Simultaneous Interpretation

Open Forum in English
1

I’m fascinated and blown away by this ability. It really shows how good you are in a language to be able to process so quickly, but I also think it’s a separate talent to function fluently in a foreign language, even do interpretation, and to process like this in simultaneous interpretation.

This is an example of Chinese-English simultaneous interpretation, without subtitles or script, but relying only on listening ability. There are naturally some mistakes and not everything is interpreted, but it still blows my mind, as I’m certainly not able to do this!

I’ve done interpretation and translation professionally, both of which allow some processing time, and so know how difficult that can be. Simultaneous interpretation just amazes me.

The only thing more mind blowing would be simultaneous interpretation between two languages foreign to the interpreter.

2

I tried doing simultaneous interpretation when I was alone once for fun and spent most of the time laughing. Certainly a difficult skill to learn.

3

I think it’s a good exercise if you translate into your target language. It really shows you where your gaps in vocabulary are and can be fun. Of course start slow with non-simultaneous interpretation (just use any topic on Youtube and pause after a few sentences).