It is often said that an interpreter must have a good memory. But this statement, we can say largely fair, somewhat to mislead. It seems to imply that, among other things, the translator must be able to recall in minute detail all that he or she read or experienced several years ago. Given this ability to recall would be a valuable approach for every person but it is not so important for an interpreter. Interpreters work in a momentary mode, so they need to keep in mind and remember what was just said by the other participants in the communicative situation in which they work on that day. In other words, all they need to have a good short-term memory. Memory in the consecutive interpretation cannot be considered in a vacuum. On the one hand, it correlates with auditory perception and analysis of the text, on the other hand — with the reproduction of it in another language. Memory in the consecutive interpretation deals with the text, which usually consists of words or a series of unrelated words. Therefore, numbers and words in lists are not a very good choice for exercises to hold information in short-term memory. And this is even more just with respect to letters, since remembering a group of unrelated letters does not apply to ordinary mental activity. For the development of short-term memory in realistic conditions, we need short texts in which individual words can be analyzed in context and stored in memory in the form of blocks of information rather than just acoustic or visual-spatial elements.
«Parroting» implies the repetition of the speaker's speech word for word in the same language. When speech is repeated, you need to lag behind the speaker by one or two words. This delay can be gradually increased as the person who repeats the speech adapts to the essence of the exercise. «Parroting» is an exercise usually performed in preparation for consecutive and simultaneous interpretations, since the translator is thus trained to listen and speak simultaneously. For example:
Speaker:(Uzbek) Туркиядаги сиёсатчилар мамлакатнинг фавқулодда ҳолатини 19 октябрга қадар тўртинчи марта кенгайтиришга овоз берди. Interpreter:
Speaker:(Russian) Политики Турции проголосовали за продление чрезвычайного положения страны в четвертый раз до 19 октября.Interpreter:
(English version: Turkey’s politicians have voted to extend the country’s state of emergency for a fourth time until October 19.)
«Parroting» as an exercise is also good for the development of memory, as it encourages the interpreter to store in memory and recall small groups of sounds, words and blocks of information for a relatively short period of time. Nevertheless, this exercise is complicated by the fact that the speaker keeps talking while the translator remembers the previous segment. Since this forces the interpreter to listen and speak simultaneously, which increases the difficultness of the exercise, he or she cannot fully benefits from the exercise for the sake of memory development, at least not at the beginning of the memory training.
Material for exercise: any text is suitable. The initial texts should be no more than 100 words long, although they can be gradually increased. Sample text:
Uzbek text: Юқори даражада музокаралар якунида турли соҳаларда Ўзбекистон-Хитой муносабатларини ривожлантиришга қаратилган бир қатор ҳукуматлараро, идоралараро ва бошқа ҳужжатлар имзоланиши кутилмоқда. Шунингдек, икки мамлакатнинг этакчи корхоналари савдо, иқтисодий, сармоявий ва молиявий келишувлар ва битимларнинг муҳим пакетини тузиши кутилмоқда.
Russiantext: Ожидается, что переговоры на высоком уровне заключат с подписанием ряда межправительственных, межучережденческих и других документов, направленных на углубление узбекско-китайских связей в различных областях. Аналогичным образом, ожидается, что ведущие предприятия двух стран заключат значительный пакет торговых, экономических, инвестиционных и финансовых соглашений и соглашений.
Preparation: If you are trained separately, you will need to pre-record on the tape texts with a normal speech temp. However, if you are limited in time, you can practice «parroting» mode, using short segments of speech (preferably news) broadcast on radio or television. If you work in a group, you can ask one participant to read the selected text aloud, while the other participant will repeat it afterwards.
Using the micro review [1] in consecutive interpretation can make easy the semantic sequence of the speech of the speaker. Micro review expresses the main content of the information. It develops mainly the guessing and predicting skill. It is a kind of text compression. So, micro review makes an edited sensible text. It has the aim for the students to find the main gist of the speech and to express the main content of it. In micro review the main attention is concentrated to the main content of the message.
For example (Uzbek): Нью-Йорк яқинидаги бир шаҳарда реактив самолётлар ишлаб чиқадиган 4 та Репаблик Авиэйшн заводининг ишчилари иш ташлашди. Касаба союз маъмуриатнинг айтишича,тўқнашувда 12000 та ишчи қатнашган. The micro review will be: Нью-Йоркда 4 та авиация заводнинг 12000 та ишчиси иш ташлашди.
Forexample (Russian): Как передает, корреспондент агентство Юнайтед Пресс в одном городке Нью-Йорка забастовали рабочие четырех заводов фирмы Репаблик Авиэйшн, на которых производятся реактивные истребители и управляемые снаряды. По заявлению представителей профсоюза, в конфликте участвует 12000 рабочие.Themicroreviewwillbe: Забастовали 12000 рабочие на четырех авиационных заводах Нью-Йорка.Themicroreviewintargetlanguagewillbe: In New York there was a strike of 12000 workers in four aircraft plants. Compression is the reduction in size of speech. During the oral translation from mother tongue into English the compression is used when there are repetitions, words of little importance or when the speaker is too fast. In order not to be behind the speaker and not to miss important segments of his speech the interpreter has to choose between lexical and syntactical equivalents which must be compressed. For example (Uzbek): Бу киши ўзини ёмон эканлигини ва салбий сифатга эга эканлигини тан олди, ўз айбига иқрор бўлди. Forexample (Russian): Он признал свою вину, признав себя плохим и отрицательным. Word for word translation: He admitted his guilt, admitting himself to be bad and negative. Compression: This man was self-confessed. Our investigation showed that more complicated verbose semantic word groups of the Uzbek language may be substituted by a few words in its English translation.
These exercises train the interpretation skill and are done by all the students. They activate all the students to take a part in interpretation. Such kind of exercises may serve the students to avoid word for word translation and to think of the main idea of the sentence. Also, Parroting exercise is good for the development of memory in the process of teaching consecutive and simultaneous interpretations’ classes.
References:
- A. M. Muminov. “A Guide to consecutive translation”Tashkent-2013, p25/
