Just about everyone has experienced the frustration of trying to communicate with someone of a different language; the confusion between interpretations, the embarrassment of accidentally saying something one way but it meaning something totally different that what you expected… I know I’ve have experienced all of the above several times working, studying and just living my life.
The past three week though were much more clear for me. Not because my spanish improved overnight (I wish), but because I had the pleasure of working with interpreters. It was a new learning experience and what a great one at that!
Interpreting during an interview with the El Llano
If you have never worked with an interpreter they have two (unless trilingual +) languages- ‘A’ and ‘B’. ‘A’ being the their native and B being their second. I was lucky enough to work with two different interpreters- one with their A language being English and one with spanish as their A language. It was interesting working with the both and finding the differences and commonalities between the two.
The native English speaker was easier for me to understand and I could often mindlessly write and sometimes try to listen to the spanish of the presenter (even though the interpretee really wasn’t supposed to). When working with the native spanish interpreter I found that I needed to focus my attention completely on what the interpreter was saying because the unfamiliar accent was not as easy, but overall she was probably grasping more of what the presenter was expressing than the native English speaker would have.
Both interpreters did a fabulous job helping me understand the language, which was essential at our meetings. The meetings usually lasted about two hours and I am still not sure how they managed to keep up. My attention would waver at times but the interpreters powered through, the whole time, making sure that I received the full details of the meetings. I was and still am extremely impressed.
¡Muchas Gracias a Todas!
One Comment
Nice post !