Guest post and podcast narration by Lukas Van Vyve.
Have you ever wished you had the ability to memorize information in real time?
Believe it or not, you can. Interpreters do it all the time. They listen, understand, memorize, translate and speak – all at the same time.
Impressive, right?
Conference interpreting is certainly not for the faint-hearted.
In fact, research shows that conference interpreting is one of the most stressful jobs in the world. One study put the stress levels experienced during interpreting on about the same level as those of an air traffic controller! Go figure.
How To Succeed In Conference Interpreting Without All The Stress
However, people who wind up with great conference interpreting jobs were not born with these skills: they developed their abilities by learning and practicing specific techniques. If you'd like to do the same, pay attention because I'm about to show you exactly how it works.
1. How One Simple Test Will Strengthen Your Memory And Boost Your Fluency
Here's the single most important thing you can learn from conference interpreters:
They focus a lot on flexibility.
You see, no matter how good your memory is or how many words you know, sometimes you're going to forget something or wind up stuck looking for words. It even happens in your mother tongue!
Interpreters know that if you want to boost your fluency, you need the flexibility to retrieve at least something to say from your memory in every situation.
The good news: this ability to remember is something that can be trained! Even better, if you're already a conference interpreter, you can continue learning and potential boost your conference interpreting salary!
How To Hear The Future As A Conference Interpreter Before It Happens
One way interpreters go about this is by making it a habit to guess what a speaker is going to say next. That buys them time to think of a good translation. Now you know why your interpreter friends are always finishing your sentences!
As annoying as that habit might be, exercises in which you anticipate words might be the key to increasing your flexibility.
The most important exercise used by interpreters to train this skill is the cloze test. This exercise is fantastic, and I use it all the time.
How To Close In On The Cloze Test For Maximum Memory Results
So how does the cloze test work? You get a sentence with certain words blanked out. It's your job to fill in the blanks with an appropriate word (or word group). That word can be anything, as long as the sentence makes sense and is grammatically correct. An example:
David wants to ____ a table for 5 tonight.
Answers:
David wants to book a table for 5 tonight.
David wants to reserve a table for 5 tonight.
David wants to make a reservation for a table for 5 tonight.
David wants to make a call to the restaurant for a table for 5 tonight.
David wants to ask if you've booked a table for 5 tonight.
… and so on …
You get the point.
Try to come up with as many appropriate answers as possible. The more you can find, the more flexible you are in speaking a language!
The Truth About What Really Improves Your Fluency
Here's another reason I really like this exercise:
It builds flexibility by teaching you how to take advantage of context. In this regard, it relies a lot on your association powers. The better certain language patterns and structures are ingrained in your brain, the easier words to fill in will come to mind. That translates to improved fluency.
However, there's more. What really makes the cloze test sta
Published on 8 years, 9 months ago
If you like Podbriefly.com, please consider donating to support the ongoing development.
Donate