10 minutes of torture: the most suitable description for it.
I had my final test for consecutive interpreting yesterday. Other students who don't take translation & interpreting don't know what it's like for us. I don't even know what it's like, when I first heard about this course. I used to think it's going to be easy, and I'll breeze through it. I mean, is it so hard to translate? Everyone can do it, right? WRONG. I can only say that right now, I know better.
People don't really understand why I'm so nervous about the test. Some even say it's easy. "What? 10 minutes only meh? Easy loh...Better that kind of test than writing2 one."
What they don't know is, in written tests, you are allowed to think. You are allowed to form thoughts in your head for more than 2 seconds. You are allowed to skip a question and come back to it later. You can even study for it!
For interpreting tests, my lecturer just gave mere keywords as clues: Bush, Blair, Ahmadinejad, Palestinian and Iraqi issues. There. We don't have textbooks. We never did. Try studying those, among the millions of information from the Net and newspapers and magazines. Entering the recording booth or exam room (torture chamber, we call it) we are immediately graded on professionalism (appearance [from head to toe], attire, manners [the way we sit]...body odours and bad breath are OUT, and we can't even cough or sneeze! Sometimes I felt like I cease breathing altogether). While interpreting, we are also graded on fluency (voice clarity, no "um.." and "uh..." fillers, no long pauses or hesitations, grammar) which means we have to listen to what they say, immediately after they finished about 2 or 3 sentences, convey the same message in the other language. And, we are graded on the content (whether we managed to get all the information given).
So...is it still an easy 10 minutes? You tell me.
I had my final test for consecutive interpreting yesterday. Other students who don't take translation & interpreting don't know what it's like for us. I don't even know what it's like, when I first heard about this course. I used to think it's going to be easy, and I'll breeze through it. I mean, is it so hard to translate? Everyone can do it, right? WRONG. I can only say that right now, I know better.
People don't really understand why I'm so nervous about the test. Some even say it's easy. "What? 10 minutes only meh? Easy loh...Better that kind of test than writing2 one."
What they don't know is, in written tests, you are allowed to think. You are allowed to form thoughts in your head for more than 2 seconds. You are allowed to skip a question and come back to it later. You can even study for it!
For interpreting tests, my lecturer just gave mere keywords as clues: Bush, Blair, Ahmadinejad, Palestinian and Iraqi issues. There. We don't have textbooks. We never did. Try studying those, among the millions of information from the Net and newspapers and magazines. Entering the recording booth or exam room (torture chamber, we call it) we are immediately graded on professionalism (appearance [from head to toe], attire, manners [the way we sit]...body odours and bad breath are OUT, and we can't even cough or sneeze! Sometimes I felt like I cease breathing altogether). While interpreting, we are also graded on fluency (voice clarity, no "um.." and "uh..." fillers, no long pauses or hesitations, grammar) which means we have to listen to what they say, immediately after they finished about 2 or 3 sentences, convey the same message in the other language. And, we are graded on the content (whether we managed to get all the information given).
So...is it still an easy 10 minutes? You tell me.
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