The Importance Of The Preparation For English-Chinese Simultaneous Interpreting

Interpreting is a process that the interpreter first receives and understands sourcelanguage (SL) information and then translates it into target language (TL) orally.According to the work mode, interpreting can be divided into consecutive interpreting(CI) and simultaneous interpreting (SI). SI has always been considered as the summitof interpreting. It requires interpreter to translate while the speaker is talking, whichsets a demanding standard for the interpreter. Thus the interpreter is supposed to bequalified, skillful and get well-prepared before interpreting.Preparation before interpreting can be divided into long-term preparation andshort-term preparation. Since SI is a complex task and concerned with almost everyaspect of the world, interpreters are required to build up knowledge, broaden theirviews and improve bilingual competence in the long run. In addition, it is also of greatimportance to make task-oriented short-term preparation after receiving theinterpreting task.The study is based on experimental tests with two interpreters who are secondyear MTI students from Shandong Normal University. The subjects are required to doEnglish-Chinese SI of part of the September2014Apple Launch Event. The wholeprocess is recorded. In the experiment, the proficiency of language and interpretingskills are controlled as constants. Before the experiment, they prepared for theexperiment from different aspects in a short time. The author gave some materials ofthematic knowledge on the interpreting task to Subject A. Subject B was given someterminologies related to the interpreting task. Through analysis of the transcript ofexperiment recording, this study shows that preparations for the thematic knowledgeand terminology in advance have a significant positive correlation with the quality ofinterpretation. That is, in the case where the interpreters had adequate preparation forthe interpreting task, their quality of interpreting had been enhanced. On the contrary,when the interpreters were not fully prepared, omissions and misinterpretations of theinformation were detected. With much energy and time consumed during theinterpreting process, interpreters were not able to use their interpreting skills with ease,thus the interpreting quality declined.