The ATA Chronicle - May/June 2018 - 24

REMOTE SIMULTANEOUS INTERPRETING: THE UPSIDE AND DOWNSIDE continued

other words, videoconferencing would normally be used to
feature a speaker who was unable to attend the conference
in person, but whose participation was deemed important,
or to allow a company employee who was unable to travel to
connect to a specific meeting remotely.
I was academically trained in the belief that interpreting
is not only about verbal language but also body language. A
good rendering depends on the interpreter's capacity to convey
denotation and connotation (the latter usually coming from
gestures), tone, movements, and even the audience's overall
mood. When working onsite, the interpreter can "feel" what's
happening and adjust his or her delivery accordingly. With
RSI, I had the impression that being in a booth miles away
from the conference venue, looking at bodies moving on a
stage with a camera placed at a relatively long distance, was
going to deprive me of a host of nuances I believe are critical
for a good performance. Much of what we understand from a
speech or conversation (about 60%) comes from what we see,
and in the case of RSI, I felt that such a percentage was going
to be much smaller.
What about being able to talk to the speaker before the
conference starts? The importance of this was also emphasized
during my formal training, even though meeting a speaker
beforehand isn't feasible in many instances. Having the chance
to talk to the person you're supposed to interpret enables the
interpreter to "bond" with the speaker, who must see you as
a necessary partner during the presentation. A five-minute
face-to-face meeting with the speaker can have a huge impact
on the output. Speakers often have no previous experience
working with interpreters and need some basic guidance on
how to partner with the interpreter to ensure that the intended
message is conveyed effectively to the entire audience,
regardless of the number of people who are using simultaneous
interpreting at the event.
In addition, meeting in person gives the interpreter the
opportunity to ask questions and give the speaker some tips
for delivery according to the characteristics of the target
audience. It's also important for the interpreter to learn in
advance if the speaker plans to show any unsubtitled videos,
make cultural references, or tell jokes. Also, being able to
get a client's feedback during coffee breaks might help the
interpreter change things on the go once the conference
resumes. Not being onsite prevents the interpreter from
gaining insight into the target audience and the speaker's
style and intent. A screen showing someone speaking doesn't
provide a sufficient means of gathering all the information
an interpreter needs to do a good job. To make this possible
during RSI, at least two screens would be required: one
showing the speaker of the moment, the other showing
either the agenda, the meeting room, or the screens on which
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The ATA Chronicle | May/June 2018

something is being projected. Someone may argue that meeting
with the speaker before an event where RSI will be used would
solve any issues, but we know how unfeasible meeting with
speakers beforehand is most of the time. Still, the interpreter
would have a better chance of doing so if they were onsite.

TRYING IT OUT
Despite the obvious disadvantages I saw with not being at the
same location as the speaker, once I had a clearer picture of
how RSI worked after visiting the RSI provider, I had to try it
firsthand. The first conference I worked where RSI was used
was a two-day seminar on tourism. The venue was situated
in southern Spain, in Andalusia, but the interpreters were in
sitting a room in Madrid. There was a technical staff person
at the conference venue and another one at our end in charge
of controlling the sound and camera systems. At that point,
I couldn't help feeling a certain sense of powerlessness and
anxiety about the technical aspects involved. What if the
sound goes out unexpectedly, the camera stops working, or
the speaker's microphone fails? Of course, technical failures
can also occur onsite, but in an RSI situation it might take
several minutes for the sound engineer on the interpreter's side
to contact the sound engineer at the meeting venue to fix any
issues. The big question is what happens with the interpreter's
performance during that timeslot?
Interpreters often joke about feeling like robots, but
there are times when clients actually believe we're machines
somewhere in the backdrop. I once worked at a conference
where the top executive of a multinational whom we had
been interpreting for several days came into the booth and
said, "So, you're human beings of flesh and bone!" And he
wasn't kidding. Seeing the inner workings during that first RSI
assignment somehow enhanced the feeling of being a cog in a
large machine, but I kept trying not to be overwhelmed by
this new technology and continued to explore the possibilities.
Being onsite at a conference venue gives us a greater feeling
of control. We're not just someone who is supposed to turn a
microphone on and off to interpret simultaneously. We feel we're
part of the overall communication event taking place by facilitating
interaction. In an RSI setting, however, our job may seem much
more restricted to delivering messages mechanically.
Perhaps the work situation where the interpreter may miss
human interaction the most is at a meeting where RSI is used
by a small number of participants. In this kind of setting,
when the interpreter is sitting next to the people who require
whispered interpretation or when doing consecutive, it's
possible to somehow "guide" speakers through the discussion
so that they speak in an orderly fashion by taking turns
without overlapping. The interpreter can set the pace based
on his or her experience to ensure that communication flows
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The ATA Chronicle - May/June 2018
