Simultaneous Interpretation:
Practice Techniques

First of all, simultaneous interpretation is hard. I am not an interpreter but I have tried my hand at it a couple of times and my conclusion is that it takes a special person to interpret simultaneously at a high level.

Because of this, there is a demand for good simultaneous interpreters, both for commonly spoken languages as well as less common ones. So if you are interested in becoming a simultaneous interpreter, or interested on improving your skills, there are some specific things you can do.

If you're just beginning to explore interpretation as a career choice, the first thing you need to know is that with simultaneous interpretation, you're multitasking like crazy. You listen to what the speaker says, wait a second or two, interpret what they said while at the same time listen to what the speaker says next and remember that so you can interpret that segment correctly when you're done with the current one your working on!

That's why a simultaneous interpreter needs at least a 5 minute break for every hour of interpretation.

So in order to improve your skills, you need to be able to multitask on a high level. The very first step then is to do something called shadowing. Shadowing is repeating what the speaker says word for word in the same language. This will get you used to maintaining the correct delay and will help you listen to what the speaker says while repeating what he/she has just said.

The next step is to add another element while your shadowing. This can be something simple like bouncing a ball to yourself or drawing a simple picture while your shadowing. What this does is get your brain used to doing multiple things at once. The goal is to get to where you're doing things on a subconscious level because if you have to think while you interpret, you'll be dead in the water.

Finally, when you can do multiple things while shadowing (in both languages), it's time to add in the actual interpretation. It is a jump to go from shadowing to full-fledged interpretation, but the shadowing part is necessary to help you get a feel for the super-linguistic phenomenon you'll encounter in the actual interpretation, such as the speed of different speakers, how much you can delay, and endurance.

The great thing about practicing simultaneous interpretation is that you can do it anywhere. While you're driving, tune your radio to talk radio and shadow what the host and callers say. While exercising with your iPod, listen to some podcasts and practice shadowing or interpreting what is being said. Shadowing while exercising is definitely multitasking!

Just remember that even though interpretation is difficult, it is a skill that can be learned after a lot of practice, so if you're willing to stick to it, you will reach your goals.

Good luck!