virginiawang
Registered User

Wow, that's pretty good English indeed. I'm at work at present but I'll offer some slight adjustments later when I get back if you want. Excellent stuff.

The message appeared in the wrong place.

Hi, oh I'm not sure about translations during such meetings. Do let me know if you manage to find out about it or get to do it.

Well, that's good you've started the search, and got a call back--it sounds like you learned some things about phone interviews, at least. Better luck next time!

Hi Viginia, I'm sorry but I don't know any companies doing those sorts of conferences, or any translation/interpretation companies. The best I could recommned would be to do some web searches for companies that provide interpretation, and then contact them (preferably companies that are near you, although a lot of work is done by phone or web these days). Someone at one of those companies could tell you what qualifications are usually necessary, and how you could get training, where to get a job interview, etc.

Yes. Oral interpretation jobs are plentiful in the Cayman Islands. Bring a Proust book along with a feather pen.

Yeah, you might be able to find different paths and options to get where you want to go. One reason to get training is so you can show people a diploma or certificate or something. However, I knew a person who did a lot of translation and interpretation (professionally), and if you haven't done it before (or have only done short and informal sessions), you might be surprised at some of the challenges--and that's another reason to try and get some training, I think.

Those are the two points I think I know enough to make on this subject, although I can't know your exact situation well.

Actually, I just noticed that you were talking about English interpretation... When you mentioned "a fancy scale" and "performance", I thought it might've been some other kind of "interpretation". Not of language, but of some art, or of the meaning of some topic or something. Basically, my advice was mostly about doing an oral "presentation".

I think it really would be a good idea to see if you can get some sort of practice/certification if you want to do interpretation. I'm sure you would do a great and useful job in a casual or unexpected situation. But if you are going to try to do professional work, you'd probably be more confident if you had a little practice/training to prepare you for it. In a professional situation, an employer can sometimes be so demanding that only someone with a lot of experience could do it well. I'd say, try to get some certification, and maybe get some experience in settings that aren't too serious/demanding, to start with.

Hi Virginia, I'm not sure about your speaking/oral abilities, of course (you know that), but I do know that you can write very well and accurately in English. I would recommend that any new experience you try with doing a presentation (in any language, but especially in a second language) should probably be brief and not too complicated. A lot of the things that I have read that you have written on the forum are maybe sort of philosophical or are concerned with personal experience. Doing a presentation, I think you should just make sure that you don't "bite off more than you can chew", don't test the audience's patience, and make sure that your topic will be something that both you and your audience will like (e.g. something humorous, or something that you know they are interested in).

Best of luck. It is all hard work in the humanities, and often the pay is not as good as the sciences, but it is also a passion. A literature degree will certainly help in terms of translation though, I would have thought.

All the best.