The Importance Of Preparation To English-chinese Simultaneous Interpreting

Simultaneous interpreters are required to master techniques including, but not limited to,splitting attention, reformulation, simplification and summarizing in order to communicatewith the audience on behalf of the speaker in a logical, clear and natural way. Duringpractice, problems vary from case to case. It is possible that some problems, despite muchdrilling, remain unsolved. This report wishes to prove the importance of preparation tointerpreting. Preparation for interpreting includes long-term preparation and short-termpreparation. The former means the accumulation and automatic output of words, ideas,expressions and opinions of major international topics whereas the latter one, which isequally important, means memorizing information related to a specific meeting, forexample the names and titles of organizers and participants, or prepared speeches andpower-point files. According to the case study of this report, in the case where theinterpreters failed to have adequate long-term or short-term preparation, they failed tointerpret the complete message as mistakes or omissions were detected. A spill-over effectthen occurred as the following sentences were also jeopardized. In this case, the messagewas not accurate and the interpreters failed to use interpreting techniques that they couldhave otherwise used were there a more general context. In contrast, when the interpreterswere fully prepared, the message got across completely. The interpreters had time andenergy to use the acquired techniques to further enhance the quality of their performances.