The Stress On Interpreters For NPC Press Conference And Its Coping Strategies

With the enhancement of China's national power, China has drawn more and more attention from the western world. The NPC press conference has been a window for the westerners who are eager to know more about China's economic, political and diplomatic condition and also its policies. The interpretation for the conference is an important part and is critical to the success of the conference.The reason for writing the thesis derives from the author's curiosity to the huge stress suffered by the interpreter under such a serious and significant circumstance and the question that can we find out some effective ways to combat stress? Before dealing with these questions, the author begins with basic concepts of interpreting, taking a brief look at the different types and process of interpreting, qualifications of interpreter, and the current studies of interpreting in the west and in China.In the second part, the author first introduces a workload study report of AIIC to show that the interpreter is a very stressful profession and the stress can bring about several negative effects on the interpreter. Then the specific stressors are explored, such as the biological factor, environment factor, personality factor, cultural factor, cognitive factor, etc. In this chapter, Gile's Effort Model is borrowed to unravel the process of interpreting and allocation of interpreter's attention.The third part is devoted to exploring the specific sources of stress suffered by the interpreter working for NPC press conference. Time factor, the accent problem, the serious working environment, high expectations from the audience, and different styles between Chinese and English have all been discussed. And in the fourth part, some coping strategies as well as some skills have been proposed.