the vicinity? If there is one, chances are, your del will be taken there. It could be a local history museum, it could be a box-tree grove, it could be a Martin Luther King Jr (or Nelson Mandela) monument, it could be a medieval chateau, it could be the St Andrew hall of Kremlin with the battlefield pictures showing some event from Napoleonic wars.

All of which will require a specific vocabulary and/or knowledge of a very particular period of history. Enter hang-ups of "dayum, I should've learnt that in school" sort. They need not to. Regardless of received wisdom, professional interpreter is not the guy (or gal) who knows all the words in a foreign language. But they know (or learn to know) what kind of things they are more likely to encounter.

An important part of interpreter's training (and self-paced training) is not just learning new things. It is learning what to learn in the first (second, third) place. As in sim interpreting proper, ranking the novelty and importance of incoming information is king.

https://youtu.be/oN8ELUd_O8g

This is one of those skills that we consistently train in our practice group in a friendly, supportive and stress-free environment. By the way, new practice cycle starts tomorrow and this is the last chance to get on board this year.

New schedule is Monday-Thursday, 8pm - 9:30 pm (that's right, that's the evening group). Send me a DM if you're interested (here, on LinkedIn, or better yet in Telegram - my handler there is @ocapmycap)