INTERPRETERS’ SAGA

Translation is a human activity known since ancient times and an
interpreter or a translator is among the oldest professions dating back to
the biblical era and earlier. We know about translation as much or as little
as our ancestors. By tradition it has been outside the mainstream of
linguistic science and philosophy. But it would be wrong to say that
research of translation was scarce or the results were futile. There are still
vast black areas in translation theory and practice to be addressed by
linguists, interpreters and translators. They say: Translation is an art,
interpreting is a craft. Craftsmanship is of an old make.

Relatively low quality of translation was generally satisfactory for
the existing market. Until the introduction of computers and market
globalisation the flows of multilingual information in the world had been
rather fragmented. Finally, translation is one of the most complex
problems that the human intellect may face.
The major strategies of an interpreter are bifunctional: to comprehend
what has been said and to render it in another language. The realization of
the illocutionary goal demands much effort on the part of an interpreter.
Diverse vectors of his speech activities, vital problems of oral translation,
etiquette, social niceties confront an interpreter in his polifunctionality.

Onе should make his audience comfortable with short words and
sentences. Figures and proper names should be pronounced correctly and
confidently. Report and rapport should go together for not only
information but also the way it is presented matters much in speech
activity.

It is crucial that a medium is to follow the audience's reaction to
his speech and make readjustments go.

A translator is to exercise his craftsmanship through developing
skills of text comprehension, of overcoming linguistic shock and attention
span. Dealing with texts as the highest communicative units translators
should keep in mind major categories of textuality and intertextuality.
Prerogatives belong to the text assignments of the type:

(B) listen to the text (small in form) and pick up some dominant words;
- make a summary of the text;
- put questions on the text;
- answer the questions on the text;
- make consecutive, spontaneous translations;
- complete the text;
- name major blocks of the text;
- give situations illustrating the proper words;
- make a sight translation of the text;
- identify difficulties and challenges of a source text;
- identify precision information units in a text;
- jot down a text in universal interpreter's notation;
- analyse a text (typological aspects);
- find the cases of ambiguity in a text;
- remedy the sentences before interpreting them;
- complete proverbs with suitable units;
- make informal liaison (two way) interpreting of a dialogue;
- make formal liaison (two way) interpreting of a dialogue.

Everybody is aware that he hesitates a great number of times when
facing the necessity of choice (choosing profession, fiancé, working
place, residence, friends etc.). The opulence of existing opportunities for
young resolute people makes the choice of future profession, on the one
hand, easier because everyone can find something to his taste, but, on the
other hand , far more difficult due to excess of possible answer for the
question ''What am I going to be?" Nowadays there exists a number of
professions considered as popular and fashionable (lawyer, economist,
advertising agent etc.); the profession of an interpreter is among them.

It's well known that translation or interpretation is a specific kind of
human activity, which consists in providing the interlocutors, speaking
different languages, with mutual understanding. The work of an
interpreter is very interesting and unpredictable. You can never know
what the forthcoming moment will bring and what surprises it may
contain. Such surprises are everywhere, where interpretation reigns.
Communication is always new, fresh, mostly made on the go.

Thus, training process is volumous and multiaspected. It prepares
trainees for a thorny path of bringing people with different languages and
cultures together. Language is the bearer and the expression of a culture
and a culture means a certain cast of mind, certain attitudes, certain
understandings of values, and all of that has to be adequately conveyed in
terms of through interpretation. Interpreting is not only simply an attempt
to convey the meaning of the words but also to convey the values and the
concepts that lie behind what is being said by whichever side.

References:

Швачко С.О. Проблеми синхронного перекладу: посібник / С.О.Швачко. – Вінниця: Фоліант. – 2004. – 112 с.