While I consider myself a vaguely creative person, I’ve never thought of myself as artistic. It’s a long time since I’ve put pencil (or paintbrush) to paper for the purpose of creating art, but it’s my daughter’s favourite subject at school, so I enrolled with her on a 12-week course called ‘Art for the Terrified’.
Things rarely go to plan in life, and we’ve only had two sessions out of four (I was ill for one of them, the teacher was ill for another). After ‘colour’ and ‘line’, last night’s theme was ‘tonal value’ – or what I think of as ‘shading’.
I found the session enjoyable, partly as a way to switch off from real life, partly for the process of making art, and partly because it made me think about parallels with interpreter training.
Sheep 1, copied from Henry Moore
Outline of an art class
Here’s what our teacher Jane had us do yesterday.
First, she gave us a sheet with examples of different shading methods: hatching, cross hatching, stippling (where you draw lots of little dots), smudging/blending, and ‘scumbling’ (a word I had never heard before.)
As far as I could see, the teacher’s version of scumbling means drawing lots of little squiggles on the page to create shading. This does not match the Collins dictionary definition at all:
(in painting and drawing) to soften or blend (an outline or colour) with an upper coat of opaque colour, applied very thinly
But never mind! Scumbling (or scribbling, basically), seemed like fun.
After trying out some of the exercises on the handout, we moved on to the pièce de résistance of the evening, which involved copying a line drawing by Henry Moore, who, apart from being an incredible, world-famous sculptor, also enjoyed drawing sheep.
Sheep are close to my heart, since Yorkshire, where I live, is full of them. They dot the countryside and form an erratic counterpoint to the straight lines of dry stone walls.
[As a side note, my husband and I were once driving through the Yorkshire countryside, and I pointed out that the fields were pecorous. ‘What does pecorous mean?’, he asked. ‘Full of sheep’, I replied. To which he said ‘Sophie, sometimes YOU are full of sh**’. After that, I stopped trying to introduce interesting Latin-derived words into our conversations.]
But back to our art class, where after attempting to copy Henry Moore, I tried my hand at copying a photograph of a sheep:
Sheep 2, copied from a photo
Parallels between interpreter training and learning to draw
I spend a lot of time teaching, but I rarely attend classes these days, so I found it a very interesting experience.
I felt there were many potentially useful parallels between this art class and the process of learning to be an interpreter. Here are some of my thoughts:
Since art is an area where I have no great knowledge, expertise, or confidence, I found it useful to have a ‘guide’ (i.e. our teacher) to structure the session, give a brief demonstration, and set tasks. I’m sure once I have more knowledge and confidence, I’ll be able to shape my own learning journey.
I found the process of copying an expert very useful. I wouldn’t have known where to start with my scribbly pen drawing of a sheep without that structure. Copying Henry Moore’s technique was an opportunity to think about why and how he had done certain things: scribbled harder in darker areas, used straight lines vs curls, used precise outlines, etc. It made me think about why those techniques were successful (or not), and it gave me a template to follow in my second drawing, where I was copying a photo. For me, the parallel with interpreter training is that if you listen to an experienced interpreter, or attempt the same material and then listen to their version, you can analyse how they approached certain difficulties (speed, numbers, idioms, etc.) and try out the same techniques in your interpretation.
Having the task broken down into stages – first, copying Moore’s drawing, then attempting to use similar techniques to copy a photo of a sheep – was very useful. It meant that I had a trial run before trying the more difficult exercise, and I could then try to replicate the techniques. Not trying to do everything at once helped build my confidence, and by the time we got onto copying the photo, I had at least some idea of how I could approach the drawing. In interpreter training terms, this is similar to introducing consecutive note-taking or simultaneous skills gradually, both to build confidence and to create a strong foundation, rather than throwing interpreters in at the deep end.
One way in which the sheep exercise was very different from my days as an interpreting student (or a student of many other things: ballet, piano, etc.) was that I approached the process with curiosity rather than judgement. I really wasn’t bothered whether the end result was ‘good’ or ‘bad’ (according to whose standards, anyway?); instead, I was simply working through the exercises and then assessing what happened. Did I learn something from copying Henry Moore? Was I able to apply those teachings to the second sheep drawing? Was the second drawing, where I had more freedom, as successful as the first? More successful? Why? This was a very liberating experience, because I really didn’t care whether I was ‘good’ at art, or whether I drew a ‘good’ sheep. Instead, I viewed it as a learning experience and looked for what I would do the same next time, and what I would do differently (sheep 2’s head is too dark, for instance, so it doesn’t contrast enough with the background, and it’s too dark compared to the rest of the body). This is a really great approach to learning, because it means you don’t get depressed by ‘mistakes’, you focus on your performance in a specific exercise rather than your (supposed) ability or talent, you can appreciate incremental progress, and you can be constructive about what to do next.
One of the good things about the class was that the exercise sheet encouraged us to experiment with several different shading techniques. Without that encouragement, I would have stuck to smudging/blending, which is what I always used to do when I drew pencil drawings as a teenager. Trying something new gave me new insights, showed me that I actually liked some of the other techniques, and meant I drew a picture I would never have managed in the past, since I had never before done a drawing in pen or used scumbling for shading. Trying new techniques even if they don’t appeal to you or you don’t think you’ll be very good at them is important, but difficult to do, particularly if you’re a perfectionist type. For example, when I teach simultaneous, I often encourage students to play with décalage or try using salami technique, because if we stick to what we always do, we’ll…always get the same result! Trying a new technique when your existing strategies aren’t working any more is part of having a growth mindset.
My final thought is about the other participants. There was no opportunity to walk around the room and see what everyone else had produced. I thought this was a pity, because you can learn so much from examining other people’s work, whether they are experts or not. I would have appreciated the opportunity to see what shading techniques they had used and to pick up any of their tricks for dealing with aspects of the drawing I found difficult. In the same way, whether you’re an interpreting student or an interpreter in, say, a practice group, you can learn a huge amount from colleagues, whether or not they are at a more advanced stage than you are.
Growth mindset and learning
My biggest takeaway from last night’s session was about how enjoyable and constructive it was to apply growth mindset principles to my learning, in a way that I haven’t always done in the past. Perhaps it was easier to do that as an adult learner, and because there was nothing at stake (it wasn’t a vocational course to prepare for a new career, for instance).
Of course, the fact that I approached the class with a growth mindset, when I wouldn’t have in the past, is a great demonstration that even people who tend to have a fixed mindset (me!!) can change that.
Can you see parallels between your interpreting practice and another skill you’re learning, or a hobby of yours? Can you transfer your approach to learning a different skill across to your interpreting practice, to make it more productive or enjoyable? Is there scope for you to apply more growth mindset principles to your learning?
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?
I’ve spent twenty years helping interpreters improve their retour (at least I hope my techniques are helpful! 😉), but I’ll let you into a little secret: I’ve hardly used my own (French) retour in ten years.
When I was last in Brussels on a temporary contract with the European Commission, I added a French consecutive retour. I was assigned to a handful of high level meetings, usually involving Ministers and Commissioners, before turning freelance and going back to the UK. I stopped working into French with the exception of a mission in Manchester (about young people and contraception!) three years ago.
Reactivating my retour has been on my to-do list for a long time, but there’s always something else that’s a higher priority, and I’m much more valuable to the European institutions as an English booth interpreter with Greek and German in my combination, than as an English booth interpreter with a French retour – after all, they have a whole booth full of French A interpreters with English in their combination!
It seems the time has finally come for me to dust off my French, though, and I’ve spent the past month working hard on it.
I’ve done all the things you would expect: listening to French podcasts, shadowing, reading blog posts and articles, noting down vocabulary, interpreting practice speeches, etc. etc. [If you want to hear more about reactivating your retour, you can listen to my podcast on the subject.]
Times have changed since I last worked so intensively on my French (I think it was 2014), and I wanted to share a couple of fun activities I’ve been playing with. They didn’t exist back in the day, because the technology wasn’t there.
You may, of course, have discovered these tricks already, especially if you’re tech-savvy. 😉
1. Sight translation – with a secret weapon
I often suggest sight translation as an exercise to help with retour training. It’s an opportunity to come up with one or multiple ways of rendering a text in your A language, and it affords you more thinking time than interpreting a speech. [By the way, I do think the word ‘sight translation’ is a misnomer, and it should be called ‘sight interpretation’ to avoid giving the impression we’re looking for some sort of ‘perfect’ version.]
If you’re a retourist, perhaps you’ve had practice sessions where you pick a text, sight interpret into your B language, record yourself, listen back, try to identify awkward passages, and then try to come up with better solutions. This is not always easy to do, and we all sometimes wish we had a tame native speaker to hand to give us suggestions (there are ways to improve your chances of success even if you don’t have a native speaker helping; I explore these in this blog post).
Now you can – at least partially – compensate for the lack of a practice partner, trainer, or coach, by using the fruit of machine translation.
Don’t get me wrong, we all know Google Translate, Linguee et al aren’t perfect, and depending on the corpus they’ve been trained on, the results sometimes have to be taken with a pinch of salt, but they can produce useful results.
Method
Here’s my new and improved version of sight translation.
Choose a text in your A language.
Read through the first paragraph.
Switch on your recording device, and sight interpret this paragraph into your B language, aiming for a smooth and confident delivery.
Copy paste paragraph 1 into e.g. Google Translate or DeepL.
Review the output. Are there any useful terms or phrases that you can steal?
Have a second attempt at sight interpreting this paragraph.
Rinse and repeat with paras 2, 3, etc.
Caveats
There are three obvious caveats:
Make sure the material isn’t confidential.
The quality of the output depends on the topic, because machine translation tools are dependent on a certain corpus of text. Some topics yield better quality results than others; for example, I recently worked on cattle farming and whisky distilling. One of these yielded markedly better results in Google Translate than the other.
If your B language is fairly weak, you will find it difficult to discern whether the output in Google Translate or DeepL is overly literal, unnatural, or simply incorrect. This technique works best if your B language is already strong, i.e. if you can’t always come up with inspired solutions yourself, but you can recognise them when you see them.
Read on for a few examples of French>English and English>French translations. You can skip to the section about flashcards if you don’t have these languages in your combination.
Example 1: Speech in French by Bruno Le Maire (France’s Minister of Economics)
This extract is taken from a speech about France’s financing of climate change measures in developing countries.
“Ces excellents chiffres démontrent l’engagement et la constance de la France en matière d’aide à la lutte contre le changement climatique. Dans le même temps, ils montrent aussi que la finance climat ne peut s’appuyer sur les seuls financements publics pour changer la donne, y compris ceux de la France qui compte parmi les principaux contributeurs à la finance climat dans le monde. Il nous faut passer à l’échelle supérieure et, au-delà de la cible des 100 milliards de dollars, mobiliser les financements de toutes sources et en particulier entraîner davantage de financements privés au service des stratégies climatiques des pays en développement. À cet égard la feuille de route issue du Sommet de Paris pour un nouveau pacte financier mondial doit nous permettre d’améliorer collectivement notre efficacité et notre impact.”
This passage contains a few challenges for retourists (although you may have encountered these expressions many times before, depending on the type of interpreting you do). I have highlighted in bold some of the phrases that you might have to give a little thought to.
Here’s what Google Translate offers:
“These excellent figures demonstrate France’s commitment and consistency in helping to combat climate change. At the same time, they also show that climate finance cannot rely on public financing alone to change the situation, including that of France, which is among the main contributors to climate finance in the world. We need to scale up and, beyond the $100 billion target, mobilize funding from all sources and in particular attract more private funding to serve the climate strategies of developing countries. In this regard, the roadmap resulting from the Paris Summit for a new global financial pact should allow us to collectively improve our efficiency and impact.”
There are some useful options here, including “commitment” (“engagement” can be a little tricky, and 90% of the time is best rendered by something other than engagement in English), “scale up”, “attract funding”, and “roadmap”.
“Changer la donne” has been translated by “change the situation”, which is quite a plain version, but gives the idea clearly.
The Google Translate version also demonstrates one of the pitfalls of this method, which is that the English translation has changed the meaning of the French, or is at the very least ambiguous. The French reads “la finance climat ne peut s’appuyer sur les seuls financements publics pour changer la donne, y compris ceux de la France qui compte parmi les principaux contributeurs à la finance climat dans le monde”; but the English makes it sound as if we’re talking about changing France’s situation: “climate finance cannot rely on public financing alone to change the situation, including that of France”.
Make sure you read the output carefully to check the meaning. If you’re having a second attempt at sight translating the passage, don’t copy anything that’s plain wrong or badly expressed! I find the translated version is often too literal or sticks too closely to the input language’s sentence structure, i.e. by all means pick up useful terminology, but don’t expect the output to give you ideal solutions for sentence structure.
One more possible problem to point out: the translation renders “efficace” as efficient. Alas, “efficace” in French means both efficient and effective. The choice of term depends on the meaning. Personally, I think the meaning here is “effective”.
Let’s compare this with the DeepL version:
“These excellent figures demonstrate France’s commitment and steadfastness in helping to combat climate change. At the same time, they also show that climate finance cannot rely on public funding alone to make a difference, including from France, one of the world’s leading contributors to climate finance. We need to move up a gear and, beyond the $100 billion target, mobilize financing from all sources, and in particular attract more private financing to support developing countries’ climate strategies. In this respect, the roadmap that emerged from the Paris Summit for a new global financial pact should enable us to collectively improve our effectiveness and impact.
Here we have a few more options: “steadfastness”; “make a difference” (for “changer la donne”), “move up a gear”.
Example 2: short passage about whisky in French
“Si cette production en quantités limitées peut être un frein au développement du whisky français, notamment à l’export, elle a tout de même un avantage, celui de répondre à la tendance actuelle du « craft ». D’autant que les producteurs français ont tendance à privilégier les circuits courts et à miser sur la transparence et la traçabilité.”
Let’s say you want to sight translate this from French into English. It may take you a moment to think of good solutions for “un frein au développement” (maybe the first thing that springs to mind is “a brake”, but that doesn’t sound right), “répondre à la tendance actuelle”, “privilégier les circuits courts”, and “miser sur la transparence”.
The risk if you’re working from French into English is that you will stick too closely to the French (i.e. copy the word “privilege” for instance). The result will be over-literal and sound unnatural.
Let’s take a look at what Google Translate gives us for this paragraph.
“If this production in limited quantities can be a hindrance to the development of French whisky, particularly for export, it still has an advantage, that of responding to the current “craft” trend. Especially since French producers tend to favor short circuits and focus on transparency and traceability.”
Now we need to assess the output.
I rather like “be a hindrance” for “un frein au développement”. You could take things a step further by looking it up on Linguee, for instance, where you would find alternatives such as “an impediment” or “an obstacle”.
“Favor” is a good solution for “privilégier” (we obviously want to avoid saying “they privilege short circuits”), and “focus on” works pretty well for “miser sur” (the literal meaning is “bank on” or “rely on”, but these are not so successful).
On the other hand, I’m not so keen on “short circuits”, which I don’t think is the most commonly used expression in English, and clauses beginning with “si” always ring alarm bells, since they’re not always true conditionals in French. If I were interpreting this into English, I would not begin with “if this production…can be a hindrance”.
Let’s take a look at DeepL:
“While this limited-quantity production may hinder the development of French whisky, particularly for export, it does have one advantage: it responds to the current “craft” trend. All the more so as French producers tend to favor short distribution channels and focus on transparency and traceability.”
This version has fixed the “if” problem, and offers us “short distribution channels”, which I think is clearer in English than “short circuits”. To be honest, I often go for something that emphasises local production or direct sales, since that reflects the idea in French.
Example 3: Wagyu beef, English>French
A seemingly random topic – I’m sure you will have guessed I was preparing for an assignment.
This is the paragraph I put through Google Translate.
“We also have a small but wonderful fold of Highland cattle. Our mission is to produce the best beef in the world from our 25,000-acre estate, set within the majestic highland landscape of Perthshire, Scotland which offers rich, fertile grasslands on which all our herds graze.
Established by husband and wife team Mohsin Altajir and Martine Chapman in 2011, our ethos of quality, respect and precision underpins everything we do. What should have been a hobby turned into a full blown business overnight. Mohsin was playing golf six days a week and Martine was looking for something to sink her teeth into.
They had never set foot on a farm before or been up close and personal with cattle. It was their passion for great quality produce and their love of animals that saw them move to the Highlands of Scotland and so Highland Wagyu was born.”
If you’re not Scottish, you may not know what a “fold” of cattle is. There are also a few idiomatic expressions in this text that might give you pause if you’re working into a B language.
Here is Google Translate’s version:
“Nous avons également un petit mais merveilleux élevage de bovins Highland. Notre mission est de produire le meilleur bœuf au monde à partir de notre domaine de 25 000 acres, situé dans le majestueux paysage des hautes terres du Perthshire, en Écosse, qui offre des prairies riches et fertiles sur lesquelles paissent tous nos troupeaux. Créée par l’équipe mari et femme Mohsin Altajir et Martine Chapman en 2011, notre philosophie de qualité, de respect et de précision sous-tend tout ce que nous faisons. Ce qui aurait dû être un passe-temps s’est transformé du jour au lendemain en une véritable entreprise. Mohsin jouait au golf six jours par semaine et Martine cherchait de quoi se mettre à pleines dents. Ils n’avaient jamais mis les pieds dans une ferme auparavant ni été en contact étroit avec du bétail. C’est leur passion pour les produits de grande qualité et leur amour des animaux qui les ont amenés à s’installer dans les Highlands d’Écosse et c’est ainsi qu’est né Highland Wagyu.
And DeepL’s:
“Nous possédons également un petit mais merveilleux troupeau de bovins des Highlands. Notre mission est de produire le meilleur bœuf du monde à partir de notre domaine de 25 000 acres, situé dans le majestueux paysage des Highlands du Perthshire, en Écosse, qui offre des prairies riches et fertiles sur lesquelles paissent tous nos troupeaux.
Fondée en 2011 par Mohsin Altajir et Martine Chapman, une équipe composée d’un mari et d’une femme, notre éthique de la qualité, du respect et de la précision est à la base de tout ce que nous faisons. Ce qui aurait dû être un hobby s’est transformé en une véritable entreprise du jour au lendemain. Mohsin jouait au golf six jours par semaine et Martine cherchait quelque chose à se mettre sous la dent.
Ils n’avaient jamais mis les pieds dans une ferme auparavant et n’avaient jamais côtoyé de près le bétail. C’est leur passion pour les produits de grande qualité et leur amour des animaux qui les ont amenés à s’installer dans les Highlands, en Écosse, et c’est ainsi qu’est né Highland Wagyu.”
Let’s go through the two translations and see what we can pick up:
“nous possédons” gives us a more formal version of “nous avons” un troupeau
a cattle fold is clearly a “troupeau” (or “élevage”)
“s’est transformé en véritable entreprise du jour au lendemain” works well for “turned into a full blown business overnight”
“jamais mis les pieds” is good
“contact étroit avec le bétail” and “côtoyer” could both work
I have concerns about “quelque chose à se mettre sous la dent”! It sounds as if Martine wants something to eat, as opposed to sinking her teeth into a new project. In other contexts, I might try “s’attaquer à”. What about “un nouveau défi à relever”, or simply “un nouveau projet”?
I’ve deliberately chosen not to share “perfect” versions from DeepL or Google Translate (I doubt that there is such a thing anyway).
Instead, I hope I’ve illustrated for you how I use this tool in practice. It can be a useful shortcut, because it saves time on looking words up in the dictionary or using a collocations dictionary. It can partially compensate for the lack of a practice partner or coach, but it works best if your B language is already strong, so you can filter out the dross and spot little gems.
2. Flash cards with a twist
Now let’s turn to my second technique, which is one you may very well have used when trying to add a new C language: flashcards.
Old-style flashcards (literally small rectangles of card on which you write with a pen) are as antiquated as the abacus, I suppose. Nowadays you can choose from a plethora of apps with flashy features to improve the efficiency of your revision (and make it more fun).
I’ve been familiar with some of these apps, e.g. Anki and Quizlet, for a long time, but haven’t really used them myself, since I haven’t added a C language in living memory.
However, I recently decided to help my daughter with revising biology, chemistry, and physics, and I thought electronic flashcards would be more fun than paper.
I tried Anki first, but I didn’t like the look or features. I wanted something very intuitive, quick to learn, and fun to use. So then I tried Quizlet, and loved how easy it was to add audio to the flashcards, or even images. You can even pick from a gallery of suggested images. When it comes to using the flashcards for revision, you can set them to play a matching game, or use them in a variety of different ways to learn or revise the material. The magic algorithms will ensure you spend more time on the cards you get wrong initially.
From there it was a small step to thinking “aha, I’ve been writing down vocabulary about cattle farming/barley production/distilling whisky, so I’ll create some flashcards with key words”.
Obviously if you’re working on a B language, the point isn’t to recognise and understand vocabulary in a passive language, but to be able to think of the equivalent in your B language as quickly as possible (i.e. to activate your vocabulary).
Here’s some vocabulary I was working on, related to salmon farming:
The basic version of Quizlet is free, and took me less than five minutes to set up.
You can go the DIY route and create your flashcards from scratch. Here’s an example. I’ve typed in my first two terms, finfish and halibut. You’ll see that once I typed in ‘halibut’, the system offered me suggestions for the French equivalent.
There’s an even faster way to create cards, though: use the ‘import’ function. Just copy/paste the Excel cells into the ‘import’ box:
Bob’s your uncle! The system creates 10 cards for you (or as many as you like) in one fell swoop!
Back in the day, to try to anchor this terminology in my mind and make it part of my active French, I would have reread my vocabulary lists several times (jotted down in a notebook, two decades ago, then typed into an Excel spreadsheet more recently).
My aim with the flashcards is to see the word on the front of the card and be able to come up with the French equivalent immediately, to help develop faster reflexes. Using an app is a targeted way of making improvements, since you can mark the flashcards you know well, so the algorithm only shows you the ones that still need work.
One more feature that might be helpful to retourists: you can add audio to the flashcard, to help you with pronouncing tricky words in your B language.
Now it may well be the case that everybody out there has been using these techniques for age already, and I’m behind the times. 😁 That’s OK…I’m increasingly aware that I am gradually becoming a technological dinosaur.
[By the way, if you’re interested in using AI to help you with your language learning, why not join the new AI Language Club, from the indefatigable Josh Goldsmith and Kerstin Cable? If you follow the link, you’ll find a free webinar to start you off.]
What are your fun techniques for improving your retour?
In my last blog post, I attempted to convince you of the value of speech prep, especially if you are a retourist and you use speech preparation as an exercise to develop your retour.
I outlined the process I use to create well-structured speeches, and listed 3 simple structures: linear, pros/cons, and ‘logical argument’.
In this post, I want to get down to the nitty gritty and talk about some of the shortcuts you can use to make speech prep a painless and rapid process.
Use an interview, panel debate, TV report or podcast for inspiration
The great thing about interviews or podcasts is that they often present contrasting points of view.
In the UK, for instance, if I were to watch Question Time on TV, listen to Any Questions on Radio 4, or tune in to the Today programme for some of the interviews, I would be able to pick out several viewpoints, which I could then incorporate into a speech.
This is particularly useful when you yourself have a strong opinion on a subject, and you need inspiration for the opposing viewpoint.
Let’s say you listen to a programme an EU proposal relating to Member States’ obligations to report on the gender pay gap.
Right off the bat, I can think of two ways you could structure your speech:
Explain the EU proposal and why it’s being introduced (i.e. the European Commission’s point of view)
Explain other parties’ point of view or reaction (for example, some of the Member States, if they have concerns; and/or women’s groups; or the European Parliament position)
Come to a conclusion, and perhaps give your own opinion. Of course, you also need an introduction to lead into the subject.
Here’s a second option:
Briefly outline the proposal
Explain the benefits of such legislation.
Outline the pitfalls. Here, you could explain who is opposed: NGOs, certain countries?
Draw your conclusion. Again, you will also need an introduction.
It’s clear, I think, that both speeches would cover much the same material, but with a slightly different slant. The first version focuses more on different points of view; the second is more of a ‘pros and cons’ speech.
A third possibility would be for you to play the role of a particular individual or organisation (for example, an employers’ organisation, an anti-discrimination NGO, a representative of the European Commission, a Minister for Equality from a Member State, etc.) and speak in favour or against the proposal. Your speech might look something like this:
Greetings/introduction
Background to the proposal
Your organisation’s view – list of reasons why you support or oppose the proposal
Call to action
Example (in English)
Let’s prepare a speech about asylum seekers crossing the Channel in small boats. The UK government is proposing that anyone entering the UK illegally via this route should be barred from receiving asylum.
DON’T START YET! Read through the next couple of paragraphs.
[If you’re reading this before 8th April 2023 and you have plenty of time to get more background, you can listen to quite a lengthy interview with the Home Secretary Suella Braverman on Radio 4’s Today programme, followed by some analysis by the political editor. The interview begins at 2:10:00.]
Alternatively, here’s a clip from Al-Jazeera which we’ll use for this exercise, looking at the issue from several different angles (the UK government position, the charities’ position, the asylum seeker position).
Now set a timer.
As you listen to the Al-Jazeera clip, note down the arguments on either side.
Add any of your own thoughts or background knowledge.
If your English is a B language, and you’re preparing your speech in English (see my previous posts for the many benefits of doing this to improve your retour), now is the time to list a few useful terms or phrases to include in your speech (just one example: ‘a totemic issue’).
Now think about your conclusion. Here are a few starting points; you can pick the one that speaks to you the most, or something else:
Do you think the proposal is shocking? Sensible?
Can you draw parallels with the approach taken in another country?
Do you want to say something about the potential consequences?
Do you think the proposal is unlawful and in violation of international law?
This is your chance to send out an unequivocal message to wrap up your speech, and to give your personal opinion.
Finally, now that you know the ‘destination’ of your speech, think about the starting point, which will form your introduction. Here are some possibilities:
you could simply mention hearing this interview on the radio or seeing images on tV, and finding it fascinating/shocking/revealing/depressing
you could do a quick bit of extra research to start your speech with a figure, for example the number of people making this dangerous crossing in 2022 compared to previous years
you could mention refugee crises elsewhere, to put this one into context (Ukraine, Syria)
you could use a different context, and talk about people trying to reach Lampedusa and drowning
you could begin with a reference to human rights, e.g. the right to safety and security, and international law on asylum
you could start with a personal anecdote, for instance if your parents or grandparents were refugees or immigrants
I’m sure you can think of many more.
OK, you’ve got your intro, conclusion, and the middle bit. 🙂
Now write out your speech outline in a more organised form, whether that be a mind map or a bullet point outline. As I said in my last post, some people write the whole thing out in longhand, but I think the result is generally much better if your speech is based on bullet points, which you (semi-)improvise around.
That’s it! Stop the timer. How long did it take you?
If you have time and you want to practise your speech (for example, if it’s in a B language), rehearse it now. Why not record it and listen back to your performance?
Here are my outline and my speech. Normally, I would just write keywords in bullet point form, but I fear that would be totally illegible, so I’ve written something a little longer to make sure you can follow my reasoning.
Intro: In 2022, 46,000 people attempted the dangerous Channel crossing in a small boat. Hundreds of people have drowned. This is an illegal route into the UK; the question is, is this a criminal issue that the government needs to crack down on, or a humanitarian crisis that needs solving?
Government point of view: this is a right wing government (i.e. generally anti-immigration), and the issue has become totemic. It’s costly (hotels cost £6 million per day); there is an illegal trade in people-smuggling that must be stopped. Drawing inspiration from Australia, the latest proposal is that if people enter the UK via an illegal route, they will NEVER be able to receive asylum, and will be detained and removed (to Rwanda). This is a necessary and proportional deterrent, and if people’s route into a country is blocked, the numbers attempted entry fall (Australian example).
Local charities: asylum seekers are treated like criminals. They are fleeing conflict and persecution. There should be a humanitarian route into the UK, e.g. with a visa scheme like the one in place for Ukrainians.
For the asylum seekers in Calais, the situation is dire. French police break up the camps every two days, there are no welcome centres to host them, and no legal way to enter the UK. They feel like they have no other choice. But this new legislation won’t stop them trying to cross the Channel.
Conclusion: intractable problem. In an astonishing piece of spin, the government is trying to present a crackdown as a humanitarian act, by suggesting that this is humanitarian deterrence (and if anyone manages to cross, they will be sent to a safe place, i.e. deported to Rwanda!). Will they succeed in presenting the issue in this way? Or in stopping the boats and deporting asylum seekers (no-one has gone to Rwanda so far; the proposal is mired in legal controversy). The problem for the government is their very clear slogan: “stop the boats”. There will be no fudge, as it will be very easy to judge whether this has been achieved or not.
This is a speech lasting nearly six minutes; it contains several points of vie, one or two figures, some important background knowledge (e.g. the names of the Home Secretary, the whole situation of asylum seekers in Calais), and a bit of logic in the conclusion.
In sum, I would class this as an exam-style speech, which took me less than 30 minutes to research, outline, and record.
In my next blog post, I’ll be talking about other shortcuts to help you prepare speeches quickly and easily.
I ran a webinar recently about improving your retour (i.e. interpreting into a B language – a language other than your mother tongue), and I asked participants to send me any questions in advance, so I could tailor the content to their needs.
This is a useful exercise, as it often provides inspiration or discussion points for the webinar, but it can also be a double edged sword, because it’s not unusual to receive questions that you really don’t want to address, for whatever reason – they’re too controversial, they would take up too much time, they’re too specific, they don’t match your knowledge, expertise, or niche, and the list goes on.
On this occasion, one of the participants said this:
I’ve been on retour courses before, and the trainer nearly always suggests preparing speeches in your B language as a good exercise for improving your retour. Who has time for that?!
I confess this stung a little, as I do indeed often suggest speech preparation as a great exercise, and I was going to do so on this occasion as well! So I had to give extra thought to alternative exercises I could suggest; but my first instinct was to defend speech prep, and above all, to stress the fact that it doesn’t have to be time-consuming, and it can be fun and creative as well as beneficial! You can prepare a consecutive speech from start to finish in less than 20 minutes.
In this post, I’d like to explain why I think speech prep is such a great exercise for retourists, and give you some time-saving tips to make it less of a chore (if that’s how you think of it), whether you’re preparing a speech in your mother tongue or in your B language.
How speech prep can boost your retour
The bottom line for a good retour, as I see it, is this: if you can’t speak spontaneously on a given subject in your B language, using appropriate terminology and correct grammar, how can you hope to interpret someone else’s thoughts convincingly?
Doing a decent job of interpreting is a corollary of speaking well on a given subject; hence the importance of language enhancement work when you’re trying to develop your retour, as opposed to focusing exclusively on interpreting practice.
[On a side note: this principle, which appears self-evident to me, is generally unpopular with interpreting students, who tend to feel that anything other than practising interpreting from A>B is a waste of time.]
Speech preparation is therefore an excellent way of expanding the range of subjects on which you’re able to speak with authority.
I think it’s probably fair to say that the weaker your retour is, the more beneficial speech prep will be. If you already have a very strong retour or near-native competence in your B language, you can pick up important vocab in other ways.
Benefits of speech prep
Here’s a breakdown of some of the benefits of preparing speeches in your B language:
it improves your general and subject knowledge because of the research you have to do.
it’s an opportunity to practise and improve your public speaking skills (eye contact, pace, intonation).
it’s a great way to ‘activate’ vocabulary, i.e. make it part of your active vocabulary, rather than vocabulary you understand passively but never use.
if you prepare your speech in the form of interpreters’ notes, rather than bullet points, it’s a good way to improve your ability to decipher your own notes, i.e. it can help improve your consecutive skills.
similarly, if you’re working on consecutive, it’s a great way to introduce or consolidate symbols.
it’s a good way to prepare for an assignment on a specific topic.
learning to prepare well-structured speeches is a good way of improving your analytical skills and recognising structure in other people’s speeches.
By the way, all of these points are true of preparing speech in your A language as well, although in this case there will be less emphasis on vocabulary acquisition or consolidation.
So far, I’ve covered benefits that are related to your language or interpreting skills, but there are others:
speech prep can be important if you’re a member of a practice group, or you work with a practice partner. You can give speeches to each other!
if you’re an interpreter trainer, there’s a good chance you will give speeches to your students at some point, either because you can’t find suitable source material, or because you want to be in control of the type of challenge or level of difficulty of the speech.
Preparing speeches is an excellent way of ‘giving back’ to the interpreting community, by contributing to practice groups or repositories such as Speechpool.
A method for rapid speech prep
Topic selection
There are many ways to prepare speeches. I can’t possibly cover all of them, nor produce a framework that suits everyone.
Here’s an important caveat, for starters: I’m giving your advice for preparing the type of speech that you would have to interpret at an EU accreditation or retour test, or at a final exam in interpreting school. You would need to follow a different method if you were preparing practice material for certain types of public service interpreting, say.
Now that’s out of the way, let’s take a look at a simple method for preparing practice speeches.
Often, the hardest thing is finding a good topic! Once something catches your interest (on a news programme or podcast, for instance), you’re off and running.
if you’re preparing a speech for as a ‘swap’ for a practice partner, or for an interpreting practice group, why not choose a topic that will help you improve your subject knowledge (e.g. if you’re weak on finance, pick a financial topic)?
if you’re preparing a speech in your B language, think about areas where your vocabulary is lacking.
Another option would be to prepare a speech in your B language to prepare for an assignment where you already know the topic.
If you regularly prepare speeches, it’s a good idea to keep a note of topics that inspire you. You could have a document on your computer (or use a Notes app) to keep track of links to interesting blog posts or newspaper articles. (Back in the day, interpreter trainers sometimes kept a file with newspaper clippings to turn to when they needed inspiration.)
Once you’ve found a topic or looked for one by browsing the news headlines, you can get to work designing your speech. I’ll give you a 4-step process for doing this,
Step 1: Researching your speech
The amount of research you do will depend on the purpose of your speech, and your existing background knowledge.
You may not need to do much (or indeed, any!) research if:
the speech is for interpreting students who are beginners. If they are just starting to pick up consecutive without notes, in particular, you may be able to give a speech based on your existing knowledge of a topic, or your opinions, since you won’t want to include many names, dates, or figures.
the speech is rather philosophical or based on your opinions or reactions to a film or book. You already have all the knowledge you need to outline this speech!
You will want to do more research if:
the speech is designed as a simultaneous (for an EU accreditation test, this would be 10-12 minutes long, instead of 5-6 minutes for a consecutive). That amount of material usually requires an outside source of information!
you’re preparing a speech in a B language, and you want to make sure you’re using appropriate vocabulary.
you’re preparing a speech on a technical subject or one that is unfamiliar to you.
In my next blog post, I’ll give you three shortcuts for researching a topic quickly and efficiently.
An exam-style speech typically contains a range of challenges, e.g. contrasting opinions (to check the interpreter is conveying them accurately), some facts and figures, a personal comment or opinion, and perhaps a reference to current affairs, to check the interpreter’s background knowledge.
So when you’re doing your research, you might want to look for:
a few facts and figures about your topic – you’ll only need a few for a consecutive, more for a simultaneous
a ‘hook’ from the newspapers, i.e. some event in the news that make this topic relevant and interesting
how different people or organisations feel about this topic
your own opinion!
You can find relevant information in all sorts of places: the news, an article you’ve read in a magazine, a podcast episode, a blog post, a conversation with a friend or colleague. Or you could build a speech based on your reflections about a film you’ve just seen, for example, or a book you’ve read.
When you’ve done the research, jot down your ideas, arguments, figures, dates, etc. on a piece of paper. At this stage, it doesn’t matter if the material isn’t organised.
Step 2: Structuring your speech
Speakers organise their material in all sorts of ways. I’ll stick to three simple speeches structures:
linear. Typically, this would be a chronology, or a story that starts at point A and finishes at point B.
pros and cons. You can either list all the pros, then all the cons; or you could give one ‘pro’, then a matching ‘con’, and so on. This ‘opposites’ structure is particularly suited to consecutive without notes, because it’s very easy to remember.
an logical argument that leads the audience from a premise or hypothesis to a conclusion, using logical connectors like ‘and, ‘but’, ‘so’.
Realistically, most speeches contain a mixture of several structures: perhaps a more narrative introduction (linear), then the argument.
Think about your research: does your material lend itself to a pros and cons structure? Or is it a story (linear structure)? Do you want to make an argument that will persuade the audience or win them over to your opinion, in which case you’ll need to be very clear about cause and effect or other logical connections between your ideas, and have a strong conclusion?
Step 3: Create a detailed outline of your speech
People do this in different ways. Some people like to produce a spider diagram or mind map; others visualise their speerch as a tree with a trunk and branches; and still others write a bullet point outline. This is the most common way of organising material, I think, although something like a mind map can give a speaker more freedom when giving a simultaneous speech.
Now’s the time to organise your facts, figures, explanations, details, etc. into a legible outline. Make sure your bullet points are connected clearly with links.
Once you’ve organised your material, you can write a conclusion. This often follows on logically from the body of your speech.
Personally, I often add the introduction at the end of this process, because by that stage, I know where I’m going and what I want to say, and it’s easier to find a good ‘entry point’ into the speech. The introduction is a good place to say something personal to ease the audience into the speech quite gently, and to engage them and make your speech more relatable. Or you can use the introduction to mention an event in the news which makes your speech topic relevant.
Step 4: Rehearse your speech
How much you rehearse your speech will depend on its purpose.
If you’re an interpreter trainer giving a speech for an interpreting exam, you’ll obviously want to go through it several times to make sure the timing is right.
Be careful not to overrehearse: this removes all the spontaneity from a speech and makes it very dense, and often rather too fast.
And on that subject: I do know some colleagues who write out their entire speech in longhand, or type it out, rather than having a bullet point outline. While I understand that this makes them more confident, particularly when they’re giving an exam speech, personally I much prefer to speak (semi-)spontaneously from an outline. This produces something more conversational and closer to normal speech, rather than read-out material; it’s usually much more engaging, and means the speaker makes more eye contact with the audience.
Speech prep in a B language
If you’ve read this far, you’ll have realised that almost everything I’ve said applies to preparing speeches in your mother tongue or in a B language.
So what’s different or special about preparing speeches in your B language?
The process is exactly the same, but the emphasis is different.
If you’re preparing a speech in your B language, your primary aim is likely to be vocabulary acquisition or consolidation.
To this end, when you’re researching the topic (reading a couple of articles, or listening to a podcast), make sure you note down a few key words, phrases, or idioms that strike you as useful in other contexts.
Incorporate them into your speech. The more you say them out loud and hear yourself saying them, the more likely they are to become part of your active vocabulary.
I find when I’m preparing a speech in my B language that
I research it more (i.e. I read several articles, or listen to more material, rather than just working with the ideas that are already in my head).
I write down whole chunks, or sometimes whole sentences, to reuse in my speech.
I rehearse it more.
The risk, in your B language, is that you will end up reading out a speech that you’ve basically rehashed from a newspaper article, rather than ‘digesting’ the material and reformulating it.
Voilà!
Have I made it sound long and complicated? Probably! 🤣
In fact, it’s probably taken you longer to read this blog post than it would be outline a consecutive speech.
I’ll leave my examples and shortcuts to a second blog post, so that my word count doesn’t explode!
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