Triple literacy

I am back into science and technology, that is mostly applied science because in the context of liaison interpreting, it's less about fundamentals and more about business around technological matters, although at times and all of a sudden, deep scientific and technical considerations do pop up sandwiched between matters of price and time to delivery. Preparation is dual, no, triple : it means gaining an overview of the matter and grabbing vocabulary in B language of course, but more than often in A language as well. Time is limited, expectations to be requested again and again to deliver within the same subject boundaries makes the decision to delve over the long term into the subject, going deeper, a difficult issue. Especially with OPI where preparation time is not paid for and a session rarely goes beyond an hour.There are so many things to do. There is no secret and confidentiality about the following : I am skimming the surface of photovoltaic cells, fuel cells and neutraceuticals at the same time. It is a Pascalian bet into the future, that is now, based on discussions I had with "people who should know". I am trying to get more feedback from these people then decide whether it is a good idea to wrap up the periscope and start cruising under the surface. In any case, it is not and it will not be waisted time. For B language advanced learners even not aiming at interpretation, I can tell the value of reading aloud. I am about to finish reading aloud - and fast - a Japanese book on solar energy business. It is a valuable experience but I can't exactly point at the reasons why.

What are the strategies to gain fast overall literacy in a technical subject you don't have much clues about? I know it sounds like a stupid question. Young man, go to Wikipedia. But that's not a strategy. What I have come down to is this right now:

Systematize, starting with registering to lots of resources, then filter over time to keep what works best.

- Register keywords with Google News in all your languages, and read only the titles
- Look for the key professional magazines and register when available to newsfeeds and podcasts
- By recent books on the subject in all your languages. Start with the popular science type books, that is anything under $30 on average. Sometimes, nothing for the layman may be available. Don't buy right away the thick introductory book at +$100, unless you can find a second hand cheap copy. Don't buy an old version of that book, that is more than 5 to 10 years old.
- If any industrial fair around, go visit.
- If any conference you can get a foot in, or if anything recorded online, go for it
- Forget Wikipedia. It's valuable for short burst, needs on the spot, but it's confusing when needing to deploy the effort over time.

Keep reading and listening to all this daily. That's my current level of involvement. I will see how it works.