A Practice Report On The Simulated Interpretation Of An Interview With Lee Kuan Yew

Interview is becoming an internationalized program which involves celebrities from all walks of lives across the world and therefore gains a sound audience rating across the globe, thus expanding the demands for interpreters. During an interview, the host usually speaks at a fast speed while the guest more often than not talks in an impromptu way. The speech of interview is colloquial and sometimes illogical, which puts forward higher requirements for interpreters’ interpreting skill and flexibility. It’s necessary for the interpreter to study interpretation activities in this area so as to provide some insights to benefit interview interpreters. This paper selects consecutive interpretation of Charlie Rose Talks to Lee Kuan Yew as a case study. Besides some common features in interviews such as fast speaking speed, illogical speech, ambiguous reference of pronouns, there are also unknown words, names and abbreviations which all pose challenges for interpreters. Based on some principles and concepts of relevance theory, the interpreter proposed some related interpreting strategies including vague interpreting, pronunciation imitation, information reorganization, etc. It is hoped that this report will be helpful to interpreters in their future interview interpreting activities.