Retired UN Interpreter Shares Tips
December 29, 2015
Forget pausing to find the right word: Fall more than 10 seconds behind, and you’ll start forgetting chunks of what was said.
"'Be invisible,' says Rasha Ajalyaqeen, a retired interpreter for the United Nations. Leave your opinions behind; your voice should reflect the speaker’s feelings. When Libya’s dictator, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, ranted in Arabic about Jews and Palestinians during his first appearance before the United Nations General Assembly in 2009, Ajalyaqeen’s English translation sounded equally agitated. 'If he is angry,' she says, 'you’re angry.'"
-- Continue reading "How to Translate Spoken Language" via The New York Times
