2 Interpreters Test Their Interpreting Skills (Speed Challenge) | WIRED 

Especially with multiple languages lmao

Get help

You might be schizophrenic

Augis Don't tell us what to do

Hahahahaha

Kabeer Ahmed UP

it would be just 2 guys talking

More impressive than E-Sports honestly -.-

I agree with you. As I practice, I tell myself this is like training for the Olympics.

😂😂

She was really amazing la admiro

i mean, she's chilean too so i guess it wasn't hard for her

@@Huanke_0h how do you knoe

@@juanpablomartinez7135 It s clear that she s chilean when you hear her spanish

@@tomashidalgo9830 secaaaa

A friend of my dad spoke 47 languages. I just speak 4 like most Dutch people.

@@mads751 are you kidding? and I'm struggling with english :(

@@mads751 A lot of Dutch people aren't that fluent in all 4 languages though ^^' still impressive

I am struggling with my english too

@@linamape8808 if someone wants to practice some English well I would like to practice too Maybe through whatsapp?

SO TRUE!

Bing: WASSSAAAAAPP

The flaw of google translate is that translations are community made and google decide what can be fitted in the end translation

Bit bull: WATAGABITUSBERRY

@Matthew Mcmath Learn humor.

Absolutely, she started out pretty much perfectly and then had SOME trouble keeping up at that speed, but not even that much, which is insane considering she didn't know the topic, the speakers were going at light speed, and speaking over each other. Absolute pro.

My first language is Spanish and understanding them was really hard, she’s an absolute pro.

@NonyaBusiness! looooooooooooooool as a Dominican I'm SO sorry Even I am done with the slang lmao

I was so mad when he said "It was pretty good." She was AMAZING.

@@doctorpanigrahi9975 no need to be sexist now...i'm sure you wouldn't like it if i said the same thing about a man

There's no job like it.

It is. I'm a translator who sometimes does consecutive interpreting (waiting for someone to finish speaking a sentence before translating it into another language), and even for CI it's often impossible to get a perfect rendition of the original speech into the target language - unless you get the text of the speech beforehand, which unfortunately happens only rarely. Compared to simultaneous interpreting, which is what they do here, CI doesn't require speaking and listening at the same time, which is of course very taxing cognitively, and so it is usually impossible for SI interpreters to get everything translated. (One of the first things in SI training is to practice immediately repeating in the same language what someone else is saying. Anyone can try this with a friend, and you'll know how hard it is to keep up when simply repeating in the same language. And SI interpreters basically have to repeat in another language.) Interpreting is definitely not a job for the absolute perfectionist - much like a performer, a big element of the job is to learn to keep on going and not being held back by the mistake you know you just made. Pursuing perfection is a luxury that only translators working with written text can attempt to afford, and even with no immediate time constraints, we often find the job difficult enough. But the nerdy satisfaction of knowing you got a brilliant translation down is like no other.

@@kevwang0712 Thanks for the reply! I didn't know people were liking this comment lol. I'm pretty good at languages and I could go into interpreting in the future possibly, but I also beat myself up about my mistakes a lot so maybe verbal translating isn't a job for me lol. How did you get into translating? Was is something you always knew that you wanted to do?

@@kevwang0712 It depends what you mean by perfectionism. The idea that communication is all about the words that are said (or written) is proven nonsense. It's not that you "don't get everything" in sim, it's that you are making live, split-second decisions as to what matters in this context, for these people and this purpose. Interpreting is people skills with language attached. If you are looking for semantic perfection, you are chasing an impossible dream. If you are looking for the perfection of communication miracles like patients receiving the right treatment, companies nailing multi-million pound deals, people being carried along in stirring speeches and everyone having a fantastic live experience, welcome to the joys of excellent interpreting.

@@altahir9515 The kicking yourself when you get stuff wrong is something you can fix with the right training but reflection is a big part of interpreting.

I completely agree, it's so Impressive

They are flexing their skills 💪

exactly! there is no need to compare the two, they're both super awesome.

Interpreters actually switch shifts every 30 minutes since it is so hard

Translators and interpreters do very different jobs. As a translator, what you're asked is to translate as accurately what's written. You need to respect strictly the original text, convey the exact same emotions, level of language etc... As an interpret, you can get away with some differences as long as the main idea is conveyed, as seen in this video. I have absolutely no problem with translation, and, without wanting to toot my own horn, I'm actually quite good at it, but I could never do the job of an interpret, because it's way too draining. So yeah, just different jobs.

You can see the translator has gotten the whole text, so they're kinda more able to shift words around in English to not only get the point across but also put it into more natural English, the interpreter is doing it simultaneously, it must be really taxing on the brain.

As the classic goes, translations are like women, beautiful are not faithful, faithful are not beautiful.

I've worked as an Arabic/English translator and it can be mentally draining.

True. And that's why I've been wondering if such interpreters even practice instant translation, is it SOMEHOW ON THIS PLANET possible?

KOREAN VERBS COME AT THE END DANG THEY KEEP AMAZING ME

@@Fred-hx7uc "just"

@@iilwy No, I think it's just Korean and Japanese lol

That’s interesting! German puts verbs at the end too

apparently there’s also some translators that, since a pun can be untranslatable, they say “they told a joke but it’s untranslatable. please laugh,” and it cracked me up.

Wait my teacher told me the exact same thing 😳

And I bet that was more funny than the actual joke

Takes years and lot of practice🙂

Say that louder for people who believe that being a fluent polyglot = being an interpreter

Yes, exactly!! Also, r/suddenlycaralho

I can actually do that when translating for a doctor at appointments but when he starts speaking too fast I stop him for a bit because I want to interpret everything leaving nothing out. It’s definitely not as easy as people think it is. But with practice it’s pretty great I almost sound like an indifferent machine xD

translating is a lot more different than just speaking the language fluently

Id love to see her interpret it into Spanish

why do i see u everywhere ur like the new Justin Y

I’d like to see her translate it and sing it in all of the languages that she knows

Uh, sama lamaa duma lamaa, asumiendo que soy un humano. Lo que tengo que hacer para comunicármelo, soy sobrehumano. Innovadora y estoy hecha de goma. Así que cualquier cosa que digas se está rebotando en mí y te pegará Estoy devastando, más que nunca demostrando. Cómo dar a un público de mierda una sensación de que está levitando Nunca se desvanece, y sé que los que odian siempre están esperando. Por el día que puedan decir que me caí, estarían celebrando. Porque sé cómo motivarlos. Yo hago música elevadora, tú haces música de ascensor.

Arigatou kkuma Wow. I’m learning Spanish and I could actually understand more of that than I expected. Woot! I love it when my practice comes in handy “in the Wild” outside of lessons and stuff.

this made me laugh out loud because same lmao 😂

this made me laugh out loud because same lmao 😂

lmfao imagine saying that while translating for some important president meeting 😭😂😂🤙🏼

You have no way to communicate with the speaker when you're in a booth, only the people you're translating FOR hear you so you can't so that.

Toooooop xD

Sarah Kate English speakers talk fast

Politicians (Spanish speaking) tend to talk way slower when giving a speech or any kind of public announcement than when speaking normally. Maybe that's why it felt that slow? School and teachers always remind you to talk clearly, slowly (what we call "pausado"), and to enunciate each word when performing as an orator. I'm assuming a financial speech would fall in that category and therefore be originally of a slower pace than normal speech. :)

Latin languages sound faster because they have less dense meaning per syllable. So to convey a similar amount of meanings they naturally increase syllable speed. But that doesn't mean they are more efficient. In terms of meanings per minute, all human languages converge quite well.

@@play005517 that's so interesting! It probably has something to do with how fast the brain can formulate ideas/the brains limitations. Then again, i don't have any authority at all, sooo...

@@play005517 yes! Spanish is not as hard to understand as you’d think given the syllable count, because you have to listen for the keywords and disregard the filler

HAHAHAH OMG YES, WHAT HAPPENEED?!!

It was actually at one of the UN buildings in Geneva because my school is right on the border. So one of the international organizations lent us their conference rooms with all the fancy equipments and mics, it's amazing

@@butterbeer4582 they're asking what happened after you'd translated the swear word. I'm curious too.

@@MikLynNi oh nothing dw! I didn't get in trouble or anything, it was just funny. Luckily it was a small committee and there weren't any teachers there at that moment 😅

What language were you interpreting

be more exposed to native speakers to hone listening

Agreed. It's an annoying job. In my opinion you are better off choosing interpreting jobs that allow for more pausing, than speed ones.

XD for me translating is boring...interpreting 911 calls and medical situations are fun!

It's the opposite for me, love being in the center of all the action

Agreed. After practicing interpretation at the university, I decided I would never ever do that again :D Happy with my calm translations.

don't give up!! with study and practice I'm sure you can do it ♡♡♡

Practice makes perfect! I'm aiming for Chinese and Korean translation. You just gotta try your best

Do give up! You can do anything you set your mind to 💛

Same

@@danielaferreira2257 np ill give up

I hope that, as time has gone by since you made this comment, you've come to realise that when people say that kind of thing, it's just because of ignorance. We can't expect people outside of the language industry to understand the skills required behind the job - why on earth would they know? Just develop standard, patient responses to the FAQ. As a translator, I have found that the best reply to things like, "Yeah, your quote is too expensive and I have a bilingual employee who can do it," is, "If there are pre- and post-graduate degrees for a profession, that should indicate to you that specialist knowledge is actually quite necessary." If they don't get it after that, I just wish them well and move on.

@@orchardlea Definitely! I think it's kind of natural that common people might underestimate it because it's language-related, if it was accounting, engineering, they might not make the same kind of comments. It's always a relief to find someone who is on the same page/understands about this matter.

Niamh-Creates That was actually her translation for “Muchachaaaa”

She said "are you kidding" a lot, it's interesting as a phrase that fits a multitude of contexts. Great choice for a "panic button" of interpreting, if you get what I'm saying.

@@kuro13wolf I never really thought about it like that.. wow that's actually quite interesting

Ditto! I just started reading in Spanish and comparing translations side by side is a new hobby of mine, lol. Especially books with two or more translations because you can see where translators part ways and decide to choose this regionalism over that one, or another casual term or a more cut and dry replacement.... I hadn’t expected it to be that aspect to be so darned interesting. Tone is more important to convey than I had realized, I guess. It adds subtlety and added context that’s really important. An engrossing book can be rendered very boring if the translator chooses the strictest and driest language to describe what’s happening. So this topic in general has been on my mind lately. I love it when the timing lines up so well. 😁

I thought she looked like Alexandria ocasio-cortez 😂😂😂😂😂

I know! how many years do you think it took for her to get that accent when she spoke Spanish?

Go, interpreters* If you're a language nerd, then you must keep the vocative in mind.

Illyasviel von Einzbern someone is jealous

cool! which language?

j'ai peur ☠

Agreed. We don't have simultaneous interpretation but consecutive and that's a bit easier, but still hard. My brain turns into mush after having to interpret for 10 minutes, it is truly, difficult

Interpreter here also and I agree with you.

She's better lmao

Oh. Was this a competition?? I skiped a bit . Didn't realise

Me before getting into the meat of the video: "To be fair, reading and translating us probably easier than listening to something while translating" Me after realising it isn't one listening and the other reading: "...I may have made my prediction a little bit early" But they're both amazing so it doesn't matter which is harder. I'm bilingual and I could not do this.

@@lillajoba6710 Remember that Interpreters are always listening and speaking, while Translators are the ones that read and write. Tbh, I like translating way more. My head can't cope with interpreting something in real time.

Ragingangel he was translating harder text like politics and economics compared to conversation vocabulary

As an interpreter for a living, this makes me feel so appreciated! Thank you, lol

*NEURONS FIRE!!!!*

@Yaroslav L They set their own rates, we hired them over and over because they were so good.

I'm glad I'm not the only one. Spanish is only my third language but I'm not bad at it at all but could barely follow anything during especially the really quick parts of the speech. I'm able to understand this kind of technical speak in English which is my second language but definitely need to study more to get on this level in Spanish

MarvelousSandstone - What’s your third language?

@@PeaceNinja007 I speak German, which is my native language, English which I'm fluent in by now, Spanish where I'm somewhere in the advanced category and currently also learn Swedish just for fun. Nothing to wild because so far I haven't really gone out of the major European language families but I'm already planning what language I will tackle next once I get better at Spanish and reach a higher level of Swedish.

Sofía Pamal i think the guy said he was Chilean. and she studied and worked(s) in Chile so im sure she got most of his interpretation right

@@benjames7932 She is Chilean, so it wasn't difficult for her to follow Chilean slang.

If you are an interpreter,then you interpret not translate. Interpretation - verbal Translation - written

I want to do medical translation too and I am 17. Any tips??

How much you get per hour/session? I personally wouldnt be able to handle the pressure: 1. Being in actual ER/birth scene would be too much, 2. Thinking of making errors that could cause someones health jeopardized. Much respect to you.

As a fellow colleague, all I can say that I decided to stop doing video remote interpreting after interpreting and trying to relay instructions for an epidural while the patient had 1 to 5 minute contractions. A few nauseated patients chucking at my webcam view...

Translation is quite different to interpretation though. This video doesn't really apply to translating at all.

@@jort93z We take both. It is mandatory.

Panic attack? Well, looking at the video you are training for the future!! Jk, if you are like the woman said at the end you'll do just fine

@@ramsinanwia9486 oof

Ha ha..

LOOOL

I'm looking for this comment

rhymes with laughter

It’s because he’s absolutely killin’ it out here

@@KungFuPanda1223 you reminded me of "dearest creature in creation, study English pronunciation.."

I kind of feel like the UN is useless tbh.

@@TheGreatCooLite what makes you say that? They fight for peace and justice and do a lot in that they were a big reason canada declared war on global warming and climate change they do a lot of good and are way more useful the Congress at they very least.

mr boop they’re also riddled with corruption Originally had good intentions but greed is just waaay too common there

@@TheGreatCooLite as a suffering history student that studies the nuances of the UN and how it fails, or has failed/succeeded in the past 55-75 years, yeah. It's pretty useless when the situation truly matters.

@@mrboop8905 the UN and the Brentwood Institutions, for me, are an extension of the foreign policies of the US and UK (EU). UN Resolutions for the US are taken as suggestions.

RiverSiege I think that was the point though, they were reading an old conversation. If they had to type it out and read it, they would probably be going so slow it wouldn’t be a challenge for the interpreter. I think they might have been slowly speeding up too to test how fast the interpreter could go. Normal speech wouldn’t ever be that fast most likely.

SquiDragon any seasoned interpreter should be able to handle that though. There are worse situations.

RiverSiege thats kind of the point. it was just a twist on how she can flex her skills

Guys, barry's test was relatively lame. In the "fast" speed he was only at average spanish speed. Spanish is the second fastest language (fastest is japanese).

@@83hjf I thought chinese was the fastest, but I guess it's just the wide range of characters that makes their translation so big that it's impossible to keep up when reading subtitles

Pierce Arner Interpreter: Es fénomenal!

same

I thought she was AOC for a moment

She looks more like cristiano ronaldo's wife

Whoa

Thoght you said "I'm still squirting"

Sing language is fascinating with the fact that every country has it's own signs. I wanted to learn some so I searched the English internet, because that has more free resources for learning. And then it occurred to me that I was learning American sign language. In the end asl is not even close to my country's sign language but oh well. I wonder of there are any sign to sign interpreters? It's probably easier than I imagine idk 😂

I was going to say the same thing

Pavlínka there are hearing ASL interpreters with certified Deaf interpreters

I’m a sign language interpreter and would love to see this too!

Ella es chilena o estadounidense? Por su nombre pensaría que nació en USA. Su acento en español es perfecto por lo que alcancé a escuchar en el video anterior.

@@m.c.v.a.8586 la conocí acá en Chile y me dio la impresión que era Chilena

Sí, creo q es Chilena. Lo dijo alguien en el previo video.

@@m.c.v.a.8586 ella es Chilena.

@@nothayley Ella es estadounidense, hizo algunos estudios universitarios y estudió Derecho en Chile.

Actually plenty of common vocab these days. Depending upon the context.

Non-Latin Language Latin Language generally means that the interpreter will wait until the sentence is finished to begin speaking.

Exactly. I do Turkish- English and the two languages are SO different. It makes a huge difference

I’ll soon start studying English - Korean translation and interpretation .. kinda worried but super excited!!

@@shioma I do English to Russian and it's interesting and quite tiresome

She got me right there

You can effectively shorten the English sentence to 'little twerps' and convey the same meaning.

@@GearyDigit Funny

Castellano: Están en la edad del pavo.

Michael Geiss ‘they are misbehaved’ also works. You can stretch it out in spanish and do it word by word as well i dont see your point

we have a term for that. It’s called “terrible 2’s” lol

Chilean is like another language. Dude.

@Daniela Lobos Pérez mwahahaha I WISH Chileans disliked reggaeton... most clubs play nothing BUT reggaeton, it drives me nuts here...

its an aight sketch

LMAOOOO GOOGLE TRANSLATE!?!? Please dont insult these fine folk they have to INTERPRET INCLUDING CONTEXT WHICH CHANGES SO MUCH DEPENDING ON VOICE AND SITUATION IN GOOGLE TRANSLATE U SAY A LA UNA FAST AND IT'LL GIVE U ONE WING BYEE 😂😂😂

I mean there’s at least 5 years of studies and decades of experience behind them. That’s incomparable to a computer program...

Many world leaders speak English so many times when they talk to other world leaders they don't need a translator

@@joeblack363 It was a joke. But yeah, I'm sure that's the case often times. However, not sure that's true when it comes to Trump with Kim Jong Un and him with Putin. I always see their respective interpreters by their sides. Maybe just in case, like for clarity sake.

I don't really know anything but it would be very dumb to not have an interpreter. And Id say that listening to languages seems easier than actually speaking it.

@@Pavlinka__ Agreed. Don't want any miscommunications when it comes to serious issues. And yeah, I'm sure it is!

@@adamemac Also, some world leaders are forbidden by law to use a foreign language when in official meetings. So, even if they can communicate in English, they wouldn't.

Ah yes, I hate when they do that

Can you please explain??

Oh my god I can’t imagine how frustrating that is. I’m an entry level ASL interpreter (associates degree) and I’ve never had that experience, thank god.

Quiero ser una intérprete también. ¿como estas en tu camino ahora? despues de un año

@@Just_a_Jynx hola, actualmente estoy en mi tercer año de traducción (de 4 años) interpretación es una opción que puedes seguir si es que quieres pero eso es después de terminar los 4 años de traducción y ahí hacer 2 años más de interpretación, así que aún no llego ahí. En traducción siento que está bien, solo que debes esforzarte muuucho para así poder aprender bien los idiomas, en mi caso alemán. La pandemia también influyó mucho en la carrera, ya que aprender idiomas es algo que necesita mucho la forma presencial, para estar más en contacto con todo, si te interesa seguir hablando o quieres compartir dudas o ideas puedes escribirme a mi instagram @mvalenaa para que hablemos mejor :)

@@ValentinaAlmuna Eso es tan dulce de tu parte, gracias

Actually it's estai loca, but chileans tend to drop their "s"

“Tay” also works. It has been used so often that it has become a word itself. I also use “toy” sometimes. Toy chiquito= I am small.

lmao chileans aren't original seeing as us brazilians have been using(es)tá, (es)tô, (es)tava, etc. for *ages*. cs tão imitando agente? kkkk

@@lahagemo sorry i don't speak sopa do Macaco uma delicia hahahaha

@@lahagemo Actually, even within Spanish speaking countries, that's not that rare. Here in Mexico, we say toy, tas, ta, tamos, tan. What is interesting for me is tas becoming tay.

I'm bilingual, technically even multilingual because I speak two more languages but not as fluently and heck interpreting for someone is always extremely hard. The brainpower that uses will exhaust you fast if you aren't careful. I definitely understand why they usually switch after 30 minutes during big conferences.

Because brazilians dont speak spanish

@@Shadow77999 thats one explanation indeed kk

Out of curiosity, which languages do you speak?

@@somebodysomewhere3451 Spanish, English, French, Latin, and some Arabic

Knowing languages is not enough.You have to study to become translator/interpreter.Is not for everyone.

@@Strxwberry_psyche ooh what dialect of Arabic are you familiar with?

@@melanie851 They know that, it's why they said the idea of being an interpreter makes their brain hurt

I hope you doing well with your job as interpreter

Hahah