Task Preparation For English-Chinese Simultaneous Interpretation

Different from translation in written form that has no timing limits, interpretationrequires that the interpreter should react instantly to the source language, and orallytranslating it into target language within the given span of time. Thus, interpreter bears muchmental burden and pressure, this is particularly true of an interpreter who works at aprofessional meeting or interprets a professional speech, especially when he or she lacks thebackground information and technical words concerning the given topic. Therefore, profoundand substantial task preparation is essential for any interpreter.This is a practical report. In this report, the author chooses the speech by Charles I.Plosser, President and Chief Executive Officer Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, at theconference held by CFR as the simultaneous interpreting material. This report begins withtask preparation for interpretation, introducing basic steps of task preparation forinterpretation, then it details how the author makes task preparation for this mock interpreting,analyzing the mistakes that had been made during the mock interpretation. It is hopefullybelieved that this will offer enlightenment for the author’s future career of interpreting.On the whole, this practical report consists of five parts: Part One gives a briefintroduction to the background, significance and target of this mock interpretation; Part Twocomes to discuss in detail the task preparation, covering the features of interpretation andseveral types of task preparation, such as daily training, accumulating backgroundinformation, short-term preparation, and how to get used to the facilities as well as theinterpreter’s mental preparation. Part Three describes in detail how the task preparation forthis mock interpretation is processed; Part Four comes to discuss the benefits of this taskpreparation and the mistakes that had been made during the mock interpretation. Part Five is asummary of this mock interpretation, with the findings from the practice. It is hoped that thisreport will be beneficial for the interpreter in the future work of simultaneous interpreting.