Chapter One Introduction

1.1 Background information of the task

These video lectures downloaded from LLM programme, University CollegeLondon Faculty of Laws website, are recorded by Dr. Douglas Guilfoyle.The first recording Law of the Sea Introduction and Overview posted on 14thJune, 2011. It is a brief high level overview of International Law of the Sea coursewhich is used as an introduction of the Master course to attract students, especiallyforeign students.The second one Modern challenges and the law of the sea posted on 24thMay,2013. The recording is mainly about a very general overview of the modernchallenges and some key issues we face in the law of the sea with examples.While the last video The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea origins andimportance posted few months later, on 5thAugust, 2013. The presentation gives abrief introduction to the origin of the three United Nations Conventions on the Law ofthe Sea .

1.2 Demands of interpreters in the task

I. The task demands that translator interpret English into Chinese simultaneouslythanks to the PPT playing during the lectures. The interpreter should translate andexplain the contents clearly and correctly to the audience, so that the lecture can playits rightful role in science education, as well as academic exchange. Fortunately, keywords on the presentations may be allocating some interpreter’s pressure.

II. The task demands interpreter to understand the name of some states, maritimeconferences, organizations, hot issues, and other basic information of the law of thesea, such as International Courts of Justice(海牙国际法庭), International MaritimeOrganization(国际海事组织), IUU fishing (illegal, unreported, and unregulatedfishing. 非法、未经报告、不受管制的捕鱼行为), Japanese whaling(日本捕鲸), and so on.

III. Cautious attitude and accurate precision are required in this task. Theinterpreter should not interpret arbitrarily when he misses, or does not understand thesource-language, especially the laws and regulations, the name of institutions,conference and organizations, because the Language of the Law is extremelyimportant, even though the recordings are the course lecture.

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Chapter Two Description

2.1 Preparations before Interpreting

Simultaneous interpretation (SI) is a method by which the source-languagespeaker continuously speaks while the interpreter renders the message in thetarget-language as quickly as he or she can from the source language. The interpretersmay confront various unexpected challenges under such highly pressurizedcircumstances. Therefore, the unique characteristics of simultaneous require theinterpreter to fully prepare the work, for the prior preparation may addressdeficiencies in knowledge and terminology. In the phase of preparation, theinterpreter should be in acquaintance with the law of the sea, in another word, thecontent of the lecture, and more importantly, is fully prepared to do. In this case,interpreter will not be panic in the task. The following aspects and preparations arewhat the author did before simulation of simultaneous: Gather information. At this stage, the interpreter should make full use ofresources to collect relevant information of the task and build up thematic knowledge.For example, spokesman’s pronunciation features; spokesman’s main theories,viewpoints and books, etc. The author found the basic information of Dr. DouglasGuilfoyle on the University College London Website[18], his main research interestsare the law of the sea; the international law of jurisdiction; international andtransnational criminal law; and international law and migrant labour. Currently, hismajor research projects concern high-seas piracy off Somalia and collectiveaccountability in international criminal law. Besides, it is easy to find out that theprofessor pronounces British accent, speaks a little bit fast but quite clearly thanks tothe recordings on the website.

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2.2 Quality Control

The interpreter's performance in SI might be influenced by some unpredictableand unexpected obstacles in spite of the preparation and precautions. The quality of SIwill be influenced by a lot of issues, such as "can be caught off guard by a novel idea,an unusual turn of phrase, an eccentric speaker, a spur-of-the-moment argument, animpenetrable accent, a mispronounced key word, a halting delivery, poor soundquality, and obscure reference or acronym, or a deliberately ornate way of saying aperfectly simple thing"(Nolan, 2008:19) The quality of translation is a deciding factorof whether the simultaneous interpreting is success. Only high-quality translation canachieve the purpose of delivering the information to the audience correctly andcompletely. Therefore, quality control is essential in interpreting task.According to 论口译的质量与效果评估[6], the interpreter should interpret trulyand faithfully, without adding, omitting or changing anything. The target languagemust be logical, acceptable, and pronounce clearly. Also, the interpreter should notenter into the discussion, give advice or express your own opinions. The authoralways remembers the above code of conduct, and tried the best to be reliable andpunctual during the simultaneous interpreting at all times.

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Chapter Three Methodology...........8

3.1 The Interpretative Theory of Translation .........8

3.2 Practical Application.........10

Chapter Four Analysis ............13

4.1 Syntactic Linearity......13

4.2 Split Attention.............15

4.3 Listening problems in simultaneous interpretation ....18

4.3.1 Rate problem:...........18

4.3.2 Other problems: .......19

Chapter Five Conclusion ........22

5.1 Unsolved problems ...........22

5.1.1 Listening comprehension.....22

5.1.2 Professional knowledge .......22

5.2 Inspiration for future learning and work.........23

Chapter Four Analysis

4.1 Syntactic Linearity

An interpreter (no matter conference or simultaneous) not only has to master aforeign language, perform interpreting correctly, but also to perform it in real time.Due to the large differences between Chinese and English, word order of the twolanguages can not be exactly the same which means the simultaneous interpreter cannot reorder the sentence like translation. In this case, Syntactic Linearity,Segmentation and Connection, Repetition, Conversion, Simplification and otherinterpreting strategies are significantly important. The interpreter could segment thelong, complicated source language sentences into various sense groups or conceptunits while listening, and interpret the sense group or concept unit that he has heard.In this way, the interpreter can ensure the integrity of information, reduce informationmissing and avoid the emergence that the information can not be reproduced.First typical example in the first one, This passage can be segmented as shown above. The minimum adjustment ofsentence order can be used by the interpreter when interpreted with SI. Hence, it willrelieve the burden of the interpreter on memory. Besides, owing to the differencesbetween Chinese culture and western culture, amplification should be used flexibleduring the SI process, helping the audience understand the target language better.

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Conclusion

As mentioned above, listening plays an important role in simultaneousinterpreting. Generally speaking, it is easy to translate Chinese into English orallycompared with English to Chinese, because the interpreter won’t have a problem onlistening due to the source language that is his mother tongue. It is totally differentwhen interpreting English to Chinese. The factors of speed, or accent, or languagehabits may be a challenge to the interpreter and lead to the problem ofmisunderstanding, especially when the author is lack of professional knowledge andrelevant vocabularies. Thus, strengthening the listening training in the future isextremely necessary, owing to the reason that it might be reducing the load on splitattention if the second language is as familiar as the mother tongue.

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Reference (omitted)