Simultaneous Interpreting - Tips for Beginners 

I'm glad that I'm not the only interpreter who has ever told my audience that the speaker just told a joke that does not translate, please laugh to make him/her happy." The reason why that works is because that, in itself, is funny.

The stress levels experienced by simultaneous interpreters during their work have been compared to that of air traffic controllers. (Y)

Beyond the language skills, techniques, and preparations for events, interpreters have to "get into the mind" (so to speak) of the person for whom they are interpreting-- and that's a hard skill to convey. I focus on how the individual is breathing and listen for the emotion coveyed by the tone and volume of the voice. If I can see the individual from the booth, I watch eye gaze. This helps me get into my "interpreters zone" and more accurately match the emotions and the intensity of the speaker.

thank you thank you so much. I am a completely new beginner and your video is such an inspiration&lesson for me!

Thank you so much for your video! I’m a freshman at university, and I’m going to have an interpretive session next week (that’s my volunteer work). Actually, this video is lifesaving💔🙏

Thank you so much for your video, I do interpreting for meetings and events sometimes, but have never done it on a professional basis. I would like to get better at it, so I this was very helpful. Thank you!

Make more videos like this, please! You are doing it great!

Great video, thank you ! I just graduated in translation and I'll start a MA in conference interpreting in september. Super excited but really scared. So your video helps a lot !

Great insight ! Would love another video on your personal experience

Thank you for all the tips and techniques.

Thanks alot for sharing this vid Daniela" I really hope on further guides on interpreting situation for next videos ! regards from Peru

Great tips! Please do more videos. Regarding the joke question, I would inform the audience and ask them to please laugh.

Thank you Daniela . This was very helpful to me! Its a great find

Thank you so much for your video, Daniela!! You pushed me even stronger towards my goals with your motivation, tips and professionality! And btw the jokes... I would have some basic jokes in my pocket just in case, but telling them I can't translate is not a good option I guess.

Thank you, great service please keep it up.

It was priceless, thank you !!

my heart with u simultaneously

Thank you for your advices 😊🙏

Thank you very much for this wonderful video!

Great tips! Thank you!!

That's really useful and helpful!

Thank you very much for your tips. Please share us more.

Hi, here from Argentina. Thank you!!!!! Your video has been really helpful!!!!

Your voice is so so calming.

Thank you so much. It was really helpful.

this is very helpful, appreciate this

Thank you o much for your video! I got a part time job and it is interpreting (Korean -> Eng, Eng - Kor) Your video helped me so much :)

Thank you so much for your tips!

Amazing tips!!! Thank you very much

hi, this video is so good. i'm a beginner in interpreting, precisely simultanous interpreting. this is a big lesson for me. please make many videos to guide me..

Thank you for the information.

Thank you for the video it's indeed helpful.

Very good tips. Thank you for sharing! However, you sounded a little nervous in the video clip, which is cute!

I’m a beginner interpreter and I have a question to the experienced ones , after how many interpreting did you get the faith in yourself, that you can handle anything and that you are in tune? ❤

Great video with the clear explanation. In the video you have mentioned that "interpreter jumps from sentence to sentence and he/she may not be hired any more" My question is: What you do if a presenter jumps from sentence to sentence and his/her presentation is not clear during the delivery? I had the case numerous times. Many thanks again.

The advice given by EllaM in this video is really excellent. There is no pressure like the pressure you will experience when simultaneously interpreting without any notice and without any brief. Not fun!

Please show us many clips and videos! Thank you very much.

You are great 👍

I decided long time ago that I want to build a career of this profession and your video is the first thing I started with; any special tips for me?

Great tips. Thank you so much. Relating to the joke thing, I think the best way is to say "the speaker just made a joke which cannot be translated, please laugh right about now." haha. It's the sad truth. I think finding a joke that can be applied to all sorts of situations is quite challenging and would, most of the time, sound cringy.

why don't you post these types of videos more regularly? very well spoken. thank you!

Oh I agree, it seems so hard to interpret simultaneously.

Thank you very much for making me understand new ideas

Tnkx a lot 😊

Hey, @DanielaMichelle Thank you for taking your time and sharing your experience in this field. Just out curiosity, are you from in Las Vegas?

OMG, I've been interpreting/translating for over 30 years but, I've never done it simultaneously. I don't think that I can do it.

"The stress levels experienced by simultaneous interpreters during their work have been compared to that of air traffic controllers." Amazing, huge respect to all the interpreters out there. Another thing to ensure a stress free experience is use high quality interpretation equipment. Comfort plays a huge part to reduce stress levels. Congress Rental New Zealand. www.congressrental.nz

Hello from Colombia. I love your video, I am trying to get a copy of the book. Thanks for sharing! Here where I am it's not a good thing to ask for clarifications. I am not that afraid to stop the thing and ask for clarifications, but sometimes that would be misunderstood. I want to ask, what do you do when you need to correct an idea, (let's say a misunderstanding because it was your mistake) specially where there is no time for making your own clarifications to the audience? How did you train yourself for numbers? In my opinion the preparation phase here is really hard, the client usually doesn't share the info before the event or the conference. The strategies that I use on jokes are that sometimes I explain the joke in context if I have the time. If I don't have the time, I try to add something a little funny to the original joke and sometimes I make the Colombian adaptation of that joke, so at least the audience will smirk a bit. I learned that after working for some years doing consecutive interpretation between Europeans, Canadians, US citizens, and indigenous people from the Caribean coast.

Thank you for this video! I will be doing simultaneous interpreting for the very first time today! I'm a little nervous!

Madam, thank you very much for this video. I am Following you by the transcript as the sound is very low. Is there any possibility to reload it with a proper sound recording!

EllaM do you think that consecutive interpretation must be linked with simultaneous interpretation?? As for me I am bad at consecutive, due to the fact that you have to memorize a lot. What do you think?

How to train our interpretation skills

Hi Daniela, Thank you for a great summary! I loved this video. Out of curiosity: where are you originally from? I think I am catching some slight Slavic accent.

well, in simultaneous interpreting you don't need to guess words, except of course if there's blank gaps in the text you're following visually... right? or will you have no written text at hand?

Thankyou

I try translating people's loud thoughts into Hebrew with inner translation. It's hard, but I set it up as a challenge

Thank you Daniella, great video. I agree with you, best be sincere in a potentially embarrassing situation, i.e. the joke problem.. Also, you're right, there is no such thing as extracting ourselves from our who we are.. so yes, be professional and also who you are! I wonder what your mother tongue is.. german? Where are you from? You're obviously a born polyglot :)

Hi Daniela, I have a job interview tomorrow morning and part of the assessment is to interpret simultaneously for 10 minutes and I will only be briefed about the subject minutes before. Any quick tips?

Thank You so much for such a nice Video. Btw i m a German, English and Hindi language Interpreter. When i need to Interpret a Joke, so first i try to Interpret the joke in my target language. If i can do this then it's fine, otherwise i do the Same thing u do. I request them to laugh at that Joke........

Thank you for your video. Could you tell me the name of the book and author you mentioned please?

How can I practice the speed of my voice with the voice of the speaker? Thanks a million!

I keep ..... focused ..... em........ in what you're doing ..... em .......

Does anyone has some tips for greeting in public as an interpreter?

Greetings in Christ Jesus from Colombia (SA) lovely lady. Thanks for your wise advice. Hugs and kisses. Jn 3:1-36

My problem is that I tend to talk with a soft voice because otherwise my own voice distracts from listening. It is hard to find the right balance.....anyone has any advice about this?

I am practcing to be an interpreter but I am so bad at listening at the momento, what recommendations would you give me to improve my listening skills? any techniques?

I live in India and as u know there are multiple languages ..so in church I sometimes help interpreting the message which is given in English ....after I do it for about 30min it hurts my head and it is to go for about 1.5hrs usually...it's not an easy job at all I'm here for some help !

Studying to be an interpreter,my life is hard to say the least 😢I am so stressed.

What languages do you translate?

I am feeling complete despair at becoming an interpreter at the moment.

Please share more tips and experiences in ASMR. It would be so calming and informative at the same time. I really love the tone of your voice.

Are you speaking with low voice intentionally?

Yeah, I've started forgetting my mother tongue.

Sound very low.

Thanks for the info. but your voice is low can't hear you well.

Dear your voice is muffled

You forget the right term for every word. The worst 😫

Volume is too low, I can hardly hear the video

So the people in your country speak differently now than 10 years ago? Waoo you need to study Linguistics and Language Change. After 10 years they will speak the same way as before.

Sound very low.