06
23
2018
interprétation simultanée

Simultaneous interpretation at the service of LARTC 2018 “Ask the Experts”

The LARTC 2018 conference took place in Buenos Aires on June 5 and 6 at the Yacht Club Puerto Madero. Cultures Connection again participated at this event.

Once again, the LARTC 2018 conference took place in Buenos Aires on June 5 and 6 at the Yacht Club Puerto Madero. The “Ask the Experts” conference was organized by Clarion Events, a leader in the organization of international events of this kind. It brought together many players in the petrochemical and refinery industry, including major international companies such as Shell, Axion Energy and ENAP, to name but a few. Cultures Connection, through simultaneous interpretation participated, once again at this event.

The next edition of this conference will take place in Chile, this time in Santiago on October 16 and 18. At this type of conference, organizers very often call on professional interpreters to ensure the best possible communication between the different speakers and the audience, who don’t speak the same language. This time, the exchanges were in English and Spanish. That is, the interpreters had to translate into both languages.

simultaneous interpretation

Due to its presence in Argentina, Cultures Connection offered their interpreting services and two of their interpreters: Romina Berardi and Eugenia Pinalli who completed their mission with great professionalism.

Simultaneous interpretation is a very difficult exercise because interpreters translate in real time what they hear from a headset. This requires a great amount of concentration for the duration of conferences, debates or other such events. However, the interpreters’ mission is not limited to this: essential research must be carried out beforehand, on the subject of the debates as well as on the speakers present, in order to master the vocabulary used, and thus not to create confusion among the public or even among the speakers themselves. So as to facilitate the professional interpreters’ work, they are situated in interpretation booths at the back of the room, which offers them an overview of the speakers and the audience. Everyone in the room is equipped with headphones and a microphone for the speakers. This was the case at the LARTC 2018 conference.

However, the interpreters encountered some difficulties in translating because, first of all, this conference consisted of a debate between experts, who were present to display innovations related to the oil sector and the public. As a result, the two interpreters did not always have written or visual materials and the vocabulary used was sometimes new in the field. Moreover, the microphones were not always well placed, and the numerous noises made the work equally difficult. Finally, two microphones were available to the public, but sometimes, by the time the microphone arrived, the question had already begun to be asked.

All of these details are taken into account when you call on professional interpreters who will do their best to ensure quality work. Besides simultaneous interpretation, there is also consecutive interpretation, which is different in the sense that the interpreter takes notes during a speech and then translates it for the audience. Cultures Connection offers its interpreting services in Buenos Aires, Paris, Nice and Cannes.

Translation into English: Chloe Findlay

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This article has been written by Juliana Subtil

Juliana, currently in her first year of a Master's Degree in Translation in France, after traveling in Australia for a year, she decides to go to Buenos Aires to do an internship at Cultures Connection.