Here at Glendon, it’s the final hurrah. In a few short weeks, our students will be taking their year-end exams. The Year One students will take their Transition Exam, which determines if they will continue in Year Two. And our Year Two students will take their Exit Exam, which determines if they receive the Master of Conference Interpreting.
Watching them gear up for these important rites of passage has made me reflect on how they all got to this stage. It seems to me that my students all fall into at least one of the categories of interpreting learners I have sketched out below.
1. Languages learned later in life
When I was an interpreter trainee, this was my particular challenge. I did not learn to speak a second language until I was an adult, but I trained with a cohort that included several early and balanced bilinguals (see below). When working from my B, I struggled at times to understand. When working into my B, I frequently did not have the vocabulary needed to express key ideas. My classmates suffered from neither problem. I listened to them work effortlessly and accent-free in both directions, and I felt intimidated. I often asked myself, “What am I even doing in an interpreter training program?”
In time, I came to see that late language learners have advantages too. For me, speaking my A and my B languages are radically distinct cognitive experience. The languages “feel different” in my head. So I’m keenly aware of when I am speaking one or the other, and I very rarely confuse them. What’s more, a lifetime lived predominantly in my A means that I have very well-developed resources in that language. These are great strengths in interpreting, and they are not to be underestimated.
If you’re a late language learner, the trick for you is beefing up the resources in your B. Read actively in this language, and force yourself to use it in ways that make you uncomfortable. If you are with bilinguals, speak in your B. Use it to speak in public. See if you can develop the timing to tell a good joke. Oh, and tell yourself that your pathway will make you every bit as good an interpreter as any other.
2. Early and balanced bilingualism
If you have always spoken two languages, been schooled in both, and continue to use both for a range of purposes in adulthood — well, it may seem likeyou are tailor-made for interpreting. After all, you always understand the incoming language with little effort, and you always express yourself easily in the outgoing language. These are powerful assets for interpreters to have. But truth be told, they come with some liabilities too.
Your languages are not always watertight. Under pressure, they “leak” and cause interference in both directions. At times, it can seem impossible to keep them straight. Also, I’ve seen many early and balanced bilinguals really struggle to add a C language. You haven’t experienced what it’s like to have an imperfect comprehension of a language, and it can make you feel like the whole interpreting process is short-circuiting.
If you’re an early and balanced bilingual, the trick for you is to pay active attention to both your working languages. Write down in a notebook that you “make” a decision in English, “find” one in German, but“take” one in most of the Romance languages. By forcing yourself to consciously note these differences, you will be better able to tease your languages apart when you interpret. Oh, and when you’re interpreting from a third language that isn’t hard-wired into your head, go ask the late language learner for advice…
3. Slow and steady progression upwards
In any interpreting program, there are the people who constantly tick upwards. They make improvements little by little, week by week, moving incrementally towards their goal of professional-calibre performance.
If you are a steady progresser, it may be because you got serious early on in your training about practicing outside of class. You make sure that you follow the advice of your teachers, that you interpret every day, and that you clock in the hours needed to let your mind adapt to and automate the interpreting process.
The problem that you face is that you likely aren’t aware of your own progress. This week, one of my stronger students, someone I consider to be a steady progresser, asked me if she was getting any better. I was stunned. It was so clear to me that she was no longer the interpreter she was even two months ago, I wondered how she could ask the question. But then it dawned on me. She had changed so subtly and consistently that she couldn’t see the difference. She felt the same as she always had, and so she was flustered with her so-called “lack of improvement”.
If you’re a steady progresses, the trick for you is measuring your own development. You may find it helpful to keep an archive of past performances. Save the recording of interpretations you did on mid-terms and other assignments, and review them from time to time. You’re likely to cringe a little as you listen to your prior work. This is normal. It’s a sign that you can hear the difference between your current and previous levels of ability.
4. The great leap forward
For some students, progress doesn’t come on a regular basis. Instead, it arrives in one fell swoop! In some cases, this is because students are slow to set up a regime of regular interpreting practice. They consequently don’t see changes right away. At some point, they understand they need to exercise a little self-discipline and to make practice part of their daily routine. Then the payoffs start. In other cases, students just take a little longer to “mull things through”. These students just need a little extra time for ideas, advice and techniques to percolate. Then, when there has been a kind of“cognitive germination”, that’s when there is a sudden surge forward.
If you are a great leaper, you may find it nerve-wracking while you are waiting for change to happen. You watch your classmates consistently reach higher and higher levels of achievement, but you feel like you have simply plateaued. Sometimes, you can wait quite a while to break through your sticking point.
Let me give you a for instance. Here at Glendon, our formal classes ended at the beginning of April, but I meet with the students weekly for practice sessions until their year-end exams. I find it interesting to note that some of them experienced a great leap forward about three weeks after classes were over!
Great leapers, the trick for you is keeping focused on your practice. Make sure that your lack of progress isn’t simply a lack of practice. Or a lack of effective practice. (For more on practicing effectively, have a look at these three past posts: The Dark Side, Success Isn’t Free, and Take Charge. Once a solid and regular regime of practice is in place, stay focused. Stick to your guns, and don’t let the voice of doubt creep into your head. As the experience of some of our students have shown, it’s not uncommon to see big change relatively late in the game.
The late bloom
Of course, it would not be honest of me to claim that all students are successful. Interpreting programs are notorious for sometimes dealing students a harsh blow. Not everyone passes. Not everyone becomes an interpreter.
In a previous post (The Dark Side ), I gave some advice to people who suffer a major setback, and something I mentioned there bears expanding here. The interpreting profession is rife with people who did not make it the first time around. They needed more time than others. It took them a second try to get up that hill. To give but one example, a good colleague and friend of mine didn’t do well on her exit exam when she was a trainee. She had to repeat some of her training and try again. But now she interprets during Question Period in the House of Commons, which is arguably one of the most difficult interpreting assignments that you will find in this country.
In the interest of transparency, I’ll admit that I was a late bloomer, too. It took me three tries — with a few years in between those tries — to even get admitted to an interpreter training program in the first place.
If you are a late bloomer, if you suffer a big setback, the trick for you will be taking an honest look in the mirror. When you have caught your breath again, ask yourself this: “Am I prepared to try again?” Realize that “no” is an acceptable answer. (There are jobs out there that pay better and are less stressful than interpreting!) But if the answer is “yes”, then get ready for take two on your training, and be certain you are fully committed. Join the ranks of the rest of us who needed a little more time to get firmly established on our career paths.