How should an interpreter behave in different working situations, how should he dress and chose his place at an event, what should he do in case of a conflict? Let us try to answer these questions.
Vlad Belousov, member of the Union of translators of Russia, author of text-books and training courses for oil and gas translators and interpreters.
An important factor of interpreter’s success is correct behavior at different official events and working meetings. Actually it is mainly related to consecutive interpreters, because participants of events normally do not see simultaneous interpreters or translators.
What situations may arise in the process of interpreter’s work, and what rules should be followed? If you work in the office or at any official event, think about style of your clothes. Such issue the interpreter can always discuss with the organizer. In most cases it is business style, however, in case of unofficial corporate or sports event they can ask you to wear casual clothes. Endorse this issue with the customer in advance in order not to be a “black sheep” and stay low key.
In the process of work an interpreter must not attract attention with clothes, abrupt motions or other specifics of behavior. He should keep low profile as much as possible. Therefore it is better to avoid bright items of clothing, for example, a red tie or a scarf. Those interpreters who consider themselves to be “stars”, and there are many of them among us, also should remember that people came to the event to resolve their tasks, but not to the personal benefit performance of the interpreter, therefore it is better to be modest.
Of course, you do not need just to follow restrictions. In some cases it is important to take the lead. If you are shy or afraid to do that, the entire event can be put at risk. But what “liberties” can an interpreter take and in what situations? First, it concerns the location of the interpreter, for example, at a meeting. Definitely, first of all you need to understand who is the person that you are going to interpret. When there are many people, and the room is big, and there is no microphone, try to take a seat close to the speaker, if the notions “on the right hand” and “on the left hand” are not strictly regulated in a specific company. When possible, it can be done even before start of the event. Thus significant convenience can be provided both for the speaker and for the very interpreter.
I remember one meeting at very high level. Though I already described this case in a different article, I will tell it again as the most suitable for this topic. The Russian poet and bard Vladimir Vysotskiy once said: “I have the right to steal from myself”. And I will also do that. Then I worked as an interpreter of HSE vice-president in one oil and gas company in Moscow. That vice-president was and American lady, and once she managed to arrange a meeting of HSE vice-presidents from all major oil and gas companies working that time in Russia. I did not know about that, and she was sure, that an interpreter will be definitely provided for a meeting of such level, however just before the departure she suddenly decided also to take me “just in case”.
But of course, when we arrived, there was no interpreter there. I did not know even the topic of the meeting, to say nothing of its content. But that was not the most important. The most important was practical impossibility to work. There were many people, all of them sitting at the same very long table. So long that from its one end you could not hear and understand what they wanted to ask you from the other end. And there were no microphones. I tried to interpret, but soon realized that they could not hear me, and I could not hear them. I also saw that many participants even without my interpretation could understand the American lady, who also did not stand in one place, but was walking around part of the table. Possibly from psychological point of view it could be explained as an attempt of domination.
Then I had to stop her and loudly asked people in the room: “Who of you here doesn’t understand English?” And only two persons sitting together raised their hands. After that I just took a place near them and began whisper interpreting. The meeting passed smoothly. This is just an example showing that sometimes you may and need to go beyond bounds in order to improve the situation in general.
Consecutive interpretation in operations is significantly different from interpretation in the office. There is no need to think about style of clothes, because everybody wears working clothes. And relationship is much simpler. But definitely, it has its specifics. Because of operational noise, sometimes you have to nearly shout in the process of interpretation. Arguments and even conflicts also can be frequent in operations. What to do in such case? First the counterparts talk calmly, then they start to argue and one of them may switch over to shouting, the other joins him, now both are shouting, but not at each other, but at the source of unpleasant words – the interpreter, particularly if he also starts to demonstrate emotions.
When it happened to me for the first time, I analyzed the situation in detail, decided that I did something incorrectly, and probably found the solution. I can suggest several recommendations. Definitely, an interpreter may have personal opinion about the situation, however from professional point of view he should keep distance not demonstrating emotions. He should just interpret. At that instant and in such situation the interpreter is just a machine.
It is absolutely unprofessional for an interpreter to take somebody’s side in a conflict in the process of interpretation. It is quite different if you do it before or after.
Well, and the last point. When I hear that a consecutive interpreter starts interpretation of each statement of a person with the words: “He says that…” or “He said that…”, I personally think that I see and amateur, but not a professional. I would recommend to always interpret from the first person. First, it saves time for interpretation. And second, no matter how strange it sounds, but that takes the interpreter out of the conflict turning him into just a language processor providing the pronounced sentence in a foreign language.
I described just several points associated with interpreter’s behavior in the process of work. Definitely, it is a wide area containing multiple aspects that should be studied as a separate discipline.
