"Translationese" In English-Chinese Simultaneous Interpretation

Current interpretation quality literature centers on the elements of quality assessment; few analyzes the text- the interpretation itself. By analyzing 8 student interpreters’ performance in 2015 final exam for English-Chinese Simultaneous Interpretation, this paper tries to answer the following three set of questions:1) Is translationese prevalent among student interpreters when they are doing English-Chinese simultaneous interpretation? Is translationese related academic performance in school?2) Which sentences are typical translationese?3) Why translationese? How to overcome it?First, the analysis shows that translationese is prevalent among student interpreters. Five types of westernized Chinese are found in students’interpretation, i.e excessive subjects, excessive conjunctions, excessive link verbs, excessive pronouns, and wrong position for sentence elements. However, translationese is not relevant to students’ academic performance in school, measured by their rankings.Second, by listing some of the examples of translationese in students’ interpretation, the paper highlights the impact translationese has on the audience. Translationese fails to follow Chinese grammar rules and thus produces long sentences with blurred focuses, which lowers the efficiency of the information flow and confuses the audience.Finally, the paper reviews different theories on interpretation process and believes that lack of processing capacity, dependence on the source language, and poor Chinese language habit are to be blamed. Student interpreters can use shadowing, linearity, listening exercises, and recitation to avoid translationese.