How interpreters work | Jacolyn Harmer, Gabriel Guillen & Laura Burian | TEDxStevensonSchool

How many languages do you speak? Do you ever wonder how global leaders understand each other during international conferences? In this talk, Laura Burian, Gabriel Guillen, and Jacolyn Harmer share their language learning stories with a group of interpreters demonstrating simultaneous interpretation.

Jacolyn Harmer, born and educated in the UK, earned her BA in French/German at the University of Bradford before training as a conference interpreter at the European Communities (now European Union) in Brussels where she served, initially as a staff interpreter and then as a freelancer for international institutions and the private market. Professor Harmer joined the (then) Monterey Institute of International Studies’ Graduate School of Translation & Interpretation faculty as a full-time translation and interpretation professor in 1985, combining teaching with her freelance professional practice. Her clients have ranged from heads of state and government to medical missions in the global South. She earned her Master of Advanced Studies in interpreter training from the University of Geneva in 2003 and has since designed and contributed to interpreter trainer programs worldwide.

Gabriel Guillen is a seasoned practitioner and researcher in the field of language learning and technology. He created the first community of blogs dedicated to the interchange of languages back in 2007, and recently founded Team Tandem (Recicle.org), connecting Spanish and English learners in Monterey County. His own doctoral dissertation centered on online intercultural exchanges and the use of language learning social networks in the context of hybrid language education. At MIIS, Gabriel teaches content-based Spanish courses focusing on social entrepreneurship and the use of media in the Hispanic world. His teaching has been recognized with the Excellence in Teaching Year Award from the UC Davis Department of Spanish & Portuguese and the HOPE Award from the Southern Methodist University.

Laura Burian is Dean of the Graduate School of Translation, Interpretation, and Language Education and a professor of Chinese/ English translation and interpretation. After graduating from the Institute’s Chinese Translation and Interpretation program in the 1990s, Dean Burian moved to China where she first served as an Assistant Director of the Duke Study in China Program, then became an in-house Chinese/English translator/interpreter/legal assistant in the Beijing office of a New York law firm, and then became a freelancer. She maintains a dynamic portfolio of high-profile translation and interpretation clients in both the public and private sector. Dean Burian is also deeply engaged in school service, having served two terms as a Faculty Senate President, and is a frequently invited guest speaker at conferences, workshops, and seminars worldwide.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

Laura Burian: First I'd like to tell you
my language learning story.

When I was a kid, I played the violin,
and growing up on the east coast in the US

that meant that most of my friends
were Chinese, or Japanese, or Korean

first generation Americans.

And I'd spend a lot of time
at their houses,

and in some cases had a lot of difficulty

and hilarious incidents
of miscommunications

or a lack of communication
with their parents or their grandparents.

And it really inspired me
to want to try to learn the languages

and the cultures that they knew
and understood that I did not.

It ended up that in college
I studied Chinese, studying Mandarin,

and then in grad school
I did a master's degree

in translation and interpretation
for Chinese and English.

And in the end, I ended up
working with panda experts,

with doctors and lawyers,

with politicians,
and a wide range of people,

trying to extend a helping hand to them.

Jacolyn Harmer: My language
learning story -

I was born and grew up in Great Britain.

You can tell, I think.

(Laughter)

My mother had to leave school
when she was twelve

because her father
didn't think it was worth

wasting an education on a girl.

But my mother had
a really cool vision for her daughter.

When I was young - six, seven, or eight -
the family would go to France on vacation,

and I would be the kid
that was sent to the baker's

to buy the bread,
armed with the French phrase book.

And I always came out with the bread.

And it was this success that inspired me
to plunge into language learning.

And as soon as I could, I moved to Europe,

where I could swim in languages
other than my own.

Now, one day the United Kingdom

became a member state
of the European Union,

and a door popped open for me:

a training course to become
a conference interpreter in Brussels.

And I walked through that door.

It was my ticket off the island -

a ticket to, well, anywhere, really,
including Monterrey,

where I ended up training
the next generation of interpreters.

Oh, you're probably wondering
about my mother's vision for me.

My mother thought it would be cool

if I could be a hairdresser
on a cruise line

(Laughter)

because they got to see places
that she would be never able to see.

But things worked out
much better for me actually;

I would've made a terrible hairdresser.

(Laughter)

LB: So Gabriel will continue
telling us his story,

but he's going to be speaking in Spanish.

So go ahead and put on
your headset if you need it,

and do make sure it's turned to Channel 1
and that the green light is on.

That's also where your volume control is,
with a central wheel, okay.

Gabriel Guillen: (Spanish) Learning
a second language

is more than just something else
to add to your resume -

it's a transformative adventure
at the personal, local, and global levels.

From the personal perspective,
well, we already know this,

learning a language helps us
to make more money,

it helps us get into college,

it helps us to get a job,

it helps us to live more and better,

it helps us get better grades.

What can I say?

I'm a language teacher, after all.

But I also work in new technologies
and language learning.

It's one of the most promising
industries at the moment,

with 700 startups and worth
more than 50 billion dollars.

However, in our research,
we've discovered that few companies

have the capacity to transform

to revolutionize
the language learning sector.

Learning a language is a challenge,
especially within an app.

Few entrepreneurs connect technology
with the world that surrounds us

to learn a language,
and what is a language, after all?

It's a part of our body, it's a metaphor,
it's a word that's alive that changes ...

constantly.

From the local perspective,
learning and teaching a language

also allows us to open our minds,
our worlds, our hands,

and stretch them out
to the hands of others.

That's what our students
have been doing with Team Tandem,

a language exchange program
within the community in Seaside,

in Soledad, in Salinas,
here within Monterrey.

For three years,
every week, for two hours,

hundreds of students have collaborated
in English and Spanish.

They've collaborated in these languages,

and they have really changed one another.

"I learned that people in the Army

are respectable,
serious, and intelligent."

This was a comment
made by one of our students,

a woman who works as a farmer.

She said this after ten exchange sessions
with one of our students,

a veteran from the Afghanistan war.

These are differences that we see every
single day, that we don't even realize.

One interaction with a single individual
is enough to change our perception

of an entire group of people.

An interaction between two people
is enough for a language exchange,

but also for the exchange of ideas.

I started this project with April,
another one of our students.

April had a genuine interest
in language learning,

which was the topic
for my doctoral thesis.

More than 50% of Monterey
County's residents speak Spanish.

We have study programs
in El Salvador, in Peru, in Cuba.

Why don't we have
a study program in Salinas,

less than 20 miles
away from our university?

And that way, together, in autumn of 2015,

we launched the first
Team Tandem project in Soledad,

Three years later, we were in Seaside too,
collaborating with the community.

But learning a language
also has global reasons for learning them.

You could learn French, Spanish, Chinese

to connect yourself
with billions of people,

but there are more
than 7,000 languages in the world.

97% of students within the United States

are taking the same
14 languages in school.

Why don't you learn another language,
an additional one to add to your belt?

You could learn Triqui or Mixteco
here in Monterey, in the community.

It's a local language here.

Or you could learn Norwegian,
like the mayor of South Bend.

Learning a language is more than
just something you can add to your resume.

It's a transformative journey
at the personal, local, and global levels.

Jacolyn now will speak in French,

so please put your headphones on
if you 'll need them.

(Applause)

JH: (French) Translators
are able to translate everything.

Likewise, interpreters
can help bridge the gap

between language and culture,

but in that case we're talking
about oral communication.

And if your words
are going to be interpreted,

you have the right
to a faithful interpretation

in terms of meaning, effect, and affect.

Sometimes the political stakes
are extremely high.

Or if we're talking about a clinic
where our services are provided for free,

by the way, I'm the interpreter here,

in that case it's all
about relieving suffering.

The interpreter you can see here
is working in a conflict zone.

You can listen to me now in English
thanks to simultaneous interpretation.

Here is your interpreter in the booth.

She's following my words, my ideas,
and she decides in a split second

how she will express her,
or should I say, my ideas in English.

One of the unexpected results
of World War II

was simultaneous interpretation.

It was born during the Nuremburg trials

that were conducted in Germany
in four different languages.

The court was able to follow
everything in real time

thanks to the system of interpretation
that you are using tonight.

Interpreters were the pioneers back then
of this new technique,

and now this mode is used daily
within all international institutions

including the United Nations.

Let us not forget there
Is another type of interpretation:

consecutive interpretation.

In that case the interpreter
has the speaker pause for interpretation.

Here's Laura here.

She's the interpreter with Michelle Obama.

Consecutive interpretation
is transparent, personal,

and does not require advanced technology.

The only thing it requires
is a highly skilled interpreter.

You know, most interpreters
and translators

have chosen their profession

precisely to help their words
to extend a helping hand.

Interpreters are a bit
like first responders

on the scene of an accident:

they have to understand
very quickly what happened,

they have to be resourceful
under pressure without panicking.

Translators are also passionate
about what they do;

however, they are more like surgeons.

They need to have precise, meticulous,
and delicate hands.

However, they have
a significant advantage: time.

What about you?

Are you more of a first
responder or a surgeon?

Do you think of yourself
as a social justice warrior?

How do you take the first steps?

Now Laura will talk to you in Chinese.

You might still need your headset.

LB: (Chinese) Jacolyn talked
about taking the first steps.

How do we do that
when we don't know where to start?

If you want to help others with language,

you'll need to start improving
your language skills.

Then you will have a new perspective
to look at the world

because that is a process of decentering

from a center where the center
is your culture and world.

I started learning translation
and interpretation

after I started learning a new language.

You need to have a very high level
of foreign language,

meaning that you need to reach native
or near native language skills

for your foreign language.

It takes a lot of effort.

Oh, I forgot to switch my slide.

This is the first slide.

Many people think
as long as you're bilingual

you can interpret or translate.

This picture is a proof
that this is wrong.

It looks like Jacolyn and I
finished our marathon.

This is deceptive because
we barely finished half and gave up.

Because we did not go through
the professional training.

Some say, to become an expert
or to master a new skill,

it takes 10,000 hours of practice.

What do you think?

If you want to learn how to ski,

well, you'll make some progress
with 10,000 hours,

well, maybe you can know
how to ski down a hill,

but it's better to go
through systematic training.

You'll need to engage
in what we call deliberate practice.

For example, if I want to become
an Olympic skier,

in order to get there, how do I start?

First, I need to go up a hill and fall.

Then I realize,
"Oh, I don't know how to ski!"

Then, have a friend who knows how to ski,

and he or she will tell me,
it's not the right way to do it,

how to balance yourself,
how to make the moves.

Then, step by step,

I will need to divide my big goal
of becoming an Olympic skier

into smaller chunks.

For example, I'd start
with controlling my turns.

I need to know where do I place my weight:
left foot or right foot?

Then slowly I will know
how to control my turns.

However, every time
you make some progress,

you will come across frustration,
but slowly you'll make more progress.

Then you'll have to repeat the cycles
to move ahead, set new tasks,

then step out of your comfort zone

to be in an environment
that is uncomfortable to learn new skills.

Through deliberate practice,
I might actually become an Olympic skier.

I'm almost 50 years old.

Well, the dream is there.

Coming back to our theme of helping hands.

This is me seen from
the perspective of language.

When you first start
learning a new language,

of course you can help others
in small areas.

However, if you really want
to take language further as a profession,

it takes more effort.

First you need to improve yourself;
for example, if you want to interpret

or translate, it takes
a lot of time and effort.

You'll fall many times,
and you have to pick yourself back up,

but slowly, if you are willing to engage
in deliberate practice,

you will transform,

you will have the stronger
skills to help others.

Thank you very much.

(Applause)