Consecutive and simultaneous interpreting skills
What this domain tests
The exam tests the cognitive and technical skills that make courtroom interpretation accurate under time pressure: active listening, memory, note-taking, segmentation, simultaneous lag management, sight translation, and error monitoring.
Core skills
- Consecutive: listen for meaning units, take structured notes (vertical layout, margins for links, symbols for negation and dates), and reformulate in the target language. Notes are an aid, not a transcript; never read notes verbatim.
- Simultaneous: maintain a short processing lag (décalage), chunk source syntax into target-friendly units, anticipate from context, and monitor your own output. In court, simultaneous mode is common for long openings, charges, and admonitions; whispered mode is used for brief bench conferences but is fatiguing and error-prone.
- Numbers, names, negation: write digits, dates, and proper names immediately; mark negation with a distinct symbol. A dropped 'not' changes testimony.
- Teamwork and fatigue: simultaneous work requires a partner every 20-30 minutes; consecutive work also degrades with fatigue. Request a break before accuracy collapses.
- Error protocol: if you make a material error, correct it at the next natural pause and on the record; do not let a known error stand.
Worked example
Witness: 'I never said I wouldn't go, but I did say I couldn't stay past ten.' The interpreter hears two negations and a time condition. A careless rendering such as 'I said I wouldn't go and couldn't stay past ten' reverses the first clause and adds a refusal. The correct rendering preserves 'never said I wouldn't' and the contrast with 'couldn't stay.' The note should show NEG + 'said would not go' + BUT + 'could not stay >10.' During the pause, the interpreter renders both clauses and the contrast, not a summary.
Traps
Believing good interpreting is word-for-word; taking notes in full sentences and falling behind; guessing an unclear number; dropping hedges ('I think,' 'maybe'); switching from first person without need; using whispered simultaneous for a long charge; failing to ask for repetition; and not correcting a material error.