On the evening of Oct. 26, Ms. Zhu Yunyun, the interpreter of Shantou Foreign Affairs and Overseas Chinese affairs Bureau,  shared with GTIITers about her experiences and feelings.

Started from a series of photos, Ms. Zhu talked about her daily work as an interpreter. People may think that interpreters live a splendid life. Actually, they are faced with crazy trainings and unknown challenges. 

Ms. Zhu has been deeply involved in the preparation process of GTIIT. She participated in the five-party meeting which was held jointly by Shantou Government, GTIIT(Prep.), STU, Technion, and LKSF in 2016, working as an consecutive interpreter for more than 20 hours. "Interpretation is physically demanding. You'd better work out if you want to be an interpreter," She said.

Why chose to be an interpreter? "With interpretation, I get to build a window for other people, so that they can communicate effectively," Ms. Zhu said. She believed that being an interpreter gives her the opportunity to meet talented people, acquire knowledge in various fields, and develop the habit of lifelong learning in the interpretation preparation process.

"Five steps: read-interpreting, retelling, note-taking, exercise and output were the keys to successful interpretation. Try to read some speeches and make read-translation at the beginning. After that, listen to speeches and interpret them orally. Then you can start to make notes and  practice with  your partners. These practices help you to perform bravely, smoothly and peacefully. More importantly, you should stick to the principle: know something about everything, and know everything about something," Ms. Zhu said.

Finally, Ms. Zhu pointed out some "minefields" she encountered in daily work. She threw a light on GTIITers through vivid cases. Due to cultural differences and Chinese characteristics, some concepts require a great deal of effort to express in English. Interpreters should try to understand the original meaning and keep on finding new ways to express new ideas in their native language. "Never assume anything. An effective approach to information asymmetry is to keep neutral and provide relevant information," She further stressed. The principle of "KISS" (keep it short and simple) and more non-trivial details of interpreting were also mentioned, which were helpful to students.