Behind the scenes at TerpSummit

18th February 202214th February 2022 by theinterpretingcoach

Wondering what it took to organise an international online summit for interpreters, with interpretation into 9 languages?

Keen to know more about what it was like working with Green Terp?

Curious about what it was like to manage all those amazing speakers?

[hint: it was like herding cats…]

Read on…

TerpSummit 2022 in figures

registrations: over 3,400 (this includes people who attended the live event, as well as those who registered in order to watch on replay).
Hopin registrations: 1,643 (i.e. people who registered for the live event).
Peak attendance: 517 – this stayed relatively steady across the 3 days, but may have been affected by the AIIC General Assembly and various other meetings taking place during the same week.
Average time spent by attendees at the live event: 8 h 15 minutes (!).
Number of speakers: more than 50, in fact. But that wasn’t entirely deliberate 😊. Some of the more last-minute additions to the programme wanted to have a panel-style discussion, which bumped up the speaker numbers.
Number of urgent phone calls during the summit from speakers who had technical problems or couldn’t find or enter their Session: 3.
Sponsors: 9, who contributed in kind with prizes for the draw; some of them also gave presentations about RSI platforms.
Room hosts: 4. They helped introduce the speakers, run through the interpreting arrangements at the beginning of each session, and answer technical questions, so I owe a big thank you to Roxane Hugues, Camelia Oana, Silvana Vulcan, and Clara Campero. A truly international team based in the UK, Romania, and Argentina.
Interpreters: 80 interpreters including standbys, dropouts and those who actually interpreted. Plus a 7 person tech team.
Booths: 8 (French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Mandarin, Arabic, Russian).
Number of Zoom meetings with Laura Holcomb (interpreting coordinator): at least 7, of which one was a meeting with a tech guy from Hopin. I also attended 4 GreenTerp/Hopin rehearsals for the interpreters. And we talked on WhatsApp and emailed a lot!

Here are some insights from Hopin:

The tech

I kept this pretty simple.

The live summit was hosted on Hopin. I chose this platform last year for the first TerpSummit because of its powerful networking features, as well as the ability to run parallel sessions, which I would not have been able to do on my Zoom account. Since then, Hopin has had very significant investment, and I found it more stable and a touch more user-friendly this time around.
The two websites, hosting the TerpSummit pages (registration, schedule, ‘meet the speakers’, etc.) and the Interpreters’ Toolkit for Success (recordings, bonuses), are WordPress sites.
I used Airtable extensively to keep track of what needed doing, collect material from speakers, gather feedback etc.
I held quite a few meetings on Zoom to co-ordinate with the room hosts, Laura (the interpreting coordinator), or speakers.
I used Vimeo to host and record videos, and Screencast-o-Matic for captioning.
Once or twice I used Dropbox to transfer large files.
I hosted some materials (slides, PDFs) on Google Drive.
My CRM (i.e. the mailing system that communicates with people who’ve registered) is Drip.
I used Acuity as a scheduling tool.
How could I forget WhatsApp? I had 3 main lines of communication going: with Laura, with the interpreting Tech Support group (so I could keep an eye on potential issues), and with the Room Hosts – this was the busiest group, with quick-fire questions, technical help, words of encouragement, and the occasional venting about impatient attendees. Oh, and a few pet photos. 😉

As you can see, I didn’t go overboard with complicated tech (although I’ve spared you the details of the plugins I’ve used in WordPress, etc.).

The interpreting

When I decided to run a summit in 2021, there was a lot to think about: finding the right speakers, building the websites, working out how to charge (or not!), researching live event platforms, deciding what I could afford…There was no way I could add interpretation into the mix, even though it galled me, as an interpreter, to organise a monolingual event.

For TerpSummit 2022, I wanted to at least look into the possibility of offering interpretation. I did this for several reasons: accessibility for those who can’t follow some of the speakers in their mother tongue; trying to move away from a Eurocentric, anglocentric event; offering the whole interpreting community an opportunity to try out one of the remote interpreting tools; and just because I felt it was the right thing to do!

I was talking to Laura Holcomb on Zoom sometime in November about giving a talk on consecutive note-taking in healthcare settings, and we got on to the subject of offering interpretation at the summit. I feel very fortunate that she was enthusiastic about the idea; more, she offered to co-ordinate the interpreting arrangements.

We’ve had some time to think about the outcome since then, and overall I think we’re very happy that we went ahead with this very ambitious enterprise. Laura reached out to Dr Bernard Song from Green Terp because the idea of a system designed by interpreters for interpreters appealed to us, and I’m very grateful that Bernard came on board and worked incredibly hard (from a difficult time zone!) to make sure that the GT Booth system was ready for an event involving 9 languages (English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Mandarin, Arabic, Russian) – the GT extension for Chrome and Firefox was released just before the Summit.

I’ve asked Laura and Bernard, as well as some of the volunteer interpreters, to share their experiences – both highs and lows, because there were definitely some lows! – with us. You will find their replies to my questions below.

Debrief with the interpreters

We held a public Zoom session to ask the interpreters what it was like using Green Terp.

Here are the questions we asked:

1. How long did it take you to prepare for TerpSummit? (Including familiarising yourself with the tool (GTB) and materials such as slides/videos). Anything particularly interesting or different that you noticed during the process?

2. Many of you have worked on other RSI platforms. What was different about working on GT Booth compared with other RSI platforms, in terms of functionalities, training, technical support or tool friendliness?

3. What are the potential improvements you would like to see interpreter team make-up and organisation, training, tech support or tool functionality?

4. What was a challenge you overcame successfully or your favourite part of the experience in general?

Working with Laura Holcomb and Dr Bernard Song

What made you want to participate in TerpSummit?

Bernard: I participated the first TerpSummit last year, and I thought it was a brilliant idea. We interpreters as a community tend to work in small groups and socialise within the region of our domicile, but never had such a chance to meet up on a global scale prior to the pandemic (that’s a blessing of this pandemic!). It is a brilliant opportunity when Laura mentioned to me that you two were considering adding interpretation to this summit, to get involved and contribute to such an occasion. As an interpreters’ event, why can’t we have it interpreted?

Laura: I had seen a bit of your work and respected you, and it, very much as a colleague. That’s a good starting point for wanting to be involved—admiration and attraction to a certain type of leadership. That was further bolstered by your willingness to put on a free summit. I loved the initiative and am always looking for meaningful ways to contribute that might expand my horizons at the same time. In this case specifically, I would be involved in cross-ocean work, would be given a chance to hop out of my silos, and would be working to steady interpreters with a new tech tool, a tool that was not only new to me, but also in the final stages of beta development.

Finally, I thought it odd that interpreting conferences didn’t actually have interpreting. Sometimes presenters would be speaking their third or fourth language. Some can manage this quite easily but I was not raised bilingually and so have accepted that I will probably forever be more dynamic as a presenter in my mother tongue. I imagined there were others in my shoes with something to say, as well as interpreters who might not have English in their combination.

Furthermore, at first blush, it actually didn’t seem like it would be a big deal. I have, by now, a solid base and a bit of a fondness for organizing interpreters and working with them in unfamiliar tech environments. So starting with “oh, this will be no big deal” gave me the courage to stretch. And stretch I did!

[Sophie: I think Laura and I both had moments when we thought we had bitten off more than we could chew…but I had gone with a ‘go big or go home’ idea, and I thought it was worth seeing it through, even if the result on the day wasn’t optimal. After all, this is the reality of working with RSI].

How did you go about planning what needed to be done?

Bernard: Together with Laura, we planned for the training/orientation of the interpreters, and I helped recruit and train part of the Chinese booths. Laura did most of the work in planning and organising the team really, and I tried to support with technical resources. It is definitely an overwhelming job to organise such a large team, with last min dropouts and signups, interpreters with different tech levels.

Laura: The steps in general are by now quite automated in my head: see who is interested (whatsapp groups, ask around), collect basic info from volunteers, as well as tech info (headset, connection, mac vs pc, etc.) and understand the volunteers’ motivations. This last bit helps me better tailor my communication and support (for all this I used a google form which is great for anything informal and the answers then feed to a google sheet that I can easily organize, sort and tinker with).

Then, the next step was to demo the platform to ease in gently (I used calendly to set up different time slots. This was a bit of a guessing game at first due to the different time zones and work demands of the varied group. I ended up having to do a few extra demos to accommodate latecomers or tight schedules).

I knew I wanted to follow this up with a full rehearsal to give myself, interpreters and techs a bit of actual hands-on practice as a group, and test relay, in particular. So I created a couple more rehearsal slots for this.

While time marched forward, a circular scheduling management process hummed along in the background (another google sheet). I had at least had a good primer on this with all the scheduling management I have done for co>lab and Lab7 Healthcare—two fairly complex peer practice based intensives, the latter involving 150 medical students coming in and out of the doors of a virtual meeting space.

From there, the booth schedule morphed into an interpreter dashboard where I organized essential links, posted the most up-to-date speaking schedule for each day and shared interpreter contact information. Without the dashboard, an easily updatable, centralized repository, I would have been lost.

We also created a WhatsApp support chat that I knew would be essential for off-platform, quick communication. Some of our China-based colleagues don’t have access to WhatsApp and depend on WeChat. But I couldn’t access WeChat from Guatemala so we had to have some intermediaries!

Alongside this was the task of organizing the tech work. I called in some friends and colleagues and tried to do some organizing, but this part was tough—all busy, in-demand professionals. But it all worked out because this group was very happy to and capable of practicing on their own.

Those were the basic nuts and bolts.

[Sophie: the dashboard was a fantastic tool, which kept all the relevant information in one place, so the interpreters could see the booth schedule, important links (Hopin, speaker bios), and materials (slides, PDFs) very easily, and everyone else (techs, Laura, Bernard, and me) had contact information to hand.]

What did it take to pull this off?

Bernard: Regarding the GT technical side, we did two major upgrades on the interpreter end (Auto-Relay) and audience end (GreenTerp Extension) under time pressure. We had a server issue identified in the first formal rehearsal and quickly resolved that. So in the end, we had a stable server running that is able to support up to 10k audience and 10 booths.

I under-estimated the time commitment, to be honest, but I never regretted it. If you ask me to choose again, I would say yes for sure. I didn’t use any time trackers, but I did work late every day to make sure that GT Booth is as smooth and easy to an interpreter, as an iPhone to a consumer. Working at odd hours is unavoidable when we need to train and collaborate with colleagues from different time zones, but it was an unforgettable and worthwhile experience.

Laura: This work was pretty much my full time job beginning Dec 6th and running through the Summit. I was able to work in some other professional commitments as needed, and decently able to take two weeks off at Christmas while traveling to see family, which was wonderful and quite important, but the bulk of my time went to getting everything and everyone situated, as best I could.

[Sophie: I reached out to a few speakers in July 2021, and started planning in earnest in September. From mid-November onwards, the Summit takes up all my available ‘spare’ (ha!) time and more. It displaces some other professional activities such as coaching or working on e-courses, runs on into the evenings, and continues for around 4 weeks after the summit. What seems like 3 intensive days to outsiders is actually nearly 3 months of work for me.]

Biggest challenge?

Bernard: The server failure in the first rehearsal, but that was a good stress test, so we were fully prepared afterwards. There were other challenges behind the scenes, with our superb technicians team (Laura, Ernest, Tamber, Amy, Yang), we pulled it off.

Laura:

Time zones are a challenge, such a concrete challenge, so not much to be done. You overcome it with teamwork and compromise. For demos and rehearsals, I tried to offer varied slots that would have a good chance of being accessible in at least two time zones per slot. Mic checks had to happen an hour before start time which meant a very early wake-up for me here in Guatemala. This challenge was overcome by asking for some extra help from my awesome partner Byron to take over the family duties. Plus, others such as Ernest and Dr. Bernard were making the same effort, so it was nice not to be alone on that front. In the future, this could be better overcome by getting tech coverage in a more amenable time zone. Even then, it is what it is. I would want to be there come start time in any case.

Working with a developing platform and different levels of tech comfort. An inclusive environment was important to me on the tech front. Because I work with so many interpreters on this, I know tech can be a challenge, but I also know we are all capable of learning—and learning was one of the points of picking a newer platform. We overcame this by titrating out the intro to the platform: watch and absorb the videos, let’s demo now and just walk through it, okay, now on to the rehearsal. Normally any tech barriers can be overcome by just spending some extra one-on-one time with folks, but here the problem was that I truly didn’t have that time. However, by and large, the interpreters who signed up for this charge were steady on their feet and tech amenable. And I was grateful for that. In the future it might be useful to make it clearer to myself that this is not the environment best suited for learning or even practicing basic tech skills in themselves (a good tech course would be a much better set-up for success!), but see it more as a good chance for those who already have solid tech footing to expand their reach.

Turnover. We had dropouts for a variety of reasons; people we had been investing in since December. This was overcome by a bit of sweat equity, teamwork and some agile folks stepping in at the last minute. Some interpreters pitched in with extra shifts to reduce the number of last minute GT trainings we would have to do. Ernest went above and beyond to help me do some of the last minute fly-by-the seat intros to GT for new interpreters filling in. For next time I am thinking this might have been better mitigated by staffing three-person booths from the outset, instead of the two-person booth that I am more accustomed to.

What did you get out of the experience?

Bernard: Laura and Sophie, you two had faith in me and in Green Terp with our new product, and supported this ambitious plan to take shape step by step. I also learned a lot from you guys on organising such a large event, with so many interpreters, and the amazing technicians team that is comprised of interpreters too! These are the most valuable part of the experience involving in this event. I really believe in the mantra that the more you give, the more you will get.

Laura:

I was privileged to work with a whole bunch of really kind, highly competent colleagues. Many of which I did not know ahead of this experience.

I learned more tech skills, because this is inevitable when working with a new tool and a new set of people.

And, I will be honest, I am a, let’s say, small deal, and do not typically manage 8-language events, over multiple days, with this many interpreters. So being part of something of this scope will certainly make me more efficient and better prepared the next time around, for large and small events alike.

And quite importantly, I learned what it’s like to put your everything into something and still not quite know if it will turn out okay at all. To really not know. And to give that up to the world of things that are out of my hands.

I got to be a part of some pretty selfless giving on all fronts – a free summit (incredible!) organized by Sophie entirely on her own “time dime”, plus a volunteer platform, techs, interpreters and speakers. A lot of people coming together to share. Just because. That’s special.

[Sophie: I can relate relate to Laura’s point about putting your all into something and not knowing if it will work. Hosting a live event like this is seat-of-your-pants stuff: it’s really exciting, the energy is phenomenal; but it could go horribly wrong at any time…Definitely not my natural comfort zone! But as Chris Guichot de Fortis would say, if you want to walk on water, get out of the boat!]

Attendees’ impressions

I sent out a feedback form after the Summit to ask attendees about various things: their favourite presentations, suggested topics, etc.

One of the points I was most interested in was attendees’ views on the interpreting arrangements: was it worth doing? Did they actually use interpretation?

I won’t give you a detailed breakdown of the replies. Instead, I’ll summarise.

Around half of respondents found GT Booth convenient, with only minor issues (the most problematic part was when we had multilingual sessions with relay. The audio quality suffered in booths working on relay.)

Around half of respondents didn’t need or didn’t use interpretation.

However, the interesting thing, as far as I’m concerned, is that over 3/4 of respondents felt that offering interpretation at the summit was worthwhile (even if they didn’t use it!).

The reasons are neatly summed up in this response:

“Yes, it’s worth it to expand the range of speakers, to avoid a Western-centric view of the world, to offer practice opportunities and makes us be users of interpretation for once, which can be very enlightening.”

Will there be a next time?

Well….

When the live event is taking place, TerpSummit is very exciting! It’s fantastic for me to see interpreters learning from one another, coming together from all around the globe, being supportive, having an opportunity to make new contacts.

I can’t say enough how grateful I am to everyone who made the summit what it was: Bernard and Laura, the techs, Room Hosts, interpreters, speakers…and the audience!

As you will hopefully have realised from this blog post, it’s also a big task in terms of organisation.

This year, I again have to digest the outcome and decide if running the event is worthwhile for me, personally, professionally, and financially.

Some of the issues for me to consider are:

am I confident that I can gather the best speakers, who have a really useful contribution to make on relevant topics?
am I satisfied with the pricing model – does it cover my costs (a live event platform like Hopin costs in the thousands of euros, just sayin’); is it too much work offering the Interpreters’ Toolkit with all the bonuses? This is something I’ve explored through the feedback form, and the responses haven’t necessarily matched my expectations!
would I offer interpretation again (for some sessions? All sessions?)

There are many more, which I will spare you. Thank you for reading, and do comment below!

p.s. for anyone who’s disappointed that the title ‘BTS TerpSummit and GreenTerp’ on the video above didn’t actually mean that BTS were involved in any way 😉, here they are being smooth like butter:

E4T taster: time-saving materials to polish your English

27th September 202127th September 2021 by theinterpretingcoach

English: an essential part of many interpreters’ language combinations.

And English is all around us, so it should be easy to maintain….right?

Well…maybe you’re so used to hearing Globish at work that you struggle when Irish, British, American, Indian, or Kenyan speakers take the floor.

Or maybe the multitude of different accents and variants of English you hear is stressful when you’re interpreting.

Or perhaps you can access plenty of suitable practice material, but you’re short of time and you’d like a shortcut.

A few months ago, I launched a new series of modules focusing on English, along with my colleagues Catriona Howard and Kirsten Coope.

We’ve had some great feedback about the materials (called E4T: English for Interpreters), which are intended to give you a helping hand with improving your English C (or B!); but we’ve also had questions about how to make the most of the materials, and what the content of the modules actually consists of.

I thought it might be nice to give you an E4T taster, with a peek behind the scenes of several modules, along with some tips on how you can make the most of the content.

What’s in each module?

Each module typically contains:

3 tailor-made practice speeches, prepared by yours truly, Catriona, and Kirsten, on the topic of the month. Each video is captioned and comes with a full transcript. You’ll also find a short introduction and some terminology that you can choose to research before tackling the speech, or to ignore if you’d rather tackle it without preparation.
3 carefully selected ‘real life’ speeches representing a variety of accents and viewpoints. These could be panel debates, TED talks, interviews, lectures, etc. Again, we give a brief introduction, some terminology, and often some guidance on how to tackle the speech – or a suggested focus.
a reading exercise (often, this is a reading comprehension), based on a relevant article or paper.
a listening exercise; this could be based on one of the practice speeches, or a podcast or lecture. The exercise might be a listening comprehension or some other exercise to practise analysis, for instance.
a note-taking exercise to practise note-taking technique or symbols.
a ‘resources’ section with more suggestions for audio or video practice material and further background reading.
an Excel glossary template containing key terminology, vocabulary that comes up in the speeches, and any relevant idioms.

We’ve tried hard to reflect a variety of viewpoints and accents in each module, and to cover the key terminology that you need to know in order to interpret successfully.

Oh, a very important point: if you decide to purchase one of the modules, you will have indefinite, on demand access.

This is not the kind of material that you can only access for 6 months or a year; you can dip in an out of the modules whenever you like – your access is permanent (as long as my website continues to exist!).

Now, what can you do with all of this? The answer will partly depend on whether your English is a C or a B language.

If your English is a C

Here are some ideas:

fill in the glossary templates with your A language equivalents and learn the vocabulary.
Use the caption function to check your understanding of a tricky speech.
If you struggled with sections of a speech, read the transcript afterwards.
Use all the consecutive speeches for note-taking practice.
Improve your background knowledge by going through the additional resources.
Prepare for an exam by going through all the materials, in the order they are given (roughly in order of difficulty).
Prepare for a mock conference, volunteer gig or assignment by practising with the simultaneous speeches.

Here’s a taster of a reading exercise, from the circular economy module.

Sample reading exercise – circular economy

“Read through the speech transcript provided and find different ways of expressing the words/ phrases listed below in the text. If you would like to take it a step further, or are working on an English B, why not come up with a third (or fourth!) option. I have provided some suggestions in the answer table below. As it is quite a long list, I have split the exercise in two. The first section takes you up to: “Through an ambitious new biodiversity framework, under which commitments are made and actions taken by the whole of government, economy and society.”.

You may also like to spend some time producing a version of the speech in your mother tongue. Approach the task as if it were an interpretation (i.e. don’t produce a translation) but take the time to come up with idiomatic solutions in your mother tongue that really reflect the nuance of the original.

There is plenty of useful climate-related vocab in the text too, especially in the second half. Oh and finally, in case you spot it, the correct word is “disproportionately” not “disproportionally”!”

The speech transcript is here.

	EXPRESSION USED IN TEXT	YOUR SUGGESTIONS (in your mother tongue and/or in English)
Section 1
Moments which test us
Most people can’t help thinking of
shrunk
is just one manifestation of
deteriorating state
completely reconfigure
main cause of
our only choice is to
are being implemented
speeding towards
the crux of the matter is
predominantly
ambitious targers
crucial for
production
domestic
throw away
limited resources
modify our behaviour

Section 2
further developing
extract
strained
results effects
are ongoing
amounted to
is developing
a significant barrier
encourage
gradually eliminating
transferring
open up
be successful in the longer term
phase out their activities
incorporating

	EXPRESSION USED IN TEXT	YOUR SUGGESTIONS (in your mother tongue and/or in English)
Section 1
Moments which test us	trying times	difficult/tough periods
Most people can’t help thinking of	minds turn to	most people’s first thought is
shrunk	contracted	got smaller
is just one manifestation of	is but one symptom of	is only one sign of
deteriorating state	ailing health	worsening condition
completely reconfigure	radically alter	completely transform/drastically reshape/improve significantly
main cause of	core driver	No good here here but I couldn’t help stick in “engine of change” as an expression/ collocation.)
our only choice is to	we have no option but to	we must
are being implemented	are coming online (I particularly dislike this expression, though it’s very common!)	are coming into force
speeding towards	hurtling towards	heading at full speed/advancing or moving rapidly
the crux of the matter is	the bottom line is	ultimately/the upshot is
predominantly	primarily	mainly/fundamentally
ambitious targers	lofty ambitions	ambitious/bold (?) goals
crucial for	critical to	essential for/required by
production	output	yield (?)
domestic	intrastate	internal
throw away	discard	throw out/reject?
limited resources	finite capacity	limited means
modify our behaviour	change our ways	adapt our behaviour/operate or do things differently

Section 2
further developing	scaling up	increasing/stepping up/intensifying/expanding
extract	gouge	scoop out/violently remove
strained	stressed	put pressure on
resulting effects	attendant impacts	resultant/accompanying effects
are ongoing	are underway	there are currently efforts
amounted to	stood at	accounted for
is developing	is unfolding	is appearing
a significant barrier	major impediment	substantial obstacle
encourage	drive	push
gradually eliminating	phasing out	progressively removing
transferring	shifting	moving
open up	unlock	provide
be successful in the longer term	stick	be permanent/long-lasting
phase out their activities	wind down	reduce their activities/gradually shut up shop
incorporating	integrating	including

If your English is a B

Here are some ideas:

look out for the exercises that are specifically designed for English Bs in the module.
If your intonation and pronunciation need work, why not do a little bit of shadowing with one of the tailor-made speeches?
Use the reading exercises as an opportunity to pick up new idiomatic phrases in English.
Use the glossary as a shortcut to make sure you know the key terminology in a particular subject.
Use the tailor-made speeches as material for a reformulation exercise (EN>EN simultaneous). See how versatile your English B is by looking for alternatives and synonyms.
Take EN>EN notes and check that you have good symbols and abbreviations.

Here’s a taster of a simultaneous speech, from the module on taxation (available 1st October).

Sample tailor-made speech – tax module

If you’re a trainer

You are welcome to use E4T materials in the classroom as a teaching aid.

Please credit us, and don’t share your login details as this compromises the security of the site.

If you’d like a whole cohort of students or trainers to be able to access the materials in their own time, please contact us for pricing.

Here are some ideas for you:

If you have a topic of the week at your institution, your students could listen to some of the material in the Resources section to prepare.
Pick one of the exercises (reading or listening) for your students to do before class as preparation
Use one of the tailor-made consecutive speeches in class when you’re teaching consecutive.
Give your students one of the exercises or speeches to do as homework.
Use the speech transcript to help you when listening to students work in simultaneous.

Here’s a sample listening exercise, from our module on vaccination.

Sample listening exercise – vaccination module

The source material for this exercise is a podcast called ‘Science vs’. The episode I’ve chosen is called ‘Vaccines – are they safe?’, and I’ve chosen it for two reasons: the presenter has an Australian accent, and her presenting style is quite informal (click on the image to access the podcast).

Vocabulary and comprehension exercise

Listen to the podcast between -23.35 and -8.21. This section begins with ‘There’s another idea about how vaccines could be causing autism: Mercury. Mercury… is sometimes used as a preservative in vaccines… in a form called thimerosal.’
Listen out for unknown or interesting words or phrases.
Read the following list. For each word or phrase, consider a) if you could give a definition, b) how you would render this in your A language, c) whether you know any synonyms in English. Do they have the same register or connotations?

kooky
to comb through
a raft of studies
freaking out
a debate that won’t die
a whack-a-mole game
cut and dry
their assessments lined up

You can find a transcript of the podcast here.

An exercise for English Bs

The presenter’s style in this podcast is very conversational. In places, she uses informal register.

Try using the podcast as a reformulation exercise. Start in the same place, and go all the way to the end of the podcast. See if you can raise the register so it is more formal.

When you’ve finished, think about what phrases you changed.

You may have changed scary, a big deal, kooky, freaking out, whack-a-mole game, and ‘do they stack up?’. You may also have changed ‘a bunch of’ and ‘WAY more than’.

In British English, ‘kids’ is fairly informal as well, although it is much more common in American English. As a British English speaker, if I wanted to be more neutral or formal, I would have changed ‘kids’ into ‘children’.

Where to find E4T

Here are the modules we’ve published so far. Just click on the links to find out more or to purchase.

We publish a new module on the 1st of each month. Our next module, on taxation, is due for publication on 1st October.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief E4T taster. Let us know in the comments if you have any questions, or if you’d like to suggest a topic for a forthcoming module!

CPD webinar

11th July 2020 by theinterpretingcoach

For those of you who prefer to listen rather than read, I’ve recorded a 30 minute webinar about CPD.

I talk through a step-by-step approach to defining and prioritising your CPD needs. I also discuss various CPD opportunities, including volunteering, internships, dummy booth, webinars, and the like.

All of this is, of course, informed by my background as a conference interpreter operating on the EU market.

The principles I outline hold true for all interpreters, but my specific suggestions won’t always be relevant to everyone (e.g. public service interpreters).

CPD

11th July 202010th July 2020 by theinterpretingcoach

CPD = lifelong learning

So, you’ve just taken your final year interpreting exams, and you’re looking forward (hmm…) to entering the brave new world of post-coronavirus conference interpreting.

But your skills aren’t 100% up to scratch yet. Perhaps you need more practice in simultaneous. Or you’re thinking of adding another passive language. Or you’re totally stressed about your…stress management strategies. Or you need to learn more about Remote Simultaneous Interpreting platforms because…well, let’s not go down that rabbit hole.

Just imagine if one day interpreters all work from home…

The point is, all of this comes under the umbrella of CPD, or Continuing Professional Development.

Maybe you’re not a recent graduate. If you’re reading this, you’ve likely already discovered that lifelong learning means just that. It. Never. Ends. There is always more to learn. And that is definitely the case for interpreters.

But what? How? When? And even: what for?

In this blog post, I aim to help you get more clarity about your CPD needs and how to achieve them. If you’d rather listen than read, click for my dulcet tones (ahem) in your ear.

I’ve also produced a workbook for you. If you take the time to go through it and fill it in, you’ll have a solid plan that will see you through years of CPD.

CPD is the intentional maintenance and development of the knowledge and skills needed to perform in a professional capacity.

CPD is sometimes a legal requirement in order to practise a particular profession or obtain insurance. In Italy, for example, a certain number of CPD hours per year is a compulsory requirement for interpreters.

Even if evidence of CPD is not a legal requirement, it may be a compulsory condition of membership of your local professional association.

And beyond that, CPD is also about being the best interpreter you can be and setting yourself the highest possible standards.

CPD – key points

The definition I’ve given above contains a number of key ideas.

‘intentional’: CPD is self-directed, i.e. it’s up to you to identify your needs. Unlike a university course with a set list of modules, when it comes to continuing professional development, you need to diagnose your weaknesses and lacunae and come up with a plan (perhaps with some help).
‘maintenance and development’: maintenance is a minimum, so you can keep doing your job properly. It would be nice to think that once you’re qualified, you’re done. But we all know that note-taking skills get rusty, and if you don’t do simultaneous for a few days or weeks, you’re no longer match fit. So the bare minimum when it comes to CPD is having a plan to keep your interpreting skills and relevant knowledge up to standard. Development is what will allow you to progress in your career: take on new assignments or work in new markets (because of new expertise, a new passive language, a ‘retour’), or get promoted.
‘knowledge and skills’, ‘perform in a professional capacity’: interpreting isn’t just about technical skills (sight translation, note-taking, salami technique…). To be a professional in this field, you need all sorts of other skills and expertise (for example, networking and marketing to help you find clients and stand out in a crowded market).

A final point: the great thing about CPD isn’t that it isn’t rigidly defined. There are all sorts of things you could do to enhance your development, some formal, others informal. Alongside courses, workshops, webinars, and communities of practice, you could also find a mentor, shadow a more experienced colleague at work, read blogs or research papers, watch videos online, play language games, join a debating society, and more.

Defining your goal

You can only define your CPD needs if you know what your goal is, so your goal should be your starting point.

Are you hoping to work as a freelance interpreter for the UN? For NATO? Are you biactive and hoping to break into a local private market? Your needs will be quite different. For UN work, you’ll need specific passive languages, a strong grasp of geopolitical realities, and the ability to deal with very fast simultaneous and simultaneous with text. For NATO, your B language will have to be nearly on a par with your A language. To work on certain local markets, you’ll need to be good at marketing yourself and networking.

Here’s what you need:

A vision of where you want to be and why (what country – one where your A language is rare, hence an asset; or a country that will help you develop your B language, or improve a C language? What type of interpreting: conference, or public service interpreting? Private market, or international organisations? Translation and/or other work as well, e.g. teaching, subtitling?). Remember that the answers to these questions will change, which is why you need to review your goals every so often.
A good understanding of the skills you need. Does your ideal interpreting job require consecutive or not? Do you need specific IT skills? Must you be able to use a certain type of software?
A clear idea of the standard and how far you are from achieving that standard. Do you know what standard is required in order to pass an EU accreditation test, if that is your ambition? If not, you need to find out.
A list of priorities. You can’t address all your weaknesses at once.

Take a few minutes to think about questions 1-3, and jot the answers down on a piece of paper – or use my workbook . Read on to find out more about defining, refining and prioritising your CPD needs.

Defining your CPD needs

The exercise I’ve just asked you to do was intended to help you identify what you’re aiming for, and what is required to fulfil that ambition.

Now you need to work out how much of a mismatch there is between those requirements and your existing skills and knowledge.

I like to think of all the elements that make up a top-notch interpreter in a very visual form, using a mind map (some of you may call it a spider diagram).

Here’s an example from the National Network for Interpreting website.

I talk through the skills map in more detail in this video:

Time to get down to the nitty gritty!

Sharpen your pencil, get yourself a cup of tea (or a latte, or whatever floats your boat), and get your thinking cap on, because it’s time for a skills audit.

Skills audit

Have you heard of SWOT analysis? It’s an approach often used in business, to determine the a company’s strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities, and then to decide on a plan in the light of these insights.

A SWOT analysis, also known as a skills audit, is a very useful tool in your arsenal. It’s something I encourage interpreting students to do at the beginning of their interpreting course, and again a few weeks before their exams, so they can decide where to focus their efforts.

It’s also a very useful way of establishing your CPD needs.

Divide your page into four, and write down the four headings: strengths, weaknesses, threats, opportunities. Like this (or follow along in the workbook):

I’ve put some examples in the ‘strengths’ column, just to give you an idea. Obviously this is a very personal exercise.

Think about the interpreting skills mind map (which you can of course break down into even more detailed skills; for example, for public speaking, you could consider pronunciation, intonation, ‘ums’, fillers, eye contact, etc.), and try to classify these skills as strengths or weaknesses of yours, in the light of your ‘vision’ – i.e. where you want to work, for whom, and what standard is required.

Perhaps public speaking is one of your strengths, but stress management is not.

Perhaps you are a people person, and very good at networking, but you’re a bit chaotic and you need to work on business skills and being more organised.

Write it down!

Then think about those factors that are external to you: the threats to your development, and the opportunities. Again, these are very personal.

Your threats might include lack of money, or family obligations that mean you can’t travel, or lack of equipment (headphones, or a laptop), or Brexit.

Your opportunities might include willingness to travel, or a partner who speaks one of your passive language, or good contacts in the industry.

Make a note of everything.

Spend a few minutes thinking about how you can use your opportunities and how you can minimise your threats.

Now we’re going to focus on your weaknesses, because these are your CPD needs, i.e. these are the areas of skill or knowledge that are ripe for development.

Refining your needs

It’s one thing to know what you need to improve (i.e. your weaknesses), and it’s another to know how to improve them.

What course would best suit you? Should it be intensive or spread out? Would you be better off working alone or with a coach?

Sometimes the answer isn’t as straightforward as you think.

I’ll give you an example. My daughter is really good at maths, and she loves it. But when she sees a question type she’s never tackled before, she gives up immediately, wailing that she doesn’t know how to do it, and often bursting into tears. This is not a skills problem, it is a mindset problem. There is little point getting her extra maths tuition when she knows the answers already. What she needs is an approach that will boost her confidence and help her develop problem-solving abilities and a growth mindset.

So now that you’ve identified your weaknesses, you need to examine them in a way that will help you determine how to tackle them.

To do this, one approach I find useful is Dilt’s logical levels (from neuro-linguistic programming, if you’re interested).

If you want to make changes in your life (in this case, improving your skills or knowledge), you need to understand at what level you’re operating. Often, the way you talk about these challenges will give you hints.

For example, if you say ‘I don’t do enough interpreting practice, because my office is so cluttered and I keep getting interrupted’, this is an environment problem, and the environment is what you need to fix!

If you say things like ‘I don’t really have time to work on my retour’, or ‘I’m always meaning to listen to podcasts, but I have so many other things to do first’, this could be a sign that you are procrastinating, and you need to find strategies to address that behaviour.

Phrases like ‘I don’t know how to do this’, ‘I’ve never done simultaneous’, ‘I’ve just been asked to teach online and I’ve never done it before’, ‘I haven’t done consecutive for five years’, sound like a skills gap, which can be addressed at the level of competence – you can find a course, workshop, coaching opportunity, etc.

On the other hand, if you say something like ‘I find sight translation really difficult’, or ‘I hate dealing with numbers’, ‘or ‘I’m really bad at consecutive’, this could either be a skills gap or a mindset/confidence issue.

And if you’re saying things like ‘I can’t be bothered to do this’, or ‘I don’t see the point of this for me’, or ‘interpreters shouldn’t be asked to do this’, this is a reflection of your beliefs or values, and you will have to examine those before deciding whether you need further training.

Phew! Bet you didn’t realise that CPD would involve so much soul-searching, right?

You’re nearly there, though. And remember, you can use my workbook to guide you through this process.

OK, your final step is to prioritise your needs.

Prioritising your needs

This should be relatively quick, now that you have laid all the groundwork.

• Think about your lacunae in the light of Dilt’s logical levels, to help you understand how to tackle them.

• For each weakness, ask yourself: how important is this to me? How essential is it to develop this competence now? Remember, you can’t do everything at once. Some skills may need immediate attention because, say, you’re applying for a job right now.

• Distil your CPD needs to 4 or 5 key skills or areas of knowledge.

Planning your CPD

Reflect on how to get from A to B. You’ll need to a) do some research, to find out what’s available in terms of workshops, courses, practice groups etc. that might meet your needs, and b) consider how much time you have available.

Make a list for each of your 4 or 5 key areas.

There’s an increasing array of CPD options available for interpreters. I won’t list them all here, because they won’t all be relevant to you, but you can have a look at this free list if you happen to be a recent graduate with mainstream European languages, and your ambitions involve working on the conference or institutional market in Europe. I’ve listed various volunteering, internship, and networking opportunities, as well as online resources for conference interpreters, such as course and webinar providers.

Reflective practice

…but it’s not all over!

The value of reflective practice in an educational setting and in the workplace is increasingly recognised.

It’s also important to keep a record of your CPD efforts in case you ever need to provide an employer or professional association with evidence of your learning.

For this reason, I highly recommend keeping a combined learning journal and portfolio of your CPD work.

You can find an example – guess where? – in my workbook , but the idea is fairly simple: note down the date of any CPD activity you engage in, the provider, the type of activity (remember, this doesn’t have to be a formal course. It could be reading in your own time, or contributing an article to a publication, or doing outreach work). Write down what you found useful about this activity, how you will apply it in practice, or what you would do differently next time.

DATE	ACTIVITY	PROVIDER	WHAT WAS USEFUL?	IMPLEMENTATION	NOTES
01.01.2020	webinar	AIIC
15-21.06.2020	WISE workshop	peer group

To flesh this out into a portfolio, keep a note of your needs and goals on the first page, and review these regularly (say, every 6 months or annually). Also keep copies of any certificates you obtain after attending CPD courses.

Two key areas for development

I’ll wrap up with a couple of areas I think are increasingly important, given the situation on the interpreting market, and also the way the world has developed in the past twenty years or so. I’m venturing beyond the narrow limits of interpreting skills here, into other skills and areas of knowledge.

Business skills

Newcomers to the interpreting market need to be much more professional in how they present and market themselves these days, I think. More and more, language professionals are running a language business, and they need the right skills to allow them to do so.

I won’t go into detail here. Just think about where you are with regard to the following:

Administrative procedures for freelancers in your country, including health insurance, VAT, pension arrangements
Business skills such as accountancy, invoicing, client management
Making sure you have the right equipment, including a laptop or tablet, headphones, jacks, webcam, etc.
A solid and visible business presence, including a good, up-to-date CV, business cards, a permanent (professional looking!) email address, and possibly a website
?Preparing for remote interpreting. Are you intending to go down this road? What extra skills do you need?
Marketing: in a crowded market where interpreters are often treated as commodities (and don’t get me started on working conditions during the COVID pandemic…), you need to understand your value as a skilled professional. You could consider a seminar such as Julia Poger’s Know your Worth.

Health and wellbeing

Interpreters have very specific needs when it comes to health and wellbeing. The very sedentary nature of our work, the increasing use of computers and screens, and the stressful aspects of interpreting, should lead you to try to establish good habits from the start.

Here are a few key areas to think about:

having an ergonomic office set-up (height of chair, distance from screen, etc.)
eye strain
hearing. Amid increasingly frequent reports of acoustic shock, it’s important to have regular hearing tests.
voice. Your greatest tool as an interpreter. Look after it!
general health (nutrition, exercise). Conference interpreters are prone to back problems: we spend too much time seated, and our position isn’t always ergonomic.
stress management. I could say all sorts of things about this (and I often do, in seminars and webinars), but I’ve already written thousands of words in this blog post, so I’ll keep it short. Different approaches to stress work for different people, so try to find what works for you. If you’re looking for a short course with a holistic approach, that covers the basics of relaxation, meditation, and nutrition, try Gabriela Bocanete’s course, which involves delightful Yoga Nidra sound baths.

Enjoy it!

OK, that’s enough! That’s it!

CPD can be fun: it’s satisfying, because you’re learning something and opening up new career opportunities, but it’s also a great way to meet new people, make friends, and feel connected to your ‘tribe’.

Good luck!

Learning through reflection: the critical role of reflection in work-based learning (WBL)

Ruth Helyer, Journal of Work-Applied Management, ISSN: 2205-2062. Publication date: 6 October 2015

Sophie Llewellyn Smith, writing as The Interpreting Coach, is a coach, interpreter trainer, conference interpreter, designer of online teaching materials, and creator of Speechpool. Follow the blog to pick up tips on how to improve your interpreting skills, and check out the website for digital material to complement your face-to-face learning and empower you to take control of your learning. If you’re interested in personal coaching, why not book a free discovery call?