On Tue, 08 Jul 2003 23:53:15 +0900, Rodney Webster
<rgw_news001@knot.mine.nu> belched the alphabet and kept on going
with:

>In article <bed1en$r1s$1@newsflood.tokyo.att.ne.jp>,
> Scott Reynolds <sar@gol.com> wrote:
>
>> The irony of course is that the better an interpreter is, the easier 
>> they make it seem. Perhaps this is why many people seem to have the 
>> impression that interpreting ought to be easy for anyone who can get by 
>> in more than one language.
>
>During the few opportunities I have had to interpret, I have found it 
>best not to be worried about transfering the actual meaning from one 
>language to another, but better to try to maintain a smooth flow of 
>conversation in both languages, and keep the general emotions of both 
>parties in synch.
>
>If one party should become aggravated, or angry, the interpreter should 
>do their best to make the other party angry as well, so as to maintain 
>the harmony.

In one of Robert Whiting's books on baseball in Japan he includes a
section on the poor souls who are assigned to be interpreters for the
gaigin players. One who stands out in my mind was a guy who worked in
the office for a company related to, but separate from, the baseball
team. I forget exactly, but something like a guy working for Seibu
department stores, for example. Anyway, the baseball team needed an
interpreter and it was known around the company that the guy was
attending eikaiwa.....BOOM!....he's the interpreter.

One guy was turning into an absolute nervous wreck because he was
attempting to filter the bile out of the exchanges between one player
and manager. No matter how rude their comments, he translated what was
said in a polite way. One day he finally decided he was tired of
developing an ulcer this way and would start passing the bile along
unfiltered. He remarked that both player and manager were shocked by
this but very quickly realized what was going on. And they also
started being much more civil in their comments to each other.




--

Michael Cash



"There was a time, Mr. Cash, when I believed you must be the most useless
thing in the world. But that was before I read a Microsoft help file."

                                Prof. Ernest T. Bass
                                Mount Pilot College


http://www.sunfield.ne.jp/~mike/