It's the situation, stupid!

In an article in the current issue of The Economist (will this link function?) about disaster prevention, I bumped into an expression unknown to me that triggered yet a sense of "that's it! that's about it!". It is "situational awareness". In most over the phone interpretation situations I have been through, where a specialist of a domain X was discussing usually first time with an interviewer (not a journalist) with many questions about domain X, the difficulty was magnified by a set of standard inadequacies that would never be mended over time. That is why I quit, and also because the 2008 shock pressed the pay way too much down. The crux list is long. Exceptions took place but rarely.


- No questionnaire ahead of time. The subject would be announced in a maximum 10 words sentence.
- No briefing with at least one side, the interviewer preferably, both in an ideal world.
- Few if no hints about the subject's angle at stake. You are announced "generics in the treatment of epilepsy", and discover right when entering the action scene that the real subject is the state of authorities approval of a certain pill AAA in the local market and the chance for it to get the green light.
- Of course, as with any standard translation agency, there is no route to request for clarification and suggest a few tricks to make the communication valuable for everyone.


In such settings that are plentiful in liaison interpreting face to face, the interpreter knows enough that the situation is everything, and that preparation when allowed should be situational more than thematic, and made all the more easier that she grasps as much situational elements as possible ahead of time to prepare, meaning in short notice settings especially, not to er in streams of knowledge that can wait for another time. The theory of nuclear fission won't help when the discussion is about methods to scoop highly radioactive water from a plant trench. Situations should lead preparation, and briefing with clients is the most appropriate step to delineate the tracks of learning needed to be operative quickly. 


I leave it to theoreticians but there is something that clicks with the concept of situational awareness and better performance of highly technical liaison interpreting. You can read the Wikipedia entry and see for yourself, especially the Endsley's model of situation awareness map that sounds somewhat familiar, although interpretation is never mentioned.