By Ravi Kumar 

"If I do not do this, I may not perform well"

Often newbies have doubts and questions related to performance during interpreting. Some face little problems during consecutive interpretation, but most of them face hurdles when they are hired for simultaneous Interpretation, and especially when they have to deal with uncertainties such as no briefing from the organizers, no knowledge of context, no content provided by the speakers, technical glitches and so on. These problems are confronted not only by the newbies but by all the interpreters.  

It used to be fun when we used to attend interpreting classes at the down campus in JNU, New Delhi. The reason was simple. We had some excellent professors who used to teach us well. We were only 7 in numbers, thus we were lucky to get focused training in our Master's program. Besides our lab drills, we used to sit for long hours and discuss a variety of issues over a cup of special chai (tea). Interpreting drills were beneficial in developing our professional skills and confidence.

On my first assignment, I realized that the interpreting drills inside the language labs were just the tip of the iceberg, and one needs to learn many more things to deliver a good result. An interpreter needs to develop the agility to tackle the challenges that come to them unannounced.

So the trick says if you do not want to end up in a big mess, prepare well. Ask for the agenda and the speaker's content from the organizers? They may ignore your request or pretend to be very busy. It's your duty to get them and make yourself comfortable. Mind it, your reputation is at stake. Therefore, you must take all possible steps to ensure that you are fully ready for the assignment. I follow this golden rule. Try this, it might help you as well.