Re: Vote : Do we need simultaneous interpretation

[Pockey Lam <pockey beijinglug org>]

Dear Brian, Emily, 

Interpretation is a real job :) Not everybody who can speak both
languages or have Gnome background can do the job... as interpreters are
trained to listen and speak at the same time, that's why they usually
have very short memory, even if they missed one sentence, it shouldn't
affect the next sentence and so on. For non-professionals, it's very
very tough to do this. 

Actually, BLUG co-organized Linux Developer Symposium in Feb and mainly
provides support for interpretation and translations.  It was really a
very technical conference, mainly talked about Linux kernel...

For interpretation, we found them by interviewing some interpreters who
already had jobs related to technology conferences, then we provided
training to interpreters before the event, e.g. sending them
vocabularies with Chinese / English related to the event, sending them
all the slides earlier if possible, asking them to come 1 or 2 days in
advance to talk to all the speakers and go through all the slides once
with the speaker explaining them what they are going to present. 

For translation, we have mainly 3 members doing the job e.g. for small
rooms workshop, press interviews with speakers, press conference, etc. I
found out it's quite tough for our members (who speak both languages
fluently and have technical background) to do even translations, i.e.
(translate after the speakers finish his sentences). Even-though some do
a good job, some audiences and speakers were bored as it takes time to
translate after each sentences. Besides, one of our members forgot what
the speakers said a few times during the speech, it was rather
embarrassing... 

Hence, if our main audiences are Chinese and budget is tight, maybe we
should give up the idea of interpretation? 

If we do have needs and budget allows, :) maybe we should go for
interpreters. I can help to arrange the interviews for Emily and other
GNOME experts, then you can pick the ones and give them training in
advance. 

Cheers,
Pockey



On Mon, 2008-09-22 at 14:08 -0500, Brian Cameron wrote:
> Emily:
> 
> > I would like to get feedback from every committee member about "*simultaneous 
> > interpretation*". From your opinion, do you think simultaneous interpretation is 
> > necessary?
> > Currently, the venue in BUAA support simultaneous interpretation which means 
> > they can provide the devices for simultaneous interpretation.
> > 
> > The cost for simultaneous interpretation is
> > Devices: 6000 * 2 days = 12000RMB
> > Fee for interpretors : One person one day :  10000RMB
> 
> I wouldn't think that interpretors provided by a service would be able
> to easily translate technical terminology.  It wouldn't work so well if
> the translators don't already have an understanding of GNOME and the
> GNOME community since these will be the topics.
> 
> Couldn't people from the GNOME community who already work at Sun
> volunteer to do translation?  This would avoid having to pay fees, and
> the people would likely be better able to translate what people are
> saying.
> 
> Brian
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