An Integrated Programme for Training Interpreters

Abstract

The role of the conference interpreter is to be the medium and not the message, but as we all know now — the medium is the message! This statement is true, of course, of translators, but the performance parameters are so different that the executants must almost perforce be different and their training in the very specific techniques required should be different. The Conference interpreter is neither a freak nor a genius, but an individual who either instinctively, or through training, uses his or her knowledge of languages in a certain way, and whether he does so successfully or not depends on a number of personal characteristics — as is the case in most professions.