three dimensional approach

For an interpreter who does not have enough exposure to English, interpreting from Japanese into English is always a big challenge. Recently I have been trying to visualize a “box” in my mind when I do interpreting from Japanese into English. I call it “three dimensional interpreting.” Since I no longer go to the interpreting school, I don’t have to follow “rules” ingrained by the school and can try new things. In school, you are trained to translate Japanese into English too accurately so that it sometimes sounds clumsy. It is because you convert Japanese words to English but a sentence is still created based on a Japanese logic. Instead of a liner translation, I try to put all information into a box and reproduce a sentence in a different way. You can’t omit information but you can change the order of information in a way that can be more easily understood by English speakers. I am not yet sure if this method is working well but I started to feel less rigid in structuring a sentence. In this way, I don’t have to produce a sentence that is strongly controlled by my memo. I need more work on this since I have not been able to figure out a good balance of when to use a linear approach and a three dimensional. I hope I can get a good feel about this method and improve my output.

サイトラの意義

ワークショップ参加者の方からのコメントをご紹介します。（参加者の皆さん、ご協力ありがとうございます）３名ともとても熱心に勉強されていて私達にとっても良い刺激となったのですが、コメントを読むとサイトラとはやはりとても深い勉強法なのだなということを改めて感じます。よく通訳とは「逐次で始まり、逐次で終わる」と言いますが私は通訳の勉強は「サイトラで始まり、サイトラで終わる」と思います。

−サイトラは自己流でやってはいたのですが、いつも文法や単語をチェックしたりして細部にとらわれてしまい、何がいいたいのか分からなくなることが多かったのですが、今回流れをつかんで読むことが大切だということがよく分かりました。またいつも直訳調の訳になりがちなのですが、講師の方や参加者の方の訳を聞いて自分のサイトラの訳も変えていかなければいけないなと思いました。そして今回参加し、勉強へのモチベーションが上がりました。

−サイトラの練習はどうしても一人でやっていると全く逆の訳に訳していてもなんとなく筋があっていると思い込んで読み進んでしまいます。誤訳していてもその間違いに気づくことができないので、今回指摘してもらったり他の生徒さんの訳を聞いたりすることで確認できる点がとても良かったと思います。指摘されて目から鱗が落ちるように驚きがあり参加してよかったと思います。説明を聞き指摘されることで完璧に今回は記事が読みこなせた気分です。今回2本の記事がありましたが、結構必死に予習していったので最後の記事が時間切れでサイトラできなかったことがちょこっと残念でした。でもそのかわりにリスニングの勉強法やそれぞれ講師のみなさんからお仕事へのアドバイスなどいただけたのは良かったと思います。またこういった機会があればぜひ参加したいと思います。ありがとうございました。

−自分一人ではなかなかしっかり「読み込む」ことができず、ついつい流し読みになってしまい細かい意味を理解できずに終わってしまうが、今回このような形でサイトラＷＳに参加し、ひさしぶりにしっかり読み込むことができてよかった。また、読み込むことの大切さを再認識した。また、講師の方から今回の記事の理解不足の部分につきアドバイスを頂いたこと、また、今度の通訳力UPのためのアドバイスを頂いたことで、今後の勉強の指針ができた。

ワークショップ

先日このブログにてお知らせしたサイトラ・ワークショップを本日開催しました。参加者のみなさん、本当にお疲れさまでした！今回は参加者3名、講師役2名、進行役1名の合計6名で行いましたが予定を1時間以上オーバーする中、最後まで皆さん熱心に参加されてくれたことに感謝します。

私は今回は進行役を務めましたが、まず参加者の皆さんがしっかり教材を読み、準備してくださったのでスムーズに進めていくことができたと思います。また参加者の皆さんが積極的に質問をしてくださったことで講師役側にとっても非常にいい刺激になりました。皆さんの真剣な姿勢がマイクを通じて良く伝わってきました。
講師役を担当してくれた友人の通訳者2名も教材を熱心に読み込み、確認し、リサーチをし、とかなり時間をかけて用意をしてくださったことに感動しました。本当にどうもありがとう。

また機会があればぜひ開催したいと思います。今日は久しぶりに通訳学校に必死で勉強していたあの頃の自分を思い出し、私もまだまだ頑張って精進しなければ、と改めて感じされられた日でした。

To buy or not to buy: that is the question

I used to read books a lot. I had plenty of time for reading because of my long commuting time. Recently, however, my reading time has become almost zero. Moving to Tokyo and spending less on commuting is one of the reasons for me not reading books but I also don’t want to keep piles of piles of books in my room. Plus, I read really fast. I can finish a book within a day or two and I never read the book again. Spending money on something I use only for a day or two seems wasteful. When I moved to Tokyo, I threw away most of my books and I decided to go to a library instead of buying books…which never happened. Of course a lazy woman like me never goes to a library to read books and hence, no reading time. But recently e-book has become very popular and some of my friends became interested in buying Kindle. One of my friends got it and explained to me how nice it is. She also said that the price is very appealing now due to the appreciation of the yen. I checked it on the web and….wow, it is almost 10,000 yen. Should I buy it? If I have it, I don’t have to get stressed out about all books stacked in my room. I can put it in my bag easily so that I can read it on the train or on the bus. I almost clicked “Buy” button on amazon.com but didn’t. Our life is becoming more and more convenient and we are surrounded by many IT gadgets. I can’t live without computers or cell phones. But how much more do I need? Am I chasing new things every time they hit the market? It’s not just about e-book, but about how I manage my life. I was thinking about it and saw a book shop and decided to stop by. They were offering 30 to 50% discount for second-hand English books. Well, I can start reading books again while spending less by buying second-hand books. I bought one book for 500 yen. That is, at least, a starting point.

correlation

Interpreters are very competitive and aggressive. I know it all along. But recently I was wondering if it is really the case just for interpreters. I don’t think it is. It is about English-speaking Japanese women. There are a lot of English-speaking Japanese women who are overly aggressive. Why is that? I think I should write a thesis about this if I were to go back to university. I also realized that most of them are in their late 20s or 30s. It is quite overwhelming to see them expressing their feelings in a very explicit way and it is always about “Look at me,” “Appreciate me,” or “Let me do it.” I wonder if I was like that before. Maybe I was. We often complain about people never giving us any credit and treating us like a translation machine. I wonder this aggressiveness has something to do with one’s ability to speak English or with one’s age. Maybe both. When you go aboard to study English, you also learn how to express yourself. When you are in the age bracket, you have much faith in yourself and you believe you can be somebody if given an opportunity or you try hard. I am not saying people shouldn’t express themselves. Nothing is wrong with asserting oneself. But sometime if it’s gone too far, it becomes overwhelming and almost scary. It is also applicable to me. I have to strike a good balance between being assertive and not becoming too aggressive.