Consecutive Interpretation - Phase Two Oral
The task
You interpret after the speaker pauses, usually in segments of roughly thirty seconds to several minutes, in both directions. Accuracy, completeness, grammar, and delivery are graded; notes and memory are means, not ends.
Concepts
- Note-taking system: symbols, abbreviations, arrows for agency and direction, a vertical layout with each idea on a new line, indented by function - subject, verb, object, link, negation.
- Idea-based notes, not shorthand dictation: record the proposition, not the phonemes.
- Discourse structure: charges, dates, the plea-colloquy elements (knowingly and voluntarily), witness sequences, sentencing terms.
- Memory: visualize and chunk; notes are a retrieval cue, not the record itself.
- Managing the record: you may ask for repetition or clarification; you may not summarize or add.
Traps
- Writing too much; the note becomes unreadable and working memory disengages.
- Missing numbers, names, and negations - a dropped "not" reverses testimony.
- "Improving" the speaker: witnesses speak in fragments and the interpreter renders the fragment faithfully, not as a cleaned-up paragraph.
- Register drift: a defendant's colloquial Spanish must not become legalese, and a judge's formal English must not become slang.
- Starting before the pause - that is simultaneous mode and is scored as an error.
Worked example
Segment: "On the night in question - I think it was the 14th, maybe the 15th - I saw two men, one of them carrying something." Notes: date ?14/15; 2 men; 1 carrying obj. Render the uncertainty: "En la noche en cuestión - creo que fue el 14, tal vez el 15 - vi a dos hombres, uno de los cuales llevaba algo."
Rule of thumb
Note the links and the numbers; let memory carry the words.