A Simulated Simultaneous Interpretation Report On Speeches Of The World Cultural Canal Organization Under The Guidance Of The Interpretive Theory

As a world heritage of the United Nations Educational,Scientific and Cultural Organization(UNESCO),the Grand Canal of China is a magnificent and precious asset left by our ancestors It is the longest and largest canal in the world,showing the great wisdom and strength of the Chinese people.Through protection,inheritance,and utilization of the Grand Canal culture,it can serve as a great tool to boost China’s image and its soft power.The conference held by the World Historic and Cultural Canal Cities Cooperation Organization(WCCO)is also a great opportunity to bring people together to share the story of canals to present their cultural and historical value.As a volunteer,the author has the honor to participate in the WCCO conference held in 2020 in Yangzhou.Therefore,the author has selected two speeches delivered at the WCCO conference as the simultaneous interpreting task in hope that this case study can improve people’s understanding of canals and raise their awareness of the protection and inheritance of this cultural heritageThis report finds two major categories of linguistic and cultural challenges during the translation.First,at the linguistic level,difficulties at the lexical and syntactic level such as terms and long sentences with no clear logic.Second,at the cultural level,difficulties at understanding the different usage between the Chinese and English as well as the words with special Chinese characteristics such as allusions and idioms.The problems have been resolved under the guidance of the Interpretive Theory proposed by Seleskovitch,with the application of a glossary and five translation strategies including amplification,omission,explanation,restructuring,and word conversion.The implications of the findings are twofold.Theoretically,the Interpretive Theory offers a solid theoretical foundation for handling the linguistic and cultural difficulties that appeared in the original material and during the interpreting process,especially for problems of long sentences and polysemy.Practically,the findings of this report can offer interpreters some useful translation strategies to help them overcome the same problems which appeared in the interpretation of similar source texts.It also urges potential interpreters to polish their language skills and learn knowledge from different fields and cultures.