Not trained in Geneva

And doing it anyway. Another edition of the newsletter of the International Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC). Another dose of that swinging feeling between deep interest and uneasiness. You have to have done your classes in Geneva, ESIT or Monterey to feel a part of it. Otherwise ... otherwise what? Take for instance this article :

"Interpreting is Interpreting – Or Is IT?

Analysis of the different types of interpreting shows that regardless of the adjective preceding the word "interpreter," practitioners of this profession the world over perform the same service and should meet the same standards of competence."

It is a very interesting article, all the more when you read it down until the end, to discover that is was in fact presented 10 years ago.

"Ten years later the editors of Communicate! consider the paper to be of continuing relevance and are pleased to be able to republish it. "

OK, so the situation hasn't changed over 10 years according to the editors. So does probably the stance of the AIIC editors.

I am wondering aloud about that mixed feeling of mine, something to do with a bit of shame, envy, despair and ire at reading the AIIC newsletter, despite, or, on top of the interest I find in reading it.

I am also doing multitasking while writing this sentence, like reading sideway some news with "interpreter" as a keyword, to find yet another brief news about an interpreter killed in Iraq. How many interpreters in Iraq went through Geneva, ESIT or Monterey. AIIC's natural, well justified, historically, socially, even sincere and unaware of itself arrogance in tone and manners is certainly the main issue. The community (pouah!) interpreters, the liaison (yucky!) interpreters that ended up doing it through .... just doing it, carry with them the shame stemming from deep and strong inferiority complex. They, we, but as this we doesn't point at least in Japan to any professional community, let's end up with a an arrogant "I" share the same feeling. The nostalgia for Geneva. What is a professional interpreter? An individual working as an interpreter despising other interpreters. Professionalism, from this point of view, starts early. Shame and despise are ingrained in the system.

So the impaired, never fit faked, pseudo, self-touted interpreters lacking a singular voice of their own are left reading the AIIC newsletter, rave, envy and lament in silent mode. The AIIC authors usually mix well justified self-sufficience with a dash of condescending arrogance toward those who do not "meet the same standards of competence".

It is funny to observe that at the same time, in Japan at least, and for business reasons needing a thorough although easy analysis, there are a lot of books to titillate the longing and envy for interpreters you see or rather hear on TV, coax that always ready to be coaxed inferiority complex toward whoever is linguistically articulate, especially in Thy Holy Language of Thee, English (THLTE, for a new acronym) that allows you to shake hands with celebs. There are magazines that make the wheel turn around the local ESITees and Genevees and Montereeys schools, waxing on the ever tensed, smiling, smart, independent (and terribly lonely, sexless, kidless) , shark like roaming interpreters on steroid, the she wolves. But they deliver, books after books on how to be an interpreter, books of exercises that do not tell even half of the story but channel the readers to the schools that shape the market. What do the AIIC top deliver to the mass in terms of enlightment, training material on sale at Amazon, practical how to suggestions, etc? Nothing.

"Not trained in Geneva", that could be a rallying title for the lesser ranked interpreters doing it anyway, the organ of a single voice to exchange of tips and tricks to raise.