The ATA Chronicle - July/August 2017 - 30

INTERPRETERS FORUM

BY EWANDRO MAGALHÃES

The ABC of United Nations Interpreting
When it comes to interpreting at the UN, it's all about focusing on your core languages.
Chinese and English is all he would ever
need (to qualify as a Chinese interpreter).
Hai's approach springs from a skewed
yet popular notion that more languages-
even non-UN languages-may somehow
compensate for a less than ideal mastery
of the few that do count.

THE ABC SYSTEM

ince the release of my video1 on
the language requirements for
interpreters in the United Nations
(UN), I've been contacted by many
aspiring interpreters with questions that
are more or less the same.
Basically, they want to know whether they
qualify, and they also wonder what else they
could/should be doing to merit consideration
as a future UN interpreter. At some point
in their messages, they'll offer their own
elaborate plan to learn this and that language
and travel to this and that place.
The latest of such emails-and by far
the most gracious-came from Hai, a
young man from China/Singapore. After
passionately sharing his benign obsession
for languages in general and for interpreting
in particular, he outlined his game plan:

I have a strong mastery of both English
and Chinese (I grew up bilingual), took a
good amount of French and a little bit of
German in college, self-studied Japanese
and Korean, and have been trying to beat
the unfamiliar Cyrillic script into my head
(...) One of my personal goals in life is to
master six languages, although I know
that is more my ambition speaking than
cool-headed thinking.
Note that in one paragraph Hai tries to
squeeze all six languages he believes he'll
need to break into the UN, plus Russian
as a backup. While I fully understand
and sympathize with his desire to have it
all (haven't we all been there?), the irony
is that as far as the UN is concerned,

What Hai and many others fail to realize
is that working as an interpreter for
the UN-whether as a freelancer or
staff interpreter-requires specificity.
Regardless of how good you are as an
interpreter, you'll only be considered if
you understand and adapt to the specific
language requirements of the job.
In the high-end conference
environment of multilateral organizations
such as the UN, the European Institutions,
and the Bretton Woods organizations,
you're only supposed to interpret into
your native languages. The ways in
which you can use the other languages
under your belt varies, in greater or
lesser degree, according to a number
of factors. To better grasp this concept,
one first needs to understand the ABC
system of language classification used in
professional interpreting circles:
■■

An A language is usually the language
you were born into (a.k.a., your
native language). It could also be
your main language of schooling, if
your education-from high school
and beyond-was completed in a
different language. It's a language you
totally master and can use confidently
and correctly in formal or informal
settings. A few interpreters will have
two A languages.

■■

A B language is a language you
understand and speak fully, but which
is still a foreign language to you
nonetheless. It's usually a language
you learned in school or through
on-off interactions and experiences
in a foreign linguistic and cultural

Interpreters are a vital part of ATA. This column is designed to offer insights and perspectives from professional interpreters.

The ATA Chronicle | July/August 2017

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