Interpreting and Translating

Tonight after work, I had the wonderful pleasure of going to the BYU Interpretation and Translation Club for the first time. And yes, it was most definitely a pleasure. There wasn't too much format to the meeting, though. In fact, there was completely no format to the meeting. Basically, each attendee sat at a computer with huge, padded earphones on his (or her) head and practiced interpreting past general conference talks. There was only three of us in attendance tonight and each spoke a different language, but it was a lot of fun (I speak Chinese). I will most assuredly plan on going again in future weeks.

So, what did I learn while practicing interpreting? Let me tell you.

1. It is not easy, by any means.
2. Interpreting in Chinese is 100 times harder than interpreting in other languages. (This is because I can barely read the language much less read it at the same pace that the speaker is going.)
3. It's going to take a whole lot of practice.
4. Start speaking about 3 seconds after the speaker starts. Try to keep that distance throughout.
   

So yeah, those are the hints of the day (and the only hints that I got from the president of the club). If you've got any more feel free to share.