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The reasonsor thismay be pureiymechanical,e ated o thegr:,, {ilarorlexis of different languages; hey may als o be due to different terms ofcultural reference.Changes o the way ideasare expressed ecome n-eluctable sonechangesanguage,nd , us t as mportant, sonechangeslanguageulture.

The more he nterpreters n a position o expresshe speaker'sdeasin their own words, hebetterwill be hequaliryof communication efweenthe speaker nd heaudience,he nterpreter eingmerelyamedium or thatcommunication. hi s s surely he greatest aladoxabout he nterpreter:the more creative he nterpreter,he more hey are aithful to the text;themore original he y arc-- enhancing ommunication , th e essobtrusivcthey re o hepanit ' i l ) i l t ) tsn a meeting! hebest.most reativenterprctersar e he ones easl roticcd y theirdelegates.

in ordcr o rlltkc a speech ou rown,aswe said, oumusthavegraspedit ntellectually.ll ly understoodndanalyzedhe deasobe conveyed. utthis s onlyhal l ' t l rc att le.

One canliol )vcrstatehe mportance fthe nterpreter'sarget-languageskills.Justas hcir passiveanguages renever ompletely earned nd heycontinue o wttrk on hem, So he nterpretermustcontinue o work on theirtarget anguagc(s), ven f the arget anguages theirmother ongue.Thismeans ecpingabreaSt f recent evelopmentsn order o copewith modernterminology. lut i t alsomeans onstantly nriching oul general ocabularyand attempting o improve your stylethrough egular eadingof a broadrangeof wcll-written publications. his is anactivity,asweii as ollowingyour own press,which isparticularly mportant or interpretersiving abroad,perhaps n no rcgular contactwith any member of their own languagecommunityoutsidc heirprofessionalctivities, ndwhosemother onguetherefore uns the risk of becomingstiltedor impoverished.To expressideasweii, that s,efficiently, learlyandelegantly, nemusthave he ichestpossible esources vailablen the arget anguage ndbe able o call onthemwhenever eeded.

3. Note-takingn ConsecutiventerpretingR. / ot-;s, ( r ' t ,v J )u ' ( t y'. // , : ' , r 'r , ' , . J n

A number f readers ay beannoyedha t heabove iscussiontt t ". dffi."tt'/ ( t \principles fconsecutive asbeen arried ut to a argeextentas fnotesrlidno texist.Onemayhavegleanedhe mpressionha t he nterpreter asto anaiyze ncl remorize peechesf up to five minuteswithoutan Y ea lrssistancerom notcs. t is obvlousha tnonebu t exceptionalnterpreterscirn eexpectedo work tt lutt 'a1,:urpresentatiOnn heprevioushap-tc rwa smereiy esignedo prl t l ()1c-lakingn he ightperspective'

Tfreessential art of a consccutivclttcrpreter's or k is done n th eactrvitieslready escribed:nderstanding.lralysis,e-expression.fthesearcno tdone orrectly,hebest otesn thewgrl

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ur e rrrrcl frr9tel 5 tole, tt should be cle: r fhef tho, ,intei l : , t ^ i r ' t , l ' , rl . : ,-;", , ! l . . , ,^,t i , , ta,-oiert ln r:,n,, i :"hrrrirrcr ., . , , ._ ichemicals,hi smay dlstractnem rom le ke y us^K,r ls.erurrgirir-ri,i,;;to what comesnexr.By noting things n sucha way rhur h.t?;;* *i";andhow they it into hespeech,he nterpreter eed ot burden heirmemo-ry with such nformation; hey cancontinue o devote heirmentai acultiesto Iistening ctiveryo the esr f thespeech. ea r n mina haian nterpret_er is rarely ca'ed upoll to- nterpret-;:ust ne speech: f you are workingintensivelyn consecutiveor ar"r.r* ofthreehours t is cruciar o reducefatigue y relieving ourmemorythrough otes.The second urpose f notes s whaiwe shourd a, ,jogging, rhe nter_preter'smemory.The term 'relieving' memorywas used o covernotingdown specific elements-sohe interp-reteran reproduce hecontentof aspeech'But notescan arsobe used o enhancerr. in,.1pr"r"r,sability toreproducehe tructureof aspeech. otesshourd herefore eflect he ormof as.peech, aking t crear o the nterpreterwhat s importantand what sancillary,how ideasare rerated r separatedrom one another.This struc_tureshourd rsobe n the nterpreter'smind; t shourd "rr* p."orct oftheiranalyticalwork. pinning the strucrure ovwavs.irst,avingo eflecthetru*ureiiil:,ji" tr"|lji,lr1'-lXil?discipline,orcinghe nterpreteromakeheanarysis.;;;;;;irh. rr*"-ture s already n hepage,when t comeso reproducinghespeechhew.tten structure an .jog' the nterpret"r,, r_ory, _"ii"g it .rsi., tovcrbalizehedesired tructure.

Prsctical ointsor Note-takingNrtc'takingsamong therhings mechanicalxercise,nd number furely racticarndicationshouid e oilowed.n nteqpreterus t eabletct uke heirnotes uickiy-andriteupon omethingonvenientoholdandeasyohandrc' e would ecommendstenographer,sote-pad,oughryl5cmby20cm. oose heetsfpaper hourd.nnit.tyu. uuo'iaJo,s heymaybecome isordered.^Fornygiven peechhe nterpreterhould riteon only he ecto ideof succ.rriu, ages f the""r"-i"J. iiir"too u*t_ward owriteonboth ides,..ro_u.rro]whileaking or.r,unJifyoudo,theres the isk hatyoumight ose ightof theordern rvhich otesweretaken' t is easierust to keep lippinithe pages veraiwaysn thesamedirection. owritewith,one rrouraiauleomethingeliablehat lowsquick_ly acrosshepage;hebest hing sp.ouuitystiil hegoodold_fashionedIead encil.

[Jnder re-expression' bovewe stressedheneed or he nterpretero com-nrunicate,which involves heappropriate ody-language ndeye-contactwith delegates. herefore, he nterpreter annotafford to havenotes hat-theyhave o decipher s heygo along.The meaning he nterpreterwishesto express hould eapup at them rom thepage.This means he nterpretershouldwrite in largecharacters. urther,notesshouldbe well spreadoutover hepageso hat hevariouselements anbe clearlydifferentrated. hecombinationof these wo pointsmeans hat nterpreters ind themselvesgetting hrougha ot ofpapeqperhaps otingjust onesentence n apageofthe note-pad: hey shouldhaveno qualmsabout his. Note also that theinterpreter's otesmustbe otallyunequivocal. or example,nd cannotbeusedas an abbreviation n the one hand or indu strial and elsewhere orindependent uch ambiguitywill at bestmake or a essefficient eadingofnotes,and at worst lead o silly mistakes. f an interpreterwishes o usesymbolsor abbreviations,hey should not succumb o the ternptationofinventing hem in the courseof a speech n a way which does not makeimmediate nd glaringsense.f a new symbol s used, t shouldbe so obvi-ous as o be unproblematic.What to NoteThe things to be noredare quite logically related o the analysisof thespeech, s described n the relevantsectionabove.The first things to benotedshould husbe hemain deas. ne couldargue hatbecausehesearethe main deas hey will be remembered nyway, o here s no neednotingthem.However, he notesused or the main deasarenot so much there ohelp he nterpreter emember s o provideaskeleton utlineofthe speech.Proceeding n the basis f th e subject-verb-objectnalysis escribedabove, he nterpreter il l then eable o ind n theirnotes hesequencefideas onstitutinghespeech. his should elp he nterpretereproducethe speechwithout altering,moving swiftly from one dea o thenextwith-out having o search n theirmind for the next dea.The noteshereare notso mucharecordof each dea n detailasaprompt o cue he nterpreteras they finish one deaand wish to start henext one.Then, ust as n thementalanalysisof aspeech ne has o identify thelinks and separations etweendeas,so hese inks andseparations houldappear n the notes. t may weii be that thespeech assucha clear ogicthat the interpreter an ill in the iinks without having to note them, butmost of the ime the situation s not so clear,and t is absolutely rucial tot is primordial that the interpreter,s otesshould

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anything, the links are rather more importan t o note than the so-called'main deas' hemselves.n importantdea, rovidedt has mpressedtselfclearlyon he nterpreter's ind,eitherhrough isualizationr becauset sa clearabstract dea, aneasilybe noted n a veryabbreviatedorm,perhapsevcn by one key-word.f a Bri t ishdelegateomplains, 'Shipsro m th eSpanishishing-f leetav ebeen ishing l legal ly n Brit ishwaters',n th econtext f a givenmeeting t may well bepossibleor he nterpretero notethisas SpanishJishers!ando rely on theirmemory or the rest.On theotherhand, t may notbe so easy o dealwith links suchasbut, herefore,sinceand o on withoutnoting hem. t is thusveryadvisableo note inkssystematically.Wherc hereshouldbe a clear separation etrveendeas('zero ink'), hi sslrorr ldls o eclearly hown r') otes.' A third clcrrrsrrtha tshould lwaysbe partof an nterpreter's nalysisof a speech. ncl ,hich hould ls oappcarn henotes,s hepointof viewbeingexprc:sscd.l'lresame rguments pplyhere s o inks: t s mportantto reflectpointsof'vicw n an nterprctationnc lt maynotalways eeasy obui ld heserr ait l r f ll ywithout orrrccrninderro mnotes.

Fourth,we ,rave lready cllcclha(delegatesee d o know whathap-penedwhcrr',arrd hal he tcnses f vcrbsare hereforemportant.Whennotingvcrbs, rrlclpretershorrlclhus akecare o note he ense urruii-ly,and f appropriatche modc, lr parricularheconditional. imilariy, t is agood dc a1onotcnrodal crbs.Modalverbs ave decisivenfluence n hefunctiono{'otlrcr crbsancl lctemrinehemeaning f a sentence.

Al l o1'thc oints rrcrrtionedo ar ar eelementshat it into he ntellec-tual analysis l u spcech y the nterpreter;he yare hus o be notedas akind of insurancc olicy,T'he nterpreter ouldconceivablyemember llth emain deaswithout )otes, ith the inksbetweenhe mand hepointsofview reflected n theoriginal.Bu t th enotes re here o og th ememorybyreflecting he structure f th espeech,o ensure fficiencyandcomplete-ness n delivery, nd1o nsure aithfulnesso theoriginalparticularlywithrespecto links andpointsof view.However, herearealso elements hatan nterpreter annot ememberor doesnot want to make he effort to remember, nd wherenotesareusedto rel ieve memory. The first of these s numbers.Numbersare otally ab-stract,and any but the simplestnumbersbecome ifficult to retain n one'smind for five minutesor so.Oncea series f numberss cited,notes ecomeindispensable. atesare o be consideredn the same ight.Numbersmaybe spokenvery quicklyby a speaker, articuiariyf there s a seriesofnumbers o be given. t is important or the nterpreter o note hem ail, sowhen an nterpret er ealizes hatnumbersare goingto be given,or if they

hearanumber,theyshoulddropeverythingelseandnoteit immediately. l fth e nterpreter esitatesboutnoting he number, inishingofi'notirtg hcprevlous entence,r he ntroductiono thenumber'here s a serious is ktheywiil neverget henumber' f the speaker ivesa series f numbers' heproblem s ciearly evenworse'But if the interpreter ivespriority to therrumbers,t wili be possible or the nterpreter o ot themdown and thenreturn o ticlyingup thenote-taking f th epreviousdea'which t will becasiero retainn theirmind'Forexample,ake hc crllowing xtract f a speech'

Ou rexportso ourEuropeanartnels av e rogressedel l overthe asiyear, lthough e have ad ttorc ifficulty n exporttngocountrieswithweak"ercurrencies'w'holtaclsometimesdeliberatelymade ompettt iveevalual ionsn order o achicve rade dvan-tage hrough ndervaluationf heir ulrencyForexample' xportsto Germany rogressedy 3'2%,to$25'7mil l ion'whereasn hecase f Italyexport owth wasa marginal0'6oh 'totalxports mount-ingto$l l .4mil l ion

The irst SentenceXpreSSeScolrerent,ogicalnotion'which t is relativelycasytorecal i .Let 'sassumethattheinterpreterhasgotasfar-asnotingr:ompetitive evaluations,when he speaker aysFor example'There' theinterpreter houldsensehat numbers recoming; hey shouldstopnotingthepreviousSentenceinordertobesuretonotethefigurescorrectly.oncetlref iguresarenotedtheinterpretercanquicklyt idyuptheendoftheprevi-()ussentence'whichtheywil lhaveheldlatentintheirmemorywhileconcentrating n the igures'

Second,hereareproper ames'You mightbeable oretainweli-knownandfamil iarnames,butonceafewarementionedorif theinterpreterisnotrvel lacquaintedwithaname'notesareessential.Bearinmindthatapropernameinaspeechusuallyhasacertainintrinsicimportance'Moreover,propernamesare not limited to people'snames: hey may alsobe geographicalnames,ornamesofcompaniesororganizations'perhapsexpressedasacro-nyms'Tomakemattersworse'notonlymighttheinterpreterbe-unfamiliarrvith aname, hey mayhaveno deaof how the name swritten' Indeed' hel l l rmemaybewrit teninascriptunfamii iartotheinterpreter(aChineseor.tapaneseame or a Europeannterpreter ossessing either.of hose wolanguages,forexample)'Insuchcases,theinterpretershouldignoreor-rtrolrafhy, rememberinghatnotes re hereonly for them'asa means o ancnd.Theyshouidnote ow n phonetically ndascloselyaspossibiewhat

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they believe hey haveheard.The worst-case cenarioswhen the speakerdoesn't eallyknow how to pronouncehename ither, ndmangles t. Thenthereare wo possibilities. ither he nterpreters no wiser han hespeaker,in which case hey cando ittle more hannotedownwhat hey haveheard,and then reproduce t to the best of their ability afterwards.Or the nter-pretercan dentify the speaker'smistakeanddeducewhat hey were ryingto say, n which case heycannote henameas t suits hemandproduce hecorrectpronunciation n tlieir interpretati on.Lastly, istsshould lwaysbe noted scompietely spossible. ll toooftenwhen a speakerarrivesat a list, be t of chemicals, griculturalpro-ducts, ish or whatever, hey eeloffthe itemsatgreat peed. he nterpretershouldnote heelements scompletelyaspossible, sotherwisehey havelittle chance f rememberinghem.This means heyshouldstopnotingeverythingelseonce hey realize he speakers about o give a list or hasjust begunone.The nterpreter houlduse hesame echnique swith num-bers. f the ist is given oo quickly for them o notedowneverything, heyshouldnoteclearly hatsomethings missing;f more hanoneelementsmissing hey shouidnote how many,When thespeaker as inished heycan hen assess hether hey wish the ist toberepeated. hus, f a speakersays at speed , The countriesconcerned re Venezuela, olotnbia,Peru,Bolivia, Panama ndCuba', and he nterpretermisses hesecond nd ifthnames. hev can note:

VenezuelaPeruBoliviaCuba.

Thiswill enablehe nterpreteroput heir uestionorrectlyo he peakeraflerwarcis.To sumup, he nterpreter'sotes hould ive t easthemain deas faspeech ith he inks etwcenhosedeas;oints fview,ensesfverbs,andmodaiverbs, hould lsobenoted; o reiieveheirmemory,he nter-preter hould otenumbers,ates, ames nd ists.These re hebarerequirementsfnotes.nterpretersayof coursehooseonotemuchmore.Some olleaguesave ighlyefficient ote-takingechniqueshatenablethem o ake ownpractically verything. thers referowriteabsolutely

tlrcstrictminimum and ely for the eston heir ntellectandmemory.Both;rpproachesredefensible.Note-taking s verymuchaquestion f personaltlste. The one hing to be avoided,we repeat,s trying to noteeverythingdtlwnasanend n itself, o thedetrimentof the nterpreter's ctive isteningto theoriginal.l low to NoteI)iagonalLay-outWe havestressedhat notes hould eflect he structure f a speech learlyso as o help the nterpreter eproducehat structuren their nterpretation.lJut how s this actuallydone n practice?We havealready aid hat hemain deasbased roundasubject-verb-otrjectanalysisshouldbe noted.To reflect his analysison the page, heinterpreter houldseparatehe hreecomponents uiteclearlyand allocatero eachof them roughly the sameposition n any given sectionof notes.'l"lresepositionswill form a diagonalaxis,working from left to right of apageand rom top to bottom, hus:

subjectverb

objectA numberof ideasmay becontained n onepage, hebeginning f each

onebeingclearlymarkedby themoveback o the eft-hand ideof the page.'f he nterpreters of course ot imited o noting us t the subject, er bandobject,but t is around his basicstructurehat heywill beable o build inotherdetailsn th enotes f theydesire cf .above,what o note').Thisdiagonalpresentation asbecome omething f anarticieof faithsinceRozan'sepoch-making ook on note-takingLa prise de noteseninterpr,tation constcutive 1956),where t was caileddicalage ('shift').lJut Rozan himself gives relativeiy littie explanationas to why he rc-commends t, andonemay quite ustifiably askwhy diagonalpresentationshouldbe preferred.There are several easons. irst, the diagonal ayouttorces he nterpretel o Separateomponents f a Sentencen a pagc tr n