I don’t consider myself to be a man with many gifts.
Blessed, yes. Gifted, no.
There is, however, one talent that I certainly never take for granted: the ability to simultaneously translate for speakers from Italian to English, and, to a lesser extent, back the other way. I make friends with it, I get respect with it, and I earn a living with it.
This skill has been honed over years of acting as a bridge between cultures for family, friends, and business associates. It manifests itself to the highest degree when I stand beside an Italian-only winemaker and translate his or her presentation at a seminar, tasting or dinner.
I also joke that I believe all men have this inherent ability — otherwise how could we listen to our significant other and yet also keep up with the ballgame?
In all seriousness though, why bother with simultaneous? It’s based on a couple of my inherent personality traits and matching pet peeves, including:
- I have a bad memory. If I wait for the other person to finish their sentence before I start translating, I’ll probably have forgotten half of what they said.
- I’m short on patience. I don’t want to waste half the time hearing something I don’t understand before it’s explained to me, and my guess is most people today feel pretty much the same way.
If you have the ability to speak a foreign language, and find yourself next to a native speaker presenting to a foreign audience, you too can build proficiency at it. Here are ten nuggets to keep in mind if you do:
- Start by interpreting for yourself. Once you know a foreign language, it’s easy enough to slip into ‘native state of mind’ and just flow with it, but if you want to be a useful translator, practice working it through in your own language as often as possible.
- Offer yourself up as often as possible to translate for friends and family on informal occasions. The more congenial the situation, the better. That means make sure wine is involved. Wine may not make you fluent in another language, but it will help make you fluid in that language. Pun intended.
- Learn the topic vocabulary. When I first moved to Italy I could have great social conversations with people and understand the nightly news, but when it came time to give a winery tour, I was at a loss. I looked up and memorized the translations for rack-and-return, pump over, fermentation tank, tangential filtration, downy mildew vs. powder mildew on vines, and all that. If you are translating for hunters, learn the parts of the rifle and bullet calibers. If its cow herders, know your horn from your udder, your hoof from your tail.
- Talk to your ‘client’ in their native language for a while beforehand — learn the rhythm of their voice, their accent, their personal speaking idiosyncrasies, their way of speaking. Most importantly, express their energy when you translate/interpret for them! You are the linguistic version of them. I woud often introduce myself, when together with the speaker, as “So-and-so’s English.” Go beyond your comfort zone, if you must. I regularly translated for an Italian winemaker who was nick-named “the preacher” for his passionate “fire and brimstone” style; when I stood alongside him I felt like I was involved in a revivalist tent meeting – his energy took ahold of me and wouldn’t let go. Others were more tranquil and pedagogical, and I equally expressed that energy to their audience.
- Learn to interpret rather than translate — give the gist of what the person means, and don’t overthink it.. Unless the content is legalese or life threatening; then you better not vary too much! Otherwise, your job is to get the message across in terms that the audience can understand clearly, as faithfully as possible to the original message.
- Know your audience, too. You might have to put your speaker on pause to define a technical term he or she just threw out, or help explain the different cultural significance of a given concept or term.
- Don’t hesitate to speak under your breath to your speaker – quickly, clearly – if they make an culturally inappropriate reference, go on too long, need to elaborate more, or want to tell a joke what simply won’t translate. The relationship between the speaker and the audience is your responsibility, manage it carefully.
- Know when to take liberties. I have interpreted for winemakers who have a working knowledge of English but are just more comfortable presenting in their native tongue; they may correct the translation at times, and that’s ok – defer to them to keep the peace. On the other hand, I’ve translated for others who have no concept of the audience’s language let alone culture; when I knew a joke would not translate well, while the speaker thought I was simply translating, I was either tactfully explaining that fact or offering an alternative of my own. Just keep it in rhythm, and nobody gets offended.
- Don’t hesitate to insert a little humor. I repeat: a little, and only when appropriate. Explain to the speaker that you’re not making fun of them, just coloring the commentary to keep the audience awake and engaged, and you’ll be doing everybody a favor.
- Always warn the audience… and control the output. Before I launch into a simultaneous translation of a winemaker’s presentation, I like to let the audience know that they are about to hear what could seem to be an assault on the ears. This virtual shouting match could otherwise leave the audience not quite sure where they should look or to whom they should listen. If there are microphones available, make sure yours is the only one turned on. If anyone in the audience wants to hear the music of la bella lingua, then by all means they can tune in to the speaker; but if they want to get the facts, they should hear you.
Simple enough!