I hope the shadowing exercise is going well with you. By now you already know what it is and how to add a twist to it. It’s time to up the ante again. Previously, you have been instructed to match the speaker word for word with a time lag. Now, instead of repeating, paraphrase! Use your own words, simplify,…
Author: yubo.du
Stage Manner Q&A
When it comes to interpretation on stage, some interesting questions come up that we normally don’t think of: Q: Where do I put my hands?A: For the hand that is not holding the mic, you are encouraged to gesture with it. Otherwise, leave it hanging by the side; it’s not that weird. Q: Whom do I…
1 and 2 Thessalonians
帖撒羅尼迦前/後書{tie3-sa4-luo2-ni2-jia1-qian2/hou4-shu1}New Testament – Epistles Pronounce as [the-suh-LOH-nyuhns],as in “theft-Lisa–LOW-onions“ Thessalonians were people from Thessalonica (current day Thessaloniki). In Acts 17, we see that Apostle Paul and Silas managed to stay in Thessalonica for only about three weeks before being chased out by some jealous locals. In three weeks, they planted a church that later grew so strong…
Yeah, We Don’t Interpret That
It’s nothing personal, but there are certain things we just don’t interpret. It’s not that we can’t. Rather, interpreting them interrupts the audience’s understanding at the cost of interpreters’ mental resources. It’s just not worth it. As a familiar example, many people use filler words in their speech. We faithfully interpret some of them including “basically”, “sort…
*iah
In the Old Testament, you can find many books that are named after prophets. Among these prophets, many of their names end with –iah. This is actually quite a common theme in Hebrew names, because -iah originates from a Hebrew word for God’s name, יָהּ (Yah). Their names happen to mean something about God. For example, Jeremiah…
The Un-mic-able
Just the other day, I watched an episode of Seinfeld where Jerry said, “According to most studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing…
How to Hit a Curveball
When we think we know all there is to know about interpretation, nothing humbles us more than an unintentional curveball thrown by the speaker. Then and there, it could feel like a “deer in the stage light” situation. But the reality is, we are not on trial, this is not a recital, and there are far fewer people…
Mixing Things Up
Let’s say, you hear two languages mixed in one sentence, like “我們今天來探討一下關於Interpretation的話題”. What do you do? I used to be impressed with other interpreters who instantly flipped English to Mandarin and vice versa. But it later hit me, what did the audience end up hearing? English speakers would most likely scratch their heads at “Today…
Gospels 福音書
Matthew 馬太福音 {ma3-tai4-fu2-yin1}Mark 馬可福音 {ma3-ke3-fu2-yin1}Luke 路加福音 {lu4-jia1-fu2-yin1}John 約翰福音 {yue1-han4-fu2-yin1} The Four Gospels constitute the 1st section of the New Testament, documenting Jesus’ life on earth at the dawn of this epoch. Two of the authors, Mark and Luke, were not actually the disciples of Jesus, but of Peter and Paul, respectively. It’s also worth noting that the…
BC | AD
We know the birth of Christ divides the Western calendar into two eras, BC and AD, 公元前/後. I had always assumed that such a defining moment would fall precisely in 1 BC or 1 AD. Interestingly, no. The time of Jesus’ birth, according to current archaeological study, fell somewhere between 4-6 BC. By the time…