Printed in the USA.

Contents

Introduction
Background
Intended Audience
Difficulty Level
Disclaimer
How to Use These Materials
Tips for Taking the Oral Exam
The Federal Exam
Panel of Raters
Part 1. Introduction and Interview
Part 2. Instructions
Part 3. Sight Translation
Part 4. Simultaneous
Part 5. Cross-Examination
Scoring the Exam

About the Tapes

Simultaneous Lessons
Simultaneous Lesson 1
Simultaneous Lesson 2
Simultaneous Lesson 3
Simultaneous Lesson 4
Notes on the Simultaneous Lessons

Consecutive Lessons
Consecutive Lesson 1
Consecutive Lesson 2
Consecutive Lesson 3
Consecutive Lesson 4
Notes on the Consecutive Lessons

Sight Translation Lessons
Sight Lesson 1
Sight Lesson 2
Sight Lesson 3
Sight Lesson 4
Sight Lesson 5
Sight Lesson 6
Notes on the Sight Translation Lessons

Introduction

Background

The Interpreter's Edge Turbo Supplement has been created in response to numerous requests--both from our current customers and from others interested in court-interpreter training--for more advanced training materials. Accordingly, we have compiled a series of texts that are longer and more technical and complex than those contained in The Interpreter's Edge, Second Edition. We have used the Federal Court Interpreter Certification Exam as a benchmark for setting the difficulty level of these texts, because the federal exam is considered the most rigorous of current court-interpreter examinations.

Intended Audience

The Turbo Supplement is intended for interpreters or aspiring interpreters who have already attained a high level of proficiency, either through study or through work experience, and who want to polish their skills further. The Turbo Supplement assumes that the user is ready to interpret material that contains or consists of

• especially long and detailed utterances (consecutive interpretation)
• fast and technical speech (simultaneous interpretation)
• complex legal documents or statements containing very colloquial usage (sight translation)

Difficulty Level

The texts in this book are extremely difficult. We have, in fact, made them more difficult than those you will encounter in any interpreter certification exam, on the theory that it is far better to be overprepared than to be underprepared. Such overpreparation should help you compensate for the natural nervous tension you are likely to experience in an actual test situation.

Don't be discouraged if you aren't able to interpret or translate these texts perfectly on your first try--after all, if you could do that, you wouldn't need these materials in the first place.

If, on the other hand, you have trouble doing these exercises even after repeated attempts, you should go back to The Interpreter's Edge and do some review work before tackling the Turbo Supplement.

Disclaimer

The names used in the lessons in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance between the fictitious people named in this book and actual people, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

How to Use These Materials

Shadowing and paraphrasing are two important terms that you must understand to follow the directions in the Simultaneous lessons. They are explained below:

Shadow: Repeat what the speaker says, word for word, in the same language. Try to lag a full thought behind the speaker. This exercise allows you to become accustomed to speaking and listening at the same time. Shadowing improves your pronunciation, enunciation, and speed. Moreover, repeating phrases constantly helps you retrieve them quickly when you are interpreting.

Paraphrase: Begin shadowing the speaker. As you go along, change the wording of the message wherever you can, without altering the meaning. This is a very difficult exercise (harder than interpreting, in fact) that serves several purposes: 1) it forces you to build up your decalage as you wait to hear something meaningful before rewording it; 2) it builds your vocabulary; 3) it increases your mental agility and problem-solving ability as you constantly think of different ways of saying the same thing; and 4) it enhances your analytical skills as you become more adept at ferreting out the underlying meaning of the message. It would be a good idea to look up alternative words and phrases in a synonym dictionary. Paraphrasing is a good maintenance exercise that you should return to periodically. It is important to note that paraphrasing is a valuable learning tool and mental exercise; never paraphrase when you are actually interpreting in court.

At the end of each chapter in this book is a section of notes on the lessons in that chapter. You should consult the notes for a given lesson only after you have done the complete lesson without referring to the notes.

When you go through the lessons in this book, it is perfectly acceptable--indeed, advisable--to repeat sections that you find particularly difficult. The value of repetition is that you refine your technique, improving your performance slightly each time, and you cement the terms and phrases more firmly in your memory so that you can retrieve them more easily when you need them in the future. It is also a good idea, however, to interpret brand-new texts periodically to improve your ability to react spontaneously. In addition to the materials in this book, you may want to build up a collection of newspaper or magazine articles, court transcripts, legal documents, and tape recordings of radio or television programming (extemporaneous speech is always preferable to someone reading from a prepared text) in both Spanish and English. It is also a good idea to practice with a partner or in a group, so that you can provide feedback to each other and supplement each other's practice materials.

When you do the consecutive interpretation lessons, you will need to keep your finger poised over your tape player's pause button. The taped material does not leave time for you to interpret each question and answer. Instead, there is a very short gap between questions and answers. This is intended to give you time to pause the tape player. You can then give your interpretation of the question or answer, and restart the tape.

In the consecutive lessons, many of the longer utterances are followed by a number in parentheses. That number is the number of words in the utterance.

Although this is not an absolute requirement, ideally, you should use two tape players (or one player with two decks). That allows you to play our prerecorded material on one deck and to record your interpretations on the other. When you play back your own rendition, read along in the script as you listen, checking for accuracy. If you don't have two tape players, you can switch cassettes in the same machine, although even the short delay involved in switching cassettes may impede recall. Alternatively, you can give your rendition without recording it, and simply read the script immediately afterwards to check for omissions. Do not read the script while listening to the tape for the first time.

Tips for Taking Oral Exams

Because most of the users of this book are preparing for an oral interpreter certification exam, we would like to offer a few suggestions for taking such exams. First of all, it is important to set aside a period of time (an hour or two) every day to practice your interpreting skills. It is impossible to cram for this type of exam, given that these skills need to be assimilated gradually and honed over time. It is also a good idea to read as much as you can in both English and Spanish in a wide variety of fields. The texts chosen for this book are representative of the types of materials used in interpreter exams, but it is impossible to predict exactly what subjects will come up in the exam you take. Therefore, you must be prepared for anything and everything.

On the day you take your exam, don't do any studying or practicing; the time for that is past. If you try to do some last-minute cramming and you come across a word you don't know or you stumble on a phrase, it will undermine your confidence, and self-assurance is one of your most potent weapons in an oral exam. At this point, the best thing for you to do is clear your mind and get ready to give a masterful performance.

Arrive early at the test site, park your car in a long-term parking lot, and bring a portable tape player with earphones into the waiting area. This way, you can shadow tapes to get your mind working on the right channels and warm up your tongue, or you can listen to inspiring music. Whatever you do, don't listen to other candidates waiting to take their exams; fear is contagious.

When you go into the exam itself, you may want to bear in mind these additional tips for taking an oral exam:

1. Don't worry when the examiners begin writing. They have to make notes to evaluate you, and they are not writing down all your mistakes; they are merely keeping score. Raters often write comments like "good solution," "knows legal terms," and so on.
2. Don't look to the examiners for approval. A properly trained rater will keep a straight face throughout the exam, revealing neither approval nor disapproval. They will not smile and nod to tell you you're doing a good job, nor will they frown, sneer, guffaw, or roll their eyes when you make a mistake.
3. You do not have to be perfect to pass an interpreter certification exam--you just have to be excellent. If you make a mistake, don't let it get to you, just keep going. Maintaining your momentum and composure is of the utmost importance.
4. If you realize you have made a serious mistake, fix it at the earliest opportunity (although on the simultaneous portion of the exam, you won't have time for revisions). If you have made a minor stylistic error, resist the temptation to edit; constant backtracking makes you look indecisive.
5. Make intelligent guesses, not wild ones. If you are reasonably certain you can interpret a term correctly, give it your best shot. If you have no idea, leave the term in the source language.
6. Presentation is extremely important. If you proceed through the exam at a steady pace, exuding confidence every step of the way, the examiners (who are busy keeping track of many different things) may overlook small errors or give you the benefit of the doubt.
7. Don't do the examiners' job for them. It is up to them to decide whether or not you have made a mistake; don't signal that fact by making comments such as, "Oh, I've forgotten that term," or "I've blocked on a word," or "I can't think of the exact word for this but it's something like ...." Be aware of your body language: A shrug of the shoulders or a grimace can be just as damaging as a self-depreciating comment.
8. Don't let your nerves get the best of you. You will be nervous--don't be shocked when it happens--but you can channel that nervous energy in positive directions rather than allowing it to interfere with your performance.
9. Remember that the examiners' job is to judge how well you interpret, not to fail you. Contrary to what you've probably heard from other candidates, the examiners want you to pass. They feel better at the end of the day when they are able to report that they passed several candidates instead of saying that they had to fail everyone.
10. Use your common sense, just as you do when you interpret in real life. It may help to imagine the defendant or the judge sitting next to you, depending on your words to understand what's going on. The bottom line is your ability to interpret meaning accurately from the source language to the target language.

The Federal Exam

One of the worst problems candidates for an oral exam face is fear of the unknown. If you know what to expect, you can be prepared for every aspect of the exam, and you will not be unhinged by unanticipated developments. Most interpreter certification exams are modeled after the Federal Court Interpreter Certification Exam (FCICE). Here's a step-by-step description of that exam.

Panel of Raters

The panel of raters who will evaluate you consists of three people: a federally certified court interpreter, a conference interpreter (usually one who is also familiar with court interpreting), and a language expert (a bilingual person with an advanced academic degree in Spanish or English). Several panels travel all over the country administering the exam; no examiner tests in an area where he or she works. Prior to administering the FCICE, the raters attend an intensive training session at which they are instructed in the proper methods of administering oral examinations. They practice giving and taking the exam several times, both to detect any ambiguities or other flaws and to reach agreement on acceptable terminology (thereby eliminating the possibility of regional differences in usage).

The FCICE lasts about 40 minutes (all portions of the exam are timed to ensure fairness) and has five parts:

Part 1. Introduction and Interview (3 minutes)

When you enter the examining room, you will see the raters sitting at a conference table. They will introduce themselves and ask you to take a seat opposite them. They will begin recording the session, and will ask you to identify yourself for the tape. Then they will ask you some questions, first in English and then in Spanish, to get an idea of your background and your language dominance. This part of the exam is not scored.

Part 2. Instructions (6 minutes)

The next step is to give you instructions on taking the exam. The evaluation process will be explained, and you will be informed of the standards to be applied (no adding or deleting, maintain the style and tone of the speaker, and so on). Then the actual exam will begin.

Part 3. Sight Translation (10 minutes)

First the instructions for this portion of the exam will be read to you, and then you will be given the first text, a one-page, double-spaced document for translation from English to Spanish. It will be a report or affidavit containing a lot of colloquial language and some bureaucratic jargon. The purpose of this text is to determine whether you have a good command of colloquial usage in both languages, and to see if you are able to maintain the register, or language level, of the original in your interpreted version.

You will be allowed exactly five minutes (a timer will be set--don't be intimidated by it) to render the translation. First you will read through the text to be translated; if you have not begun your translation within two minutes, you will be told to begin. It is a good idea to practice sight translation with a timer so that you will know how long two minutes is and what you can accomplish in that period.

Remember to use your time wisely: Read for content the first time through, just to get an idea of what the document is all about. Don't think about how you're going to translate everything, or you'll get bogged down. After the first glance at the text to get an overview, look for important clues that will help you render a smooth translation, such as punctuation (parentheses, commas, colons), grammatical markers to identify referents and antecedents, linkage words (however, therefore, but), and search for common pitfalls. For example, English is characterized by long adjective-noun clusters; it is important to read ahead and find the noun in each cluster so that you can interpret that first in Spanish. After you have performed this brief text analysis, begin your sight translation. You'd be surprised at how many phrases will occur to you as you go along, now that you have a thorough understanding of the text.

If you haven't finished your sight translation in the allotted five minutes, you will be told to stop. That's why it's important to prepare the text completely before you begin, so you won't have to pause and read ahead, or backtrack and fix mistakes. Proceed through the text at a steady pace, but don't go so fast that you miss important clues or misread words. If you follow all these suggestions, you will have plenty of time to get through the text.

Next you will be given the text for sight translation from Spanish to English. This will be a one-page, double-spaced legal document (such as a contract, will, divorce decree, treaty, legislation, or code section). Follow the same procedures you did on the English text: Glance over the entire document to get an idea of what it's about, then go through it more carefully, looking for important clues. Spanish legal documents tend to have long sentences with lots of subordinate and embedded clauses. It is helpful to identify the subject and verb of each clause, and to trace all referents to their antecedents so you don't get lost in the text. Remember that you can break up long sentences when you translate into English; just make sure you retain the formal register of the original.

Part 4. Simultaneous (7 minutes)

This portion of the exam, like the others, begins with explicit instructions that will be read to you by an examiner. Then you will be given a set of headphones, and one of the raters will start the tape for you to interpret. The tape will begin with some introductory matter to allow you to adjust the volume. Then a tone will sound, and after that you will begin interpreting from English to Spanish. The text will most likely be an opening or closing statement by an attorney. The register will vary from highly formal language to colloquial usage, and you will be expected to remain true to the style and tone of the source-language message in your interpretation.

The speed of this portion of the exam, 120 words per minute, is quite slow. (The speed of lessons 1 and 2 in this book is about 140 words per minute. When you can interpret comfortably at that speed, you should have no problem with 120 words per minute.) You should not have any trouble keeping up with the speaker, and you will have plenty of time to analyze the message and come up with appropriate solutions in Spanish. Seven minutes is a long time, long enough to test your stamina, but also long enough for you to get a feel for the speaker and the subject matter. Even if you falter a little in the beginning, you will have time to recover and demonstrate your proficiency.

Part 5. Cross-Examination (Consecutive and Simultaneous, 22 minutes)

A rater will read you the instructions for this section, and then you will begin the consecutive portion. It will be a mock trial, in which an English-speaking attorney asks questions of two different Spanish-speaking witnesses; the examiners will read the parts from scripts. One witness will speak colloquial Spanish, the other a more formal language. In either case, the testimony will probably be quite detailed, with lots of names and numbers.

The raters will be looking to see if you are able to interpret all the details accurately while maintaining the register of the original.

The statements will be very long (three to six sentences, up to 60 words in length), and you will not be allowed to interrupt the speakers. Therefore, it is very important that you be able to take accurate notes. When you practice the consecutive texts in this book, experiment with different note-taking techniques (writing key words only, writing detailed notes with indentation to show the relationship of ideas, using symbols and arrows, and so on), but don't neglect your listening skills when you focus on note taking. It is easy for the inexperienced note taker to fall into the trap of scribbling all kinds of words on the paper and not paying any attention to the speaker. Then, when the time comes to read back the notes, the interpreter is faced with a jumble of disjointed words. Make sure you strike a balance between listening and note taking.

The longest utterances in the consecutive scripts in this book are followed by numbers in parentheses; these are word counts, to give you an idea of the length of statements you are working with. The longest ones are longer than those you will be expected to interpret in the FCICE.

On the exam, you will be allowed to ask for up to two repetitions. If you do ask for a repetition, the speaker will repeat the entire question or answer, not just the part you missed. You must interpret the entire repetition, even if you have interpreted part of the question or answer already.

The consecutive interpretation portion lasts 15 minutes. It is followed by another simultaneous interpretation section, this one only four minutes long. Again, a rater will read instructions to you before you begin interpreting. Then you will be given the headphones, and the rater will turn on the tape. This time, you will begin interpreting as soon as the tape begins. You will hear an attorney cross-examining first one witness and then another, and all questions and answers will be in English, to be interpreted into Spanish. As with the consecutive portion, one witness will speak at an informal level, and the other will be more formal.

This section of the exam is quite fast, 160 words per minute. Because it involves cross-examination, the speakers will alternate in rapid succession, and you will have to pay close attention to follow the exchange. They will most likely be dealing with technical subjects, (expert witness testimony on laboratory tests, for example), so it will be important to follow the logic of the speakers' arguments and not be intimidated by the subject matter or distracted by terminology. Remember that even though the topic they are discussing may be technical, there will only be a few technical terms; if you miss one or two of them, you will still pass the exam, but if you get flustered and stop interpreting, you will lose a lot of points. If you don't know a term, just leave it in the original English. No matter what happens, don't lose your momentum.

Simultaneous lessons 3 and 4 in this book are similar testimony read at between 157 and 192 words per minute. Once you are able to interpret this difficult material at such a fast pace, the FCICE should seem relatively easy.

Scoring the Exam

The raters assess candidates in two different ways on the FCICE, the objective score and the subjective score. The objective score is a sum of all the points awarded for certain key words and phrases that are marked on the examiners' copies of the texts. If you interpret a marked item correctly, you get a point; if not, no point is given. The scoring items are evenly distributed among the different sections of the exam, so you have to do well on everything to pass. The criterion for deciding whether a term is correctly rendered is meaning: If the meaning is considered to be distorted in any way (including language level), the point is not given. But if the meaning is rendered correctly, though not elegantly, you will be given credit for that item.

The second assessment, the subjective score, is made at the end of each section of the exam. Candidates are rated on their delivery (pacing, coherence, composure) and adaptability or resourcefulness, on a scale of three: superior, acceptable, and unacceptable. At the end of the entire exam, the raters also assess the candidate's pronunciation and fluency. The subjective score and the evaluation of pronunciation and fluency only come into play if the candidate is borderline on the objective score. In other words, if you do very well on your objective assessment (80% or higher, out of a total of 220 points), the subjective score is irrelevant. Likewise, if you do very poorly, the subjective score will not put you over the top. But if you are hovering between passing and failing on your objective assessment, the subjective score can make or break you. That is why it is so important to pay attention to your delivery when you are interpreting.

Remember that an 80% passing score means that you can miss 20% of the scoring units and still pass the exam. Another way of looking at it is that you can afford to make an error every minute, and you will still not fail. This means you don't have to be perfect; so don't get flustered and lose your composure over a single error--just keep going. Keep your cool and convey the meaning as best you can.

On the other hand, you don't want to take any chances; you want to do as well as possible. That's why it's so important that you practice every day between now and when you take the test. If you keep pushing yourself to do better and tackle increasingly challenging material, you will be able to meet the exacting standards of an exam like the FCICE.

About the Tapes

The Interpreter's Edge Turbo Supplement includes two 60-minute audio cassettes of the simultaneous and consecutive interpretation material in this book.

The voices of the following people are heard on the tapes:

Norma Alvarez
Adrián Delgado
Holly Mikkelson
Joseph Parker
Jim Willis

The contents of each tape are listed below:

• Tape 1, Side A: Introduction, Simultaneous lessons 1 and 2
• Tape 1, Side B: Simultaneous lessons 3 and 4
• Tape 2, Side A: Consecutive lessons 1 and 2
• Tape 2, Side B: Consecutive lessons 3 and 4

Because the tape counters on different cassette players are calibrated differently, and because tape counters tend in any case to be inaccurate, we have not attempted to give you the counter number at which each lesson begins. Instead, each lesson is accompanied by an illustration of how the window in the cassette looks when the tape is at that lesson:

This is, of course, only an approximate guide and will not necessarily allow you to go straight to the lesson you want. It should at least get you to the general neighborhood, though.