Tag Archives: conference interpreter

The Paperless Interpreter Experiment: Part II

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When I posted about my first experiment with paperless interpreting a few months back, I heard from interpreters around the world who had come to the same conclusion: the iPad is great for accessing references, but not for taking notes while interpreting.

But I’m happy to announce that I have since gone (nearly) paperless, thanks to the Galaxy Note Tab 10.1.

First the summary, then the details. Click on any photo to see a larger version.

Summary:

While it’s still not a perfect device, the Galaxy Note fulfills my requirements and continues to delight me. I still bring half a reporter’s pad to interpreting jobs out of paranoia (and to jot down unusual spellings for the court reporter), but I’ve now successfully used the Galaxy tab rather than paper for notetaking for several months.

The Experiment

Hardware: Samsung Galaxy Note Tab 10.1″ + integrated stylus

Apps:

  • S-Note (included)
  • iAnnotatePDF (free)
  • Dolphin Browser (free)

Results

 

  • Interpeting Notes. PASS

This is the first tablet I’ve found that is actually designed for handwriting. l like that the tablet will register my actual handwriting for interpreting notes, as opposed to converting handwriting to typed text.

The Note integrates its stylus in a lot of neat ways, with the Android customizability that I’ve grown to love. l can set a shortcut so that a program of my choosing opens automatically when I dislodge the stylus from its nest. Also, when the stylus is disconnected, certain programs turn off recognition of my hand or fingers entirely, rather than masking certain parts of the screen à la iPad.

My fingers do occasionally hit the OS taskbar and open menus unintentionally, but I fully expect to find an app that allows me to customize the taskbar as I did with my Android phone (which I’ve set to hide the taskbar that shows battery, network, etc. until I pull down from the top of the screen with two fingers).

  • Reference: PASS

Glossaries and apps are equally accessible as with iPad but this tablet has a couple of additional capabilities that knocked my socks off:

Split screen. The Note allows true multi-tasking, with split screen or moveable floating windows.

iAnnotate. This app allows me to overlay handwritten notes on a PDF. I can export the whole thing to a PDF and store it in Evernote, email it, or print it.

  • Work during downtime: FAIL

It was only fair to fail the Note in this area because it won’t replace my laptop entirely. However, I definitely use the Note for word processing much more than the iPad.

Composing documents using handwriting recognition has enabled me to get more done during those little lulls between interpreting jobs that are too short to go back to the office. The handwriting recognition engine is the best I’ve seen, by far. Rather than recognizing strokes or letters, the engine recognizes the whole word as I write, even if I go back and add a letter in the middle of the word. The latest update also fixes an annoying need to manually add a space after each word.

Note: The photos show an inaccurate conversion because I took the photos while the handwriting was still visible to show the engine at work. Once I stop writing, the recognition engine finalizes its choice, which is usually correct, but by that time the handwriting is no longer visible.

The downsides to real work on the Note is that it requires a Microsoft-compatible app rather than allowing me to actually use Microsoft Office. This means that formatting sometimes gets messed up after I open a document in the tablet. Interacting with Word and Excel documents is definitely easier with the Note’s stylus compared to the iPad, though.

If this were my top priority l would buy the Surface, which offers the real Microsoft Office and very sleek external keyboards.

  •  Entertainment: PASS

As l mentioned last time, my criteria are low for this, but l can use Twitter and read the Economist.

So there you have it, a perfect excuse to justify a new gadget as a business expense and save some trees at the same time. What do you say?

The Paperless Interpreter Experiment: Part I

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As interpreters, we have a host of tools available to us as we work. On a given day, I might be carrying around interpreting equipment (with multiple sets of headphones and spare batteries), notepads and pens, a laptop, reference materials, water, throat lozenges, smartphone, snacks, on and on.

I’m sure I’m not the only interpreter who has wishfully imagined a single sleek gadget that could replace all these bulky items and fit in her purse.

The other alternative is to hire these guys to carry reference materials for me.

The other alternative is to hire these guys to carry reference materials for me.

Well, I don’t think there’s a way to replace all of those things with a single gadget, but I know many interpreters use tablets to access reference materials. And, judging by the responses to a recent tweet on the subject, many more are interested in using a tablet for notetaking during interpreting.

So here’s Part I of my experiment in replacing some of my paper weight with a tablet, in this case the ubiquitous iPad. First, a summary. Then, the gory details.

Summary:

I realized that my experience using a Wacom digital drawing tablet and pressure-sensitive stylus spoiled me for the iPad stylus experience. Steve Jobs purposely rejected the stylus for iPads: “We’re going to use a pointing device that we’re all born with — born with ten of them. We’re going to use our fingers.” iPads simply aren’t designed for handwriting, the function at the top of my wishlist.

Read on for my method and field notes.

Criteria

Here’s my rubric, in my order of priority, along with the current solution I’m hoping to improve. My grading system is simply pass/fail, because if the device can truly replace my current solution, it passes. If it can’t, then I have to keep doing whatever I’m doing now to resolve the issue, so the device hasn’t served its purpose and fails this test.

 

  • Interpreting notes
  • Interpreting notes, unlike lecture notes, are minimalistic guides to jog my memory two seconds later. So I am mostly looking to note the relationships between the main ideas and important details that my brain might gloss over, like numbers. This involves abbreviations, symbols, and a lot of arrow-drawing.
  • Current solution: Endless bulk packs of legal-rule pads. I like these ones from OfficeMax because they’re recycled, lightweight and have no margin line.
  • Reference materials
  • I like to bring glossaries and any scripts or speaker’s notes to each interpreting job.
  • Current solution: Printed references are filed or gathered in portfolios for recurring topics; I carry Mikkelson’s Interpreter’s Companion mostly as a safety blanket.
  • Work during downtime
  • Interpreting means being out on the road a lot, and I often have breaks of several hours between jobs. I like to take advantage of this time to work on translation and editing jobs, or administrative tasks like invoicing.
  • Current solution: Tote MacBook Pro around whenever I anticipate downtime.
  • Entertainment
  • I’m behind the times here, but I still consume very little video content. I’m just looking to easily read my favorite news sites, Google Reader, and Nook purchases.
  • Current solution: With the exception of Nook books, these functions are handled adequately by my mobile phone, a Droid Razr Maxx with a large screen and excellent battery life. I do sometimes take my Nook around with me.

The Experiment

Hardware: Apple iPad (2nd Gen) and Bamboo Stylus by Wacom

Apps:

  • DocstoGo (paid)
  • Notability (paid)
  • Paper (free)
  • Evernote (free)

Setting:

After testing out and configuring apps, I took the iPad into court during testimony that I would have had to interpret consecutively if the parties were not English speakers. I interpreted silently and tried taking notes as if I were interpreting.

Results

  • Interpreting notes: FAIL
  • Typed notes are a nonstarter, since I need to quickly add symbols and arrows connecting different words. There’s simply not time or brain resources for switching back and forth between keyboard functions.
  • In general, writing with fingertips produces poor results and made my finger tired.
  • Some of the apps have a “palm guard” function that allows you to write in a dedicated frame and ignores your hand touching the rest of the page. I found this to be an ok solution to inadvertent scrolling and stray marks, but my hand can still accidentally hit menu buttons, which interrupts notetaking.
  • I loved Paper’s calligraphy capabilities and beautiful interface, but even with a stylus it requires exaggerated movements to make legible notes. Lovely, but impractical for keeping up with the pace of interpreting.
  • During practice runs the apps sometimes crashed. Beyond losing my notes, I’m worried I’ll lose my mind if I add this extra stress to this job’s critical moments.
  • Reference: PASS
  • I can easily store the electronic version of the Interpreter’s Companion in Evernote for offline reference.
  • Notability allows easy organization to group related materials into folders.
  • I like having the Black’s Law Dictionary app (paid), since that is a very useful reference but the print version is too bulky to bring onsite with me.
  • Work during downtime: FAIL
  • Even with a paid app, trying to edit a Word document with legal citations (requiring special symbols and several formatting changes in each line) made me want to jump out a window. Selecting text for copy/paste or formatting is particularly tedious.
  • It’s an apples-to-oranges comparison, but editing on the iPad took way longer than on my laptop.
  • Entertainment: PASS
  • I didn’t have any problems reading what I wanted to read or using social media, though I have yet to find a Twitter app for iOS that totally satisfies me.

Verdict

I’m not ready to trade in my paper notepads yet. There may be better apps out there and it’s also possible that some of my complaints are corrected in the more recent versions of the iPad. I hope the next generation of tablets will offer a better solution to handwritten notes than a stylus that mimics a fingertip.

Soon I’ll post Part II, which was more successful. In the meantime, do you have any apps or devices you’d recommend to other interpreters? Does anyone use an iPad for translation?

 

 

3 Easy Ways to Improve Your Speaking Voice

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Have you ever felt a weakness in your throat after a day of presenting or a particularly stressful interpreting job? I’ve had this problem on many occasions, especially when I started out. My vocal cords simply weren’t used to speaking for hours on end under high stress, for example during simultaneous conference interpreting or hostile witness examinations.

Holly Behl & Karla Badillo interpreting for the International Baseball FederationMe and a fabulous interpreting partner, Karla Badillo, at the International Baseball Federation. A good partner eases stress and splitting the work prevents vocal strain.

For interpreters and anyone who makes presentations, your voice is part of your livelihood. So, protecting and improving it is a no-brains investment in your primary business asset—you. And vocal health is not just for interpreters. Translators who make sales presentations, speak with clients on the phone, or lead professional development events can also benefit. A pleasant speaking voice can even lead to a new income stream in thevoiceover market.

Fortunately, it doesn’t take a lot of time or effort to develop a pleasant speaking voice. I’ve taken singing lessons and attended a workshop with a voiceover coach, but allow me to save you a few hundred dollars with three simple strategies for vocal improvement:

1.  Use better posture.

Sit or stand straight to improve clarity. Your instrument is an L-shaped tunnel (throat and mouth) and for the best sound, you want that tunnel to be as wide open as possible. I’ve seen interpreters hunched behind a defendant or leaning forward over their notes, which naturally compresses the throat and muffles articulation.

Try this:

Do interpretation exercises or practice your presentation while standing with your back against the wall. Notice how this body alignment feels and get used to speaking from this position.

2.  Breathe deeply.

Before my singing lessons, I honestly did not know what it feels like to have my lungs full of air. If your lungs are actually full, you feel the lungs pressing against the ribs in your back and down against your stomach. Untrained vocalists breathe shallow breaths, filling only the top half of the lungs. As a result, the vocal cords work harder than they would if there were proper breath support and fatigue faster. With proper breath support, your voice will sound fuller and more pleasant.

Try this:

Take a coffee stirrer (very narrow straw) in your mouth and inhale through it very slowly until you can no longer take in any more air. Hold the air for as long as you can, then remove the stirrer and exhale as slowly as you can (try counting to 10 for each stage). Do this exercise for 5 minutes a day to practice proper breathing and strengthen the muscles that control your lungs.

3. Care for your vocal instrument.

If you’ve read this far, you probably agree that vocal health is important. Consider choosing one or two of the following to protect and heal your vocal system:

  • Limit alcoholic, caffeinated, and carbonated drinks
  • Stop smoking
  • Keep your vocal cords lubricated with plenty of water (cool to warm is much better than icy or hot water)
  • Avoid coughing (yes, it really is possible!)
  • Avoid extended periods of whispering or shouting

Finally, remember to give your voice a rest whenever you start to note signs of vocal strain. Forcing yourself to speak in spite of warning signs like hoarseness or pain can result in polyps and permanent damage to the vocal cords.

These are the strategies that have helped me most. Do let me know if you try these and see any results, and feel free to add any of your own advice in the comments.