Consecutive Interpreting: English to Russian and Russian to English
What this domain tests
Consecutive Interpreting tests bidirectional oral rendering after a speaker pauses, typically in court, police or lawyer-client settings. It requires note-taking, memory and register control.
Core rules and concepts
- Listen for the proposition, not the words: who did what, to whom, when, with what effect.
- Take notes in the source language or symbols; record names, numbers, dates, negations and modality first.
- Use a vertical layout with links, arrows and brackets to show logical relations.
- Preserve hedging and modality: 'may have', 'allegedly' and 'I believe' must not become assertions.
- If a term is unclear, ask a short clarifying question at the pause; do not invent.
- Interpret the whole segment, not a summary. Keep speaker register: formal for judges, plain for witnesses.
Worked example
Speaker: 'On 14 March, at about 9.40 p.m., I saw the defendant leave the building, but I did not see what he was carrying.' Notes might read: '14/03 ~21:40 saw D leave bldg; NOT see carry'. Reasoning: the date and time come first because they are easy to lose; 'but' marks a contrast; 'did not see' must be preserved. Rendering: '14 марта около 21:40 я видел, как подсудимый выходил из здания, но не видел, что он нёс.' Omitting the negation would reverse the evidence.
Traps
- Summarising or merging short segments.
- Losing a negation or changing 'not' to 'did'.
- Rounding numbers or converting units without need.
- Changing 'may' to 'must' or 'alleged' to 'proven'.
- Using a Russian legal term that is more specific than the source, such as 'подсудимый' for 'the man'.