Sophie Llewellyn Smith is a conference interpreter with 15 years' experience of interpreter training. On her site theinterpretingcoach.com, you will find eBooks and eCourses to help you consolidate or update your interpreting skills in areas such as note-taking, research skills, analytical skills, and retour interpreting (working into a B language). Each course breaks the skills down into manageable sections and uses a mixture of text, audio and video to examine underlying principles and work on practical exercises. In this way, you can use self-study at your own pace to target your weaknesses, improve your performance and become more marketable.
In today’s post, I’d like to look at different ways to express criticism.
There is a plethora of verbs and expressions in English to express the idea of criticism.
Activity 1
I’ve created a word search for you. Your task is to look for 10 words that mean ‘criticise’ or ‘rebuke’. If you get stuck, you can click on the yellow ‘show word’ button.
Click on the image to begin.
Activity 2
This is a word matching game. The idea is to click on the words that belong to the same group.
Inevitably, there is an element of subjectivity here, but I’ve created four groups for you:
neutral register words or phrases meaning ‘criticise’
expressions meaning ‘criticise heavily’ (high register
expressions meaning ‘scold’
lower register expressions meaning ‘criticise’
Click on the image to begin.
Vocabulary mining
To find useful expressions in this area, all you need to do is look for articles in the press about a controversial new policy or decision by the government. Here are a few paragraphs taken from press articles.
“The speed of the plans, even with confirmed daily UK cases above 108,000 on Wednesday, and nearly 19,000 Covid patients in hospital, has brought speculation that a main motivation has been to provide a politically embattled Johnson with some good news for his mutinous MPs.”
“Downing Street has come out in strong support of the embattled Metropolitan police commissioner, Cressida Dick, after a backlash to the government’s decision to extend her time in office.”
“Allegra Stratton arrives at a moment when the government is besieged by restive backbenchers sceptical about Covid restrictions, and facing fierce criticism over the way they are being communicated.”
“The embattled Financial Services Authority last night promised a “root and branch” review into its handling of the Northern Rock crisis as it emerged that the Bank of England had provided a £3bn emergency line of credit to help the Newcastle-based bank over the past week.
After coming under criticism earlier in the week, pressure on the Bank eased yesterday following the explanation provided for its actions by governor Mervyn King.
The Treasury and the Bank closed ranks behind Sir John Gieve, the deputy governor responsible for financial stability and a non-executive board member of the FSA.”
Improvisation exercise
Here’s a fun improvisation exercise for you. You will need to pick some kind of controversy based on current affairs. Choose a person or organisation being criticised, and the person or organisation doing the criticising.
finding fault with taking to task coming down hard on severely criticising
beleaguered embattled hard-pressed
on the back foot floundering under fire in trouble rattled
OR (lower register) skewered dissed panned blasted clobbered slammed
OR (lower register)in a pickle up the creek without a paddle
Now create a sentence or paragraph along this model:
The Prime Minister has been slammedby his backbenchers for his latest proposal to remove all coronavirus restrictions. MPs have come down hard on Boris Johnson. The embattled Prime MInister is now floundering, and is hard pressed to come up with a justification given the lack of scientific backing for the proposal.
In today’s exercise, you are going to practise making sentences using either efficient or effective.
Efficient or effective?
NOUNS
VERBS
communications
want
distribution network
deliver
engine
make
use of
implement
resources
use
attack
take
solutions
be responsible for
argument
be
action
help
policy
develop
strategy
prove
speech
discovery
process
become
administration
appear
technique
transport system
drugs
marketing tools
postal service
Above is your smorgasbord of options for creating sentences. Your task is to pick one noun and one verb, and craft five sentences (or ten, if you’re feeling keen). Each sentence must contain either the word effective, or the word efficient, depending which one is appropriate in context.
For example, your sentence might be:
The UK does not have a very efficient transport system.
Of course you can make your sentences far longer and more elaborate than that!
Most of my readers and clients are conference interpreters. The types of meetings we interpret at usually call for a neutral-ish register, sometimes with elements of formality or technical vocabulary.
In general, I have found that my coaching clients sometimes struggle with everyday, colloquial language, but they don’t often have to produce that sort of register at work; whereas a formal register is important when interpreting politicians’ speeches, inaugural addresses, prize-giving ceremonies, etc.
This is why I’ve chosen to focus on improving your formal register.
Hallmarks of formal register in speech
There are certain elements of syntax and vocabulary that mark speech (and writing) as being either towards the formal end of the spectrum, or closer to the informal end.
Exercise 1: brainstorming
I’m sure you can think of some of these features. Take a minute to write down everything you can think of that indicates formality in English (it may not be the same as in your A language; for example, the ‘tu/vous’ or ‘du/Sie’ distinction may be a very obvious way to show formality in your A language, but it doesn’t exist in English).
Exercise 2: comparing texts
Find two articles about the same subject, one from a tabloid (The Sun, The Mirror, The Star), and one from a broadsheet such as The Guardian or the Financial Times.
Use a highlighter to go through the two articles, picking out expressions you consider to be particularly formal or informal. Think about how the two publications talk about the same thing, and what linguistic devices they use. See if you can add to your list or table of formal/informal features (that you started in exercise 1).
I’ve suggested two articles (below), but you can of course find your own!
Keir Starmer vows to FREEZE council tax bills – days before Brits hit with massive hike
Keir Starmer will tomorrow unveil a major promise to freeze council tax bills.
Launching Labour’s local election campaign in Swindon, it is the “party of lower taxes for working people”.
As households face a hike in bills on Saturday, he will say he would use a windfall tax on oil and gas giants to stop them rising this year if he was in power.
Average council tax bills are set to exceed £2,000 for the first time as families are clobbered with a 5.1% increase.
The average Band D council tax set by local authorities in England for 2023-24 will be £2,065 – a rise of £99 on the 2022-23 figure of £1,966.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has allowed cash-strapped councils to bring in the whopping increases as they struggle with government cuts.
Previously, town, city and county halls could only increase bills by 3% without a referendum.
At Labour’s local election launch on Thursday, Mr Starmer will say: “If there was a Labour Government, you could take that council tax rise you just got and rip it up.”
Taking aim at Rishi Sunak’s plan to hand a tax cut to those with the biggest pension pots, he will say: “A Labour Government would freeze your council tax this year – that’s our choice.
Labour would freeze council tax for one year, says Keir Starmer
Keir Starmer has pledged to use an extended windfall tax to freeze council tax for one year as Labour kicked off its local election campaign on Thursday.
Days before millions of people in England see their council tax bills rise by 5% in April, the Labour leader challenged Rishi Sunak to use “the money that is already on the table” and introduce the tax cut tomorrow.
However, Starmer would not commit to freezing council tax if Labour won the next general election.
In the local elections on 4 May more than 8,000 council seats will be contested across 84 metropolitan, unitary and district councils in England, as well as four English mayoralties.
Calling the prime minister “Mr 1%”, Starmer said at an event in Swindon that the Conservatives would always promise “tax cuts for the richest 1% while working people pay the problem, but this has to change”.
Starmer insisted the government had the money to freeze council tax bills but was choosing not to. Speaking alongside Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves, he said Labour’s council tax cut “matches the ambition” of communities that wanted change but were being failed by the Conservative government.
The Guardian understands that Labour would fund the council tax cut using its proposed extended windfall tax that the Conservatives did not adopt in full.
Reeves, the shadow chancellor, said the council tax cut pledge showed a clear difference between who the prime minister stood for and who Labour represented.
Labour sees the 4 May poll as an opportunity to road-test some its policy ideas on NHS waiting lists and safer streets, as well as the cost of living crisis, rather than just going on the attack.
What does your list or table look like? Here’s what I picked up on in the two articles above:
Text 1: more INFORMAL. Words in capitals; emotive language; vocabulary like ‘cash-strapped’, ‘a hike’, ‘clobbered with’.
Text 2: more FORMAL. Longer sentences; more indirect sentence structure; vocabulary like ‘to be contested’, ‘to adopt in full’.
And here is my table:
Table of hallmarks of register
LOWER REGISTER
MORE FORMAL REGISTER
Vulgarity, swear words
Fillers (I mean, you know, like, so)
Contractions
Full forms
Idioms?
Phrasal verbs
Latin or Greek roots
Active verb form
Passive verb forms
Abbreviations
Full form
Short Anglo-Saxon words (do, hit, put, look, give, run, jump, buy)
Latin or Greek origins
Common words
specialised or technical words
Direct questions
Indirect questions
Simple sentences
Long sentences, complex grammar (subordination)
Question tags
Lots of; loads of; make, do, get, nice, good
“A great deal of”, “many”; more precise vocabulary
more personal
More impersonal
Sloppy pronunciation, glottal stops
Clear enunciation
The exercises I’ve focused on so far aim to improve your awareness of register.
To make improvements in your formal register, you will need to do three things (concurrently, if you like):
improve your awareness
do some vocabulary-building
activate your new expressions
I can’t cover them all in a single post, so I’ll suggest two more exercises to work on awareness:
pure shadowing (i.e. simultaneously repeating what a speaker is saying). Pick a speech in English that you know to be formal because of the setting (an academic conference, a speech by a Head of State, etc.) and shadow it. Get used to saying some of the more formal phrases out loud. Write down any useful phrases.
highlighting useful phrases: choose a text that you know is formal, for example an article in an academic journal, an opinion piece in a reputable publication, or the transcript of a politician’s speech. You may need some help from a native speaker, because some journalistic writing in English isn’t actually that formal. Go through the text with a highlighter, picking out formal collocations or phrases. Have a think about what you might have used instead – would you have chosen a more informal option? Note down 3 or 4 formal phrases and make up some example sentences to say out loud.
I hope this post has given you some ideas! More on register soon…
I’ve written quite a lot about speech preparation as a useful exercise, both for interpreters and for trainers.
In this post, for example, I’ve talked about the benefits of speech prep, and in this one, I’ve outlined how I go about preparing a speech quickly and efficiently.
Today, I want to talk about how you can create an outline for three different types of speech very quickly – i.e., how to extract the maximum amount of juice from your hard work! If you’re a trainer, for instance, you don’t want to spend 2 hours on a single speech. The process I will describe will allow you prepare three speeches in one fell swoop – or even more!
The idea is to use the same research and background knowledge to create a simultaneous, a consecutive with notes, and a consecutive without notes on the same subject. But read on, and you’ll see that you can take things even further and prepare several short speeches on different subjects, or approach a subject from different angles.
Step 1: create an outline for a consecutive speech
For more detail on how to pick a suitable subject and research it, refer to my previous post.
In brief, I chose bedbugs as my topic, because I heard a piece about the recent outbreak on a Radio 4 programme called ‘PM’, and the very next day, an interpreting colleague mentioned she had been evacuated from a Paris-Strasbourg train because of bedbugs.
I often start with an outline for a consecutive with notes, because that’s the type of speech I prepare more frequently, but you could also start with a consecutive without notes, as I’ve done here.
Consecutive without notes is by definition a short exercise without too many demands on the interpreter’s memory, i.e. few figures, dates, or names, so it’s easy to come up with an outline. You can generally only cover two or three points, subsumed under one or two main ideas, in a consecutive without notes.
Here, I’ve giv aden a personal/visual introduction, briefly explained what’s happening in France and why it’s important, then turned to whether the UK should worry, and how you can get rid of bedbugs.
With 10 minutes of research and a few minutes listening to the radio in the car, we now have an outline for a consec without notes.
How to take it further so that we can create several more speeches based on the same material?
Expanding a short speech into a longer one
On this occasion, since I had started with a consec without notes, I looked for ways to expand it into a consecutive with notes.
There are many options for introducing more challenges into a speech. You could add:
figures
more detail or secondary information
someone else’s point of view
a personal opinion
interesting language (e.g. images, idioms)
a quotation
a digression
a whole other idea or argument
On this occasion, I decided to expand the speech as follows:
give two figures (one from Rentokil, the pest control agency, and the other referring to the number of households in France that had a bedbug infestation)
use some more interesting descriptive language about bedbugs, and to describe Paris and London
talk more about what political action is being taken in France; this was an opportunity to include several points of view
give a bit of history about bedbugs, to introduce a date, and a technical term (DDT, the name of a pesticide)
add a little more detail here and there
Expanding a consecutive into a simultaneous
When I prepare consecutive speeches, they typically last 2-5 minutes (consec without notes), 5-7 minutes (consec with notes), or 10-12 minutes (simultaneous). That’s because I work for the EU institutions and train interpreters who want to work for the EU, and the EU accreditation test uses speeches of that length.
Filling 10-12 minutes of time on a specific subject is quite different from preparing a 3 minute consec without notes. You need more facts and figures, so you can expand more on your ideas. Or you need to structure your speech so that it contains more arguments/ideas (e.g. someone else’s point of view, for instance).
Generally speaking, this requires a bit more research. On this occasion, I had everything I needed from the two articles and radio programme. All I had to do was organise the material in a way that suited me; I added whole extra sections (“has there really been an increase in the number of bedbugs?” and “what risk do they pose?”), as well as changing the conclusion.
I’ve put my three speech outlines in a table, so you can compare them and see how I’ve added information to turn the original short speech into a longer consec with notes and then a simultaneous.
In the first column (my original outline for a consec without notes), I’ve put the links between ideas in bold.
In the second and third columns, I’ve put extra information in bold.
CONSEC WITHOUT NOTES
CONSEC WITH NOTES
SIMULTANEOUS
Intro: colleague travelling by train from Paris to Strasbourg is evacuated bcs of bedbugs
Intro: colleague travelling by train from Paris to Strasbourg is evacuated bcs of bedbugs
Intro: colleague travelling by train from Paris to Strasbourg is evacuated bcs of bedbugs
We used to encounter bedbugs in dodgy hostels when backpacking around the world; now they’re everywhere in Paris
We used to encounter bedbugs in budget hostels when backpacking around the world during gap year – red bites on arms and legs; now they’re everywhere in Paris/France
We used to encounter bedbugs in budget hostels when backpacking around the world during gap year – red bites on arms and legs; now they’re everywhere in Paris/France
Or at least they’re everywhere on social media! Examples: Fabric seats on trainsCinemasCharles de Gaulle airport-> widespread panic, people standing
Or at least they’re everywhere on French social media! Photos, videos of nasty little critters: – Metro – people standing – Cinemas – Charles de Gaulle airport-> widespread panic & paranoia
Or at least they’re everywhere on French social media! Photos, videos of nasty little critters: Metro – people standingCinemasCharles de Gaulle airportFigs: Anses (French national health body) says 11% households infested over past 5 years. -> widespread panic & paranoia
Why is this important? Bcs France is hosting the Olympic Games next year, so must be seen to be doing something
Why is this important?Bcs France is hosting the Olympic Games next year, so must be seen to be doing something (image)
Why is this important? Bcs France is hosting the Olympic Games next year, so must be seen to be doing something (image)
Political action: – Paris City Hall says invasion must be tackled, has written to PM & is calling for a dedicated national taskforce – Transport Minister has summoned train and bus operators to talk about how to prevent bedbugs multiplying on seats
Political action: – Paris City Hall says invasion must be tackled, has written to PM & is calling for a dedicated national task force – Transport Minister has summoned train and bus operators to talk about how to prevent bedbugs multiplying on seats
History: we thought bedbugs disappeared in 1950s bcs of chemical treatments e.g. DDT, but recent resurgence.
History: we thought bedbugs (mattresses, clothes, luggage; come out at night to feed on human blood) disappeared in 1950s bcs of chemical treatments e.g. DDT, but recent resurgence.
Should UK worry that bedbugs will cross the Channel (Eurostar)? Bedbugs can survive on seats & British people on hols can bring back bedbugs in suitcaseOther source: second hand furniture on resale sites e.g. Ebay and Fbook marketplace
Should people worry that bedbugs will cross the Channel from the City of Love to the Big Smoke? Yes: – Bedbug lifespan is 4-6 months, can survive for a year without eating, so could get into Eurostar seats or dirty suitcase – Other source of bedbugs in UK: second hand furniture on resale sites e.g. Ebay and Fbook marketplace
Should people worry that bedbugs will cross the Channel from the City of Love to the Big Smoke? Yes: – Bedbug lifespan is 4-6 months, can survive for a year without eating, so could get into Eurostar seats or dirty suitcase – Other source of bedbugs in UK: second hand furniture on resale sites e.g. Ebay and Fbook marketplace
How to protect yourself? If travelling, use luggage rack rather than putting case on bed and unpackingOnce home, put clothes through hot wash and dry at high tempSecond hand furniture: use steam cleanerIf necessary, use e.g. Rentokil to kill all bedbugs
How to protect yourself? If travelling, use luggage rack rather than putting case on bed and unpackingOnce home, put clothes through hot wash and dry at high tempSecond hand furniture: use steam cleaner If necessary, use e.g. Rentokil to kill all bedbugs
How to protect yourself? If travelling, use luggage rack rather than putting case on bed and unpackingOnce home, put clothes through hot wash and dry at high tempSecond hand furniture: use steam cleaner If necessary, use e.g. Rentokil to kill all bedbugs
Rentokil says there has been a 65% increase, year-on-year, in infestations
Rentokil saysthere has been a 65% increase, year-on-year, in infestations But this is not a good solution for low income households bcs high cost
But most experts are saying it’s not the number of bedbugs that’s increasing, but number of sightings (social media).
Are there reallymore bedbugs in France or more sightings? Social media can make it appear that there’s a massive problem
Are there reallymore bedbugs in France or more sightings? Social media can make it appear that there’s a massive problem
Figs: Anses (French national health body) says 11% households infested over past 5 years. Is that really an increase? I’m not sure.
Is that really an increase? Experts say there’s always an increase in after July/Aug holidays. People bring them home in their luggage. But it does seem as if there is a resurgence, for several reasons: – Globalisation: container trade, tourism, immigration – Ban on DDT, so not eliminated by chemicals – Survivors are more resistant – Reduction in number of cockroaches (revolting, I think), which are bedbug predators – [BTW] for once, it’s not climate change – bedbugs are domesticated and follow humans, but global warming hasn’t changed habitat
Unfortunately, that can generate panic and cause mental health problems (paranoia about bugs in mattress -> insomnia, anxiety, depression)
What IS increasing: mental health problems, e.g. insomnia, anxiety, depression.
What risk do they pose? – They don’t carry transmissible diseases – The bites don’t last. – They’re embarrassing (yuck factor) and inconvenient (cinema, travel) – I think BIGGEST RISK: mental health problems, e.g. insomnia, anxiety, depression
CONCLUSION: like headlice, they’re an inconvenience rather than health risk – easily dealt with though chemical resistance is more of a challenge. Experts tell us that we should target superspreaders, often ill, poor, marginalised. Whole other can of worms.
Here’s another table about the same three speeches. Instead of writing out the whole content of the speech, I’ve highlighted the additions and stated (in bold) what kind of additional challenge this represents for the interpreter.
CONSEC WITHOUT NOTES
CONSEC WITH NOTES – additions & type of challenge
SIMULTANEOUS
Intro: colleague travelling by train from Paris to Strasbourg is evacuated bcs of bedbugs
We used to encounter bedbugs in dodgy hostels when backpacking around the world; now they’re everywhere in Paris
red bites on arms and legs > secondary information
Or at least they’re everywhere on social media! Examples: Fabric seats on trainsCinemasCharles de Gaulle airport-> widespread panic, people standing
Photos, videos > secondary information of nasty little critters > use of language
Why is this important?Bcs France is hosting the Olympic Games next year, so must be seen to be doing something
Political action: – Paris City Hall says invasion must be tackled, has written to PM & is calling for a dedicated national taskforce – Transport Minister has summoned train and bus operators to talk about how to prevent bedbugs multiplying on seats Different viewpoints
History: we thought bedbugs disappeared in 1950s bcs of chemical treatments > date e.g. DDT, but recent resurgence. > technical detail (subject knowledge)
(mattresses, clothes, luggage; come out at night to feed on human blood) > secondary information/lists
Should UK worry that bedbugs will cross the Channel (Eurostar)? Bedbugs can survive on seats & British people on hols can bring back bedbugs in suitcaseOther source: second hand furniture on resale sites e.g. Ebay and Fbook marketplace
the City of Love, the Big Smoke > use of language, imagery Bedbug lifespan is 4-6 months, can survive for a year without eating > numbers
How to protect yourself? If travelling, use luggage rack rather than putting case on bed and unpackingOnce home, put clothes through hot wash and dry at high tempSecond hand furniture: use steam cleanerIf necessary, use e.g. Rentokil to kill all bedbugs
Rentokil says there has been a 65% increase, year-on-year, in infestations >figure
But this is not a good solution for low income households bcs high cost > Extra argument
But most experts are saying it’s not the number of bedbugs that’s increasing, but number of sightings (social media).
Figs: Anses (French national health body) says 11% households infested over past 5 years. > figure Is that really an increase? I’m not sure. > personal opinion
Is that really an increase? Experts say there’s always an increase in after July/Aug holidays. People bring them home in their luggage. But it does seem as if there is a resurgence, for several reasons: Globalisation: container trade, tourism, immigration Ban on DDT, so not eliminated by chemicals Survivors are more resistant Reduction in number of cockroaches (revolting, I think), which are bedbug predators [BTW] for once, it’s not climate change – bedbugs are domesticated and follow humans, but global warming hasn’t changed habitat > extra arguments/list
Unfortunately, that can generate panic and cause mental health problems (paranoia about bugs in mattress -> insomnia, anxiety, depression)
What risk do they pose? >whole extra section/argument They don’t carry transmissible diseases The bites don’t last They’re embarrassing (yuck factor) and inconvenient (cinema, travel)extra argument I think BIGGEST RISK:mental health problems, e.g. insomnia, anxiety, depression > personal opinion
CONCLUSION: like headlice, they’re an inconvenience rather than health risk – easily dealt with though chemical resistance is more of a challenge.
Experts tell us that we should target superspreaders, often ill, poor, marginalised. > New argument
Whole other can of worms. > Idiom/pun
I hope I’ve illustrated clearly how easy it can be to take two or three sources of information (podcasts, newspaper articles), and turn them into three different speeches in a relatively short space of time.
You can tailor the speech to your students’ or practice partners’ needs, by choosing different challenges to add (e.g. figures, lists, points of view, etc.)
Taking it even further
You could, of course, go even further than this.
The simultaneous outline I’ve created gives me scope for preparing several more speeches in similar, or even quite different, topics.
The easiest type of speech to produce would be consec without notes, since it hardly requires any more research. You can draw on background knowledge to expand the ideas or take them in new directions.
Here are some ways I could repurpose the underlying material in my simultaneous speech to produce several more consec without notes speeches:
A speech about what countries do in the run-up to the Olympics
Intro: bedbug problem in France is making headlines. Why? Olympics
> City Hall and Macron’s government are suggesting action (bcs of their image)
Other countries have done similar things in the run-up to Olympics, e.g. Athens rounding up stray dogs and getting homeless people off the streets
This is like only tidying your house when people are coming round for dinner! Better to do little and often,
Concl: countries should have appropriate policies that are not just predicated on public image
A speech about whether there has really been a resurgence of bedbugs
Intro: current bedbug problem in France. Is this really an increase in numbers?
No: there is always an increase after the summer holidays. This is just a normal cycle, but we’re talking more about it bcs of social media
Yes: globalisation; ban on DDT; resistant bugs; fewer cockroaches > there are, in fact, more bedbugs
Concl: take precautions
A speech about how social media can create panic
Intro: bedbug problem in France
use of social media causes panic > mental health problems
similar examples: COVID vaccine
Concl: social media can be beneficial (e.g. sharing useful info) but also exacerbate the problem
One of these speeches is about bedbugs, but the other two use the bedbug example to illustrate a different point. It only took a few moments of brainstorming to create an outline for the speeches.
Conclusion
I imagine this post will be most useful to interpreter trainers. I hope I’ve shown clearly how you can extract the maximum possible benefit from the time and effort you spend in writing speeches for your students.
With a simple starting point and 15 minutes or so of research, you could create an outline for a simultaneous, a consec with notes, and 4 different consec without notes in the space of an hour or so.
What are your top tips for being efficient when preparing speeches for interpreting students?
Enjoy this blog? Please spread the word :)
By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. more information
The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.