A study on strategies to cope with undesirable situations in consecutive interpreting

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION GRADUATION PAPER A STUDY ON STRATEGIES TO COPE WITH UNDESIRABLE SITUATIONS IN CONSECUTIVE INTERPRETING Supervisor: Nguyen Phuong Tra Student: Ta Thi Thu Hang Year : QH08.F1.E20 HA NOI – 2012 ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH KHOÁ LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP NGHIÊN CỨU CÁC BIỆN PHÁP ỨNG PHĨ VỚI MỘT SỐ TÌNH HUỐNG KHƠNG MONG MUỐN TRONG PHIÊN DỊCH ĐUỔI Giáo viên hướng dẫn: Nguyễn Phương Trà Sinh viên: Tạ Thị Thu Hằng Khoá: QH08.F1.E20 HÀ NỘI – NĂM 2012 ACCEPTANCE I hereby state that I: Ta Thi Thu Hang, student of 08.1.E20, being a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts accept the requirements of the College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor‟s Graduation Paper deposited in the library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the paper Signature Ta Thi Thu Hang Date: i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my special thanks to Mrs Nguyen Phuong Tra, my supervisor, for her suggestions, useful advice, instructions and her encouragement from the stem to the end of my thesis writing process My thanks also go to lecturers in Translation and Interpreting Division and Mrs Tra‟s colleagues: Mr Lam Quang Dong, Nguyen Cam Linh, Nguyen Ninh Bac… for helping me conduct questionnaires I am grateful to Mr Do Trung Hieu, Mr Hoang Manh Hung, Ms Nguyen Hoang Oanh and many other interpreters for giving me chances to talk and sharing precious experiences with me I would like to thank Mr Nguyen Van Doan for his enthusiastic help Last but not least, I owe my gratitude to all my families and friends for all they have done for me Without their encouragement and help, this dissertation would not be completed ii ABSTRACT Consecutive interpreting is said to be the basic form of all types interpreting and is used to train students for consecutive performance (Bowen, 1984) From the viewpoint of the interpreters with varied experiences and the researcher, these common undesirable situations are presented These undesirable situations are arranged in accordance with frequency ratings and the strategies to cope with each situation are introduced There appear the differences and similarities the choices of four questions by the interpreters with varied experiences Three undesirable situations which are the most common will be selected and analyzed By the questionnaire and interviews, the researcher can collect the data as well as get recommendations offered by the interpreters On the ground of arrangement and the analysis, we can see which undesirable situations are the most common and which strategies should be employed To some extent, these would-be interpreters can make the use of this thesis‟s result as a step of preparation before working in interpreting field iii 1 CHAPTER TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale: 1.2 Aims and objectives of the study: 1.2.1 Aims of the study: 1.2.2 Objectives of the study: 1.3 Scope of the study: 1.4 Structure of the study: CHAPTER 2.1 LITERATURE REVIEW Interpreting and its modes 2.1.1 Interpreting: 2.1.2 Modes of interpreting: 2.2 Consecutive interpreting: 2.2.1 Definition: 2.2.2 Phases of consecutive interpreting: 2.2.3 Basic skills in consecutive interpreting: 11 2.3 Strategies and undesirable situations in interpreting: 12 2.3.1 Strategies: 12 2.3.2 Undesirable situations: 13 2.4 The quality of interpreters and the concept of an experienced interpreters: 14 2.4.1 The quality of interpreters: 14 2.4.2 The concept of an experienced interpreter: 16 iv CHAPTER METHODOLOGY 17 3.1 The subjects: 17 3.2 The methods: 17 CHAPTER FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 19 4.1 The frequency of encountering undesirable situations: 19 4.2 The methods of dealing with undesirable situations: 22 4.3 The three most common undesirable situations that the interpreters encounter frequently: 27 4.4 CHAPTER 5.1 Factors contributing to an interpreter‟s activeness in undesirable situations: 31 RECCOMENDATIONS 33 Strategies to cope with lengthy speech: 33 5.1.1 The ability to abstract and paraphrase: 33 5.1.2 A good memory: 36 5.2 The strategies to cope with technical terms: 37 5.3 The strategies to cope with mispronunciation: 38 CHAPTER CONCLUSION 40 6.1 Overview of findings of the thesis: 40 6.2 Strengths and weaknesses of the thesis: 41 6.3 Suggestions for further research and final comments: 41 REFERENCES 42 APPENDIX 44 v CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale: Interpreting is the bridge of language as well as culture in communicative activities of human beings For Vietnam in particular, interpreting career has been more highly appreciated since the country became the official member of WTO and integrated into global trade The number of professional and semi-professional interpreters is gradually increasing day by day They are required to have not only good skills, linguistic acquisition but also diverse knowledge in many areas Besides, the code of ethics is an important factor forming the qualities of a good interpreter However, even when an interpreter is well-prepared and has good qualifications, undesirable situations arise for many reasons During interpreting, the interpreter‟s attention is shared strategically among listening, memorizing and production efforts Interpreting is prone to deteriorating as the interpreter‟s capacity for one of efforts mentioned above decreases Such constraints on overall capacity are bound to affect other components of the process and will thus have a bearing on the quality of the target speech For example, during listening, interpreters have to decide what and how to note down They also have to devote some attention to the writing process itself Therefore, most of the errors, omissions and other weaknesses in interpreting output can be caused by processing capacity limitations, errors in processing capacity management, and gaps in the interpreters' Knowledge Base (Gile, 1989) Many of these problems can be said to be unavoidable, as shown by the fact that they are encountered regularly even by interpreters with a solid reputation and long professional experience In these cases, the interpreters are required to apply a set of strategies to prevent and constrain damage (Gile 1995) In reality, coping strategies are very essential skills in interpreting but it is difficult to master It is the reason why I would like to specify some undesirable situations and find respective strategies to such problems 1.2 Aims and objectives of the study: 1.2.1 Aims of the study: The study aims at identifying three undesirable situations the experienced interpreters encounter most frequently Those three undesirable situations will be brought to light regarding their classification and frequency Basing on the findings of the study and these suggestions from the experienced interpreters, I would like to recommend some strategies when such situations occur More specifically, the study is intended to address the following questions:  What are three most frequently-encountered situations which are undesirable in consecutive interpreting?  What are coping strategies in these situations? 1.2.1 Objectives of the study: As a student of Translator and Interpreter Training Division, I understand that mastering basic skills in interpreting is very important However, besides these fundamental skills I am trained, I desire for learning more about strategies of experienced interpreters in undesirable situations Moreover, I decide to pursue interpreting career, therefore, this study partly supports my future career Secondly, I intend to propose some recommendations for those who want to choose interpreting as a career The advice will be collected from experienced interpreters Thirdly, these unpredictable cases occurring to interpreters are frequent, but I would like to find out which are more popular and strategies applied in such cases Finally, among many dissertations I have read, none of them imply undesirable cases in consecutive interpreting as well as specific strategies, practice for each case Hence, I hope I can partly contribute to filling the gap 1.3 Scope of the study: Due to time and knowledge limitation, I would like to carry out the study on strategies to cope with undesirable situations in consecutive interpreting However, undesirable situations are various in reality of interpreting filed so I only mention some prevalent undesirable situations synthesized from different sources of data and the interpreters‟ views After that, the study mainly focuses on analyzing three undesirable situations in the order of importance in consecutive interpreting and coping strategies when encountering such cases 1.4 Structure of the study: Chapter 1: Introduction This chapter will provide readers an overview of the study including the reasons for choosing topics, the aims, the scope and the methodology used to conduct the research Chapter 2: Literature Review Theoretical background knowledge related to interpreting, strategies and undesirable situations will be discussed in this chapter Chapter 3: Methodology This chapter will present methods which were applied to conduct the study Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion listening more challenging, which require them more concentrated Mispronunciation of the speaker is really a trouble for them All these situations I mentioned above are frequent and common in consecutive interpreting but three of them are more common and complicated Hence, in accordance with suggestions from the experienced interpreters, I will give recommendations to three of them Three undesirable situations above are just relative and are selected on the result of the study Generally, there are three most undesirable situations that occur frequently in consecutive interpreting are:  Make a lengthy speech  Use too many technical terms  Mispronounce 3.4 Factors contributing to an interpreter’s activeness in undesirable situations: Comprehending the risks of undesirable situations in advance, the interpreter should be well-prepared in terms of physical as well as psychological problems, knowledge, skills which support them to be more active when encountering such situations Additionally, these factors contribute to their success during interpreting Based on the result of the study, I figure out that the physical and psychological health is the first choice of the interpreters According to them, a good health and balanced, refreshed mind help them overcome problems more easily It is obvious that if we have good health and are in the good mood, we can highly concentrate and the ability of accessing and analyzing information is better During interpretation performance, balanced and refreshed mind means quick mind in analyzing and transmitting the original message The below table will indicate these factors an interpreter needs to be more active in undesirable situations 31 Table.9 Factors ratings in consecutive interpreting by experienced interpreters Number of Factors a Prepare physical as well as psychological health b Cultivate academic, general and cultural knowledge c Percentage Rank 20 40% 15 30% 10 20% interpreters Sharpen skills required for an interpreter d Prepare supporting resources 4% e Other recommendations 6% As can be indicated from the table, the number of interpreters who choose the first factor amounts to 40% (20 interpreters) Besides, cultivating academic and culture knowledge is also highly appreciated 15 interpreters (30%) choose it as a key factor to cope with undesirable situations These next factors are required skills and supporting resources which respectively account for 20% and 4% Three out of 50 interpreters mention other ideas From their points of view, all factors are equally important so these interpreters should prepare all these factors at the same time Regarding factors supporting interpreters in dealing with undesirable situations, I would like to recommend some requirements for an interpreter:  Physical and psychological health  Qualifications requirement  General knowledge  Special knowledge  Cultural knowledge  Skills requirement (refer to literature review chapter) 32 CHAPTER RECOMMENDATIONS 4.1 4.1.1 Strategies to cope with lengthy speech: The ability to abstract and paraphrase: Normally, our interpreters often have difficulties with their own mother tongue, Vietnamese speeches For Vietnamese speeches which are too long and not entirely coherent, the interpreter‟s task is to work out measures to make the interpretation clear The length of a speech is caused by many different reasons Let‟s take a look at one example of a long and complex paragraph in Vietnamese speech: “…Cứ bốn người nói tiếng Anh giới ba người khơng phải người ngữ Và thay đổi tiếng Anh từ quốc gia từ…từ nước Anh ngày mở rộng toàn giới sử dụng rộng rãi lĩnh vực khoa học, công nghệ, thương mại Và tiếng Anh, điều quan trọng ngơn ngữ giao tiếp quốc gia lãnh thổ Và số lượng sử dụng tiếng Anh ngôn ngữ ngày nhiều có nhiều biến thể sử dụng tiếng Anh: tiếng Anh Úc, tiếng Anh Sing, tiếng Anh Nhật, vân vân Và khái niệm tiếng Anh tồn cầu tiếng Anh ngơn ngữ quốc tế thành nên phổ biến Và sử dụng ngôn ngữ để trao đổi Và tiếng Anh ngôn ngữ, việc sử dụng tiếng Anh nhiều người, nơi khác Và việc sử dụng tiếng Anh tiếng mẹ đẻ để giao tiếp nhiều quốc gia khác nhau” (Doan Hong Nam, 2011) These sentences above can be a headache for interpreters who try to interpret them literally Any efforts to render them with the order in Vietnamese original message will make the version more intricate We can see the speech above is incoherent for some reasons: 33 Firstly, the speaker uses repeated conjunct word “và”, which confuses the interpreter because the interpreter cannot catch complete idea The word “và” is used to link ideas while in the whole passage; the speaker repeats this word 10 times Some other words repeated are “nó”, “cái” The next reason is that the subject is not defined clearly In the passage, the speaker continuously makes the use of the word “nó” as the subject It is confusing to infer what this word in each sentence refers to Thirdly, disorderly ideas make speech more complicated The speaker mentions popularity of English Then, he shows the application and variations of English At last, he restarts to talk about popularity of English For that case, the interpreter has to rearrange all ideas into a logical order to make the version coherent and easy to understand before delivering to audiences Lastly, the speech contains repeated ideas with the same meaning When explaining the popularity of English, he makes some sentences which only describe one idea: “…Và tiếng Anh, điều quan trọng ngôn ngữ giao tiếp quốc gia lãnh thổ Và sử dụng ngơn ngữ để trao đổi Và tiếng Anh ngôn ngữ, việc sử dụng tiếng Anh nhiều người, nơi khác Và việc sử dụng tiếng Anh tiếng mẹ đẻ để giao tiếp nhiều quốc gia khác nhau” Here is suggested interpreting: “Three out of four people speaking English in the world are non-native English has changed from national to global and it’s widely used in science, technology, commerce What matters is English is used as a communicative language between countries and regions The number of English users is increasing, leading to different kinds of English: Australia English, Singaporean English, Japanese English … Such concepts as “global English” and “English as an international language” have become popular English is used as the language of exchange by many people in different places It is also the second language to communicate in various countries” 34 (Interpreting version by an experienced interpreter) Let‟s us see another example In the following speech, many subordinate clauses are linked with conjuncts like “với những…nhưng do…Lại…và…nên” “Với nỗ lực ngành giao thông vận tải quan tâm nhà nước Chính Phủ, đất nước trải qua chiến tranh kéo dài trước đây, lại găp thiên tai nặng nề kinh tế đất nước cịn khó khăn nên nguồn vốn dành cho xây dựng quản lý cầu đường thiếu, hệ thống sở hạ tầng kỹ thuật cầu đường cịn tình trạng phát triển Điều ảnh hưởng đến yêu cầu tác nhân ảnh hưởng đến phát triển kinh tế xã hội Việt Nam” (Trọng 1999) Suggested interpreting: “In spite of substantial efforts made by the Ministry of Transport and the concerns given by the Government, the amount of funds available for allocation to new construction and maintenance of roads and bridges is still limited due to financial difficulties caused by war and natural disaster As such, the transport sector and its related enterprises are still poorly developed This problem is now affecting the social and economic development of Vietnam” (Interpreting version by an experienced interpreter) From two examples above, we can see that the interpreter must logically rearrange the word orders and ideas with a view to form a clear, coherent and rational targeted version In other words, they resort to the ability of abstract and paraphrase The interpreter must analyze and construe delivered information The next step is to express in their own words, which can transmit the messages to the audiences understandably It is essential for us to constantly practice with an aim to obtain the ability The following tasks are suggested:  Read a short paragraph of 400-500 words  Find and highlight main ideas 35  Construe the highlights in every aspect (grammar, lexical, terminology)  Paraphrase The length of paragraph can be adjusted in accordance with our progress Here is an example for you to refer to: “In 1610, Galileo Galilei published a small book describing astronomical observations that he had made of the skies above Padua His homemade telescopes had less magnifying and resolving power than most beginners‟ telescopes sold today, yet with them he made astonishing discoveries: that the moon has mountains and other topographical features; that Jupiter is orbited by satellites, which he called planets; and that the Milky Way is made up of individual stars From David Owen, “The Dark Side: Making War on Light Pollution,” The New Yorker (20 August 2007): 28 Possible Paraphrase “Galileo was able to make some amazing discoveries with his telescope He made discoveries about the moon, about Jupiter, and about the Milky Way He was able to this with a telescope that was less powerful than even today's most basic telescopes” After that you should translate the paraphrasing into target language 4.1.2 A good memory: Along with the ability of abstract and paraphrase, a good memory plays an important role in dealing with a lengthy speech because if the interpreters not remember detailed information in the original message, it is difficult for them to rearrange and reformulate the message In consecutive interpreting, the interpreters should have good short-term memory due to the fact that the speech of the speaker normally lasts for several minutes One of the ways to improve your memory in interpreting is:  Listen to a sentence or a group of sentences  Repeat them immediately 36 Moreover, there are many interesting activities or games to enhance your short term memory You can log in the web http://www.ehow.com/how_7531403_make-short-term-memory-better.html for more information 4.2 The strategies to cope with technical terms: The interpreters often work with specialized topics which consist of many terms and new words Inaccurate terms may make the hearers who are working in that field irritate and even the failure of interpretation For example, the term “trigger” in dictionary is defined as “cò súng” or “nút bấm” However, if the interpreter does not prepare the vocabulary in advance, it is hard to translate this phrase “sectoral policy triggers”, which means “các phương án sách ngành” Sometimes, a word which appears in different phrases and in specialized fields has different meanings For instance, the word “net”, this word is widely used in economic terms: “net income”, “net current transfers”, “changes in net reserves”, “net flows” The respective equivalents are “thu nhập ròng”, “chuyển giao vãng lai ròng”, “thay đổi dự trữ ròng”, “lưu chuyển ròng” However, if this word appears in an” educational term, it has entirely different meaning “Net enrolment rate”, this phrase should be interpreted “tỉ lệ học tuổi” Each area contains a wide range of specialized vocabulary, which requires an interpreter to have an extensive knowledge However, the interpreter sometimes cannot cover all technical terms Regarding the suggestions of the experienced interpreters, I can give you some recommendations following to overcome undesirable situation of technical terms:  Be well-prepared: Before interpreting, the interpreter should be active to ask about topic of the conference, meeting…After that, the interpreter will spend time studying issues as well as terms involving the topic This step not only 37 helps the interpreter cover a part of specialized knowledge but learn a list of terms or phrases  Guess by basing on the context: Even when the interpreters know about the topic of the conference and study that topic, there are terms which are new words On the other hand, for preparing in advance, the interpreters have got basic knowledge of the field so they are able to guess the meaning of terminology by basing on the context and their understanding  Verify the understanding of the interpreter: In case, the interpreters are not sure about their understanding and interpretation, they can in some ways contact with the speaker to verify their understanding However, this strategy is not suitable in every situation For example, in a great event or an important conference, it is difficult to that If the term is not the key word, the interpreter can omit it and repeat the idea 4.3 The strategies to cope with mispronunciation: For this situation, most consecutive interpreters share the view that we must have good guess ability How can we guess the meaning of a mispronounced word? It is said that we should base on the context Depending on concrete context, we can deliver message by referring to the previous and next information The experienced interpreters also advise that if the mispronounced word is not the key word but just for additional information, sometimes we can guess it without verifying our understanding However, if it is the key word, under possible conditions, we should contact with the speaker to verify the understanding Mispronunciation problem often occurs with non-native English speaker such as Vietnamese, Korean, and Chinese…One of the interpreters shared that when he interpreted for a Korean director, the speaker often mispronounced The interpreter must guess the meaning of words by basing on gestures or body language of the speaker He illustrated his case with “password” word mispronounced When uttering this word, the speaker showed it in his mobile at the same time, so the interpreter could catch the meaning of the word 38 In case we cannot guess the words or not dare riskily guess that word, we can repeat the previous or the next ideas in different words It can be said that it is a safe way because the interpreter fill the gaps and avoid making wrong guess simultaneously 39 CHAPTER CONCLUSION This chapter will provide the readers with the conclusion of the thesis Firstly, an overview of findings of the whole study is presented herein Secondly, the strength and weaknesses of the thesis will be shown by the researcher Finally, suggestions for further research and final comments are made 5.1 Overview of findings of the thesis: Interpreting, as a form of mediating across boundaries of language and culture, has been instrumental in human communication since earliest time (Pochhacker & Shlesinger M 2002) These studies as well as researches on every aspects of interpreting have been carried out and developed day by day All researches aim at contributing to building a comprehensive view of interpreting and improving the quality of interpreting In addition, through the researches, the interpreter can have insight into interpreting, which to some extent will support their pursuing careers What I attempt to in this thesis is to make my humble contribution to these great researches by identifying these common undesirable situations in consecutive interpreting, which is inevitable in interpretation performance The result of the study reveals that most consecutive interpreters regardless of genders, more or less experiences encounter undesirable situations in interpreting Three of undesirable situations which are most common include: “Make a lengthy speech”, “Use too many technical terms”, and “Mispronounce” In my opinion, the result is partly useful to future consecutive interpreters They can not only prepare in term of psychology but also learn strategies and tips of the pioneering interpreters Due to solid knowledge as well as more experiences, the way senior interpreters deal with undesirable situations is different from that of junior interpreters Senior interpreters mainly count on their abilities and experiences than other 40 ways Physical and psychological health is the preliminary factor which helps interpreters be active in undesirable situations Orderly, these following factors are diverse knowledge, skills and supporting resources 5.2 Strengths and weaknesses of the thesis: Despite many books as well as researches on interpreting so far, few of them discuss undesirable situations in consecutive interpreting Moreover, until now, there have not been any elaborate studies on undesirable situations in consecutive interpreting of English-Vietnamese and vice versa This thesis, however, discusses in details the issue with relevant examples Nevertheless, some certain limitations are contained in the thesis First, due to limited time of research, only 50 interpreters have been questioned and the scope is confined to consecutive interpreting The result, therefore, is relative and has not supplied an insight of undesirable situations in consecutive interpreting Next, due to the researcher‟s limited knowledge in the realm of interpreting, mistakes in the course of analysis are unavoidable 5.3 Suggestions for further research and final comments: Vietnam is on its way to international integration in every area, so interpreting is recognized as a “hot” job Not anyone who has a profound knowledge of language can become an interpreter It is essential for the interpreters to be aware of undesirable situations in interpreting in advance This thesis has discussed some outstanding undesirable situations and in the realm of consecutive interpreting Hence, more studies should be carried out to touch up on interpreting in different aspects In conclusion, I would like to propose strategies to cope with undesirable situations through this thesis Hopefully, it can give the wouldbe interpreters support in their future work or at least it can be the reference worth for future interpreters in particular and other readers in general 41 REFERENCES Bowen, D & Bowen, M 1984, Steps To Consecutive Interpretation Washington D.C., 20009, Pen and Booth Brislin (?), A course in Theory of Translation, Hanoi: Hanoi University of Foreign Study Gentile, A.Ozolins, U & Vasilakakos, M 1996, Liaison Interpreting, Melbourne : Melbourne University Press Gile, D 1996, Basic Concepts and Models for Interpreter Translator Traning John Benjamin Publishing Co Gonzalez et al 1991, Fundamentals of court interpretation, Carolina Academic Press Holly Mikkelson (?) Interpreting is Interpreting or Is It? viewed March 30, 2012, Huyen, D.T.T 1999, “A study on factors and techniques for success in consecutive interpreting”, BA Thesis, College of Foreign Language James, N 2007, Interpretation: Techniques and Exercises, The Cromwell Press Ltd Luyen, Luong Quang 1998, Động thái thông dịch hàm ý liên hệ giảng dạy thông dịch, lecture, Unpublished 10 Pochhacker & Shlesinger M 2002, The Interpreting Studies Reader, London and New York 11 Richard, K.Seymour, C.C.Liu 1994, Translation and Interpreting: Bridging East and West, University of Hawaii Press 12 Santiago, R 2007, Consecutive Interpreting: A Brief Review, viewed March 30, 2012, 13 Seletskovitch, D 1978, Interpreting for international conference : problems of language and communication, Pen & Booth 42 14 Son, PT 2003, “Improving the Effectiveness and some essential skills in interpreting in conference settings”, BA Thesis, College of Foreign Language 15 Webber, W 1989, The Theoretical and Practical Aspects of Teaching Conference interpretation, Campanotto: Campanotto Editore Udine 43 APPENDIX THE QUESTIONNAIRE Theoretically, undesirable situations are understood to be cases which cannot be foretold or predicted In interpreting, they are unexpected or unprepared moments of interpreters The problems can arise at any time whether the interpreter is wellprepared or not For example, fast or lengthy speech, accents, technical terms are all seen as undesirable situations This questionnaire aims at getting data for my thesis “A study on strategies to cope with some undesirable situations in consecutive interpreting” I am very grateful for your filling in this questionnaire Thank you very much indeed! Question No.1 In your career as an interpreter, how often you encounter undesirable situations? Please tick ( ) in a Never b Rarely c Sometimes d Often Question No.2 When undesirable situations occur in interpreting performance, how you deal with them? Please tick ( ) in a Try your best (ability, experience,…) to deal with them b Resort to supporting resources (prepared document before the meeting, the speaker‟s help…) c Keep on interpreting even by modifying d Recommend your different ideas: (Please specify) ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… …… Question No.3 Could you rank these undesirable situations by the frequency of occurrence? For each case, please recommend strategies you often use 44 The level of frequency gradually reduces from to 1: the most frequent 6: the least frequent No Undesirable situations Make a lengthy speech Speak at fast speed Use too many technical terms Mispronounce Speak with different accents Other reasons Strategies Question No.4 What factors should an interpreter prepare to be active in undesirable situations? Please tick ( ) in a Prepare physical as well as psychological health b Cultivate academic, general and cultural knowledge c Sharpen skills required for an interpreter d Prepare supporting resources e Other recommendations ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… …… In order to help us analyze exactly, please give us some your personal information Please tick and fill in the blank (…….)  Gender male female  Age : …… years old  Please tell me how long you have worked as an interpreter: ………years Thank you sincerely! 45 ... time and knowledge limitation, I would like to carry out the study on strategies to cope with undesirable situations in consecutive interpreting However, undesirable situations are various in reality... reformulation 1.3 Strategies and undesirable situations in interpreting: 1.3.1 Strategies: Strategies are defined as a set of actions or strategies applied to help interpreters cope with accidents... situations This questionnaire aims at getting data for my thesis ? ?A study on strategies to cope with some undesirable situations in consecutive interpreting? ?? I am very grateful for your filling in