Katarzyna Gonnerman remembers her first interpreting experience well. She
gets nervous just thinking about it, and how all eyes were on her.
"I was doing translation for a group of Polish businessmen. It was very
difficult and very tense," says Gonnerman. "There was this group of Polish
businesspeople, with dark suits and white socks, staring me down the whole
time. I felt like hiding behind the big curtain in the corner of the room."
Many interpreting jobs later, Gonnerman says she's learned to relax
and enjoy the job that once made her so nervous.
"I like the thrill of it and the people you meet," she says. "Many of them
are very literate and well traveled and know a lot about their field. There's
lots to talk about."
Gonnerman has the Polish equivalent of a master's degree in American
literature. She says she started out wanting to translate literature, but
found herself doing interpreting and translating for business because that's
where the jobs were.
Teaching is a place where jobs can be found as well. Paul Malone is an
assistant professor in the department of German and Slavic studies and literatures
at a university.
Malone was always interested in languages and learned French all through
high school. At university, he wanted to continue his French, but found that
he couldn't fit it into his schedule. He ended up taking German instead.
After obtaining his bachelor's degree in Germanic studies, he went
on to graduate school to get his master's degree in Germanic studies.
But he didn't stop there.
He did a doctorate in interdisciplinary studies, combining theater and
German. Throughout his university career, Malone studied university-level
French, Spanish, Italian, Sanskrit, Russian, Latin, classical Greek, Japanese,
Hindi, Urdu and Cantonese on top of the German.
"Because much of my graduate funding was provided by teaching German to
beginners, I have always tried to keep learning myself, so as to understand
how my students feel when exposed to how a different culture expresses itself,"
he says. Sometimes these ways of expression can be very different.
Developing a new vocabulary and keeping up with modern terms and expressions
is a regular part of the job. "I really had to brush up on my business vocabulary
to work in business and finance," says Gonnerman. She has found there are
still no words in Polish for some of our English business terms.
"In my first session translating for business, the words 'futures
market' were used and I had no idea what that was in Polish. The term
didn't exist yet."
When a situation like this comes up, Gonnerman says she has to remain calm
and think of another way to get the point across.
"Sometimes there aren't strict equivalents for a word or phrase in
another language, and you have to use an approximate phrase," she explains.
"You have no choice but to do this because the equivalent doesn't exist."
Because of this, Gonnerman has learned to think on her feet. She says she
has to be quick in coming up with a similar expression to explain these words
because speed is important in interpreting.
"You have to make this decision on the spot very quickly because people
can't wait for you to do a whole speech on one word."
The stress involved in constantly being put on the spot means Gonnerman
takes frequent breaks. "You have to develop your own pace and know when to
stop," she says. "It takes a lot of concentration and can be very tiring,
so I take a break about every 40 minutes."
Not everyone can take this kind of stress, says Gonnerman. Some get rattled
under the pressure.
"I remember one woman broke down and left the room close to tears, and
the conference was left without an interpreter. Some people try it and don't
have the nerves for it."
Gonnerman says interpreting can also be stressful because everyone interacts
with interpreters differently. And some people just don't know how to
handle them.
"It's immensely stressful, because you never really know what the
person you're interpreting for will be like. Sometimes people don't
know how to work with an interpreter."
Gonnerman has worked as a translator as well as an interpreter.
"Translating is a lot more relaxed and you can do it any time," she explains.
"You also have a lot more resources at hand, so if you don't know a word
you just reach for a dictionary. With interpreting, you don't have this
option. You either know it or you don't."
Malone says the best way to learn a new language is to find opportunities
to see it, hear it, speak it and write it as much as possible. "Ideally, learning
the language as a means of communication should be the main objective, not
learning the rules of grammar by heart," he says.
"Enough careful practice using reliable sources will provide good grammar
at the same time as it provides fluency. Learning grammar above all seldom
leads to fluency."
With some languages, you have to learn a lot more than the grammar anyway.
"The hardest language I've ever learned is Cantonese, because in addition
to learning the words, you have to learn to speak them with the proper tones,"
says Malone. "Otherwise, they either mean something different or they're
complete nonsense."
In spite of her excellent translating skills, Gonnerman has found there
are some things that just don't translate. "Jokes and humor, especially
culturally based stuff, are really difficult to translate and puns are almost
impossible."
This also holds true for some types of literature, as Gonnerman recently
found out. "I was hired to translate an American novel, Ann Beaty's Love
Always, from English to Polish. It just didn't work out because there
were too many references to American culture that a Polish audience couldn't
relate to. I think it was a bad choice of novel to try and translate."
While a career in interpreting isn't exactly what Gonnerman had planned
on pursuing, she's finding it an exciting and challenging job.
"I sort of fell into interpreting, but it's exciting
when you find just the right word to bridge the gap between two languages."