Are you calling me shallow? Oh, please. After I started taking conference interpreting classes, I’m reaching the conclusion that being knowledgeable is important, no matter how shallow you have to be to get there. All the hours I spent in front of the TV watching soap operas and cartoons were not in vain, no sir. Who knows, maybe during a lecture someone will hum a jingle? It’ll be here, stick in my mind.
An interpreter must be knowledgeable
I was in a booth yesterday that made me realize what I was always told: how important it is for an interpreter to be aware of any and all information. I can say now that since I started interpreting, nothing else sounds shallow to me, so all those afternoons I spent watching E! Entertainment Television were not – totally – in vain.
Yesterday, for instance, the speaker mentioned, among other topics I may not recall now: Gangnam Style, Dom Quixote, Italy elections, French educational system, Canadian multiculturalism, Free Hugs, telegraphy, Google Glass, Descartes, First and Second World Wars, limbic system, Gutemberg.
There was also the moment of “it’s like the joke that goes like this…” when any interpreter panics thinking: “oh God, what if it is not funny in the other language?”. Hopefully, people giggled. But I’ve heard so many anecdotes of interpreters having to ask listeners to laugh so the speaker would not feel awkard. It comes with the territory, I suppose.
Disclaimer
It’s not that I’m saying it’s ok to be shallow, then. No “forget science and the classics!”, I’m just saying we tend to disregard certain knowledge on behalf of literacy. All knowledge is valid in the sense of sifting the wheat from the chaff. It’s not because something is ordinary that it’s less important. It’s up to you to enjoy everything society has to offer.