At face value

From home. A last half-through read before leaving the hospital. "Interpreters as Diplomats - A Diplomatic History of the Role of Interpreters in World Politics" by Ruth A. Roland. Put this in the category "Must read". It gives a pleasant overview of diplomatic interpretation through history. You can start reading from any chapter without getting lost. One such chapter is about China, Japan and India. The early references to interpreters, the post-Satow's, are of much interest. The reciprocal absurd level of misunderstanding and despise on both side is made clear with jaw droppings anecdotes. Long live ethnocentrism. Satow gets send (current wording : flawn) to China because the FO thinks that Chinese and Japanese are more or less similar languages. It needs to be stressed enough that pondering deeper at these misconceptions, in regards to this contemporary time, is mandatory. There is value in anecdotes as long as you pull the breaks on each and think. It is the best medicine I know to survive against the daily tsunami of public anecdotes.

Incidentally, and to stop the pompous, a recent read, "Smoke and Mirrors : An Experience of China" by journalist Pallavi Aiyar is a sweet as candy but insightful relation of meeting the differences, and that a 100~150 years time is not a big deal.

To go back to Interpreters as Diplomats, it exemplifies how, as a matter of fact, one turns into an interpreter, especially before the School of Geneva. Of much interest to me is the relationship of Arthur Herbert Birse, a British national raised in Russia who turned a banker and was summoned thanks to the war to interpret between Stalin and Churchill.

Fluency is the first quality that comes to mind to justify why this person is praised as an interpreter. There is something more to that, something in the lines of "what are the qualities needed (and consequently to work on) to be a valued interpreter, beyond fluency?" These considerations in books about interpretation are put on the sidelines when I wish to read about these as a core thematic of investigation. 

There is a picture centered on Birse delivering right in front of Stalin with Churchill on the side, a picture I could not locate online. I picked it from the book. Sorry about the low quality. It's a rare picture in the sense that the interpreter is the center piece. I am now sort of haunted by this picture as a unique piece of interpretation about what else than fluency can be highlighted among competences needed. It is an important question I believe because once you know for instance that clear elocution is one key among others, a trite for sure, the next move like anecdotes is to go deeper into this and investigate pragmatic methods to strengthen that side of the business gear with full awareness. I was introduced recently to a professor of Japanese elocution - the name is not clearly that way - as a result of going deeper into a fact and a practice none had any advise about.

At face value,  Arthur Herbert Birse oozes of command, self-mastery, assurance, "sûreté de soi". The eyes meet the eyes. It might be something important in Russian human interaction, I don't know.

As books lead to yet other books, this one leads to Arthur Herbert Birse's own Memoir of an interpreter, I could locate second hand at Amazon, and should be now on its way to Tokyo.

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Lionel Dersot
Language Interpretation for Business and Technology in Tokyo
Japan Liaison Agency and Business Support Services
Mobile : +81 90 6858 1106
Fax: +1 815 572-8300
lionel.dersot@japan-interpreters.com
Skype : lionelskp
http://www.lioneldersot.com
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