A Study Of Interpreting For A Company

In today's world,there are more and more interpreters working for a company.It is a prerequisite to get to know the true circumstances of interpreting for a company in order to do a good job of it.So it is not only necessary but also meaningful to give future interpreters and interpreting practitioners a panorama of interpreting practices at a company so as to give them some enlightenment,help them form a true picture of interpreting tasks and challenges in their minds and,improve their interpreting techniques accordingly.Company interpreting(interpreting for a company)settings include business visit,site visit,negotiation,speech,contract discussion,banquet and entertainment,etc.while contents and subjects which need interpreting service include production,technology,operation,equipment management,company governance,legal issues,accounting,human resource and all other work at the company.So it is not easy to do a good job of interpreting for a company.But most articles and theses on interpreting for companies focus on a certain specific subject or within a narrow scope,such as legal issues,accounting,engineering or international trade,etc.They draw different conclusions.This thesis makes a study of interpreting settings,contents,impediments,techniques and relevant issues at an iron ore company in Sierra Leone,West Afrcia trying to find answers to questions which puzzle would-be interpreters and novices.What activities will an interpreter participate in at a company?What knowledge and field of study need interpretation service?What challenges or obstacles will an interpreter come across during interpreting for a company?And how should an interpreter deal with difficult situations and embarrassment?The measurement criterion of CI level ? set in China Accreditation Test for Translators and Interpreters-CATTI is applied to investigate,observe,record and assess the interpretation performance of 11 selected subjects at the company and common impediments to interpreters and fundamental qualities of a competent interpreter are found through the empirical study.Common impediments and challenges to interpreters are explored and studied in this thesis.They include lack of specialty knowledge,jargons and terminologies,abbreviations,dialects and accents of speakers,speaking too fast,cultural obstacles,vagueness and ambiguity,long discourse or incompleteness,working overtime and unexpected circumstances.Of all the impediments that affect company interpreting,company reasons mainly include specialty knowledge,jargons&terminologies and abbreviations.As one of the major kind of impediments to interpreters,jargons and terminologies are frequently used and many interpreters regard them as a big challenge.But through a random test of some subjects on their ability to discriminate some so-called technical terms at the mining company,it is found that technical terms are comparatively more difficult to some interpreters while much simple to others with a large enough vocabulary.They are not insurmountable.Good qualities of a competent interpreter include having specialty knowledge&broad knowledge,being well trained,mastery of interpreting techniques,being prepared,being able to work for long hours and having ability to face challenging situations.And whether an interpreter can work long hours or not is a crucial criterion to measure one's competence.The role of theories and studies on interpretation is also studied and discussed.It is discovered that it is not only meaningful but also necessary for a competent interpreter to study and master some interpreting and translation theories with criticism attitude though practice has a final say.