By Junko Kaneko

　　　Professor Yuriya Kumagai conducts an interpretation class which is popular among the students. Besides teaching, she has been an interpreter, a vocation which is now part of her field work, for 17 years, and she is known as one of the most prominent interpreters in Hokkaido. The general impression of interpreting is that it is knowledge of how to use foreign languages, and many people have the perception that anyone who can speak a foreign language can be an interpreter; this is wrong.

　　　Therefore, in addition to working as an interpreter at international conferences, Prof. Kumagai has been putting efforts into making people understand what interpretation really is through her lectures and her other activities in various areas. This report takes her experiences to look at what interpretation is from behind-the-scenes.

　　　Interpretation is divided into many types, such as simultaneous interpretation, broadcast interpretation and interpretation while working as a guide. The subject of this article is about simultaneous interpretation between Japanese and English and consecutive interpretation (interpreting what someone has said after they have spoken), which is generally well known and is Prof. Kumagai's special field.

　　　First of all, what does one need to be an interpreter? As a matter of course, one requires a considerably high-level ability of foreign languages; but just as important is one's technical skills as an interpreter. Interpreters gain special skills at an interpretation school. She said, "Interpretation is a job needing special techniques. Sight translation (interpretation which follows the word order of English sentences) was very difficult for me, and shadowing (a technique of listening to a tape, which is recorded in English or Japanese, and repeating what you hear after a few words and at the same intonation) was also difficult and kind of boring. These techniques and practices, however, are essential for successful interpreting."

　　　Remembering the time she first began to interpret, she said that her experience in going to elementary school in America helped her with regard to language ability, but that she had a hard time acquiring the techniques and learning how to use them efficiently in real situations.

　　　Moreover, a good ability in one's mother tongue and things such as knowledge of history and culture of various countries shows that interpretation is not just a mechanical translation of what a speaker says. For instance, if an expression peculiar to Japanese is literally translated into English, it makes no sense for English speakers. In the interpretation class, Prof. Kumagai tells the students that it is important to read and understand what a speaker wants to say. "That is, it is not necessarily right to translate every word exactly," she said. Interpreters are required to translate and convey what a speaker implies. Therefore, not only ability in a foreign language, but also the ability of expression in one's mother tongue as well as background information about both cultures and such things are indispensable to interpreters.

　　　Professor Kumagai has her own home page where she complains about how very few studies relate to interpretation, and where she places the results of a questionnaire taken by about 30 interpreters.

　　　One of the topics about the stresses placed on interpreters attracted my attention. Professor Kumagai says, "In the case of interpreting at a conference, it is necessary for the interpreter to read the materials for the meeting and the manuscript of the speech in advance in order to be prepared, but many conference organizers don't understand how important this is." Suppose someone becomes an interpreter with those technical skills and has knowledge of various fields, she might still feel uncomfortable under those circumstances. Just think a little. While it is quite natural that interpreters are specialists in the techniques of translation and intercultural communication, their knowledge about a special field of a study is the same as that of the general public.

　　　Giving appropriate information and materials for the meeting to interpreters is definitely to the advantage of both those who employ interpreters in the hope the conference will succeed, and the interpreters themselves who intend to smooth the way for their own work. Furthermore, the survey shows that many things cause stress, such as the severe working conditions and changeable working hours and working at any time of the day or night, attempts by clients to beat down the prices set by new and inexperienced interpreters, and sexual harassment of young women interpreters, although the two reported cases are rare.

　　　As we have said, interpreters are required to work hard to gain the necessary skills and acquire wide knowledge, and, moreover, they have to fight against difficult working conditions. Professor Kumagai, on the other hand, told why she has been continuing the hard work of interpretation. "Nothing can take the place of the really great feeling of achievement after doing a good job, even if very hard work is required." And, since she worries that this article about her experiences might discourage those who want to become interpreters, she said, to cheer them up, "It is not so difficult to become an interpreter as long as you exert yourself assiduously and have fortitude."

　　　Interpretation is a very difficult profession which requires great endeavor and perseverance, and yet the work is also marvelous and enormously worthwhile and pleasurable. Hopefully, people will come to understand what interpretation really is so that interpreters' working conditions can be improved.