Improving your general knowledge – why your local pub quiz might make you a better interpreter!
When you take on an assignment preparation is key; as interpreters, we need to thoroughly research the topic we will be dealing with, prepare glossaries and have a good understanding of what we will be interpreting. Preparing glossaries can be tricky if you get an influx of documents last minute – check out my post a while ago about Sketch Engine for some tips on how this tool can be a last minute lifesaver!
But knowing about the topic is not the only preparation you need to do, having a good base to start from in terms of general knowledge makes our lives a lot easier as interpreters. This can allow us to infer where a speaker is going and be prepared for what is coming next, allowing us to give a better interpretation. General knowledge can also help us to feel more confident when we come across a tricky section of a speech, as we can be confident that we know what we are talking about.
However, general knowledge is something that a lot of people from my generation really struggle with. Of course, it all depends on your education, but my secondary school education definitely didn’t provide me with a good base in a lot of areas. As I’m all too well aware of this problem I’ve recently been seeking to overhaul my general knowledge by investing time in researching different topics from history to science to religion. If you want material a good place to look is online and also in charity shops/secondhand bookshops where you can pick up some bargains!
We must bear in mind that speakers can also talk about anything in the world, so having good general knowledge includes knowing who just went out in the Premier League, Bake Off or The Apprentice, the weather today (especially for the Brits), what happened on Game of Thrones or what a certain politician did yesterday. If you think about all the topics you discuss during an average day you'll see just how varied these are. This is something to bear in mind when a speaker talks, as they won't necessarily stick to an agenda - they could talk about anything!
Not only will you be a better interpreter, but you might also win your local pub quiz!
With this in mind here are some recommendations from colleagues (massive thanks to the contributors of this list!):
Andrea Alvisi –
- Prisoners of Geography - Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics by Tim Marshall
- To learn more about The Balkans (in Italian) check out The Osservatorio Balcani e CaucAso website
Lara Fasoli –
- Have I got news for you on BBC every Friday night;
- If you're specialized/ing in a specific sector, set a google alert using relevant keyword to stay up to date; - By the same token, is very easy to "train" google news/apple equivalent to understand what type of news we're interested and therefore show them;
- General knowledge TV quizzes are a good way to learn and entertain oneself at the same time, my favourite one is Who wants to be a millionaire or The weakest link;
- History Channel is a gold mine of information (and not necessarily boring), for Italian speakers: Superquark!
- For Italian-speakers, even if it is not the most scientifically-accurate publications, Focus.it gives a very user-friendly idea: https://www.focus.it/
Miruna Georgescu –
- My go-to newspapers in English: The Financial Times, EUobserver, Private Eye (if you want to read possibly the wittiest articles written in English), Newsweek, and the New Scientist
- My picks in Italian: Internazionale, Sole 24 ore, the podcast La Lingua Batte
- Books: A History of the World in 100 Objects by Neil MacGregor for a different way of brushing up on your history knowledge, Lingo by Gaston Gorren, if you are interested in quirky facts about languages
- Step out of your comfort zone and explore topics that you are usually not interested in, or even hate (for instance, fisheries, a field I translate in, despite not having a passion for Baltic sea cod!)
- Make sure you are not trapped in the confirmation bias/ filter bubble and that you always get both sides (and arguments) of the story
Aida González -
- Add some Marvel, TV shows, and gossip to the mix and you are good to go
- Scandals tend to come up during conferences
- In Spain you're likely to get people talking about football!
Roxane Hugues –
- What on earth is going on? by Tom Baird and Arthur House
Cyril Joyce –
- Check out the obituaries column in The Observer / The Economist / other daily newspapers. These give a great insight into a professional’s life - what they did etc.
- The Economist - great for science, books & arts
- L'Express Entreprise - a French monthly online magazine on business
Louise Pearson –
- Subscribe to protest sites and read their emails - this can help you to know what global companies such as Bayer or Monsanto are up to
- The News Hour Extra (Radio 4) - podcast - this deals with one topic a week and is presented by a panel of experts
- The Moral Maze - moral questions related to current affairs
- Secrets d’info
- (book) Brexit: How Britain will Leave Europe by Denis MacShane
- Blackballs sell "A Very Short Introduction to...." books which can be very useful for an overview and are only around 150 pages each.
Julia Poger – - Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari - World Order by Henry Kissinger (with the exception of the chapters when he was Secretary of State) - The Ascent of Money by Niall Ferguson
My current reading list (Eleanor Regin):
- A little history of the world by E.H. Gombrich - History of the present by Timothy Garton Ash
- Five World Faiths by D. Charing, O. Cole, R. El-Droubie, N. Pancholi and P. S. Sambhi
- World Mythology by Arthur Cotterell
- The European Union A Very Short Introduction by J. Pinder and S. Usherwood
Lucile Rozé
- BBC Radio 4 - Analysis
- Intelligence2 for debates
- Every year The Economist publishes a sum up of the year and this is definitely worth buying - "The World in XXXX". - Podcasts (in French) by Mediapart
- For science check out La tête au carré by France Inter (in French)
Do you have any suggestions? Get in touch with me here!
