Miscellanea

• "Ali works as a tactical interpreter for US special forces in Afghanistan (...)". The plight of terps in Afghanistan, Iraq and else. Now, you can't be an interpreter only. You've got to be tactical.
• Why interpreters stoop? I owe this questioning to the wonderful picture (need one for one of my business cards) shown over the Unprofessional Translation blog. Now, watch this favorite of mine picture of Sherwood F. Moran in action, interpreter and interrogator. This also tells about the man and why he is stooping forward.
• E. telling me he heard harsh words about Miss. H. star interpreter. How mean she is, how mean they are. I tell him back that being nasty toward colleagues is a (inter)national sport in this profession, a common although no unique thread. Once the ice start thawing, you can bet hints at he or her being not up to the rumored level, or simply having "bad pronunciation and blunt Japanese" will pop up. It popped up twice in conversations over two weeks. The boring aspect of it is that you can bet they will start spitting venom and always win.
• It's here : Volume 2, Number 1 (2010) of Translation and Interpreting, with an interesting paper around teaching interpreting and feedback from students.
• It's the voice stupid : diction is translated by 話し方, and I feel that we are not on the same bandwidth at all. Still looking for courses on Japanese diction, even a personal trainer, only to get puzzled look. And I am less and less puzzled by the puzzlement.
• Still waiting for this book on interpreters and diplomacy. Looks appealing.
• Why are most interpreters (here) female, and why are most unmarried (Ooops! I blundered, again)?
• Westerners learning Japanese should have their nose put into issues of politeness and savoir-vivre. I have yet to find anything sensible here besides the unsurprising "how to be polite in order to avoid shame in society" type of books. A book on the subject in your own language will suffice as a mind opener to this crucial issue, probably for Westerners only. Make it compulsory in Japanese curriculum.
• It's critical, again. What? Japanese language, is back, or is it, in the list of the Critical Language Scholarship Program. It's Kyodo blurb so read with a grain of salt.