Here are some suggestion for translators given by translation master Lu jiaxiang.
1. As a translator, you should:
Read Chian Daily, Beijing Review, Times, Economist regularly;
Learn science and social knowledge of various industries to be a “know it all”;
Develop a solid foundation both in Chinese and English.
2. As a translator, you should be clear to structure of organizations in China, USA, UN and so on.
3. As a translator, you should learn how to use all kinds of tools – computer, corpus, dictionary, reference books…
4. As a translator, you should be able to sit still for a long time, be patient when you do the written translations.
5. When you get an interpretation job, whether it is consecutive or simultaneous,you should:
be familiar with the conference agenda, staffing and speech ahead of schedule;
Read the speech carefully, highlight important points;
Arrive the site earlier with paper and pen, write down the time, name, address and so on;
Adjust the microphone, pay attention to the distance between mouth and microphone;
Organize files by sequence of use;
Help your partner;
6. Don’t be close to speaker while you are doing a consecutive interpretation.
7 When you are doing simultaneous interpretation, you should be able to see the facial expressions, gestures of speaker clearly, as well as the text, charts on the screen. If not, you can take the telescope.
8 When you are doing interpretation, you should have your own note symbols, definitely not the same as shorthand.
9. Working as an interpreter, if the speaker don’t stop talking, or have no pause for a long time, you should interrupt the speaker politely; If you find mistakes during you interpretation, be sure to correct yourself with courtesy.
10. Learn about the court interpretation, foreign criminal is very common in China at present;
11. Interpreters should do a lot of sight translation exercises;
12. To contact an interpreter for different accent (accent) ability to identify; attention to audio and other materials, practice long (hours);
13. translators in the translation, we should note rate of speech, punctuation, logic, etc., usually to do sooner or later, reading, training their pubic region of the gas, speech skill, etc.; interpreter, the speaker should pay attention to the speed rate of speech, word sentence repetition, mantra, curse, etc. handling of the situation;
14. interpreters per interpreters to carry voice recorder, recorded live under their own interpretation;
15. interpreters to pay attention to their own health, attention to sleep (circadian bio-clock), diet and so on;
16. interpreters have their own clear career planning;
17. translators to and participating companies, institutions, and so do the positive and effective communication, but remember ethics, translation company affiliated interpreters can not skip directly with customers; interpreter must not leak confidential information the participants;
18. interpreters regardless of any situation encountered, should calm-keep calm and continue to go for it;
Lu emphasized:
1. The situation of translator surplus won’t be emerged for now;
2. There is no age limit for simultaneous interpretation;
3. I hope young translators contribute yourself to the country’s translation industry.
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