The ATA Chronicle - May/June 2022 - 21

The LOTS Dilemma
It was for precisely this
reason that I focused on
languages other than Spanish
(LOTS) resources for my
session at ATA's 62nd Annual
Conference in Minneapolis. I
began the session, as always,
with a question: " What
unique challenges face
LOTS interpreters? "
People were hesitant
to respond at first, but
then finally one person
raised her hand. " The lack
of materials! " she stated
bluntly. Colleagues to her left
and right began to nod and
murmur emphatically.
What I hadn't realized at
the beginning of my career
was how lucky I was. As a
Spanish interpreter, you
have access to an array
of training materials.
Simulated court and medical
scenarios are accompanied
by their corresponding
transcripts, and glossaries
and example interpretations
are readily available. In
short, somebody has already
done the work for you.
Much to my dismay,
this was not the case for
French interpreting. Nor is
it the case for Japanese, Twi,
Swahili, Cape Verdean, or any
of the hundreds of languages
you may encounter over the
course of an interpreting
lifetime. So, what's a LOTS
interpreter to do?
Creating Materials
for Deliberate Practice
My conference session
focused on maximizing our
resources in an attempt not
to reinvent the wheel. The
first thing I discussed was
deliberate study. Interpreting
along with a YouTube video
or TV program is all well and
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good, but it doesn't constitute
interpreting practice. To
improve as an interpreter,
you must analyze your
performance in micro detail.
You need to record your
interpretations and, most
importantly, be able to
compare your rendition with
a transcript. In short, you
need training materials. But
what's a LOTS interpreter
to do when there are no
training materials?
The good news is, while
there may not be languagespecific
materials in your
language, there are languageneutral
(English only)
materials. Here are a just a
few companies that sell them:
Interpretrain
https://interpretrain.com
Interpretrain offers
innovative self-study tools
that include vocabulary
drills and practice labs you
can grade so you know
exactly how well you're
doing. They also sell The
Note-Taking Manual, which
is an incredible resource for
consecutive interpreting.
ACEBO
https://acebo.myshopify.com
In addition to languagespecific
materials in Arabic,
Portuguese, Vietnamese,
Mandarin, Polish, Korean,
Russian, and Cantonese,
ACEBO sells The Interpreter's
Edge Generic Edition, which
can be used for practice with
any language.
The Confident Interpreter
www.theconfidentinterpreter.com
This company sells
language-neutral practice
labs that are great for court
and medical interpreters.
Interpreting along with a YouTube
video or TV program is all well
and good, but it doesn't constitute
interpreting practice.
De la Mora Institute
of Interpretation
https://delamorainstitute.com
They offer a variety of online
classes geared to beginner,
intermediate, and advanced
interpreters of all languages.
If you interpret a language
of lesser diffusion and cannot
find practice materials
specific to your language,
language-neutral materials
are the way to go as they
provide you with most of
what you need for your
language. For example,
to practice simultaneous
interpreting, you only need
simultaneous practice
materials from English
into your other language.
That's because court
interpreters don't interpret
simultaneously into English.
This means you can use any
simultaneous practice in
English and simply interpret
into your other language.
What's missing, then, is
sight translation from other
languages into English and
a true consecutive dialogue
that consists of questions in
English and answers in your
other language. Here are
some tricks on how to cover
these two areas.
Create Your Own Materials
for Sight Translation: The
sight translation dilemma
is simple enough. Just do
a Google search for wills,
police reports, medical
American Translators Association 21
https://www.delamorainstitute.com https://www.interpretrain.com https://acebo.myshopify.com http://www.theconfidentinterpreter.com http://www.ata-chronicle.online
The ATA Chronicle - May/June 2022

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