This week, Rob spent four days interpreting from French into English for an international conference.

The conference was on the subject of The church and the use of national languages in Francophone Africa, and was set up by several organizations, including Wycliffe and SIL. It was attended by theologians and church leaders from 12 different African countries. Here’s the room where it all happened:

You’ll notice that -as well as water bottles - the tables have microphones on them. Anyone who asks a question etc. has to press the button and speak into the mic. In the far corner, you can also see the little booth where my co-interpreter and I sat, which has one way glass in it.

Interpreting of this kind is way more tiring than the normal stuff (where they leave a gap between phrases for you to speak). Instead, the speaking just keeps on going and you have to just keep on speaking the English translation into the microphone! It takes a few minutes to warm up, but once you get into the flow, it’s kinda fun! The key seems to be not to listen to what you are saying into the mic, but to concentrate 100% on what is being said. It feels weird, but somehow works!

Thankfully, there were two of us, so we were able to do stints of about 30-45 minutes before changing over. That’s just about enough time in any one go - any longer and your brain seriously starts turning into treacle sponge! After an hour (which I think I got to once) you feel like you’re saying nothing more than: “Blah blah blur blblblue”

Here I am with the other blokey, Bernard, busy at work in the booth:

If you’re interested in interpreting/translating, click here for the ITI site. Another good one in the UK is the Institute of Linguists, which do exams in translation and stuff. Finally - learning French at an advanced level? Then check out this fab forum, where you can post translation difficulties and get responses pretty fast!