it's not true...

One of the most persistent myths about simultaneous or conference interpreting appears to be that this could not possibly be a full-time profession. How else is one supposed to explain questions like: "What do you normally do?" or "Do you do this all the time?"

To dispel the fog of disbelief: I spent four years at university preparing for exactly what I am doing now, and most of my colleagues spent several more years doing the same (I'll explain in a minute). I would not have done that for some part-time gig.

I know people mean well and probably really can't imagine when we accompany them for the two days they have an event, that this could be a full-time occupation. At the same time, nobody would doubt that the technicians who are on-site for just as long as ourselves are doing their regular job. I wonder how the people who ask this sort of thing would feel if they were doing their level best at work and somebody they'd never seen came up to them asking what their real job was.

To explain the rather short time I studied for the MA in Applied Linguistics I would have to say first of all that I got my degree in East Germany where university courses were laid out differently from on the other side of the Iron Curtain. For one, my degree saw me and my fellow students leave university with a 1st State Exam in translation and interpreting, which was an oddity in itself as it is customary for linguistics graduates to be either one or the other.

Enough for now, I'll tell more on another occasion, so check back if you are interested. If you take one thing from this post, please let it be this: provided the conference wasn't organised by some cowboys, the people talking animatedly (or not) and gesticulating (or not) in those funny cubicles at the back or side or sometimes even front of the room are consummate professionals and not some temps, and interpreters have feelings, too...