TB+-+Source+1+-+CHANGSHUAN

Summary: Li Changshuan is Associate Professor, Graduate School of Translation and Interpretation, Beijing Foreign Studies University, China. He is also a conference interpreter and translator. In this article he will focus on the core challenge of Simultaneous Interpretation: FAST SPEECH. He will deal with the problems of “fast speech”, the optimal speech rate for English and for his mother tongue Chinese and also propose four strategies to cope with speeches that are delivered faster than optimal speeds. They are: the speaker is requested to slow down; the interpreter speeds up; summarization; termination of service. The author states that in SI (simultaneous interpretation) interpreters have to allocate attention in //several// tasks. Namely: listening and analysis, production, short-term memory and coordination (Gile 1995: 161). He explains that when a speech is faster than normal (optimal speeches), listening and analysis alone will consume almost all the interpreter’s energy and little energy will be left for production, especially when production involves complicated language restructuring. He gives an analogy: “The human brain is like a washing machine. The drum must never be overloaded with laundry, or there will be no room for spinning, and cleaning will not be thorough. Likewise, fast speeches overload the brain with too much information within a specific time span, leaving no room for proper processing of information to produce a coherent translation.” Below are some problems that may be caused by fast speeches:
 * Mistranslation and loss of information. The greater the input, the greater the chance of error and omission
 * Comprehension is affected. Even if it is the audience native language
 * English is a non-native language to many, if not most, international conference participants. Participants will encounter many difficulties when either the speaker or the interpreter speaks too fast.

**Xie Likui of Hubei Radio Station – Study on speed of delivery vs. comprehension ** “There is a limit to speed in language production and language reception. When a speech is delivered too fast, ‘the ears’ cannot catch up with ‘the mouth,’ and the listener has difficulty understanding the speaker”. He undertook a survey and found out that the speed of news broadcasting has become faster: Case studies: //News Digest (Xinwen he baozhi zhaiyao) //, a China Central Television CCTV, China’s national TV network In the 1960’s, the broadcaster’s speed of delivery was 185 characters per minute (cpm) (each character is one syllable). The speed was increased to 200-220 cpm in the 1980’s, 240-260 cpm in the 1990s, 250-270 cpm in recent years, and in extreme cases, over 300 cpm today. Speech spoken with speed taxes the listener and hampers understanding. <span style="color: #ff00ff; display: block; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">He points that fast speeches cause real difficulty for the listeners and states that in a letter to CCTV, a listener complained: “//News Digest// broadcasters read the news incredibly fast. They speak like rolling thunder. I can hardly breathe when I listen” (Xie 2002). When speeches are spoken so fast to the extent of causing breathing difficulties, reception and comprehension will suffer. **<span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Optimal Speech of Delivery – English ** <span style="color: #ff00ff; display: block; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">Simultaneous interpreters -> rate between 100 and 120 (English) words per minute (wpm) although the figure may differ for different types of speech. The results of various studies concur with the general beliefs of simultaneous interpreters. <span style="color: #ff00ff; display: block; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">Lederer -> “for recited texts which are devoid of hesitation and redundancy that characterizes official speeches, the maximum rate should be 100 wpm (Gerver 1969; Seleskovitch 1978; Lederer 1981; as cited in Chang 2005: 12).” <span style="color: #ff00ff; display: block; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">Comment taken from the message board of the International Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC): <span style="color: #ff00ff; display: block; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">“We all know that a speaker speaking at about 100 to 120 words per minute is perfectly acceptable. However, there are exceptions to this: dense originals without much redundancy. Such speeches may seem excessively fast even if presented at 120 words per minute. Normally, however, any original exceeding 140 words per minute is fast. I have clocked speakers at 180 words per minute (Communicate 1999).” **<span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Optimal Speech of Delivery – Chinese ** <span style="color: #ff00ff; display: block; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">According to Professor Zhou Tongchun, a phonetics expert at Beijing Normal University, the human ear has a capacity of receiving 7-8 characters per second or 240 to 250 cpm, if we are considering everyday language. However the question is if this speed is appropriate for simultaneous interpretation. //<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">The Government’s Work Report (Zhengfu gongzuo baogao)- the English version // <span style="color: #ff00ff; display: block; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">The author did a word count on the number of words in the English version of //The Government’s Work Report (Zhengfu gongzuo baogao)// that Premier Wen Jiabao delivered at the 2009 National People’s Congress.

<span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Findings

<span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">SI from Chinese to English is impossible for speeches delivered at the speed of normal news broadcasting. According to the author´s experience:” If a Chinese speaker reads from a prepared text at a fast speed, the interpreter will not be able to catch up …even if he/she were reading from a prepared English translation, unless the translation is exceptionally succinct”.

<span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">The optimal speed for Chinese delivery was not found out through empirical studies. But here is a simple calculation that can guide us:

<span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Notes: <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Optimal speed for English speeches: 100-120 wpm <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">One English word is equivalent to 1.3-1.7 Chinese characters (syllables).

__<span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Calculation __ <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Rate 1.3:1->100-200 wpm will be equivalent to 130-156 Chinese characters per minute <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Rate 1.7:1->the equivalent Chinese speed will be 170-204 cpm.

<span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">On the average, 150-180 cpm might be an appropriate rate. This is a much slower speed than the CCTV newscast. <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Finally he concludes providing four strategies to use against fast speeches: the speaker is advised to slow down, the interpreter speeds up, summarization, termination of service.

**<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Request the speaker slows down **

<span style="color: #ff00ff; display: block; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">Although this seems fairly simple, it must be remember why we speak at a fast pace in the first place. Generally fast speeches could be linked to habit or pressure to cover out too much within a limited time. <span style="color: #ff00ff; display: block; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">In an effort to address the problem of fast speech a ‘slow-down’ button was installed in the interpreters’ control panel, which could be pressed whenever speakers were talking too quickly, at the same time that would trigger a small light affixed to the rostrum to blink, signaling to the speaker to slow down.”The button’s disappearance from the control panel in recent years shows its ineffectiveness”. <span style="color: #ff00ff; display: block; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">“Trying to address the issue, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Interpretation issued //Tips for Speakers//, and one of the tips was to “speak naturally, at a reasonable pace.” If speakers could observe the tips, interpretation quality would be greatly enhanced. In dealing with ad hoc users of interpretation services, interpreters should communicate with the conference organizer, requesting speakers to speak at a reasonable pace”. **<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Request the interpreter to speed up ** <span style="color: #ff00ff; display: block; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">This can be useful if the speaker is not able to cooperate. However, this is not very effective because speech rates cannot be increased indefinitely. Also as mentioned earlier in the article “if the speaker speaks to quickly, most of the interpreter’s processing capacity will be devoted to comprehension, leaving little energy and time for translating and speaking the target language”. The resulting utterance would be either incoherent or too fast for the audience’s comprehension. **<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Summarize ** <span style="color: #ff00ff; display: block; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">This can be used in a situation which could not be solved which strategy one and also could not be solved with strategy two. By summarizing a speech, many redundancies or complex information will be made simple, in theory. However, this is not always the case. Summarization could result in omissions, loss of logic, and it could be extremely hard for the audience t keep up. Having said that, summarization consumes a lot of energy and is not sustainable. <span style="color: #ff00ff; display: block; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">But this always depends on certain factors: familiarity of the interpreter with the subject, and its terminology and also the ability and the agility of the interpreter. **<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Termination of service ** <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">It is acceptable and possible when working conditions do not meet the interpreters’ minimum requirements for interpreters to terminate their services.

<span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Study Case: “In the United Nations General Assembly, an interpreter was interpreting from another language into English. At the outset, the author had already found the interpreter’s delivery very fast. Halfway through interpretation, the interpreter burst out suddenly, saying something to the following effect: “Mr Chairman, interpreters are not machines. The speaker is speaking too fast. If you do not intervene, the interpreters will stop working.” Then it was complete silence. The interpreter had obviously turned off the microphone” <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">So, if the interpreter is not satisfied with the working conditions he may refuse to carry one doing his job. He has rights, and are entitled to claim them. <span style="color: #ff00ff; display: block; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">This is all true but the author advised that one should one use this strategy unless absolutely necessary. Sometimes only one speaker delivers a fast speech, and that soon the speaker´s turn will be over. Therefore it is not good reasoning to interrupt our service because of one speaker; there will be other in the congress. Also: <span style="color: #ff00ff; display: block; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px; text-align: justify;">“Many conferences provide SI services simply to raise the prestige of the meeting or as part of the complete language service offered at the conference. If the interpreter determines that this is indeed the case, i.e. meeting participants do not actually use the interpretation service, there is even less necessity to turn off the microphone and attract the organizer’s attention to interpreters”. <span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 13px;">Finally, it is recommended that before accepting a SI opportunity interpreters should stipulate in their contract some conditions, for instance, the condition that the speakers speaks at a reasonable pace <span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; font-size: 15px;">.