Simultaneous Interpreting Report Of Singapore Prime Minister’s Speech In National Rally 2014

Based on the speech of Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in National Day Rally 2014, two simulated simultaneous interpretings(SI) with respective transcriptions and analyses were done before this report. According to register theory, the speech has two characteristics. In language, this project is a formal authoritative speech that delivers governmental messages. At the same time, there are interview videos and interaction with audience in his speech. Therefore, this speech is featured with both writing and oral characteristics. In content, it involves all walks of life, such as education and endowment insurance with plenty of names, technical terms and figures. After transcriptions and analyses were done, author found that a lot of information loss exists. Information loss impacts information output and even causes long-time pause and it is also a common problem in beginners. Consequently, interpreting performance and quality are seriously influenced.According to Gile’s Effort Model, simultaneous interpreting is a process integrating listening & analysis, memory, production and coordination. Only if the distribution of each kind of efforts exceeds the requirement of efforts in a certain interpreting process, interpreting performance could reach the expecting result. Through the comparison and analyses of two transcriptions, author attributes the information loss to the disorder in efforts distribution.From the perspective of Interpretive Theory, author suggests three strategies for the three interpreting problems bring information loss, namely note-taking and direct quoting for interpreting of technical terms, rational simplification for interpreting of conversation at fast speed and segmentation for interpreting of long sentences. Examples with specific methods are demonstrated. The use of strategies is mainly for reducing listening, memory and production pressure as well as saving time in order to balance the attention distribution in interpreting.This report is mainly the reflection of the author herself. The author hopes that it could bring SI beginners some solutions on enhancing their control on attention distribution.