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Post by CaptainSeery on Nov 14, 2016 15:50:16 GMT 9
(I have done both of those examples. Once with warning. Once not. Both exhausting.) G-Rex is all of our AKOGALE NO SENPAI.
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G-Rex
Dead Stargod
killed SAKAMOTO LYOMA with crappa sushi
hi
Posts: 7,198
CIR Experience: Former CIR
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Post by G-Rex on Nov 14, 2016 16:01:46 GMT 9
okay so i already posted about this in the miffed thread before but let's just go through what happened with today's interpreting:
beforehand: > be asked to do lunch > question if there's anything else i need to do* > end up being asked to do all the 司会, all the 挨拶 and every single bit of 日ー>英 for the whole 3 hours or so > ask for 資料 and シナリオ、挨拶原稿 etc etc, and make sure i get them on time* > translate the シナリオ and paste it directly underneath each japanese segment and create my own bilingual copy > make sure to get a member list and titles. check spellings in romaji, don't trust katakana, and make sure that titles all seem correct.
day of: > translate a draft of all the 挨拶 and where you will interpret/cut in if it's not already decided (this should have been done earlier)** > create my own wad of 資料 and documents. i always find the nicest clipboard in the office (there's one in particular that i like) and take if. put all the 資料 in it in the order that you are going to use them. so i put all my 司会 in order, but then i slide in the 挨拶 where they are actually going to be said, so instead of flipping back and forth, i can just turn pages. create indexes to your names/titles list and other 参考資料 you might want to need in a pinch. i have made my own list of keywords before. top tip: put the index on the page before so you can grab the tab and just turn the page and that's where your page should be, rather than sticking the tab on the page you want. makes it easier to turn to that page. i also get a bunch of scrap paper from the miscopies pile and put them back to front at the very back of my wad of 資料. that way if i need to have blank note paper in a pinch, i can just flip over my wad of paper and i have writing paper right there. > meet everyone, and scope out their interpreter. say hello, and confirm pronouncuation/correctness of any names/titles of which you are unsure. confirm what you will be doing and what they will be doing, eg "基本的に i will do all the 日→英 and you do the opposite, yes? yes. yolosiku" > try say hello, meet the other visitors, guests, and the japanese side. at the very least mention to people that you will be helping with interpreting, and if possible make sure you know who is who so you don't mess up gesturing for someone to do something for example. > do the interpreting
*being proactive is the most important thing you can do ** even if they don't use it, it gives you important vocab and background info
now, things that japanese staff on all sides did/do that really help(ed) things go as smoothly as they did/do:
1) get me 資料 on time. they have 資料 if it's anyone worth translating for. there is no such thing as no 資料. tell them to send you anything and everything that they might use as 参考. if it's the governor/mayor, ask for a copy of what he's getting. 2) have someone confirm names and titles, both in japanese and english (so you know what you're listening out for) 3) have someone tell me who's going to be doing what, in what role, etc. just clarify who is there and why. 4) if it's a normal 職員 who might not be used to dealing with an interpreter, have them understand that it's necessary for them to pause for interpreting. confirm that they have accounted for double time/duration due to interpreting. 5) if non-native speakers, have them confirm they can indeed speak english 6) have someone confirm role, position, seat etc of interpreter(s). usually this is fine but sometimes they forget
there isn't really all that much that japanese speakers or staff can do to make this easier. if anything, my greatest advice is to trust no one and trust nothing that anyone says and make sure that you are asking all the right questions to make yourself feel at ease and comfortable. you know more than anyone what you need to do your interpreting well and you have to be proactive about asking for this information. the concept of interpreting doesn't enter many people's minds -- they don't know what is and isn't necessary so it's up to you to get that information from them. as far as they are concerned, you are a service that is paid for or being provided and that is everything. you don't matter as a person, and all that matters is the job is done. get them to help you do your job.
not sure if this is really adding anything to stuff that people have already said. honestly i don't really think about it a whole lot anymore. most important things are just knowing your speakers and your own capabilities/limits.
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G-Rex
Dead Stargod
killed SAKAMOTO LYOMA with crappa sushi
hi
Posts: 7,198
CIR Experience: Former CIR
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Post by G-Rex on Nov 14, 2016 16:06:30 GMT 9
- also bring your own water. ask hotel staff for water. today i had to gesture to a coworker to bring me and the other interpreter a glass of water during the lunch because apparently that isn't obvious. - bring at least 2 pens. my go-to combo is a nice pen that writes big and fat lines so i can see it well and is satisfying to jot down notes with. the other is a black/red/pencil thing. that way i have 4 writing options just in case something happens with a pen. - bring mints. no one likes an interpreter with coffee breath (beware cos they make you pee more so account for toilet breaks and your bladder limits) - SMILE. someone has to smile during these 表敬訪問 gdi so make that person you. it will make you feel more relaxed and give others confidence in your abilities
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 14, 2016 16:11:07 GMT 9
- also bring your own water. ask hotel staff for water. today i had to gesture to a coworker to bring me and the other interpreter a glass of water during the lunch because apparently that isn't obvious. - bring at least 2 pens. my go-to combo is a nice pen that writes big and fat lines so i can see it well and is satisfying to jot down notes with. the other is a black/red/pencil thing. that way i have 4 writing options just in case something happens with a pen. - bring mints. no one likes an interpreter with coffee breath (beware cos they make you pee more so account for toilet breaks and your bladder limits) - SMILE. someone has to smile during these 表敬訪問 gdi so make that person you. it will make you feel more relaxed and give others confidence in your abilities okay but once I was told I couldn't have water because as an interpreter I wasn't ERAI/OKYAKUSAN
should I SMACKDOWN them on that??
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G-Rex
Dead Stargod
killed SAKAMOTO LYOMA with crappa sushi
hi
Posts: 7,198
CIR Experience: Former CIR
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Post by G-Rex on Nov 14, 2016 16:12:58 GMT 9
hue yes
interpreting is thirsty work, and god forbid you don't want to be that interpreter using a mic and having dry sticky mouth syndrome ugh that sound grosses me out so much
bringing your own water ensures that you have some kind of hydration. when i finished today i had a bangin headache cos all i had was a glass of water
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Post by Sparkles on Nov 14, 2016 16:27:14 GMT 9
> meet everyone, and scope out their interpreter. say hello, and confirm pronouncuation/correctness of any names/titles of which you are unsure. confirm what you will be doing and what they will be doing, eg "基本的に i will do all the 日→英 and you do the opposite, yes? yes. yolosiku" > try say hello, meet the other visitors, guests, and the japanese side. at the very least mention to people that you will be helping with interpreting, and if possible make sure you know who is who so you don't mess up gesturing for someone to do something for example. if anything, my greatest advice is to trust no one and trust nothing that anyone says and make sure that you are asking all the right questions to make yourself feel at ease and comfortable. you know more than anyone what you need to do your interpreting well and you have to be proactive about asking for this information. ^^^ THIS. (I wish I was able to work more where there was a second interpreter....) 確認 things as many times as you need. Be explicit to your Japanese coworkers about what you need and when you need it. Ideally ask far in advance and keep asking regularly about things until the day of the event. And if you show up and everything they told you doesn't apply anymore, you Fake It Till You Make It[soup]TM[/soup] -- and as G-Rex says eventually you get used to it enough that you don't have to think about it much anymore. (The same also applies to me a lot of the time now -- I'll often do interpretation in the "extremely prepared yet winging it" style, aka I do absolutely as much proactive 準備 as I can but then accept that the day of there may (read: probably) will be last-minute changes or maybe even a completely different thing that suddenly happens, in which case it's important to stay outwardly calm and professional (you can panic a little on the inside but your fellow CIRs believe in you!) and go with the flow. It's also sometimes worth investigating whether your people really should hire a pro interpreter (sometimes this isn't feasible because of the budget) for certain events or topics, especially if you do a lot of interpreting and/or ATENDO. (In my recent long ATENDO of the engineering KENSYUUSEI, first we figured out how many days required interpretation. Then we figured out how much budget we had for interpreting and split up the days between me and the pro interpreter(s), considering my regular CIR workload, how exhausted I would be by interpreting, and how much specialist vocabulary was likely to come up. Out of the 8 or so days interpreting was definitely required, I think I did about five...? Kouhai CIR also took 1 so I think we had enough budget left to hire a good pro interpreter for 2 full days.)
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Post by CaptainSeery on Nov 14, 2016 16:31:13 GMT 9
WTH they told you you weren't ERAI enough for WATER? It doesn't have to be bottled water, it can just be from the tap and cost them NOTHING. WTH Yes, SMACKDOWN them on that. Like G-Rex said it's thirsty work. You're probably going to be talking more than anyone (if you're the only interpreter there), cause you're translating what everyone is saying. It can dry you out in a really short time.
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G-Rex
Dead Stargod
killed SAKAMOTO LYOMA with crappa sushi
hi
Posts: 7,198
CIR Experience: Former CIR
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Post by G-Rex on Nov 14, 2016 16:33:36 GMT 9
interpreting is hard work but it's probably been the most rewarding part of my job and i enjoy doing it and knowing that i was the reason something happened and went okay
keep at it and it's great
don't think i'd want to do it full time though. maybe a cheeky SIKAI on the side or somethign in the future
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Deleted
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Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Nov 14, 2016 16:37:41 GMT 9
WTH they told you you weren't ERAI enough for WATER? It doesn't have to be bottled water, it can just be from the tap and cost them NOTHING. WTH Yes, SMACKDOWN them on that. Like G-Rex said it's thirsty work. You're probably going to be talking more than anyone (if you're the only interpreter there), cause you're translating what everyone is saying. It can dry you out in a really short time. Yeah my KA organized all the HYOUKEIHOUMON and they put a water bottle and paper cup at every seat for our ERAI people who would KOURYUU with the OKYAKUSAN (each of whom also got a bottle and a cup). Random people sitting in back (who just observed and did not speak) didn't get water.
I asked if I could have one and they said no because apparently someone outside of those two groups having a bottle of water would just throw off the balance/symbolism. Also it seemed like they didn't want me drinking in front of everyone because it would be distracting...? Idk it was weird.
I mean I should have thought to brought my own... But still. :/ I'll be sure to SMACKDOWN them on that from now on.
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Post by miscreative on Nov 14, 2016 16:41:41 GMT 9
WTH they told you you weren't ERAI enough for WATER? It doesn't have to be bottled water, it can just be from the tap and cost them NOTHING. WTH Yes, SMACKDOWN them on that. Like G-Rex said it's thirsty work. You're probably going to be talking more than anyone (if you're the only interpreter there), cause you're translating what everyone is saying. It can dry you out in a really short time. Yeah my KA organized all the HYOUKEIHOUMON and they put a water bottle and paper cup at every seat for our ERAI people who would KOURYUU with the OKYAKUSAN (each of whom also got a bottle and a cup). Random people sitting in back (who just observed and did not speak) didn't get water.
I asked if I could have one and they said no because apparently someone outside of those two groups having a bottle of water would just throw off the balance/symbolism. Also it seemed like they didn't want me drinking in front of everyone because it would be distracting...? Idk it was weird.
I mean I should have thought to brought my own... But still. :/ I'll be sure to SMACKDOWN them on that from now on.
if it was a 30 min one (like most of mine are) you can bring your own to have right before and right after (not during, so that you dont ruin the aesthetic or whatever) and hide it in your bag during?
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Post by shanshan310 on Feb 13, 2017 15:34:13 GMT 9
Any advice for a first time interpreter? I’m interpreting for a sake seminar and tasting with 80ish winery people from GAIKOK. No script but the brewery gave me a lot of English pamphlets with information on them so I’ve been trying to learn about sake and wine / memorise vocabulary but I am slightly concerned about messing up, especially with all the specialty vocabulary and the industry people there…
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Post by むちゃRABU❤ on Feb 13, 2017 15:50:57 GMT 9
Any advice for a first time interpreter? I’m interpreting for a sake seminar and tasting with 80ish winery people from GAIKOK. No script but the brewery gave me a lot of English pamphlets with information on them so I’ve been trying to learn about sake and wine / memorise vocabulary but I am slightly concerned about messing up, especially with all the specialty vocabulary and the industry people there… I have never done this but on hindsight one of the things you can do is to let the guests know before you start that you are not a professional and you lack knowledge in matters relating to the business so please excuse if you make mistakes or explain further, thank you. if you can do that, you should be peachy I think.
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Post by CaptainSeery on Feb 13, 2017 15:57:36 GMT 9
That's a lot of people for a first time interpreting... Ditto what むちゃRABU❤ said. Make sure the brewery knows that you are a newbie at interpreting and are not an expert on sake (or wine), so as much as possible please use simple, not-specialized language. Don't be afraid to ask for clarification about something if you need it.
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Post by shanshan310 on Feb 13, 2017 16:46:58 GMT 9
Thanks I'll definitely try to make that clear at the beginning. Mostly I just wish I had a bit more time to prepare.. We only had the initial uchiawase on thursday and I had to do an event over the weekend :/ The brewer did take me on a little tour today and I guess that gave him an indication of where my knowledge of sake and sake words was at.
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Post by CaptainSeery on Feb 14, 2017 13:34:48 GMT 9
That's good that you got to scope it out beforehand! So often there's no uchiawase and no chance to do that, so that's a big help. Good luck!
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Post by miscreative on Feb 14, 2017 14:13:22 GMT 9
make sure you understand the process. having gone on a tour you are already a leg up. study the vocab terms. honestly, i have found that the brewery tours are actually relatively easy because you study a set of like 20 words and you have the majority of the tour down
again. ask the dude to explain it in layman's terms.
and remember. you just being there. even if you only get 60% of it. that is more than they would have gotten without you.
relax! brewery tours are typically laid back and chill. dont be afraid to confirm what a word means with the guide like "by blah blah you mean the thing that does this?" or whatever.
rambly but i hope it helps?
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Post by CaptainSeery on Mar 15, 2017 16:52:33 GMT 9
I dunno where else to put this, but:
If you ever have to do aisatsu interpretations, you should get the book 英語スピーチ通訳 (Textbook for Interpreting Formal Speech) by ピンカートン曄子 and 篠田顕子.
It was recommended to me about a month ago, and already it has been an enormous help. I haven't actually had time to sit through and read it, but there's lots of great examplea and lists of good, natural sounding translations for a lot of those set aisatsu phrases. Even just as a reference book it's wonderful.
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Post by miscreative on Mar 23, 2017 13:59:16 GMT 9
some New Lagoon specific info but i share what my pred wrote because i assume some of you will find the info and/or the format helpful
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Post by Cantamen on May 15, 2018 11:56:31 GMT 9
Does anyone have advice on how to do Madoguchi-TUUYAK?
I've done a few 市長表現 interpretations and they went well enough, but the only time I tried to do madoguchi interpreting, I crashed and burned. Hard. It was a sudden "get to the main building ASAP" kind of thing though, so I had 0 time to prepare or look up any specialized vocab, so I'm looking to go into the next one more prepared. I more or less know what the mayor is going to talk about beforehand, but with madoguchi there is much less information beforehand, and also lots of names of documents I don't know.
This time around I got some advance notice: tomorrow I will be helping out someone who just moved here to be trained at one of our hospitals. I think they are a native speaker, but it will be a new accent for me. I have to help him with all of the new-resident paperwork and procedures at the Madoguchi, and maybe get hanko or open a bank account? It's not super clear, just "help them with moving proceedures" but I don't really remember my own residency paperwork/steps because jetlag and my soup handled almost everything with me mostly along for the ride.
Does anyone have any advice for this situation, and/or for madoguchi in particular? It's more intimidating to me than other kinds of interpreting.
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Post by Ham on May 15, 2018 13:17:21 GMT 9
I actually just went through this a few weeks ago when someone came over and went, "Hey Ham, there's a foreigner in the hallway. Can you go see what they need?" and had to help someone do their residence paperwork and health care stuff. I was totally unprepared and kind of just bumbled through the whole thing, so no real advice to give, but WAKALU and GAMBATS.
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Post by shanshan310 on May 15, 2018 13:23:50 GMT 9
At least you have time to prep this time! I’m sure we received some kind of welcome packet with all those key form names etc on them that you can look at. My tactic so far has just been to make it clear I’ll do my best but I’m not a professional interpreter and may not have the vocab for technical stuff, and then to ask for clarification whenever necessary. Usually staff are good about explaining what all the documents mean in layman’s terms if you ask them. It also helps I guess to study up on some of the things you think would be likely to come up? E.g. most of my madoguchi TUYAKs have been setting up new residents, or helping current business owners with tax stuff, and after the first time I just wrote down all the stuff we did and tried to study that kind of vocab so I’d know it for next time.
TBH though everyone I’ve helped was pretty spun out about trying to do stuff on their own and me just being there, even if I messed up, made a big difference in what they could get done and how stressed they were about the whole situation. So don’t worry too much about missing something or messing up.
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Mumblesnore
Dead Stargod
’Tis the season (for Eggnog)
Posts: 16,153
CIR Experience: Former CIR
Location: Tokyo
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Post by Mumblesnore on May 16, 2018 13:44:42 GMT 9
~~cut for space~~ now, things that japanese staff on all sides did/do that really help(ed) things go as smoothly as they did/do:
1) get me 資料 on time. they have 資料 if it's anyone worth translating for. there is no such thing as no 資料. tell them to send you anything and everything that they might use as 参考. if it's the governor/mayor, ask for a copy of what he's getting. 2) have someone confirm names and titles, both in japanese and english (so you know what you're listening out for) 3) have someone tell me who's going to be doing what, in what role, etc. just clarify who is there and why. 4) if it's a normal 職員 who might not be used to dealing with an interpreter, have them understand that it's necessary for them to pause for interpreting. confirm that they have accounted for double time/duration due to interpreting. 5) if non-native speakers, have them confirm they can indeed speak english 6) have someone confirm role, position, seat etc of interpreter(s). usually this is fine but sometimes they forgetthere isn't really all that much that japanese speakers or staff can do to make this easier. if anything, my greatest advice is to trust no one and trust nothing that anyone says and make sure that you are asking all the right questions to make yourself feel at ease and comfortable. you know more than anyone what you need to do your interpreting well and you have to be proactive about asking for this information. the concept of interpreting doesn't enter many people's minds -- they don't know what is and isn't necessary so it's up to you to get that information from them. as far as they are concerned, you are a service that is paid for or being provided and that is everything. you don't matter as a person, and all that matters is the job is done. get them to help you do your job. not sure if this is really adding anything to stuff that people have already said. honestly i don't really think about it a whole lot anymore. most important things are just knowing your speakers and your own capabilities/limits. .... :o だmn. I think I can relate to your average fantasy novel more than I can relate to this post. I've never received a GEMKOH in my life, and I've literally been laughed at in my face for even asking for one. This just shows that my town doesn't know jack しt about how to actually deal with/provide for interpreters.
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Post by miscreative on May 16, 2018 13:55:46 GMT 9
Cantamen how did it go? what did you learn?
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Post by Cantamen on May 16, 2018 14:58:55 GMT 9
it went totally fine haha. Just "fill in your name here." "write your today's date, oh woops we need heisei 30 not 2018" etc.
kincho for nothing.
I think my first madoguchi guy just had a complicated situation.
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leximaha
Tried natto; not a fan
Posts: 59
CIR Experience: Former CIR
Location: Nagano
Gender (Pronouns): she/her/hers
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Post by leximaha on Aug 7, 2019 12:57:31 GMT 9
ごめんね、this is definitely in the "etc." category rather than tips or advice, but I just survived my first いきなり通訳!(what's the official/CIRHP name for this?) Someone came in to the 市役所 wondering about a lot of specifics regarding his social security options and I nearly died grasping for the words to describe his very specific 複雑 situation, but luckily my 室長 was nearby and helped me piece together all the necessary info for the guy. It was good 勉強 at least! Hopefully the next round will go more smoothly!
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leximaha
Tried natto; not a fan
Posts: 59
CIR Experience: Former CIR
Location: Nagano
Gender (Pronouns): she/her/hers
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Post by leximaha on Sept 2, 2019 11:27:12 GMT 9
Me again! I have my first big official 通訳 event coming up, and I'm quite nervous because it'll be held largely in English (Meaning I do the dreaded 英>日) and the event coordinator hasn't sent any official speech outlines or transcripts over for me to look at beforehand. I feel like I'm going in totally blind so I'm freaking out a bit any tips for when the 資料 are lacking?
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Post by miscreative on Sept 2, 2019 16:56:19 GMT 9
Me again! I have my first big official 通訳 event coming up, and I'm quite nervous because it'll be held largely in English (Meaning I do the dreaded 英>日) and the event coordinator hasn't sent any official speech outlines or transcripts over for me to look at beforehand. I feel like I'm going in totally blind so I'm freaking out a bit any tips for when the 資料 are lacking? i would suggest (if you have time) start researching the event, what they talk about, etc to get as familiar as you can with the words/official names/concepts that will come up otherwise, be firm with your need to get those SHIRYO asap. and then reconcile yourself to the fact that you were set up for failure (so you are not to blame for subpar TUUYAK) and remember that just by being there interpreting, getting ANYTHING across is still better than no one being there good luck!!
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Post by 🌼🐝 on Sept 3, 2019 9:35:36 GMT 9
Me again! I have my first big official 通訳 event coming up, and I'm quite nervous because it'll be held largely in English (Meaning I do the dreaded 英>日) and the event coordinator hasn't sent any official speech outlines or transcripts over for me to look at beforehand. I feel like I'm going in totally blind so I'm freaking out a bit any tips for when the 資料 are lacking? Anytime my sister city vists I have to do ALL the interpreting for the whole week, and while I can prepare a lot for the Japanese to English (because I bug people until they give me the needed 資料). I don't get any 資料 for the English content so I cant really do much preparation for the English to Japanese... My best advice would be to do as much research as you can to get an idea of the kind of stuff they will say. Also, when I don't get 資料 in advance I always put together some phrases to use when I struggle so I can smoothly (but 適当に) say something that somewhat fits.
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leximaha
Tried natto; not a fan
Posts: 59
CIR Experience: Former CIR
Location: Nagano
Gender (Pronouns): she/her/hers
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Post by leximaha on Sept 4, 2019 13:02:25 GMT 9
miscreative 🌼🐝 SEMPAI THANK YOU! I have been doing research on the event as much as is possible, and after reading your advice I feel better about just going for it with as much externally amassed inforamtion as I can and trying to have a fun time while doing it (^v^; ) They also just now changed the schedule by adding a day of interpreting for the opening ceremony of a new Olympic Museum building so I'm just kind of in that Zen しょうがない mode
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leximaha
Tried natto; not a fan
Posts: 59
CIR Experience: Former CIR
Location: Nagano
Gender (Pronouns): she/her/hers
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Post by leximaha on Sept 19, 2019 22:58:05 GMT 9
Update: I made it through my first tsuuyak experience! The format was strange because my small group was the only one out of 30 that didn't speak English so the presentations were quick and didn't give time for interpretation in between or anything like that. I kind of just had to string together the most important points as we went and whisper them to the people around me so they could try to follow the flow of the conference. But, considering how few resources I was provided with beforehand, I think I did pretty okay. And I definitely learned a lot about how I can improve, so I'm feeling like my next go at it will be better! Thanks for all the advice! \(^v^)/
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