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I was at a press conference recently and the Iranian attaché delivered a statement in his native language. Next to him was an interpreter who appeared to be taking notes when he was speaking and did the translation every 5 minutes or so. I assume this is what you guys mean by 'consecutive interpreting'. How does note-taking work? Is this some sort of short-hand? Are there resources on the Web where I can see examples? Edit Is Rozan's seminal book, La Prise de notes dans l'interpretation consecutive, still anywhere to be found? It looks like it's been out of print for a while. |
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Indeed, what you saw was consecutive interpreting. Interpreters don't use short-hand, and each interpreter develops a highly personal note-taking technique - usually consisting of a way to lay out notes on the page to easily distinguish the main components of the message, symbols, abbreviations, etc. - to spur his/her memory. But it's not all about notes. Good analytical listening to cut to the heart of the message and intention of the speaker - what we call active listening - comes first. To get further insight into this process I would recommend a few videos.
Hi, Luigi, I watched these videos,which are very helpful. Thank you and Nocho, who guided me here. :-)
(18 Aug '12, 02:07)
Paris Si de ...
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Rozan's book is available in translation. Polish and English (in the same volume) here: http://hatteria.pl/jean-franois-rozan-notatki-tlumaczeniu-konsekutywnym-note-taking-consecutive-interpreting-p-75.html there's also a Spanish translation out there somewhere but I don't have the details. You can find a fairly complete description of Rozan's system, with extracts from the translation above here: http://interpreters.free.fr/consecnotes/notesystem.htm and examples of an interpreters notes here: http://interpreters.free.fr/consecnotes/examplenotes.htm |
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Luigi is of course right :-). In trying to explain the difference between what stenographers do and our note-taking, I usually encapsulate it thus: we don't note down phonemes, but concepts, namely how they're strung together and only as needed. It's not about encoding a message but about transposing it. I cannot agree more with your point about "concept". Thank you, Mr MSR. :-)
(18 Aug '12, 02:09)
Paris Si de ...
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Rozan is out of print. Maybe a certain big organization for interpreters could try to have it reprinted, for the sake of keeping a historic document if nothing else. However, Andrew Gillies' book Note-taking for consecutive interpreting is very good. I think it would be interesting to single out note-taking for dialogue interpreting as opposed to note-taking for conference interpreting. Same memory technique behind, but presumably different notes? 1
"Maybe a certain big organization for interpreters could try to have it reprinted" That's a very good idea. Anyone have the contacts necessary to suggest it to an institution?
(08 Apr '12, 07:36)
Andy
http://interpreters.free.fr/consecnotes/rozan.htm Copyright in CH runs for 50 years only, was it 1st published in 56 or 65?
(17 Apr '12, 08:16)
msr
hi msr, it was published in 1956, but unfortunately wikipedia says copyright is 70 years in Switzerland. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_law_of_Switzerland). That was nearly a great idea and plan!!
(17 Aug '12, 12:57)
Andy
...you're of course right, Andy...and 70 years after the death of the author, according to the Swiss copyright authority site :-(, I no longer remember where I'd seen mentioned the 50 I quoted but that source was obviously wrong!
(17 Aug '12, 13:13)
msr
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