What should a good interpreter be like be like

Actually, interpreters today aresmall in quantity, and their quality is a burning issue as well.The reason lies in the fact that interpretation is quite a fresh job in Vietnam, and requi

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, -w~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~w

Overview of oral interpretation and interpreters

Part 1Generalization about oral interpretation

a With contact between the speaker and interpreters 08 ;

b With no contact between the speaker and interpreters 08

Part g Overview ofinterpreters

2.2.3 Criteria for the assessment of a good interpreter 15

July 2004 Huflit, Ho Chi Minh City

~~~~~~~~,~~~~~~~,~~~

'" irst of all, I would like to sincerely thank the Head of the school of '\

~FForeign Languages for giving me the opportunity to do this paper ~

I also would like to express my heartfelt thanks and great , gratitude to Ms Bui Thi Thanh Truc for her guidance at the very first step

as well as her enthusiastic help and invaluable advice during the time of my

doing this research.

Particularly, I want to devote my gratitude and deep appreciation to

Mr Nguyen Van Truong, my advisor, who has gone along with me in

conducting this paper My paper would not be completed without his kind

, assistance, valuable ideas and spiritual encouragement ~

My sincere thanks also go to the teachers in the English Department , and all the interviewees who were willing to give me valuable information

and advice so that I can fulfill my study.

I do not want to fail to mention the understanding, support and great , encouragement from my whole family, especially my younger sister who ~

~ always shares my worries and helps me when I have trouble with my study ~

, Finally yet importantly, I would like to convey my sincere thanks to ,

, my friends who have supported me with valuable materials I am deeply '\

Once again, I would like to thank you all for everything.

~~~~~~~~,~"~"'~~~~

INthe open door and economy integration trend of ourcountry, the number of professional interpreters is ingreater and greater demand Actually, interpreters today aresmall in quantity, and their quality is a burning issue as well.

The reason lies in the fact that interpretation is quite a fresh job

in Vietnam, and requirements for a good interpreter haveunclearly been defined Therefore, the main purpose of thisresearch was to identify the necessary qualities for a goodinterpreter Data for the survey were collected from interviewsand job advertisements The results indicated that there weremany demands in terms of knowledge, skill and personalqualities for a qualified interpreter The requirements for eachwere abundant, but the most outstanding ones for knowledgewere a rich vocabulary, language expertise, a good generalknowledge and expertise in the working field As for skills, anexcellent memory, effective listening comprehension and goodpublic speaking competence were the first and foremostrequisites Moreover, the interpreter needed to be self-confident,faithful to the speaker's ideas and creative This research maynot only be helpful to interpretation students but also give somecontributing ideas to the school's training and be a referencematerial for all employers who have demand to recruitprofessional interpreters

lI

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale

~dtechnology together with the continuous growth of

economy, culture and politics among countries hasconfronted mankind with an exceptional difficulty: languagebarrier: Interpreters entitled "language messengers" may helpcountries cut through the barrier and bring nations together

Likewise, Viet Nam in the trend of global and based economy is demanding staffs of professional interpreters.Particularly, since our country implements the open-door policy,

knowledge-it has attracted many foreign companies to invest their money

in projects in Viet Nam and foreigners to come to Viet Nam towork or travel That is why many interpreters are needed morethan ever before

Sadly, there is a paradox that interpreters in Ho Chi MinhCity are on the one hand, overabundant and on the other hand,inadequate "Masters of a foreign language are easily foundwhile it is arduous to look for a professional interpreter", said

Mr Do Cuong, the Director of Martxim Company - "It isconsidered as "washing the sand for gold'''' (Quang, D 2002, 11)

STUDENT: LY THI YEN HUE PAGE 1

ADVISOR: MR NGUYEN VAN TRUONG INTRODUCTION

The problem not only lies in quantity, but in quality as well.There has been considerable alarm about the quality ofinterpreters nowadays, specifically at the many sessions whosedefendants or plaintiffs are foreigners Despite the very simplequestions about personal identification, the interpreters findthemselves get stuck in transferring ideas and even have to usethe "body language" (Chi Mai, 2004, 4)

Moreover, another negative factor IS that althoughinterpreters' work is in a highly increasing demand, it has notbeen considered a real profession and paid much attention to(Quang, D 2002, 11) It may be one of the reasons that only asmall number of students take interpretation as their major,and the number of the graduates doing the interpretation job ismuch smaller A graduate of interpretation and translationmajor of Huflit University, now an employee of an advertisingcompany, admits that she gave up interpretation job after a fewmonths' work since she found herself incompetent to work in theinterpretation field Many other trainee interpreters andtranslators of Huflit University answer "no" when they areasked if they would like to become interpreters after graduation.The reason is, on the one hand, they think that it is far fromeasy to get a job as an interpreter, and on the other hand, it isharder for them to do the interpreter's job Meanwhile, manydirectors of enterprises claim that they lack skilled interpretersconsiderably

The facts I have mentioned are just to prove that the supply

of good interpreters is quite inadequate in comparison with the

highly increasing demand The reason lies in the fact that

society in general and foreign language learners in particular,

especially those of interpretation major have not properly been

conscious of the importance as well as the big requirement forinterpreters

Unfortunately, little research_on _these_matters-has been

carried out in Viet Nam Therefore, the_aim_of this_paper is to ~-

give assistance to students_oL interpretation and those -.W:ho_would like to be future interpreters to full understand the

profession so that they can prepare for themselves necessary

things to take up the work It is exp_ectedthat this research

project wo_uld be helpful for the training and learning ofinterpreters at the School of Foreign Languages in Ho Chi Minh

City University of Foreign Languages and Information

Technology

1.2 Objective

The purpose of this research paper is to identify the

necessary requirements for a good interpreter

1.3 Organization

The study starts with a description of the project, and it is

expanded in the following chapter with a brief overview of oral

interpretation and interpreters Then the study deals with the

STUDENT: LY THI YEN HUE PAGE 3

ADVISOR: MR NGUYEN VAN TRUONG INTRODUCTION

findings and discussion of the necessary requisites for a goodinterpreter Finally, conclusions of the study are stated in thelast chapter

ADVISOR: MR NGUYEN VAN TRUONG LITERA TURE REVIEW

Chapter 2

LIT£RA TUR£ R£ 11£li

PAR'I' I: GUNERAI.IZA'I'ION ABOU'I' ORAl IN1'ERPRE1'A'I'ION

2.1.1 DEFINITION

Oral interpretation verbally renders the thoughts of thespeaker that he/she expresses in his/her speech into anotherlanguage It is, in fact, a process of listening comprehension,analysis and rendering the speaker's ideas On doing theinterpretation, an interpreter often has to manipulate all his/herknowledge and skills to transfer as much the speaker means aspossible from the source language to the target one Oralinterpretation really needs instant, precision and in many caseswithout the help from materials

(http://www.aplombonline.com/services.htlm)

2.1.2 TIME ALLOWED FOR ORAL INTERPRETATION

As Nguyen, T.Y (2003, 12) says, on translating a text, atranslator can consult materials, reference books or evenexperts when he/she has any trouble with unknown sentences oridiomatic expressions Moreover, he/she is able to refine and

polish the translation at any time In contrast, it is not so easy inoral interpretation Time allowed for an interpreter is verylimited, only a few minutes or even just a few seconds if he/shehas to do it instantaneously The interpreter must grasp thespeaker's ideas right after he/she has finished a sentence orparagraph, so there is really no time for the choice of words orexpressions When the speaker has stopped speaking, listenersexpect the interpreter to do his or her work at once He or she,therefore, tends to have no heart to write As a result, the onlytime the interpreter can have is the time the speaker uses forspeaking Then the interpreter has two things to do:

1 grasping the speaker's ideas and

2 thinking of appropriate words and expressions in the targetlanguage

2.1.3 CLASSIFICATION

More recent classifications of interpretation have been madebut there are two typical ways of interpretation As Nguyen, T.Y.(2003, 13-14) and Tran, V.C (2003, 145) state, they areconsecutive interpretation and simultaneous interpretation.These are the two kinds of professional oral interpretation

ADVISOR: MR NGUYEN VAN TRUONG LITERATURE REVIEW

to render what has been said into the target language Referring

to this issue, Tran, V.C (2003, 145) states an easy-to-understanddefinition that consecutive interpretation is the immediaterendition after listening or reading

It is discovered that a key skill involved in consecutiveinterpretation is note-taking since few interpreters can memorize

a full paragraph at a time without loss of detail

in daily life aspects

This kind of interpretation is now more often used in VietNam

It is said that this reqUIres a lot of attention andconcentration, and the combined skills of listening to andcomprehending one language are dealt with in simultaneousinterpretation

(http://www.americantranslationpartners.com/servinte.htmI)

Due to the urgency of this kind of interpretation, onlyhighly skilled interpreters can satisfy the requirements

a With contact between the speaker and interpreters

According to Louis Dussault (1999, 257-261), it is callednon-cabin interpretation The interpreter is always with theperson for whom he or she is interpreting and speaks loudly atthe same time the speaker says Interpretation is donecontinually while the effectiveness, flow and mood of thespeaker's presentation must be kept This method saves plenty oftime of the speaker as well as that of listeners Another thing isthat the interpreter should avoid the fact that his or herinterpretation is just a summary of what the speaker says

b With no contact between the speaker and interpreters

Tearns of highly qualified multilingual interpreters work insoundproof booths, wear headphones connected to the speaker'smicrophone and do the simultaneous translation for theconference delegates There is completely no contact between thespeaker and the interpreters The two cannot even see each other.The interpreters can only hear the speaker's voice, not their ownvoices, and their interpretation rates depend on that of the

STUDENT: LY THI YEN HUE PAGE 8

ADVISOR: MR NGUYEN VAN TRUONG LITERATURE REVIEW

speaker This kind of work is therefore much more difficult Itdemands the interpreters to have complete concentration and agood health In addition, the interpreters are also required to beskilled professionals, and usually language experts with large

(http://ww~.aplombonline.com/services.htlm)

2.1.3.2.2 Range a/use

Simultaneous interpretation IS mostly common for largeinternational conferences with the participation of speakers ofdifferent languages and nationalities with different accents andmultilingual business or political meetings

The discussions in part I also come from reference to the WorldWide Web at:

http://www.h-and-l.de/konferenzdolmetschene.htm

http://www.cgtraduction.com/intenlretation/GBlconseilinter.ht

ml,

http://www.linguist.com/textfiles/services/Interpretation.htm

PAR'll II OVERVIEW OF IN'l'ERPRETERS

2.2.1 THE IMPORTANCE OF INTERPRETERS

It is said, "You will never understand another country untilyou can speak its language." It is true because in the currenttrend of global integration, how can a country contact anotherone without knowing its language? In other words, a countrymust firstly understand its partner's culture, traditions andhabits, people's characteristics and so on before getting in touchwith it

Along with the advancement of science-technology, manyinterpreting machines have come into being However, thoughhow modern and advanced these devices are, they still cannottake the role of the interpreter to express the speaker's mood andfigurative meanings

As David Hogg <http://www.aiic.net/en/prof/timeline/>defines, "A language is the living expression of a culture, a socialcontext, the traditions and history of people, the mood and thewhims of the speakers, their social profession, their personalcharacter, and above all, of their intent." Consequently, only thehuman brain of the professional interpreters can grasp andtransfer precisely the combination of such many complicatedfeatures into another language It is the reason why professionalinterpreters are entitled "language messengers" and the demand

ADVISOR: MR NGUYEN VAN TRUONG LITERA TURE REVIEW

for them is increasing and expanding in today internationalexchange (Huynh, T C., cited from Duong, Q., 2002, 11)

The role of interpreters is most clearly shown mconferences or negotiations of international organizations.Miriam Newman asserts that the work of interpreters has beenfundamental to the success of multi-national organizations likethe United Nations or the European Union whose key principle is

"Talk is better than war" So how can talks that bring nationscloser together be possible without interpreters when eachcountry speaks her language? (Cited from Luong, T.L et al., 16)

In addition, the Vietnamese Ambassador Vo, A.T (2000,48)

also agrees that interpreters play a very crucial role ininternational negotiations and communications They areregarded as "the tongues" of the dialogue partners

Having grasped the reason, the European Commission (EC)has sponsored EUR one billion for the interpreter-trainingproject whose instructor is the EC itself The project aims attraining a crew of highly qualified interpreters for the comingfifth ASEM (the fifth Asia Europe Meeting) in Ha Noi in October

2004 (Huong, G., 2004, 16)

Besides, interpreters take an important part in many otherfields Hoang, Le & Nguyen (2003, 5-9) make it clear that theavailability of interpreters in diplomacy, commerce, tourism andeven sports and exercises is indispensable Interpreters not only

do the interpretation but also in a number of cases are advisors

and assistants for the ones who work with to help them get out ofsome embarrassing situation.

According to Duong, Q. (2002, 11), many foreign jointventure companies, import-export and advertising enterprisesare now demanding a great number of professional interpreterswho are considered an integral part of the success of socio-economic negotiations, cultural exchanges, science-technologytransference, and so forth

As a conclusion, the interpreter's job covers many variousfields namely from visits with foreigners' attendance andinternational receptions to formal meetings on economy, politics,culture and education

Articles by Duong, Q. (2002, 11) and Ngoc Chau & DieuThanh (2002, 63) reported that with Viet Nam's close integrationtrend today and the speed of foreign investment in Viet Nam,highly skilled interpreters in both quantity and quality are IIIgreat demand in all fields at the moment and in the future

The quality of interpretation should be given due toconsideration to as it could bring success or failure tonegotiations and conferences Therefore, professional interpretersare a must and are in a high position in many various economicsectors today

STUDENT: LY THI YEN HUE PAGE 12

ADVISOR: MR NGUYEN VAN TRUONG LITERATURE REVIEW

2.2.2 THE WORK OF INTERPRETERS

The work of interpreters is to translate what someone saysinto another language It is to reproduce orally thoughts, feelingsand meanings of what has just been said from the language ofthe speaker into the language of the listeners It deals with allfields: economics, trade, politics, culture, ect at meetings,workshops or conferences where more than one language is used

It composes interpreting conversation, questions, statements and

(<http://www.fasnrcvg.ie/careers/jobs/T/translat.htm> )

According to Ngoc Chau & Dieu Thanh (2002, 63), theinterpreters' work is to convey thoughts, intentions and languagenuances of speakers who do not share the same language It is adifficult career requiring the interpreter a highly qualified level

of general knowledge as well as that of the acquired language

It is undeniable that oral interpretation from one languageinto another is a very complex task since language, thecharacteristic of each nation, differs from country to country.Hereby, a good interpreter is demanded more than merely a goodcommand of the languages Ngoc Chau and Dieu Thanh (2002,62)make the point that besides linguistic skills such as listening,speaking, reading and writing, the interpreter must constantlyupdate new information and master the use of idioms, proverbs,the style of the target language and even its culture so as toperceive and render the spoken messages accurately Moreover,

the ability to explain issues in detail is also an essential requisitefor the interpreter.

Additionally, as Tran, Q.M (2002, 152-153) finds, oralinterpretation, a regular activity of the users' brains, calls forinterpreters to master their own stock of vocabulary and link-words so as to subtly verbalize the speaker's inner feelings intoanother language

Miriam Newman believes that it is a challenging career,which brings interpreters strain, exhaustion and embarrassment.During the process of interpretation, interpreters must not onlycompletely concentrate on listening comprehension but also careabout the speaker's body language so as to help them guess what

is going to be said as well as interpret things which cannot beexplained accur.ately in the target language (cited from Luong,T.L et al., 16)

According to some experienced interpreters, the oralinterpretation work is evaluated as a creative art since theinterpreter is the second speaker who plays a vital role inconveying the speaker's ideas to listeners Whether or not thelisteners can comprehend and grasp what the speaker has saiddepends on how the interpreter expresses it in the targetlanguage Therefore, if the interpreter is able to use thelanguages skillfully and successfully interpret the speaker'sthoughts and inmost feelings, it also means that the interpreter'sversion is much more effective than the speaker's speech itself

STUDENT: LY THI YEN HUE PAGE 14

ADVISOR: MR NGUYEN VAN TRUONG LITERATURE REVIEW

Even though interpretation is a hard job to do, it is anecessity, especially in the present open-door policy of ourcountry (Vo, L.A et al., 2003, 5)

INTERPRETER

Whether or not an individual can become a successfulinterpreter depends on neither his or her level of education,intelligence nor fluency in more than one language Theseelements are merely fundamental prerequisites for being aninterpreter The factor that makes a qualified interpreter isbased on the ability to understand perfectly what the speakersays and afterwards verbalize the messages effectively into thetarget language

(<http://www.betmar.com/interpretation/criteria html»

As Nguyen, T.H (2000) mentions, a good interpreter is onewho can make foreigner(s) understand what the speaker sayswhen he/she expresses his/her inmost feelings

Nguyen, T.Y (2003, 24) puts forth the two following criteriafor the assessment of a professional interpreter: The first ishis/her capacity of comprehension and grasping the speaker's keyideas, and the second is the skill of prompt delivery and accurateinterpretation

The criteria of a good interpreter may be somewhatdifferent from person to person However, the decisive factorsgreatly depend upon the ability to grasp the speaker's thoughts

and the skill to render the spoken messages into the acquiredlanguage.

STUDENT: LY THI YEN HUE PAGE 16

Chapter 3

MtTftOO

3.1 Subjects

Fourteen people were involved in the interviews They

were seven teachers of interpretation and translationmajor of Ho Chi Minh City University of ForeignLanguages and Information Technology, one professionalinterpreter of General Consulate of India, SIX workinginterpreters from six foreign enterprises and translationcompanies in Ho Chi Minh City They all often dealt with oralinterpretation of foreign languages such as English, Chinese andJapanese

2 Conducting Interviews

STUDENT: LY THI YEN HUE PAGE 17

ADVISOR: MR NGUYEN VAN TRUONG METHOD

Fourteen interviews with the subjects were carried outwith the aim of identifying the necessary requirements for a goodinterpreter on the basis of the interviewees' knowledge andpractical working experience

3. Collecting data from job advertisements

Fifteen advertisements for interpreter positions fromvarious newspapers were collected and analyzed in order to findout the criteria that employers of different companies put forth torecruit interpreters (see Appendix)

3 Statistical treatment

The analysis of the collected data was based on thestatements of the interviewees and in job ads on eachrequirement

ADVISOR: MR.NGUYEN VAN TRUONG - FINDINGS &DISCUSSION

Chapter 4

fINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

I"6n this section, data from interviews and job ads were

~recorded and analyzed to identify the necessaryrequisites for a good interpreter The requisites were presented

in tables and followed by the research doer's comments anddiscussion

4.1 FINDINGS FROM INTERVIEWS:

The results of interviews are classified into threecategories: knowledge, skills and personal qualities requirements

1 Requisites for knowledge

• Good command of both working

• Knowledge

I:!:>Good knowledge in the working field 12 3

Table 1: Requirements for knowledge

Table 1 presents the requirements for knowledge for a goodinterpreter All of the interviewees agreed that the possession of

a rich vocabulary was of prime significance It is a matter ofcourse that the interpreter uses words to convey the ideas of thespeaker to listeners An abundant vocabulary is of great help tohim or her to render the spoken messages fluently and accuratelyinto another language Furthermore, a rich vocabulary helps him

or her much in listening comprehension A limited stock ofvocabulary may minimize the interpreter's understanding ofwhat the speaker means when he or she says things in asophisticated or flowery style

Moreover, most of the interviewees emphasized the key role

of good command of both working languages, especially thenative language One could not interpret into another foreignlanguage well when one does not even master one's own mothertongue 80, it is a fundamental requisite for anyone who wouldlike to work as an interpreter A good command of languagesmeans having a thorough understanding of cultures, styles, theuse of words, idiomatic expressions and idioms, ect and the goodcommand of listening, speaking, reading and writing It would beimpossible for an individual to become an interpreter if he or she

is not familiar with these constituents of both languages Amongthem, a deep knowledge of both the source and the targetlanguages cultures was much noticed A good interpretation isone that can express accurately the literal and figurativemeanings of the speaker and must use the correct style of the

STUDENT: LY THI YEN HUE PAGE 20

ADVISOR: MR.NGUYEN VAN TRUONG - FINDINGS &DISCUSSION

target language in accordance with the context This can only bedone when the interpreter can master the knowledge of theculture in which the language is used and apply that knowledge

to promote effective cross-cultural communications

As shown in Table 1, the demand for a good generalknowledge and a good knowledge in the working field were alsooutstanding with 12 out of 14 interviewees It is not surprisingbecause the interpretation work is diversified, and an interpretermust make use of his or her knowledge in different areas toproduce a good interpretation Thus, an interpreter's vastknowledge in all fields gives him or her great support incomprehension of the issues the speaker presents Practicalevidence shows that due to the lack of knowledge, manyinterpreters misunderstand or improperly comprehend thespeaker's meaning and so do the wrong rendition Broad generalknowledge is a necessity; however, an interpreter had better godeep in the field he or she specializes in so that just throughsome hints or incomplete ideas he or she knows right away whatthe question is Moreover, a deep understanding of the subjectdealt with helps the interpreter a great deal in tackling complexproblems in technical speeches

The data in Table 1 also suggests that knowledge ofprotocol was also useful for an interpreter's job Even though thescore was much less than average (only 2/14 interviewees), it is

in reality that knowledge of protocol has an impact on the effect

of interpretation work The reason is that protocol is a tool of