At the risk of ....

I spent a few hours going through the many short video conferences at the EMCI web sites. I found the link to this site through the invaluable Interpreter Training Resources web site. This very blog is listed in the ITR web site, which is both an honor to me and a dishonor to the ITR, considering the poor level and amateurishness of my writing, ramblings and rantings. What I felt watching these video will not benefit to the already bad and justified unexpressed opinions on this blog - except for one anonymous who quickly came some times ago, saw, and unleashed a brief scorn at my poor English, a good point, the way a stealth invisible warplane can scramble in from nowhere, unload a missile and disappear in a flash. Both the anonymous commentator and the plane are on a single mission which is absolutely not about starting a conversation. But anyway, back to the subject. I was glad to listen to a speech on note taking. I can't read and listen enough about note taking. I was glad I discovered the video on dialogue interpreting, so much that I ordered a book on the subject at St. Jerome. Talk about compulsive unplanned shopping. I was a little puzzled about the stiffness of presenters. Maybe the setting, the format or whatever explain this. I noticed that the last in the list of those video, the one titled "Untitled" is about "the difficulty of the profession of interpreting, and the passion of the interpreters" was maybe the single one where "passion" was heard about. Many of the other video are - for justified reasons - lashing here and there - for justified reasons, shall I repeat again - at what distinguishes professionals from beginners or amateurs, although the term "amateur" is not mentioned as far as I remember. I blushed several time while listening to brief references at what unprofessional interpreters do, with that little voice in the background singing : "hey! sounds just like you!" As for shame and dealing with it - meaning first, understanding the issue - I could not enough recommend the book of Gershen Kaufman and Lev Raphael. Maybe it should be part of an interpreting curriculum. But beyond shame is that uneasiness at witnessing again and again, in books of course, in articles spread over the web, in video like these but in everyday professional life these tiny speckles of scorn with stiff upper lip at who is not a top-notch professional. Maybe this is part of a tradition or a strategy at conf schools in order to quickly get rid of who is not totally dedicated or not gifted enough from day one. Although progression is allowed and expressed as normal, including for veterans, what is at play, the stingy brief rantings, is similar and at the core of what makes here in Japan for instance dialogue with other interpreters almost impossible. I met K. the other day, a young lad, good French speaker, no training, doing from time to time simple stints at interpreting, mostly the community type with no risk and stress (no medical, legal and the likes). He wants to learn and told me how higher level interpreters are closed like clams, cannot be approached, won't talk, do not want to talk, etc. The standard tune I have learned myself. You know what, like it or not, there are way much more B class interpreters in this world than top notch conference interpreters. And you know what, the B class interpreters whom I belong to, are usually not eating lunch at the same table as the veterans. Even when markets are slim, we mostly don't compete, we don't eat your lunch. You would throw up on most of my assignments, especially at the fees. We are not menacing you, and on top of that, most of those I see and meet, my students, the majority of whom are in interpreting classes as a mean to progress in foreign language, not to be one day an interpreter, most are genuinely, keenly and seriously if at times awkwardly seeking to get better, to rise. Scorn although diffused, diluted, popping and vanishing in a blink is despite, or because of this, a ubiquitous feature. It flashes in the rare conversations I have with other interpreters of good calibre. It pervades the business. It filters unattended and is passed on through the progression of individuals. The once low profile beginner will turn your standard dashing professional smiling and shut as a clam at the same time, unless that other inquiring has been graced through reciprocal optation as with any other upper bourgeoisie. Medical interpreting in Japan, raising the issue of communication out of the booth and down into the lows of daily life may give a breath of fresh air into it, although I have already noticed in a recent book on the subject published here an obsessive rehashing on the need for professionals - burn the amateurs kind of advocacy. It is good advocacy but why the obsessive tone? Isn't this part of a legacy? Anyway, I am glad there are such video from stellar veterans giving advices and stressing the need for superlative professionalism. It is needed, in the streets of Bagdad as well when they have time to go to school and read the scholar books. So, this all was at the risk of loosing the last reader this blog might have, besides me.