A study on strategies to cope with undesirable situations in consecutive interpreting

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION GRADUATION PAPER A STUDY ON STRATEGIES TO COPE WITH U

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

A STUDY ON STRATEGIES TO COPE WITH

UNDESIRABLE SITUATIONS IN

CONSECUTIVE INTERPRETING

Supervisor: Nguyen Phuong Tra

Student: Ta Thi Thu Hang

Year : QH08.F1.E20

HA NOI – 2012

ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHOÁ LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

NGHIÊN CỨU CÁC BIỆN PHÁP ỨNG PHÓ VỚI MỘT SỐ TÌNH HUỐNG KHÔNG MONG MUỐN

TRONG PHIÊN DỊCH ĐUỔI

Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Nguyễn Phương Trà Sinh viên: Tạ Thị Thu Hằng

Khoá: QH08.F1.E20

HÀ NỘI – NĂM 2012

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ACCEPTANCE

I hereby state that I: Ta Thi Thu Hang, student of 08.1.E20, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor‟s Graduation Paper deposited in the library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper

Signature

Ta Thi Thu Hang

Date:

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my special thanks to Mrs Nguyen Phuong Tra, my supervisor, for her suggestions, useful advice, instructions and her encouragement from the stem to the end of my thesis writing process

My thanks also go to lecturers in Translation and Interpreting Division and Mrs Tra‟s colleagues: Mr Lam Quang Dong, Nguyen Cam Linh, Nguyen Ninh Bac… for helping me conduct questionnaires

I am grateful to Mr Do Trung Hieu, Mr Hoang Manh Hung, Ms Nguyen Hoang Oanh and many other interpreters for giving me chances to talk and sharing precious experiences with me

I would like to thank Mr Nguyen Van Doan for his enthusiastic help

Last but not least, I owe my gratitude to all my families and friends for all they have done for me

Without their encouragement and help, this dissertation would not be completed

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ABSTRACT

Consecutive interpreting is said to be the basic form of all types interpreting and is used to train students for consecutive performance (Bowen, 1984) From the viewpoint of the interpreters with varied experiences and the researcher, these common undesirable situations are presented These undesirable situations are arranged in accordance with frequency ratings and the strategies to cope with each situation are introduced There appear the differences and similarities the choices of four questions by the interpreters with varied experiences Three undesirable situations which are the most common will be selected and analyzed By the questionnaire and interviews, the researcher can collect the data as well as get recommendations offered

by the interpreters On the ground of arrangement and the analysis, we can see which undesirable situations are the most common and which strategies should be employed

To some extent, these would-be interpreters can make the use of this thesis‟s result as

a step of preparation before working in interpreting field

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1 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale: 1

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study: 2

1.2.1 Aims of the study: 2

1.2.2 Objectives of the study: 2

1.3 Scope of the study: 3

1.4 Structure of the study: 3

2 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Interpreting and its modes 5

2.1.1 Interpreting: 5

2.1.2 Modes of interpreting: 6

2.2 Consecutive interpreting: 7

2.2.1 Definition: 7

2.2.2 Phases of consecutive interpreting: 8

2.2.3 Basic skills in consecutive interpreting: 11

2.3 Strategies and undesirable situations in interpreting: 12

2.3.1 Strategies: 12

2.3.2 Undesirable situations: 13

2.4 The quality of interpreters and the concept of an experienced interpreters: 14

2.4.1 The quality of interpreters: 14

2.4.2 The concept of an experienced interpreter: 16

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3 CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 17

3.1 The subjects: 17

3.2 The methods: 17

4 CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 19

4.1 The frequency of encountering undesirable situations: 19

4.2 The methods of dealing with undesirable situations: 22

4.3 The three most common undesirable situations that the interpreters encounter frequently: 27

4.4 Factors contributing to an interpreter‟s activeness in undesirable situations: 31 5 CHAPTER 5 RECCOMENDATIONS 33

5.1 Strategies to cope with lengthy speech: 33

5.1.1 The ability to abstract and paraphrase: 33

5.1.2 A good memory: 36

5.2 The strategies to cope with technical terms: 37

5.3 The strategies to cope with mispronunciation: 38

6 CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION 40

6.1 Overview of findings of the thesis: 40

6.2 Strengths and weaknesses of the thesis: 41

6.3 Suggestions for further research and final comments: 41

7 REFERENCES 42

8 APPENDIX 44

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1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale:

Interpreting is the bridge of language as well as culture in communicative activities of human beings For Vietnam in particular,

interpreting career has been more highly appreciated since the country became

the official member of WTO and integrated into global trade The number of

professional and semi-professional interpreters is gradually increasing day by

day They are required to have not only good skills, linguistic acquisition but

also diverse knowledge in many areas Besides, the code of ethics is an

important factor forming the qualities of a good interpreter

However, even when an interpreter is well-prepared and has good qualifications, undesirable situations do arise for many reasons During

interpreting, the interpreter‟s attention is shared strategically among listening,

memorizing and production efforts Interpreting is prone to deteriorating as the

interpreter‟s capacity for one of efforts mentioned above decreases Such

constraints on overall capacity are bound to affect other components of the

process and will thus have a bearing on the quality of the target speech For

example, during listening, interpreters have to decide what and how to note

down They also have to devote some attention to the writing process itself

Therefore, most of the errors, omissions and other weaknesses in interpreting

output can be caused by processing capacity limitations, errors in processing

capacity management, and gaps in the interpreters' Knowledge Base (Gile,

1989) Many of these problems can be said to be unavoidable, as shown by the

fact that they are encountered regularly even by interpreters with a solid

reputation and long professional experience In these cases, the interpreters are

required to apply a set of strategies to prevent and constrain damage (Gile

1995)

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In reality, coping strategies are very essential skills in interpreting but it

is difficult to master It is the reason why I would like to specify some undesirable situations and find respective strategies to such problems

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study:

1.2.1 Aims of the study:

The study aims at identifying three undesirable situations the experienced interpreters encounter most frequently Those three undesirable situations will be brought to light regarding their classification and frequency Basing on the findings of the study and these suggestions from the experienced interpreters, I would like to recommend some strategies when such situations occur

More specifically, the study is intended to address the following questions:

 What are three most frequently-encountered situations which are undesirable in consecutive interpreting?

 What are coping strategies in these situations?

1.2.1 Objectives of the study:

As a student of Translator and Interpreter Training Division, I understand that mastering basic skills in interpreting is very important However, besides these fundamental skills I am trained, I desire for learning more about strategies of experienced interpreters in undesirable situations Moreover, I decide to pursue interpreting career, therefore, this study partly supports my future career

Secondly, I intend to propose some recommendations for those who want to choose interpreting as a career The advice will be collected from experienced interpreters

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Thirdly, these unpredictable cases occurring to interpreters are frequent, but I would like to find out which are more popular and strategies applied in such cases

Finally, among many dissertations I have read, none of them imply undesirable cases in consecutive interpreting as well as specific strategies, practice for each case Hence, I hope I can partly contribute to filling the gap

1.3 Scope of the study:

Due to time and knowledge limitation, I would like to carry out the study

on strategies to cope with undesirable situations in consecutive interpreting

However, undesirable situations are various in reality of interpreting filed so I only mention some prevalent undesirable situations synthesized from different sources of data and the interpreters‟ views After that, the study mainly focuses on analyzing three undesirable situations in the order of importance in consecutive interpreting and coping strategies when encountering such cases

1.4 Structure of the study:

Chapter 1: Introduction

This chapter will provide readers an overview of the study including the reasons for choosing topics, the aims, the scope and the methodology used to conduct the research

Chapter 2: Literature Review

Theoretical background knowledge related to interpreting, strategies and undesirable situations will be discussed in this chapter

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In this chapter, necessary comparison and analysis will be implemented

to answer two questions of the study

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2 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Interpreting and its modes

1.1.1 Interpreting:

The definition of interpreting is various with a wide range of perspectives Hence, each perspective describes a different aspect of

interpreting

In 1989, Webber restricts interpreting to the conference hall

“Interpreting is the oral transposition of an orally delivered message at a

conference or a meeting from a source language into a target language

performed in the presence of the participants” (Webber, 1989)

According to him, interpreting is to decipher oral code from a source language

to a target language Also, Brislin agrees with Webber on the point that

interpreting is performed in oral form Besides, he lists these subjects taking

part in communicative activity: speaker, interpreter and listener The interpreter

plays the role as the medium between the speaker and listener

“Interpretation is one type of translation, and refers to oral communication

situations in which one person speaks in the source language and interpreter

processes this in inputs and produces output in a second language, a third

person listens to the target language version” (Brislin?, p.14)

Gentile (1996) views interpreting in term of professional function, in which the interpreting acts as the bridge for people speaking different

languages Also, according to him, interpreting is as the result of human being‟s

interactive activities

“Interpreting as a recognized and distinct area of expertise and certainly as a

particular social role, arrived only with modernity and a result of the curious

“Phiên dịch là một quá trình chuyển giao các thông điệp hoặc thông tin từ ngôn ngữ nguồn sang ngôn ngữ đích trong đó phiên dịch viên tiếp nhận ngôn ngữ nguồn dưới dạng văn nói và bằng đôi tai của mình và sau đó phát đi ngôn ngữ đích dưới dạng văn nói”

In this definition, the author directly refers to the role of the interpreter who performs the mental process

In general, despite many definitions of interpreting, according to translation theory, interpreting must be comprehended as a form of translation,

in which the source language is reconstructed in target language under oral form (author unknown) These definitions mentioned above also share some common points of interpreting characteristics Interpreting is performed under time pressure with little chance for correction and revision

1.1.2 Modes of interpreting:

There are many ways of categorizing interpreting: subject matters, working mode, distance and proximity (between speaker, addressee and interpreter), equality/solidarity and non-equality/power, formal setting and informal setting (related to number of participants, degree of privacy) and direction of interpreting However, according to Gentile, two fundamental modes for interpreting are consecutive and simultaneous interpreting (which is classified by working mode)

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The first type is consecutive interpreting In this case, the consecutive interpreter listens to the speaker, takes notes, and then reproduces speech in the target language Depending on the length of the speech, this may be done all at one go or in several segments The consecutive interpreter relies mainly on memory, but good note-taking and other techniques are essential aids

The second type is simultaneous interpreting As the name suggests, language message is being produced at the same time with the target language According to Seleskovitch (1978a):

“In simultaneous interpretation the interpreter is isolated in a booth He speaks

at the same time as the speaker and therefore has no need to memorize or jot down what is said Moreover, the processes of analysis-comprehension and of reconstruction-expression are telescoped The interpreter works on the message bit by bit, giving the portion he has understood while analyzing and assimilating the next idea” (125)

In other words, the working process of a simultaneous interpreter includes: usually sitting in a soundproof booth, listening to the speaker through earphones and speaking into a microphone, reproducing the speech in the target language

as it is being delivered in the source language Because the simultaneous interpreter cannot fall too far behind, this method requires considerable practice (James Nolan, 2007)

1.2 Consecutive interpreting:

1.2.1 Definition:

Consecutive interpreting is defined as the process of interpreting after the speaker or the signer completes one or more ideas in the source language and pauses while the interpreter provides interpretation

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1.2.2 Phases of consecutive interpreting:

Discussing consecutive interpreting, Roberto Santiago elaborately analyzes the process of consecutive interpreting in his article At the same time,

he discusses ideas of some experts such as Seleskovitch and Smith

When interpreting a text, the interpreter must be able to receive and understand the incoming message and then express it‟s meaning in the target language The interpreter need undergo an overlapping series of cognitive processing activities to finish task These steps include: attending to the message, concentrating on the task at hand, remembering the message, comprehending the meaning of the message, analyzing the message for meaning, visualizing the message nonverbally, and finally reformulating the message in the target language

Roberto also mentions Seleskovitch‟s opinion Seleskovitch points out that there is another practical reason for the interpreter to discard the form of the source text, there is only so much that a person can hold in their short-term memory As the interpreter receives the source text the information passes initially through their short-term memory If the interpreter does not do anything with this information it will soon disappear If an interpreter attempts

to retain the form of a source utterance, their short-term memory will be quickly filled with individual lexical items, which may not even compose a full sentence If the interpreter then attempts to find a corresponding lexical item in the target language for each of the source language forms in their short-term memory, all of their attention will be wasted on translating these six items rather than attending to the incoming message

It is because of the limitations of short-term memory that interpreters are required to drop form and concentrate on meaning Both Seleskovitch and Smith propose that meaningful segments of great size can be placed into long-term memory and retrieved later Of course a chunk of information must be

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understood in order to be meaningful To demonstrate this idea, Seleskovitch uses the example of a person who has just seen a movie, after viewing the film the person will be able to relate the plot and many of the details of the of the film If the person continues to discuss the film with others the details will remain fresh in their mind for a longer period of time In this example the person is able to remember the film because they understood it, and are,

“conversant with the various themes found in films the movie-goer can easily and fully process the „information‟ conveyed and for this reason he remembers” (Seleskovitch, 1979, 32)

Smith adds, “it takes no longer to put a rich and relevant chunk of meaning into long-term memory than it does a useless letter or word” (Smith, 45), because of this the moviegoer will probably be able to relate the salient points of the film in a fraction of the time it took them to receive the information Since the information was understood, its salient points can be reformulated into another mode of communication For example, when the moviegoer discusses the plot of the film they do not recreate its form, nor do they take two hours to render their “interpretation.” Due to the greater ease of assimilating larger meaningful chunks of information it behooves the interpreter

to focus their attention on these larger chunks A larger chunk of text will usually contain a greater amount of meaning It is this relationship that aids the interpreter‟s understanding of the source text when working consecutively As shown above, once a chunk of information is understood it can be reformulated into another form As Seleskovitch (1978) points out, “In consecutive interpretation the interpreter has the advantage of knowing line of the argument before he interprets” (Seleskovitch, 28)

Interpreters are not charged with merely understanding the message; they must also be able to remember it, in order to deliver their interpretation Seleskovitch notes that dropping form aids the interpreter‟s

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memory because they are not concentrating on remembering the words, or even the structure of the source text Instead, the interpreter understands the message, connects it to long-term memory, and is then able to reformulate it in much the same way the moviegoer can relate the points of a film Of course the interpreter must provide a more equivalent target text than the moviegoer

To this end, interpreters working consecutively will often make notes as they take in the source utterance These notes help the interpreter retrieve the message from their long-term memory and consist of, “symbols, arrows, and a key word here or there” (Seleskovitch, 1991, 7)

According to Gile (1991), there are two main phases in interpreting (both simultaneous and consecutive interpreting):

Phase 1 = L + M + N

Phase 2 = Rec + Read + P

In the first phase, the interpreter focuses on listening and analyzing the source language speech, which is required between the time information is heard and the time it is written down in the notes, note-taking The next step, which can be called reconstruction or reformulation in target language, is required with a note-reading effort In other words, it is to decode the note The interpreter retrieves all the information restored in short term memory and produces it into target language

Yet Webber (1989) divided interpreting process into five phases, but the content in these phases is similar to that in Gile‟s Effort Model

Phase 1: HEARING (getting the sounds)

Phase 2: LISTENING (getting the message)

Phase 3: ANALYZING (abstract and paraphrase)

Phase 4: MEMORIZING AND/ OR NOTE-TAKING

Phase 5: INTERPRETING

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The fifth phase can be seen as crucial step in the whole process

1.2.3 Basic skills in consecutive interpreting:

There are fundamental skills which are respective to phases in consecutive interpreting Along with language skills such as listening and speaking, the interpreters are trained skill of note-taking, reformulation, and short-term memory

Lastly, note-taking is as one of essential preparation in consecutive interpreting A good interpreter should always take preparation

(Richard, K.Seymour, C.C.Liu 1994, p.11)

2.2.3.2 Short-term memory in consecutive interpreting:

Even when the certain amount of information is written down in notes, other information is still kept in short-term memory and putting together and reformulated into a succession of natural-sounding target language sentences (Basic concepts and models for interpreter and translator training, Gile.1996)

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2.2.3.3 Reformulation:

According to Gentile (1996) in Basic Concepts and Models for interpreter and translator training, reformulation is used to eliminate potential consequences of production problems or in case that short-term memory is overloaded In his book, he mentioned some approaches to reformulation

1.3 Strategies and undesirable situations in interpreting:

1.3.1 Strategies:

Strategies are defined as a set of actions or strategies applied to help interpreters cope with accidents occurring during interpreting and ensure the consistency of interpreting Coping strategies are good for interpreters to promote performance to be close to competence

According to many experts on interpreting, coping strategies are crucial for interpreters and they work to minimize negative impacts or difficulties in interpreting Until now, there are many books as well as researches mentioned the techniques or strategies (which are different from skills in interpreting) in

interpreting Among these books I have read, two typical ones are Basic concepts and models for interpreter and translator training by Daniel Gile (1995), and The interpreting studies readers by Franz Pochhacker (2002) The

book by Daniel Gile offers concepts, models, techniques, approaches as well as strategies, rules and suggestions to deal with translation and interpreting issues theoretically, and practically These issues such as effort models of interpreting, problems as well as strategies are focused in chapter 7 and chapter 8 Specifically, in chapter 7, Gile‟s interest encompasses the effort models of interpreting Whatever consecutive or simultaneous interpreting all require good performance which calls for a set of three core efforts namely listening and analysis effort, the production effort and the short-term memory effort In chapter 8, he leads us to facing and coping with online problems in interpreting

Differently, the book by Franz Pochacker is a comprehensive picture of interpreting in terms of growing areas, trends and approaching directions Through seven parts, he describes in details the aspects, problems, strategies of both simultaneous and consecutive interpreting

1.3.2 Undesirable situations:

Theoretically, undesirable situations are understood to be situations which are not wanted and often cause trouble In interpreting, they are unexpected or unprepared situations of interpreters The situations can arise at any time whether the interpreter is well-prepared or not Such cases may be caused by many reasons Sometimes they come from speaker, interpreter or even objective factors such as language, culture or surrounding environment (background, noise, press, media and so on)

More specifically, regarding language aspect, these undesirable situations can appear such as mispronunciation, regional accents, technical terms, lengthy speech and so on

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1.4 The quality of interpreters and the concept of an experienced interpreters:

1.4.1 The quality of interpreters:

Before mastering strategies in interpreting, the interpreters should be aware of skills required in their career These skills are not only essential but they will support to cope strategies

In the paper by Holly Mikkelson, he synthesizes the qualities for an ideal interpreter from various authors These qualities include:

Language skills: Even laypersons recognize that interpreters need to

have a good command of their languages to interpret accurately, though they underestimate the extent of that command Writers about all type of interpreting, from conference (Seleskivitch, 1978a; Jones, 1998) to court (Gonzalez et al, 1991) to community (Frishberg, 1986; Gentile et al, 1996) emphasize the breadth and depth of linguistic proficiency for mastering the techniques of interpreting

Analytical skills: Gonzalez et al (1991: 363) declare that analysis is

“foremost” among the strategies employed by court interpreters, “so essential to simultaneous interpreting that it can be considered an intrinsic part of the process rather than ancillary tactic” Writing about conference interpreting, Jones (1998) also stresses how important it is to analyze a speech before interpreting it The standards of practice for medical interpreters (MMIA, 1995) also cite analysis as a key element in interpreting proficiency

Listening and recall: As Gentile et al (1996: 44) note, Effective

interpreting requires effective listening skills” Many authors define the specific kind of listening that interpreters perform as “active listening”, and further point out that “this active, attentive listening is quite different from other forms of listening, and has to be learned by interpreter” (Jones, 1998:14) Memory or recall is also identified as essential by virtually all experts on interpreting, regardless of the type: Seleskovitch (1978a: 34) goes as far as asserting that “in

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interpretation, memory and understanding are inseparable; the one is function

of the other”

Speaking skills: Most people associate speaking skills with appearance

before large audiences at public events such as congresses, assemblies, or press conferences; and public speaking is indeed a key component in the training of all types of interpreters (Weber, 1984; Frishberg, 1986; Gonzalez et all, 1991) Gentile et al (1996: 47) point out, however, that even liaison or community interpreters, who generally interpret in more intimate settings, need to be able to express ideas well: “Effective speaking skills range from quality of voice to choice of idiom, vocabulary, phrasing etc So both what comes out of the mouth

of the interpreter and the way it comes out are important in the overall effectiveness of the interpretation

Subject knowledge: All experts on interpreting recognize the need to

acquire technical terminology and content knowledge in relevant fields (Seleskovitch, 1978a; Gonzala et all, 1991; Frishberg, 1986; Gentile et al; MMIA, 1995)

Cultural knowledge: It is almost universally acknowledged that

interpreters working in medical and social service settings need to be acutely aware of cultural differences (hence the term “cultural interpreter” that is so prevalent in Canada), although there is widespread disagreement about what they should do with that knowledge (Carr et al, 1997) Court interpreters are also expected to take culture into account, although they are much more restricted in their ability to educate their clients about cultural differences (Gonzalez et al, 1991) What many of these interpreters may not recognize is that conference interpreters, too, consider themselves no just linguistic but also cultural intermediate Seleskovitch (1978a&b, Seleskovitch and Lederer, 1984) has written extensively about the link between language and culture Perhaps Jones (1998: 4) sums it up best when he says that “in all of their work,

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(conference) interpreters must bridge the cultural and conceptual gaps separating the participants in a meeting”

Ethical behavior: Although the interpreter‟s code of ethics has the

greatest impact on the interpreter‟s work in legal settings, ethics are major consideration for all interpreters (Frisherberg, 1996; Sussanman and Johnson (1998) describes the delicates situations understand their role and exercise good judgment Medical interpreters must be particularly attuned to the importance

of patient privacy issues (MMIA, 1995)

1.4.2 The concept of an experienced interpreter:

The concept of experience refers to knowledge or skill of something achieved by involvement in or exposure to that thing In other words, experience can be understood as know-how, procedural knowledge or on-the-job training Interpreting experience is the duration of working as an interpreter The longevity of an interpreter‟s experience is often counted up with his/her time of practicing in interpreting

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2 CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

2.1 The subjects:

The questionnaires were responded by these interpreters from January to

March 2012 In an attempt to obtain objective assessment, I also classified these

interpreters in terms of gender and the number of experience years because it is

likely that the frequencies as well as the way of dealing with undesirable

situations are different among other age groups and other genders

50 interpreters have different number of working years Here I categorize

these interpreters into two groups The first group is the interpreters with two to

fewer than five years of work experiences The second group is the people who

have worked as interpreters for more than five years

2.2 The methods:

The main method of this thesis is to examine how the interpreters with varied experiences deal with undesirable situations This method aims at

collecting three undesirable cases which the interpreter meets most frequently

These questionnaires will be delivered to interpreters and they are asked to be

filled in that sheet

The process of data collection consists of 2 steps:

Step 1: The questionnaires are delivered to interpreters

Step 2: The questionnaires are collected

The steps of analyzing go as follows:

Step 1: The results of the questionnaire will be noted down

Step 2: Undesirable situations will be identified and ranked

Step 3: Based on the recommendation from the interpreters, the strategies for

each undesirable situation will be designed

18 Besides, some interpreters will be interviewed This method is used with

an aim to get detailed information or suggestion from the interpreters

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3 CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

As mentioned in chapter I, the aim of the thesis is to find out three most

common undesirable situations that the experienced interpreters encounter

frequently After that, based on the findings and suggestions from these

interpreters, I will lay out recommendations on the matter

3.1 The frequency of encountering undesirable situations:

There are four main questions in my questionnaire For the first one, it is

designed to ask interpreters about frequency of encountering undesirable

situations There are four possible cases: Never, Rarely, Sometimes and Often

By analyzing the statistics collected from 50 interpreters, I have made

conclusion that most interpreters often encounter undesirable situations The

finding is illustrated in the below table:

Table.1 Frequency ratings by experienced interpreters

The level of frequency Number of interpreters Percentage

Through table 1, we can see that all interpreters in the survey have ever

encountered undesirable situations The percentage of interpreters who rarely

run into undesirable situations only accounts for 4% (2 people) while the

percentage of interpreters who sometimes face undesirable situations amounts

to 36% (12 people) The number of interpreters choosing the fourth choice

makes up a significant percentage (72%)