A Report On A Class Interpreting Project:Essentials Of War Preparedness And Tactic To Foreign Military Officers

Essentials of War Preparedness and Tactic is a military course offered to foreign military personnel in accordance with the Foreign Military Personnel Training Plan.It aims to provide professional military knowledge and guidance for foreign military officers from all over the world.In September 2018,officers from Zimbabwe,Lesotho,Mozambique and other countries came to China on a four-year program in communication engineering.The reporter served as the class interpreter in this practical course.In the process of this project,she encountered obstacles from three aspects—background knowledge,language processing in interpreting,and nonlinguistic barriers.The frrst type of problem was reflected in two aspects:lack of relevant political and cultural information of trainees’ home countries;unfamiliarity with the terminology and knowledge of war preparedness and tactic.The second type was related to problems of note-taking and memorizing,and lack of flexibility in translation.The nonlinguistic barriers were mainly caused by noisy environment and the reporter’s identity crisis.Based on self-reflection,suggestions of famous interpreters and previous studies,the reporter proposes the following solutions.With regard to the lack of background information,the reporter should make full preparation for military knowledge,and social and cultural knowledge,in particular,terminology.To improve interpreting skills,she should take intensive training in note-taking,and enhance adaptability to the given linguistic context.As regard to personal identities and the environment,she should create favorable conditions for fluent interpretation and flexibly assume multiple roles.Based on careful analysis of the first-hand data,the paper will not only provide assistance for interpreters in foreign military training but also enrich the database in this field.